I will also add that I think it is important to try to stress to any friends/family in the UPC (or whatever church you are leaving) that rejecting some of their beliefs is not the same as rejecting them as people. There is a difference, and I can't guarantee that they will believe you if you try to explain that to them, but I do believe that helped me in my transition out of the church. I made sure that I spoke to anyone connected with the UPC if I saw them out anywhere. I had no reason to avoid any of them. I will admit a bit of uncomfortableness when I would sometimes see the pastor &/or his wife, but even that got easier when I just talked to them normally.

I also think that many within the UPC think that once you leave, the devil has a field day. I proved that I had not changed greatly just because I quit attending their church. I didn't wear more or less makeup than before and continued to wear dresses to work a lot (when they would see me at my part-time job). This is a small town, and if I had started hanging at the bars, they would have found that out. It hasn't happened. There is a life outside of the Pentecostal faith, and it doesn't mean that everyone who leaves is going to end up becoming immoral, a drunkard or anything else that they wouldn't normally do.

The Pentecostal faith is one that is based on fear about God, not love from God. How limited their scope is on what Christianity truly is.