Any recourse at this point?

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Rebel in a Good Way]

Hey all!  I'm new here but have started engaging more in my GC* past after joining the International Cultic Student Association (ICSA) and reading the most recent book for clinicians, which featured Paul Martin's Wellspring model.  I know that at Cedarcreek Community Church in Eau Claire leadership is spiritually abusive and continuing all the errors of the past.  These are personal stories, but all you have to do is look at the Correction Statement and compare it to material on GCC's current website to see that they are unabashedly continuing every single thing identified (except now it's more under the radar).  It's in GLCI content, their values statement, and of course the "you know you're godly if people say you are a cult" letter by Hopler.  Current teachings by any of the main leaders (or even the "little guys" like Cedarcreek pastors) also exhibit those long-ago identified "errors."

Knowing what a big name Enroth is in the world of spiritual abuse, it really bothers me that they somehow convinced him that they had made significant changes.  I'm just wondering if there are any options for an "outside" body to take a new look at GCC? 

[trthskr]

What in the world?!?! I had never looked into this much, but just saw what Dr. Enroth wrote about GCC (posted proudly in the GCC website of course) - I was also surprised to see a mention of something called"Project Care"? For former members of the church...why isn't this mentioned to anyone who has left the church?  How is the the first I am hearing of it when I left the church nearly 10 years ago? Definitely something I'm going to look into now...

[Linda]

I think that they made up the name "Project Care" a few years after we left (which was 2005). In the Spring of 2005, prior to our departure, we learned of the Statement of Error and Apology via a Google search. At a meeting with Brent Knox (who was and still is on the national board of GCC), we asked about the Statement of Error. His response was, "I think it wasn't so much a statement of error/apology, but rather a statement of clarification." He then offered to get us a copy, we said we'd like one. He never got us that copy, but by then we had learned of Larry Pile, contacted him, and he sent us a copy of Marching to Zion where the statement was included.

I think it was shortly after the statement appeared on the gcx web library, that GCC put the statement on their web page and started calling the actions at the time "Project Care".

[Rebel in a Good Way]

Yeah, this is their detailed Values Statement.

http://ae32b6f7a6ad6f5ae1f0-a966d7fcbad4fbcd7d1dccf3fbabbb92.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/r/0e4539602_1442587039_revised-core-values-paper-20142.pdf

And here is their GCLI material on "authority"

http://ae32b6f7a6ad6f5ae1f0-a966d7fcbad4fbcd7d1dccf3fbabbb92.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/g/0e4793197_1490123351_gcli-2017-b1-s2-9-god-honoring-authority.pdf

[Linda]

Whoa! Those links are interesting. There is so much false teaching in the one on authority that it will take some time to digest. Thanks for posting.

[Rebel in a Good Way]

From values:

"We believe that the Scriptures combined with the local church are God’s primary
system for providing pastoral care and the healing of souls. While God may lead
pastors to refer certain individuals to godly, Biblically based counselors as a
supplement, this works best when it is coordinated with the efforts of the church
and its leaders (2 Timothy 3:16; Ephesians 4:15-16)." 

This value is concerning because they will only refer you out to other appropriate services (including psychiatric care) only if your pastor feels "called."  Pastors in my area have specifically tried to deal with issues they were completely unqualified to handle, to the detriment of the congregant. 

We believe that the character qualities and doctrinal understanding needed to
become an elder/pastor/overseer are best developed within the local church. We
view additional training (such as that offered by Bible schools or seminaries) not as a
qualification for a pastor, but rather as a possible supplement to the equipping of a
pastor within the local church (Titus 1:5).

A supplement that not one of them will ever utilize!  The preceding value, accompanied by the following, keeps the group very closed and immune to outside influences.  This is information control as part of Steven Hassan's BITE Model.

While God can use outside authors, teachers, and seminars to supplement the
ministry of the Word in each local church (1 Corinthians 4:15), God desires the
local church to be the primary source of preaching and teaching of the Scriptures for
the building up of believers (2 Timothy 3:14).

This just touches on the authority piece:

All of us are under the authority of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures as our
ultimate and final authority. God has also given us human authorities that we are
to honor and submit to within their God-ordained spheres of authority. Wives are
to honor and submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22), children to their parents
(Ephesians 6:1), church members to their elders (1 Peter 5:5), employees to their
employers (Ephesians 6:5-6), and citizens to the civil government (Romans 13:1-
7). In submitting to a human authority, at no time is a person to disobey God’s
Word.

[Linda]

Question 18. Page 301 of the GCLI paper.

18. What should we do if we disagree with the desires of a person in authority over us?

Last paragraph of the answer.

"Lastly, if an appeal does not bring about a change of direction, we should submit to any command that is not a clear violation of God’s will as revealed in His word, believing that God will use our submission even to a command that we view as harmful. Typically, such submission, even to an unwise or hurtful command, will cause less damage to us, to others, or to the glory of God than would outright disobedience."


This. Is. Heresy.

There is no mediator between Christians and God except for Christ.

This is the heart of the GC error. They really do believe elders speak for God. Really. Sincerely. They believe this.

Parents, be warned.

Thanks for posting this paper. These GCLI papers are not made available to the public, so people have a hard time understanding that GC leaders are taught and sincerely believe God speaks through them to the people in the congregation.

