QCC is the ONLY way to Salvation

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." -- John 14:6 (NLT)

The Quest version reads: "QCC is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can be saved until they attend QCC and fall into lockstep with their belief system."

Of all the ex-Questers I've met, this is the NUMBER ONE complaint about the church and is the NUMBER ONE reason I left there. Week after week after week, they have someone come up and give a testimony. Now when they stick to a testimony concerning how Christ has impacted a person's life, it is great. But the vast majority of the testimonies are not like that at all. I would guess that 90% of the "testimonies" are from people who claim that they had attended church all their lives, had thought they were saved, but since attending QCC found out that they had never really heard the true gospel, until their eyes were opened by Pastor Pete.

I have a very close friend who I grew up with. I was with her the day she gave her life to Christ many years ago. She had repented of her sins, placed her trust in Jesus, and been baptized. She fully understood that she was saved by grace through faith and had lived a faithful Christian life for over twenty years. After attending QCC for a year she went on their annual Women's Retreat. When she returned she told me that she had been convinced that she really had not been a Christian before, but had been saved at the Women's Retreat. After reminding her of her earlier decision and how she had been fully committed to Christ, she was embarrassed as well as angry at QCC for making her feel unsaved.

QCC often has a former youth minister's wife come out on the stage and give her "testimony" of how her husband had cheated on her, and how the church they had served had somehow failed them. But since coming to QCC she not only realized that neither her or her husband had been saved before coming to QCC, but her "mentor" at Quest had actually convinced her that it was her fault her husband had the affair! I have personally talked to those who were closely involved with the situation at the time it occurred and have been assured that this young lady was a sweet believer in Jesus prior to her going to QCC and that most of the story she told is bunk.

I was at a Men's gathering once where we had a number of new people attending. A young man was talking to me about his Christian faith, along with some of the struggles he had. He told me and several other men about his Christian experience. There was no doubt that he had experienced a genuine conversion. Immediately the other men started asking him a litany of questions that they have been trained to ask. Basically the idea is to convince the person that they are not saved. When I asked the others to back off I was suddenly the leper in the group. They simply could not accept the fact that this young man was saved, because every single man there had previously been saved in another church setting, but been convinced that they were not really saved until they came to QCC. They couldn't imagine this man's experience could possibly be different than their own, because they had been trained to think that way.

One Wednesday night a QCC staff member stood up to give his testimony. He claimed that after being on staff, he realized that he had never been saved before and that he had just been saved in the last week. He said that until becoming a part of QCC, he did not really know what it meant to trust in Jesus. Now if that is true, what does that say about QCC if they would hire a person to minister to others who was not even a Christian?

Notice a pattern here? I could go on and on and on and give you many similar accounts. Suffice it to say, QCC likes to make Christians feel like they were never saved. They also claim that they are the only church that actually teaches people that they are saved by God's grace and that works are not a part of the salvation process. For the millions of us who attend evangelical churches, we know this is simply not true. The vast majority of us grew up on the grace message.

I'd like to hear your story.

Quest Community Church -- Lexington, KY

First, I want to thank Heidi Rafferty for suggesting I start this blog. Heidi is a pro-Quest blogger. You can read her blog at: http://christiansafehouse.blogspot.com/

Heidi refused to post any of my comments on her blog because they were not pro-Quest. I don't hold this against her, like most members at QCC, she has been taught to never say anything negative or disagree with anything that comes out of QCC. But unlike Heidi, I will allow her to comment freely on this blog whether she agrees with me or not, and would actually encourage her to do so.

For some background on Quest Community Church, let me post a quote from their entry on Wikipedia:

In the early '90s, Pete Hise, a student at Asbury Theological Seminary, took a job at a local Applebee's Restaurant with the express purpose of building relationships with unchurched people. Soon a small group of Applebee's employees began meeting with Pete for Bible study. The group was called "Beer and Bibles". As a result of these meetings a number of people were successfully converted to Christianity. Later, Pete joined the staff at First Alliance Church in Lexington, KY. There he developed a program where people like his Applebees friends could learn more about what it means to follow Jesus.

Beginning in March 1997, a service called Quest began on Saturday nights at the First Alliance Church. This service incorporated many elements that were atypical in churches of the day, including secular/non-religious music, movie clips, drama and other forms of the arts. The Quest services continued on Saturday night until their success prompted the leaders of Quest and First Alliance to launch a new and separate church committed to "transforming unconvinced people into wholehearted followers of Jesus."

In February 1999, the group of people who would form Q.C.C. began meeting together at The Springs Inn in Lexington. Within a few months, a building previously known as "The Ball Diamond" was acquired and renovated for Quest services. After clearing out batting cages and renovating the building, the first Quest service took place May 2, 1999.

Quest began to grow quickly as many people began to attend. Staff were added to handle the burgeoning growth. Additional services were added on Wednesday evening and on Sunday mornings. Several expansion projects took place over the next several years which enabled the building to house more people during the weekly services.

In October 2003 Quest purchased a piece of land located in the south part of Lexington. Due to zoning restrictions on the land and the rapid growth of the church, a new location was still required. In September 2005, Quest began services at its current location at 410 Sporting Court in Lexington, Kentucky. On April 7, 2007, Quest expanded to 5 "worship experiences", launching its first ever Saturday night worship experience. Currently, Quest Community Church offers 6 different worship experiences during the week: Saturdays at 5:55pm, Sundays at 9:00, 10:22, a 10:22 video venue, 11:55am, and Wednesday evening Celebration services at 6:30pm. Services can also be viewed live via webcast at the church's website.

Quest is a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, which by all accounts is a very solid, evangelical denomination. Unlike most CMA churches, I do not believe Quest is a solid, evangelical church. I'll write more specifically about this in the posts yet to come.