I Am Free Now. // David

My name is David, and I was a member of Antioch Orlando for nearly two years, from July 2023-March 2025. I attended Lifegroups for nearly six months longer than that.

I am a Reformed Presbyterian and was a Christian before I joined Antioch. I was attracted by the community; it was amazing to find UCF students who believed the Gospel and read their Bibles carefully. And who had such strong community.

When I joined, I had no idea that nearly two years later I would send a letter to over 70 members of the church, warning them of the evil that leadership was committing and the danger that existed to their own souls.

It has been over five months since I sent that letter. And it has gotten more clear to me that sending it was the right thing to do.

I love all of you at Antioch. Even you in leadership. I want the best for each and every one of you. And I want you to know my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And to fully experience the freedom that is found in Him!

In this article, I want to tell you my story. Why I joined, what I experienced, why I left. Why I’m free now. And why and how you too can become free.

Why I Joined

As I said before, it was beyond cool to see so many young people my age interested in evangelism. And reading the Bible carefully. They played such fun games! And were so friendly!

And people were converted. Such good stories! Such truth! A former Satanist, a former Muslim, a girl who was formerly identified as non-binary, a former Catholic! I had never seen these things like this before.

And so, after about six months in Lifegroup, I left the church that I was converted at. The one with two faithful pastors who have both been very impactful in my life. I left under the excuse that I wanted to become a Baptist—which was true.

I think that God wanted to teach me some things—and He certainly has. All of this has certainly happened for his own glory.

What I Experienced—Before I Decided to Leave

Two weeks after I joined, on Sunday, July 9, 2023, two men were excommunicated from the church. No documents were presented; they were excommunicated for being “divisive.” I had a passing acquaintance with one of them, but went along with the decision of the elders. I shunned these individuals like nearly everyone else.

Things were progressing as usual; the community was fun and the sermons were good, but Discipleship was weird. It was weird that I had to meet with a spiritual superior on a weekly basis. The question started to cross my mind, “Am I sinning by not disclosing things in Discipleship?”

I can say that, within six months of starting to attend Antioch, my conscience was seriously hurt by Discipleship. By continually being asked to be vulnerable. This continued until I left.

It has been mentioned in another blog post, “To the measure of your vulnerability is your freedom.” I have heard this said, by the pastor’s wife, on a Missions trip. I believe that this highly unbiblical statement—at least the sentiments behind it—was present in Discipleship.

Furthermore, it seemed to just be expected to talk to your discipler before dating someone. Looking back on this, I think that it really hurt me. And isn’t found in Scriptures either.

In 2023, I almost left.

A few months after the excommunications, this blog went up. John denounced it heavily and called the people who wrote it “cowards.” Publicly.

One of my friends told me “Something’s wrong with your church.” He had read the blogs written by ex-members of the church. Up until that point, I had considered them slander and refused to read them.

I read them and was horrified by what I read. Horrified enough to meet with one of the excommunicated men. We had a great meeting and he gave me a copy of Twisted Scriptures by Mary Alice Chranagath.

I wish that I had read that book. Instead, I threw it into my trash can.

John told me a strange story about the man who had left. He said that the man had tried to give gifts to his kids and borrow lots of money from his girlfriend.

Neither story made sense. It was either that Jude was lying or that the pastor and elders were lying. So I naturally believed the pastor and elders and blocked Jude and Schrader.

I got plugged in more to Antioch and basically cut off my friend who had told me “Something’s wrong with your church.” I was very cold to him.

But there was one thing that stuck…

My friend Alex (who initially warned me) had told his friend Kevin Jandt about the situation. Kevin left a very legalistic church in Davenport, Iowa, and ran a podcast with Dr. Anthony Silvestro exposing the church. Kevin and me had a chat.

He saw the ADS questions and said, and I quote, “BLEGH, BLEGH, BLEGH!” He was absolutely horrified.

I asked Pastor John, and he said that the questions were leftovers from ADS from Waco and would be fixed.

I have copies of them from 2024. They were not substantially improved. There were still very invasive, and are posted at the bottom of my article.

I ask you to look through the questions. What kind of people ask these sorts of questions? Why do they want this information, especially on people’s sexual history? It is very creepy for these questions to be asked of college guys and girls, especially the girls…

Back to my story. I signed up for Portugal and went.

It was still very odd that John was telling me that I wasn’t going to last at this church…I heard that from him multiple times…

The mission trip was pretty cool…except that my bank account went well below zero dollars. 6 weeks of not working adds up pretty fast…and I couldn’t speak the language of the Portugese.

