Hi! (Please don’t use my name.)
junping straight into this to avoid rabbit trails like any good IFB pastor lol but I do have to start out with how much I relate to you guys. A fellow friend/pastors daughter recommended this podcast to me and I have never felt more at peace with my walk with God then I do listening to this podcast and finally feeling at peace! We are taught tradition and the old time way.I feel like I finally have a name to myself now! Escaping legalism!
I was born and raised in IFB. Left when I was 22. My family was heavily involved in the church. My dad was a deacon and cleaned the church for every service and after events. My mom was church secretary and school teacher/secretary. And as a deacon/church secretaries daughter I was held to a higher standard and was told to wear the skirts down to my ankles and shirts up to my collar bone. I went to the church school and did ACE school work. (This will explain all my poor punctuation and misspelling lol) We were in church for every service and every Saturday outreach. Even did the program “Fishers of Men”. It’s safe to say my family was overworked and overused. So we got burnt out.
many parents left the church first after they’ve experienced way more then I could ever imagine. I’m trying to get them to write in as well because their story is really good.  but it took me longer to leave just because of the guilt I had and was scared of what others would think. I always doubted my salvation and always prayed during the service asking god to save me if I wasn’t. My pastor was so good at scaring people with the rapture and hell.
finally after graduating and having to leave my youth group it became really hard to fit in and find the ministry I wanted to do without the pastor telling me what my ministry was because wherever they needed help I was magically called to that ministry. I taught Sunday school, helped in teen class and then the typical nursery worker on a scheduled rotation.
I struggled with anxiety and I truly believe the IFB was the source of it. Pastor would preach against it and tell us it was a sin. I really struggled with knowing right from wrong after I left, I struggled with figuring out what was extreme verses normal. I came to peace knowing that at the end of the day Jesus loves me and that’s all that mattered. Listening to your podcast has brought me so much validation in the way I walk with Christ now. Now that I left not one soul has checked in on me to see if I’m ok or how I’m doing, which just proves a point on how prideful they are and how they are only there for show. I talk to my now friends and I always avoid talking about my childhood because they just don’t understand. I truly believe the IFB stole my childhood and no blame to my parents because nothing horrible happened to me besides legalism. It’s so refreshing to listen to people and relate to it so well! My friends just don’t get it lol

thank you so so much for doing this podcast! It has truly helped me so much and I can relate to everything you guys say! I could go on and on about this but I’ll end it here.
thank you guys again!