When Michelle Wilbur first visited Christian Fellowship Center in tiny Madrid, New York, a short hour from the Canadian border, in 2003, she was so dazzled by the church’s close-knit, spirit-filled community that she moved north from Massachusetts to call it home.
“There was something about the culture that I just loved,” Wilbur said in a recent phone interview. “They had big families that they presented as being amazingly strong, the music was incredible, and it just sucked me in really quickly.”
On Sundays, families with five, nine or twelve well-behaved children spoke in tongues at the nondenominational, Pentecostal church in Madrid, one of five CFC churches in the area led since 1981 by Rick Sinclair, the senior pastor.
“People adored the pastor,” Wilbur said. “I did feel very loved when I got there, at first.”
Wilbur has since renounced her CFC membership and is speaking out to hold community leaders responsible for pressuring her to remain in an…