An example would be telling students not to go to grad school. The student should obey the elder. Or, telling a person they should take or not take a particular job. They should do what the elder says. They may even tell someone to move to another city and help start a church. They do not mean advice in matters of Biblical morality like telling people not to fornicate or get drunk. They are referring to members of the congregation obeying elders in how they live their lives.

I've always thought the heart of the GC error was not understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers and this teaching is a prime example of that.

[Rebel in a Good Way]

Linda, EXACTLY!  And it's not just a meaningless writing, this is being taught as recently as Fall 2016 in our area.  Something like--"God has placed leaders in your life, and he will bless your odedience to them, even if they give you bad counsel."  As if God desires blind obedience to controlling humans!

I was such easy prey for this attitude because of all the scripture they (incorrectly) tied to it. 

[Janet Easson Martin]

This is a really good discussion because the so-called "spiritual authority" might be the false hub around which most GCx abuses spin; which many have pointed out here.  The blind submission described would best fit the authority of God himself since he is the only one who knows our future, and can secure such results.  Or the authority of the scriptures themselves taught accurately in The Spirit with fearful reverence.  Never is one actually using God's authority when the scriptures are twistedly taught to take advantage of the "student" for the teacher's benefit.  Never is a "teacher" under God's authority when he manipulates the Word of God to beat down others to elevate himself.  Never is a preacher God's divine authority when he turns the Bible into a weapon to terrorize his congregation from leaving his church or organization.

Leaders who do those things are not TRUE spiritual authorities!  They are FALSE teachers as the Bible calls them. They HAVE NO AUTHORITY over God's people.  That is probably why they stoop to such depths of deception. They must manipulate people to get them to enter and scare people to get them to stay.  God warns they will ravage our faith and bring harm.

As has been stated no few times here, nearly every leader in GCx was appointed by men who were appointed by a man who appointed himself!  Even Jesus was introduced into ministry through God's appointed prophet John (and God's audible word). Authority is only as good as the one giving it.  

[Linda]

As has been stated no few times here, nearly every leader in GCx was appointed by men who were appointed by a man who appointed himself!

Exactly, Janet! Why is it that no one ever questions HOW these elders got their "authority"!

As you say, every single GC elder was appointed by an elder who was appointed by an elder and if you keep going back far enough, you fine that one day a man named Jim McCotter (or sometimes the version has three men, Jim McCotter, Dennis Clark, and Herschel Martindale) APPOINTED HIMSELF AN APOSTLE and started appointing elders. It's really incredible to me that intelligent men cannot follow the logic and see through this. Their authority is based on nothing more than someone in 1970 saying he had the authority to appoint elders and now Christians are expected to obey these men with life decisions. Clearly, it's spiritual deception. Sadly, it's destroyed lives and twisted the Gospel.

[Huldah]

"...submission, even to an unwise or hurtful command, will cause less damage to us, to others, or to the glory of God than would outright disobedience."

It has taken me a while to process the horror I feel at this statement. We're called as Christians to be people of wisdom and truth, who obey God rather than man. How on earth could refusing an unwise command possibly damage the glory of the God who created the heavens and the earth? Seriously, the glory of the Almighty is diminished if we refuse to obey an ungodly command? Do they think that poorly of God? Is He so little in their minds? It's staggering.

And clearly there's no understanding of the depth of damage that can be caused by bad leadership, or the way that that harm can ripple out to affect multiple people across decades and generations. To be so callous about the damage they inflict on their followers, and then on top of it to say that God's glory is dependent on the innocent party embracing injustice over wisdom... that strikes me as deeply troubling, if not downright evil. The person who wrote this has no business shepherding the souls of other people.

[Janet Easson Martin]

I fully agree, Huldah.  Isn't that the sort of persuasion and guidance Jim Jones' people were under?  These are the type of statements that False Teachers would intimidate their people with.  That's what I was taught in GCx and it severely crippled my faith and my lifestyle.

Humans do not have infinite wisdom, knowledge and power that God alone holds.  Requiring us to trust Him more than or instead of own understanding belongs to God Almighty.  Only he can ask such things because only he will not violate divine love and truth.

[Rebel in a Good Way]

The ideas in this one, "Not Loving the World," creates fear of the world, which also draws people in closer to the group for security.

"Everything, and I mean everything, is under the control of the evil one who was given mastery over everything from the mountaintops on down. This is where he lives and this is where we live. So there will be struggle. Are we prepared to struggle?"

http://ae32b6f7a6ad6f5ae1f0-a966d7fcbad4fbcd7d1dccf3fbabbb92.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/g/0e4793196_1490123382_gcli-2017-b1-s2-10-not-loving-the-world.pdf



And "Parent-Led Education" also piggybacks off the "fear out the outside" in regards to education.  And talk about control--as if parents need to run their educational choices by their pastor!  And, even though they insist they do not promote legalism about school choices, they clearly favor one option.

"Third, I recommend that pastors give one-on-one counseling to parents who are making educational choices, asking the question, “Is this educational option yielding the spiritual, character, and academic results you want for your child?”

"Therefore, for Christian parents who ask my counsel as a pastor, my practice is to encourage them to prayerfully consider home schooling their children, particularly during the early school years."

http://ae32b6f7a6ad6f5ae1f0-a966d7fcbad4fbcd7d1dccf3fbabbb92.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/uploaded/g/0e4814926_1490127294_gcli-2017-b3-s5-9-parent-led-education.pdf