I was deceived.

The feeling of being lied to or being purposefully misled is infuriating.

Some feel sad. I just get mad. #enneagram8

I want justice. I want my time and resources returned (with a ton of interest).

I want liars to pay. I want OT justice on people who scam grandmas out of their money.

So...

Last week, I applied for a customer service job on zip recruiter.

It checked out pretty good.

Had the annual salary listed.

It was a real company with a product I could support.

I got a call pretty quick from the hiring manager and we set up an interview.

I was duped. The hiring manager was 20 minutes late to the zoom call.

I was pretty over it by the time he finally signed on.

He was high energy, which I never initially trust, and talked all about the opportunities of working for this company. Never once mentioning customer service or anything on the job description.

He never asked me to talk and then said, "our vise president is going to jump on this call in a minute to let you know about some other opportunities for moving up and making more money."

It was a dang recording. During the recording (of the vise president) I was able to hear some keywords to look up and all over the internet those words were followed by the same keyword,

SCAM.

I was not polite. I sent the guy a message in the zoom chat, waved, and signed off.

I was mad.

For a few minutes.

Then, in that still small voice, God spoke.

Don't dupe people into being part of your church.

Don't manipulate.

Don't politic.

Don't bait people.

Also, this one was hardest to hear.

Don't hide who you/we are.

It is tempting to for me to think I need to hide the fact that we are planting a church.

In some circles, the word church is associated with a lot of negative press.

In the context we are moving, over 70% of residents are religiously neutral.

We are a church.

We are repentant of some horrible actions committed in our past (ugh, and present), but we are not ashamed of the one we represent.

The one who made us.

The one who called us.

(One = God, but you knew that)(Just making sure we're on the same page).

Right now, I am trying to keep my head above water as we learn how to launch a new church. Pay for a new church And trying figure out how to lead/love people who are trying to figure out if they are supposed to be part of this adventure.

I will never forget what it was like to realize I had been duped.

I had been misled.

I had trusted something that just wanted something from me.

We are asking God to shape us into a church that doesn't pretend to be something we are not.

Do we have a lot of money to raise...yes.

Do we have a big dreams...yes.

In order to accomplish those goals, we must be authentic or none of it will even matter.

Thank you for your support.

- Jared