Who am I? I'm Nick Medlock, son of Murray and Penny Medlock. I title this post out of fellowship because I really don't have any facts against this "TP" man. (I recently did however get back into fellowship though for the record and man I forgot what the feeling was like!) I've lurked on the boards and read your testimonies and of course got my mothers opinion and still managed to get the same opinion out of the other board members without needing to ask for it. The opini... I mean facts are ALL RIGHT HERE. IF YOUR READING THIS GO READ WHAT THE OTHERS EXPERIENCED BEFORE YOU POST!

I thought he (TP) was a good leader and he probably still is. What he's done is wrong and I'm sorry for the hurt hearts he has left all of you. Why do I have the word embarrassed in my title though? I'm embarrassed that shortly after I was baptized and got out of fellowship (what a coincidence that was), that if I ran into a stranger that wanted to talk to me about Jesus that I had the nerve to give TP respect and loyalty. "No thank you sir, I have a home, GG. I'm out of fellowship and I know I should go back and there is no excuse greater to as why I havent, but no thank you." Thats what I remember telling the missionaries, friends of Christ, girlfriends parents, my public MySpace, work, etc.. "No I have a church already" Man was I fooled...


Here all this time I go through probably the toughest 8 years of my life (I'm not sure if its fair to say its the toughest years for all young adults but it has been for me) telling my friends that I'm a Christian, proud to be a Christian, and proud of GG and how welcoming they made me feel but this whole time we didnt have a chapel and the pastor makes 6 digits without a job? Did GG make me feel welcomed or did the youth pastors like Mark Aloisio & Dan Murphy make me feel welcomed?

Here is my mom, sitting through church, tithing what she feels is best and Dan, Mark, and the rest of the youth team is out taking the kids to get ice cream out of their wallets! I was young but I'm pretty sure the receipts didn't get turned back in for reimbursement and I'm sure my mom's tithe didn't pay for it either. (I stand corrected if this isn't the case, like I said, I was young; I still am young :lol:)

Its hard for me to give a testimony against GG when I wasn't affected but when your an outsider looking in (and not just between me and my mother) its obvious to see what is going on here.

I'm surprised I actually got a birthday card this year from TP! I bet he signed the card on the clock too. Heaven forbid he sign it on his spare time.

TP has been a Paster for how long? (I really dont know) but I'm sure its been longer then my lifetime (24 years) and if you don't have a foundation now, your not going to have one in another 24 years. God has a path for GG and TP whether or not it goes the way TP wants it to is up to him but I do know one thing since getting back in fellowship... God will not allow this to be a successful ministry with sin going on behind closed doors. It will struggle and slowly whittle itself away and it's unfortunate that so many of you, that I idolize as men and women of God, got "shafted" by someone representing the Lord. I thought Cleo was arrested for embezzlement already... :lol:

I'll close with this... What's really embarrassing is when you raise your hand in front of hundreds of people for prayer and you go back and pray with a counselor and they ask you about your religious history and you pump up this church that you proclaim baptized you and they ask the name of the church and you tell them, and out of the respect, you'd rather not share because you heard bad things recently and they respond with "Was it Living Grace?"....

Our words are spreading quickly...

God bless you all and yes, how do you go about healing your broken hearts, dreams, and promises for the Lord when someone representing the Lord through faith has failed you?

Nick Medlock
You can send english/writting skills comments to here: nickmedlock@gmail.com
no my major isn't in English either

I will thank Dan Sergioni and GG for taking me to Christ. I wouldnt be where I'm today without it.

PS... Hopefully I didnt offend anyone.

Nick

You can't offend truth! Someone recently asked me what it means to offend someone...it really got me thinking. Maybe Rich K. can help us out here :wacko:

Pastor Powell,

Out of the mouths of babes! I am with Nick on this one.


Speaking of wages: Proverbs 11:18

[B]

As John Collins frequently says "The truth is never afraid of an honest question." I agree with this and also add that the truth is never afraid of an honest observation. Nick, your observation, however limited, is valid because it helps provide perspective from an unexpected vantage point. This is the primary reason why I believe it is foolish for LGM to operate secretly, privately, behind closed doors, and to avoid a public presence with how they deal with these things.

I believe that if Pastor Tommy H. Powell of Living Grace Ministries formerly known as Greater Grace Church in Tacoma was able to openly discuss these issues with his church he could have avoided all of this controversy years ago. He violated trust when we discovered that he was hiding very important information from the people that made up his congregation, and when we spoke up he trivialized our words and marginalized our testimonies, exposing whatever weaknesses he could point out in order to discredit us, all the while claiming that he "has done nothing other than love and serve us all these years."

Being offended is a tricky subject. I could turn to a dictionary here, but lets consider how it "feels" to be offended. You read or hear something, so:
A. You disagree with it, it's personal to you, and you feel angry about it either because it's true and it's no one else's business, or
B. It's not true and you should probably defend yourself, or
C. You don't agree because you believe differently, whether or not what you believe is actually true.
Unfortunately, most of us are in the latter category. We're pontificating the things we believe whether or not they are true and defending the indefensible.