I also spotted Pastor John, on overseas trips during prayer times, walking up to girls who were around 20 years old, putting his arm around their shoulders, and whispering prayers in their ears. Everyone else had a policy of “If you are a guy and going to pray for a girl, get another girl to come along; if you are a girl and going to pray for a guy, get another guy to come along.” I almost confronted him about it but felt too scared to. After all, my parents had just paid $1900 for me to come on this mission trip. And someone else had contributed $2800.

I was also beginning to consider…where in the Bible do I see 90% of members of a church going on overseas missions? It wasn’t even possible to do this until 1950s America.

I was also beginning to consider further…why do I need to do discipleship? Why do I need to meet with spiritual superiors on a regular basis?

That is when God led me to the job that helped me to leave Antioch…Amazon Delivery.

By the grace and mercy of God, I was unable to find a job after coming home from Portugal. Until I discovered that Amazon delivery was hiring.

I worked there from July 2024-August 2024, and then got hired at another company from September 2024-August 2025. I worked and delivered to one of the poorest parts of the city, Pine Hills.

After working there from August 2024 through the new year, I had one day of PTO or sick time available.

It became clear to me…overseas mission trips would not be possible for my co-workers. Nor would they be desirable. They could barely afford the rent, let alone taking extended time off.

Why would it be helpful to send these men, barely making $35,000/year, on missions trips? When they only had about 5 days of PTO per year?

Yet I still stayed at Antioch. But my trust in the leaders was slowly starting to be shaken.

It also was shaken by the number of times that I was pressured to go on an overseas trip. I believe that Pastor John asked me 5 times. And it still seemed to be expected that I would next year and, at least often, in future.

I wanted to stay. I had a lot of friends there. I had seen people saved there. They did a lot of the evangelism at UCF.

But God had other plans. And then something happened that triggered a thought process. That God used to cause me to leave Antioch. And used to set me free.

Why I Left: The Events of My Leaving

Event #1: The Doctrinal Statement Changed

When I joined Antioch, I thought that I was joining a Reformed Baptist church with a few charismatic leanings. That is the doctrinal statement that I signed.

In January 2025, it was announced that minor changes had been made to the doctrinal statement. I had a look at them, and they weren’t minor.

This is how they read now, and it is not substantially different than it read then. This is, I believe, legalism.

The Mormons do many of these things—but they are not Christians. Furthermore, I grew up in a church without weekly discipleship. Or Lifegroup. Or the pressure to go on missions trips.

I know enough about Christianity to know that I do not need to go to Lifegroup to be a good Christian. Or on missions trips. Or Discipleship. There are Christians who do these things and Christians who don’t.

Furthermore, these things can become idols. A placebo effect. You can feel that because you spend time in the Bible, conduct or go to Discipleship, Lifegroup, and Sunday service, and missions trips, that you are a Christian.

I know that nobody at Antioch would say that they are a Christian because they do these things. But I want to ask you…why is it that people who don’t do these things are second-class people at Antioch?

It has become clear since then…I don’t need to clear things with my pastor before I ask a girl out. Nor do I need to confess sin/get advice before making important decisions from spiritual leaders.

It was also concerning to me that Antioch leadership would not conduct a marriage ceremony for two people who were not Antioch members.

It was becoming clear to me that being an Antioch member had more requirements than being a Christian…even being a good Christian…

Event #2: Two Chats With Two Pastors

I don’t remember which conversation I had first. But I think that the first was with John.

The doctrinal statement got me thinking. So I asked him about discipleship. Why it was necessary.

He responded with, “Do you want to do discipleship? Usually when people start asking questions like this about discipleship, they don’t want to do discipleship.”

This is paraphrased, my memory is not exact.

I affirmed that I wanted to continue doing discipleship, but I was concerned. My friend John Barros, a well-known street preacher, had said, about a legalistic church in the area:

“They always would give you a hard time if you weren’t handing out tracts in the park on Saturday.”

I mentioned my concern with this. John said, “I wouldn’t trust anything out of St. Andrew’s [my friend’s church]”. He also implied that people who didn’t want to do discipleship were probably unsaved and that, in the New Testament church, people had more community than modern churches.

These responses…and the red herring about St. Andrew’s…concerned me further. I had a chat with my old pastor, a trusted friend. I turned over the doctrinal statement and ADS questions for analysis.

I also shared with him about the Shepherding Movement and the blog. He was highly concerned about the resemblance and the ADS questions. And some of the stories on the blog.

We prayed that “God would make it abundantly clear” what church I should go to.

Praise God that I had an outside source who was helpful. I knew in my heart what he would say about the ADS questions, but it was still good to hear it. I’ll talk about it more later, but please talk to outside sources. You have nothing to fear.

