Bob Kerr Very friendly, comfortable church with a message of hope!
5 /5
Lee Wadsworth DO NOT RECOMMEND FOR TEENS. I started attending South side when I was in 2nd or third grade until I was a freshman. Im now a senior but Ive had it on my heart to write about my experience to keep other youth from going through what I did. when I was in elementary I loved it I learned about God and his love for me, but there was nothing deeper to it, which is fine for little kids but as I reached middle school I started going through issues in my life the middleschool youth pastor at the time was Eric. He was the only reason I stayed, he was very kind and made it his mission to connect with the kids. I will say he handled some situations inappropriately, and he got so busy he started to not connect with the kids as much, or maybe it was just me. I started going through some really hard things and tried to reach out yet I wasnt helped, it felt like the church was turning its back on me, and that made me feel like God was turning his back on me as well. This made me walk away from Christianity. I had also been serving in wamba land for 3 years and switched to up street when i was old enough I served with 4th grade girls. i pray I made a difference in their lives but i know my kids loved me as their leader, they told me every week. At this point I was in highschool and had a new preacher/pastor. He was not it. For one the sermons were so watered down, they didnt really teach anything. I also asked the pastor to sit down with me one day as Id been struggling with wanting to date girls (Im a girl) and he gave me nothing. I asked him to keep it between us and he did not. He told the leader of upstreet and they handled it in a disgustingly inappropriately. They pulled me out of teaching small group and basically said that I cannot serve anymore because I was having "impure thoughts" even though I wasnt dating a girl, I NEVER would mention anything like that in my small group because it was something I was struggling with. After that I fell deeper in a depression I was already struggling with. I tried to reachout a few months later because I was struggling with a drug issue and at that point the youth pastor wouldnt even talk to me and I felt uncomfortable reaching out to my smallgroup leader because she seemed very judgmental as i had asked her some things before that. Lastly, the members in my smallgroup that i had known for an upward of 6 years turned their back on me because i had "gotten angry at the world" which i agree but it was because i was going through things. No one helped me. There were obvious signs I was really struggling, and my youth pastor, small group leader, or friends there even tried to help me. All in all my experience with Southside was horrendous. I wouldnt recommend southside to anyone but especially teenagers.
1 /5