Back Row stories
Season 1
Preachers are just men.
What I kept
Deconstructing in real time.
Youth group kid
When you start asking questions..
Youth group was really a cult
by Zachary M Waller
Come hangout while I explain mega church culture in small towns. When church follows you home.
This isn’t a bash session. Not everything was bad. Some of it shaped me in good ways. Some of it taught me discipline, community, and music that still hits different. In this episode I talk about what I let go of… and what I decided to keep. Because this story isn’t about anger. It’s about figuring out who you are after the noise dies down.
This one’s messy. There wasn’t some big dramatic moment where everything fell apart. It was slow. Questions that didn’t go away. Doubts that got louder. Realizing I didn’t believe the same things anymore and not knowing who I was without them. I talk about what it’s like to lose your faith identity while everyone around you still thinks you’re the same person. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s honest.
I wasn’t just in church. I was in it. The music, the emotional highs, the moments where the lights dimmed and the bridge repeated twelve times until somebody cried. I talk about the pressure of performing spirituality and what it felt like when the “presence” didn’t show up. Some of it’s funny. Some of it’s heavy. All of it’s real.
Have you ever felt you were going to hell for doubting things?
The crazy youth group stories.
What if you didn’t feel anything in church because it wasn’t real