Event #3: A Chat with My Discipler

I had discipleship the next day. I told my Lifegroup leader that I was having trouble trusting John and worried about the church doctrines. He heard me out and provided good resources.

I thought all was well until…

Event #4: “It is Totally Inappropriate to Distrust My Character”

John and I agreed to talk after church service on Sunday, March 2, 2025. This is what he said to me.

Point-blank. Verbatim.

“It is Totally Inappropriate to Distrust My Character.” He said that I should have talked to him first and that I had caused distrust in Phil.

I reserve the right to distrust anyone other than Jesus. Paul said to test everything carefully.

God made it abundantly clear what church I should go to. I never went back to another Sunday service at Antioch Orlando. I returned to my previous church, sending a note to John.

Event #5: “Doctrine and Practices”

I did not tell most people that I left. I told my roommate Aidan that I distrusted John’s character. He listened to me and then rebuked me. Things were never the same between us since. We were good friends. Now he won’t talk to me.

I almost wasn’t able to say good-bye to my Lifegroup. Phil came and said that he was concerned because I had voiced my distrust of John. I said that I would only say that I was leaving because of doctrine and practices.

Several people contacted me in the weeks to come. Let it be known that I only told them:

I left because of doctrine and practices. I don’t want to spread division.

After I Left

It was strange. I had expected to occasionally return for Sunday service. Come around for Lifegroup some. But it was somewhat clear that I wasn’t welcome. I was 100% glad that I had left.

I realized soon that I didn’t want to invite people to this church. And that I could not support what they did.

Strangely, people stopped having me over. For the most part.

I don’t think that it was intentional…but I was no longer a part of the church groups. And there were so many events that it was difficult to find time…

It was really bizarre looking back why I was reproached for distrusting John’s character. There are reasons to have at least some level of distrust for any pastor. As Charles Spurgeon says [paraphrased], “You are worse than your worst critic says.”

Why I Wrote The Letter

I became aware in late July 2025 that Marie had been removed from the church when she began asking questions about the mission trip money. And that Stephanie was starting to be attacked by church leaders. I saw what they wrote. For additional context: Marie and Stephanie are mother/daughter.

I also became aware that the church had attempted to break up two of my dear friends by giving the girl lots of advice to break up with my friend.

I decided to warn my friends to be on the alert about what had been said to Marie and Stephanie and the potential attack on their relationship that could come. We had a conversation on the fourth floor of a parking garage where I shared what was happening and my experience with the Heavy Shepherding.

The linchpin of the conversation was when the statement was made, “Why do we have to have this conversation on the 4th floor of a parking garage?”

Why should you have to worry about church leadership breaking up your relationship? Asking the pastor about his salary? Or for the church finances? Or about keeping your friends if you go to a different church because you don’t trust the pastor?

Leadership attacked Stephanie, and I was able to witness what they texted her. After she asked about the mission trip money, they proceeded to flip it on her. The excommunication and shunning was brutal and the financial questions went unanswered.

Furthermore, people made a phone call across continents trying to meddle in her personal life.

I had also given Marie’s letter to someone, and church leadership was making phone calls to my friends trying to figure out where he got Marie’s letter from. There are reports of huge threats made against him.

Given that church leadership was going to accuse me of being divisive and tell everyone not to talk to me anyway, and start denouncing me once they figured out that I was warning people, I figured that I might as well do what I could to warn my friends immediately. I sent my letter.

The financial questions remain unanswered. A third-party audit has not happened. A CPA account is not the same thing.

I can definitely say that the leadership of Antioch Orlando is disqualified. I have seen a copy of the exit letter of Jude. I do not have permission to share it. But I can say that it was sent on July 5 and he was excommunicated 4 days later. Removed from the softball group chat that same day.

You can read his blog. He accused Pastor John of bad stuff.

The elders flipped it on him. Some of them didn’t talk to him before excommunicating him. Cutting him off from his friends and declaring him to be eternally damned.

Many of the elders had 0 conversations with Stephanie, Marie, or I before declaring us to be eternally damned and to be perpetually shunned unless repentance should happen. I was excommunicated in 29 hours and Stephanie in 4 days.

If my accusations are true…why was the excommunication so quick? Why not investigate and then excommunicate?

Pastor John has contacted my pastor 3 times and has tried to get me thrown out of my church. He has never contacted me.

I have had further conversation with Antioch leadership. They said that they had additional reasons for excommunicating Stephanie. However, they were unwilling to put them in writing. I do not regard accusations against a person that they are not willing to put in writing.

