Asbury Church — Attraction in Tulsa

The Christmas Eve service tonight was a disappointing and disheartening experience. I was a member at Asbury in the days of Tom Harrison and Bill Mason, and this evening reminded me how much I miss their grace, kindness, warmth, and compassion. I grew up at Asbury and came back this evening for the first time in many years and felt insulted and belittled because, according to Andrew Forrest, I "do not have a belief system" because I'm not approaching Christianity and religion in the way he finds acceptable and correct.

He stated that Christmas Eve services are many times filled with people who don't regularly attend church, and instead of speaking to these people (including myself) with tenderness and empathy, he grouped "us" all together and compared "us" to lost souls and sinners who are drinkers living empty and joyless lives. I did not feel that I was welcome at Asbury; I felt isolated, and I would imagine others like me may have also felt shame instead of feeling welcome and safe to come back to church.

He also grossly misrepresented Matthew Perry - he spoke about his alcohol addiction and his desire to be famous but mentioned nothing about his charity work and the sober living facility he opened that helped men who struggled with addiction find their way to sobriety. He painted a picture of a man who was lost and a drunk and did not go any deeper and show compassion to a person who struggled, like we all do, but still did what he could to make a positive difference in the world and help others.

I truly don't understand the goal of the message from Andrew Forrest tonight. If he wanted to praise the people at Asbury who don't drink and attend church every Sunday and make them feel superior to others, then congratulations, he succeeded. But if his goal was to create a safe and welcoming environment to invite people to find their way back God without shame and judgment, in my opinion, he...

Being a newcomer with a few months of attending: People are super friendly. I will bring guests of color. If we need help of any sort we will ask the armed security gaurd of color to assist us. I have seen Muslim children there who loved it. They will be coming back just for the fun. The children's area is very well developed. I think the free food ministry is handled by a Latino church that is embedded within Asbury. They are Very friendly and generous folks as well. The landscaping is a dream scape and professionally maintained. The full orchestra every Sunday is exquisitely presenting with a robed choir and I suspect a few professionals mixed in. Full production team on all audio video lighting sound very very well done. The contemporary musicians on second service at 11 are rock stars. Just go, sit and soak this place up for a while. Today was Christmas Eve candlelight service and they will repeat all day long and the big church bells ringing at midnight. Sermons are written in series with free guide books for at home study if you like. The professional chef and kitchen staff are likewise fabulous. Free sign language interpreters. All of that being said many of the congregants are driving in from remote locations. They don't necessarily represent the racial mix of nearby residents. It's going to be exciting to see that trend change. Everyone is welcome. Everyone. I have had to leave churches several times in the past for reasons that were essentially cruel selfish political money motivated downright sinful and unloving. It hurts the work of the Lord. That is why I will take a lot of effort to see that never, ever happens again. If anyone wants help with this just ask. I will help make it happen as it should to the best...

This did happen some time ago but I needed to tell my side of this story. I was there for the food drive and I had no idea how it worked. It was our lines turn and the man in the car next to me nodded at me to go. I blindly trusted this man, which was my fault, and proceeded to pull out. It was actually not my turn and when I realized this I deeply apologized to everyone in the line before me and stopped once I realized my mistake. I was feeling really embarrassed at this point and that is when the lady who wrote the numbers on the cars that day proceeded to storm over and SCREAM at me. Essentially told me how bad of a person I was for cutting the line and that I had to wait my turn like everybody else. I tried explaining to her what happened, but she did not want to hear any of it and just let me have it, and caused a big scene. I completely understand it was my fault but I don’t think I should have been yelled at the way I was. I had another lady working there come over and apologize for the other’s behavior which I did appreciate, all the other staff was extremely nice. Mistakes happen and I truly hope this lady has not treated anybody else the way she treated...