Applying for Manipulation: The Inappropriate Questioning on the Antioch Discipleship School Application

The Antioch Discipleship School (ADS) is a core piece of the structure of Antioch Community Church Orlando. It is now called “ADS Foundations.”

Its approach has shifted through the years, following the theological bent of the church in video lectures, speakers, books, and other materials. It revolves around weekly four-hour classes on Sunday evenings, extensive reading, church participation, outreach, and a number of other requirements.

While some of the materials in ADS are truly helpful, biblically solid, and useful for training in theology, the application for the program itself is deeply problematic.

As of the ADS class that began in 2021, the application asked extensive, invasive, and inappropriate questions of the one applying, digging into the following. Not all questions are covered here – there are more that can be seen in a blank application at the bottom of this post.

• Relationship Information
  • Marital status
  • Who you’re dating/fiance’s name
  • Date of wedding
  • Spouse’s name
  • When you were separated
  • How many divorces and dates of divorce
  • Date of spouse’s death
  • Children and their names
  • Pregnancy due date
• Financial Information
  • Credit cards by name and balance that’s not paid in full each month
  • Monthly car payment amount
  • Monthly car insurance amount
  • Student loans total
  • Monthly mortgage/rent amount
  • Medical bills/health insurance total
  • Other loans total
  • If you tithe 10% regularly
• Family Information
  • Siblings and ages
  • If Parents are Christians
  • Family background
• Medical Information
  • Number of days absent from work or school from illness
  • Current medications/under a doctor’s care
  • Reason and purpose for medication and if it causes limitations
  • Handicaps or health conditions that require special care
  • Chronic illnesses
  • Medication allergies
  • Food allergies
  • Narcotic/hallucinogens/non-prescribed drugs in the past five years, and if so, what kind and when?
  • Alcohol consumption, and if so, how frequently
  • Tobacco products use, and if so, how frequently
  • Have you been treated for a drug or alcohol problem in the last five years
  • Have you been clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety in the last five years
• Sexual History
  • Have you had an inappropriate relationship with the opposite sex in the last five years, and if so, when was the last occurrence?
  • Dated or gotten married since then
  • If so, how has this affected your relationship with your significant other
  • Current struggles with temptation, fantasy, pornography, etc.
  • Traumatic events (ex: physical abuse, rape, etc. we can discuss in detail during an in-person/phone conversation)
  • Women: Unmarried pregnancy or abortion
  • Men: caused unmarried pregnancy or abortion
  • Homosexual relationship within last five years, and explain physical involvement
  • How does [the above] affect current relationships with the same sex
  • Have you had episodes of rebellion in your life in the last five years (defiance of authority figures, not open to any accountability, defiance of rules or laws, illegal activities, etc.) If yes, please explain
  • Convicted crimes or felonies
• Christian History (the only category that makes sense in light of the program)
  • Testimony
  • Religious/denominational background
  • Cult involvement
  • Baptized and when
  • Are you a member of Antioch and if not, where and when did you start attending the other church
  • Current devotional life
  • Lifegroup/discipleship activity
  • Why ADS and why now
  • Current time commitments
• Personal References
  • Lifegroup leader reference
  • Work reference (employer or teacher)
  • Friend reference
• “To the best of my knowledge, all of the information in this application is true andcomplete. I also authorize you to make such inquiries into my personal employment, finances, medical history or other related matters as may be necessary in arriving at an acceptance decision.” (Signed: Name)

While it has been said that these questions were “copied from Waco’s application,” we checked with a member who took ADS before 2021 and they did not remember the more invasive questions being present on their form.

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Regardless of where the content came from, the scope and nature of the questions are both unnecessary for the program (which focuses on theological training) and wildly inappropriate for the following reasons:

• The required request for information itself is alarming. A church has no true reason or right to ask about a member’s sexual past, monthly finances, trauma, or other private information. This information belongs to the individual, who discloses it at their own discretion, only with people who know them and who they trust.
• Divulging one’s deepest secrets and most personal information places members in a highly vulnerable state where they can be easily manipulated.
• Asking these questions trains members to see this level of inquiry as normal, which it is not and should never be. This conditions them to accept intense personal probing in discipleship and other contexts.
• Asking about past sins and failures goes far beyond vouching for someone’s current character to try to ensure they are responsible to complete the program. This treats sins and failures as permanent blemishes on a record that will be taken into consideration when someone is deciding whether or not you’re fit for the program. This also fosters a culture of elitism (“I got accepted” or “I didn’t get accepted”) within the church. People get accepted and people get rejected, and aside from finances, we have never heard the reasons behind these decisions.
• While the form says the answers are confidential and “will only be read by staff and those directly involved in the interview process,” staff can mean a number of people at Antioch, including the pastor, and we know information quickly goes up the ladder. Things said in confidence do make their way around the community. This promise of security does not mean much.

Church members are naturally trusting, especially when they are younger and without much, or any, prior church experience – which is characteristic of Antioch’s primarily evangelistic audience: young college students at UCF.

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We have stories of members who have had their personal traumas, personal details, and past sins held over their heads in spiritually manipulative conversations. The repercussions of this are real and devastating.

“When I was talking to my mom about the application, she repeatedly told me how inappropriate the questions were and how a church had no business asking them. She said only cults do that and sent me a gif of red flags. I wish I had listened, but instead “trusted the leadership,” dismissed her concerns, and spent the next eight months of my life stressed, sleep deprived, and burnt out.

I have no idea why they required so much information to be disclosed… Never once did those questions or the information I gave come up in ADS itself, but I suspect they had an impact on my overall church reputation and how I was treated by leadership. Thinking back about it makes me incredibly uneasy.”

–Former Member and ADS Graduate

The questions on the application are of major concern and point to deeper problems within the organization. It should be seriously recognized by all members as incredibly alarming.

For those who may want to justify this, would you not raise an eyebrow if any other type of organization required such intimate information from you? Especially if the information was unnecessary? Why is a church, made of people who are prone to sin, exempt from the same level of questioning discernment?

We sincerely hope the application has changed and hope the reasons why these questions were required has been acknowledged, potentially repented of, and addressed, paving the way to a healthier culture and process. God’s sheep are to be guarded and protected, not placed into vulnerable positions.

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” –Matthew 10:16 (NIV)

Please see below for the full document.

(Class of 2021-2022, and for privacy, all personal information has been removed of the applicant and the school administrator’s name and contact information has also been removed.)

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