If you’re going to say someone is damned, you should be willing to say why. Paul explained why the person should be excommunicated in 1 Corinthians 5.

Final Thoughts

I believe that Antioch Orlando is a destructive cult. This is because:

You are taught slowly that you need to confess sins/important actions to your leaders. This interferes with people’s conscience.
Leaders meddle with dating and relationships. They seem to attempt to break people up if one person wants to leave the church and the other doesn’t. See the other testimonies.
Invasive questions on sexual history have been asked on ADS forms
Long questioning sessions when dissent is suspected (have experienced)
People who accuse leaders of sins often have the “script flipped” on them. They are accused of being the problem.
You’re a great friend of everyone…until you’re shunned/privately denounced because you think that Antioch is a bad church
Heavy pressure to go on expensive missions trips. If you go on mission trips for 2 weeks/year for 60 years, you will spend more time and money on mission trips than the Mormons. Way more.
Sermons elevate the pastor and the church. Not usually Jesus. His words are twisted to support community and mission trips.
Lack of transparency in finances
People excommunicated who were investigating finances
Heavy-handed excommunication process—with no due process
Elders voting to excommunicate people without talking to them personally first.
Information control—Antioch people are trained to reject information critical of their church. Not to read blogs like this. They are denounced.
Fear. Fear. Fear. Why should you fear to ask about the finances? Or that your relationship might get broken if you choose to leave?
Important church policy based on Pastoral visions (the “green check mark” of the church going on trips to the different nations)
Impossible/very difficult to become a member (and therefore, marry someone from Antioch) if you don’t do Discipleship.
These things are not clearly presented to potential members. They are introduced gradually.
Summary: You don’t need Antioch, their leaders, or mission trips to follow Jesus. Many Christians follow Him without these things. Trust in Him alone for your salvation!

You shouldn’t have to fear your pastor. Or your friends turning against you because you leave. Get outside advice from outside pastors. Parents. Friends.

Show them this blog. See what they say.

Just because there are testimonies doesn’t mean that you should raise your family here. Many known cults report great testimonies.

If leadership tells you something, ask for proof. If they say that your friend did something or left the church on bad terms, talk to your friend. Please!

IMPORTANT NOTE

It is a mark of a cult that they divide family and friends. Please don’t cut off your friends because they go to a different church. Or because they think that your church is bad. Even if your friend thinks that Antioch Orlando is a destructive cult, I urge you not to cut them off. Jesus did not cut us off for far worse sins.

I am free now. I am no longer pressured to confess my sins and get approval for many of my actions by a Lifegroup leader. Nor am I pressured to go on missions trips.

I stayed until I could not defend Antioch anymore. I stayed for the testimonies. But I see now that many people trust Antioch…and at best it interferes in their relationship with Jesus.

I am free to follow Jesus in the path that He has set for me. Not the path that Antioch has set for me.

I do not feel guilt for having distrust of my pastor—on the contrary, I have great trust in my pastor. I willingly love my church and my pastor.

QUESTIONS FOR ANTIOCH PEOPLE & LEADERS

Why does 95%+ of the church do discipleship? Where do we find people meeting with spiritual superiors on a regular basis in the New Testament?
Where in the Bible is number of people in discipleship or on mission trips a mark of a healthy church?
Why did you cut off your friend who left under suspicious circumstances? Have you ever considered his/her welfare? Has Jesus cut him/her off?
Is there any fear about losing your friends or what I have built here over many years?
Why has Antioch not done an independent third-party financial audit?
Will you share some of this negative information with outside resources and consider it carefully?
Why is negative information about Antioch so heavily denounced?
Where in the Bible can the statement, “To the measure of your vulnerability is your freedom?” be found? Or anything like it?
Who can tell you, “You are not being accountable enough?” “You’re not sharing enough?”
Is it wrong to distrust leaders? To examine them carefully?
When did Jude write his exit letter, and why was he excommunicated in 4 days after it came out?
What is the process for examining accusations against church leaders? What would it take for John/other elders to be removed from office?
Why was Stephanie excommunicated in 4 days?
Who knows more about you, yourself or your pastor?
Why are some elders voting to excommunicate people without talking to them first?
What historical instances are there of a church sending most of its people on short-term missions trips every year?
Are you following my leaders or are you following Christ? To follow your leaders is not necessarily to follow Christ.
Could you have a discipleship session with your father/mother/grandmother/grandfather present?
Are you hiding something from family/friends?
If your family/grandparents saw these blogs/heard all the sermons, what would they say?
Why has the church doctrine swung from Charismatic to Reformed back to Charismatic?