The truth is at the core of the issue here, so let's consider that. The truth is true whether it's agreeable, disagreeable, positive, negative, in, out, up, down, left or right. It is what it is. It doesn't change, nor is it affected by how much we want to believe it or disbelieve it. If I am offended about something, I need to ask myself "Where is the truth here?" If the truth hurts my feelings, then I'm a sissy and being offended only underscores my insecurities and lack of confidence in what I say I believe. If I live in truth, then I can face facts with stoic confidence and give due consideration when they are presented.

There is only one ingredient necessary to avoid feeling offended when the harsh words start raining down: humility. If I will accept humility as a fundamental virtue in my life I will be offended less and less and able to accept wisdom and correction, regardless of where it comes from. If my character is tainted with pride, arrogance, stubbornness and rebellion, then I have no choice but to go from offense to offense and find nothing but rejection at every turn in my life that doesn't agree with how I think things should go.

Next, what is the truth? That's another tricky question. I would say that if you want to arrive at the truth, you must have the courage to ask a lot of questions, and don't accept answers just because the answerer tells you to. Exasperate the people around you with questions (within reason) and don't stop until you arrive at that place called "understanding." You'll know when you get there. Understanding is in the beginning stages of knowledge. Knowledge is an elusive place for most of us humans because too often we are content to dwell in belief and many of us fall short of even that.

You can only have knowledge of truth. It is impossible to know that which is not true, but you can believe it all you want. Lack of knowledge is simplemindedness. Living Grace Ministries and Greater Grace World Outreach want to control information because people will only remain loyal based on their lack of knowledge. They are classic history revisionists because they sort through information and pick and choose what suits them best based upon their beliefs.

Find the truth, and the truth will make you free. This is the beginning of knowledge.

The sad story with Tom Powell is he gets so angry when he is presented with any conflict of his interest. I.E. the beautiful letter written by the person pleading for him to come back to his flock. Instead of taking even a minute to digest the truth & taking it before God in any form of a heartfelt way. He lambasted whomever that dear person was. I remember thinking --wow they verbalize so wonderfully everything I was feeling. So I know others in the congregation had to be feeling like he was disconnected as well. To tear up that dear person's heart felt cry was horrid.

That has been the response many have gotten with concerns brought to him. It's the GG way he was taught--never admit a wrong, never let any church member tell you how to run your church, always act innocent.

I was one of the people who agreed with that letter. I was excited as he was reading it and angered during his response. I actually believed for a split-second that he was going to speak honestly and openly, but he flew off in a rant. What depressed me the most was all of the clapping and amen-ing from the crowd.

That would have been about the end of January 2006. It was right on the heels of an IAGM conference in Europe or Russia or somewhere like that. A former IAGM administrator who was there with Powell told me there was a pastor (maybe Finnish?) who gave his testimony about being diagnosed with depression because of all the GGWO garbage happening at the time. After the initial horror he was glad it was finally out in the open and was relieved enough to be able to speak openly about it. Powell denounced the testimony later out in the hallway with something like "that type of message is exactly what we don't need right now."

He wants happy people with no problems and who are hard workers to get busy with the important work that needs to be done according to the vision as God has revealed it to him, and any problems encountered will be "self-corrected" within the organization. The Holy Spirit will magically reveal it to them because whatever bad habits they have will be mystically identified in their "collective mind" and dealt with according to self-treatment and inner circle solutions.

Nick's testimony here reminds us that there is no solution for anyone in that place. If we want to be healthy, strong followers of Jesus, we have to search for christians who evidence this with humility, not elitism.

Thank you DR. RK....Very well stated! My son is about the age you were when you came to GG. I should bring him out some Monday night! He would love the Blond jokes! Or perhaps the BAG HEADS!

I'd love to have him come and see what his lovely mother has been involved with all those years of faithful love to others who made wrong choices out of ignorance, associations, and a sinful willfull heart towards others and themselves.
She has loved with the love God gave her touching many lives with simply going each week. Many there have not seen that ever in their lives and this speaks volumes of Gods love to them.
Thank you for your post Nick and we should keep our eyes on Christ who came to die for us as sinners, not the men who tell us how they have loved us from behind the pulpit.
A mother could by chance say that to us with a clear conscience, but a man who can't even remember the names of those who have attend his church for years with all his told personal investment shouldn't.

If one would have listened months and months ago to the letters, office meetings, departures, postings, Dec 8th meet and the final act of elders reports from those who have left, maybe things could have, should have, would have been different.
One word Pride.
Where is the heart, mind, and Christ of this man.
Maybe I've shared this to soon as we still haven't heard what the outcome of the elders report is yet. Has anyone heard anything other then Astound's "it's personal" comment? We are people how can it not be personal?????
She says he is hurt, we just can't hurt from him. BS

I haven't heard from any of the collectors of information. I hear most of them are still punching along. I did hear from a fence rider who recently jumped that Powell was talking about changes in his 2/6 message. I listened briefly-- I know I know--it'll rott my brain. To tell you honestly I could only stomach a few minutes of it. According to what he said--he has already been doing all of these things. So in other words-- again he has been perfect in all of his ways--what in the world are people whining about! He will only change the format. Boy that sounds like a road to success to me!

TP can not and will not meet the spiritual needs of the people that attend LGM.

Good reason for me not to attend LGM. Never been there, probably never will. Been to GGWO for years, now out for good and glad to be free from all the tyrants running things over there.

THANKS DR. RICH :) THAT IS RIGHT ON! <_<

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