Calvary Chapel of Manassas

I attended Calvary Chapel of Manassas (CCoM) for about 12 months during 2007 – 2008.
The good:
CCoM teaches the Bible line by line instead of topically, the sermons are available in mp3 format online, and they have a great worship team.
The bad:
After I had attended for awhile, CCoM’s pastor, David Spear, told me he was a 9^th grade dropout, a former drug addict, and that he was «too opinionated» to attend seminary. While his illegal drug history, lack of formal education and refusal to attend seminary do not prevent David Spear from effectively leading a church, I would have appreciated these items disclosed up front.
Also after attending CCoM for awhile and becoming part of the «in» group (CCoM is very cliquish and closed to outsiders), I was invited to an invitation-​only meeting of women at the church building that was not advertised in the Sunday bulletin. At this meeting, the women leaders of the church went into detail about how the Bible says that parents should literally spank their children with rods (a stick from a tree) based on reading the Bible book of Proverbs. These women spoke at length verbally about the Bible’s command to spank children with the rod but I noticed that they were very careful not to put any of these spank-​with-​a-​stick teachings in the written notes they provided to the participants.
At this women’s meeting, one of the older mothers with multiple children shared that her husband was going to Home Depot soon to purchase a «board» (not a «stick» but a «board») with which to discipline their 3-​year-​old special needs child. I was horrified. Since the 3-​year-​old was in a Prince William County public school special education pre-​school program, I went and personally talked to the counselors at the elementary school. The school contacted CPS.
The Prince William County elementary school counselor I spoke to told me that it was ILLEGAL in Virginia for a parent to spank their child with anything but their open hand on the child’s butt. Teaching parents to spank their children with a rod is probably protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution but it is irresponsible for CCoM not to WARN parents that what they are teaching is illegal in Virginia.
The CCoM leaders told me that I had committed a sin by speaking out and that «my reputation was ruined for a season.»
All the church members defriended me on Facebook. This is the Biblical practice of «shunning» where you punish the sinner with the silent treatment until they repent of their sin.
One of the church leaders, Chris Soliday, sent the following email to all the members of the church after I left:
«Janelle A is no longer a member of our fellowship. She decided that she did not fit in with all of our beliefs, and needed to move on. She will not be attending any of our small groups, nor be a part of our prayer chain, although we will still pray for her soul. If you have any questions, see Mark Dahl.»