Doug Phillips/Vision Forum

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[Linda]

This whole Doug Phillips confession of adultery thing has made for some interesting reading and, once again, brought to mind how the concept of "plurality of elders" can easily turn into a cover up of sin. It happens more that I would like to think, I'm afraid. (And I am always haunted by Mark Darling's comment to me of, "I'm sure it's happened," when I mentioned that because of the way the elders protected each other, a pastor could have had an affair and the Great Commission congregation would not know about it.)

Here is a link to a blog about the Phillips thing.

http://jensgems.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/yet-another-doug-phillips-sex-scandal/

[AgathaL'Orange]

"The Johnson family became members of BCA in 2007 by signing a document known as “The Covenant.” It stipulates various terms and conditions of BCA membership. According to Doug Phillips’ broad interpretation of The Covenant, “There are only two ways you can leave BCA. You can die or the Elders can transfer you to another church."






GOOD HEAVENS!  Well, where have we heard that sort of thinking before?

[Linda]

Exactly, Agatha. That, among other things, caught my eye.

That talk, by Mark Darling, was the straw that broke the camels back for us. We left the next month.

There is nothing new under the sun, is there?

Here is the quote from Mark:

Commitment Number Nine. Make the commitment to devote yourself to your local church for the rest of your life. This is going to be controversial, I will explain it. Devote yourself to your local church for the rest of your life. You need other Christians, you need the body of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of Christians today that frankly are not committed, but they like to say they are. To the universal. I'm committed to the universal body of Christ, Mark. I visit this church over here for a while, and then I date this church over here for a while, and then I date this church over here for a while and then I show up at these 22 Christian concerts over here. And it's this wonderful life. Let me tell you something, that is not the kind of commitment I'm talking about, nor do I believe it is the kind of commitment the New Testament is talking about. But it's linking yourself arm in arm in the local church with men and women of like mind and doing something great together, together.
I made a determination as a young man to not leave my church in Ames until and only when I was sent. I was sent. Now, there is, of course, maybe a unique exception within "our movement" and it's a beautiful thing it's why some of us moved to different cities, big metropolitan areas. One, you may need a job and you can still stay linked with Great Commission Churches because you can find one in that city. Secondly, you may be leaving your local church to go to college to join another Great Commission Church that's like minded and I think that will equally accomplish the same thing. I'm here for life. You're not getting rid of me. I'm here.
[...]
I'm here. I'm with these Christians. I'm with Great Commission. That's where I'll stay. That's where they'll bury me and that's where I'm going to make my stand...because this is where God supernaturally led me.

[Linda]

Follow up to the previous link.

http://jensgems.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/doug-phillips-portrait-of-a-religious-sociological-cult-leader/

So many choice parts to quote from the article. Here's one.

Those who have never been in a mind control cult themselves, or who have never studied the psychology of religious sociological cults, will have  difficulty believing that one 5’4″ man could wield so much power and control over one church, not to mention tremendous influence over thousands of his adoring followers. But for those who have gone through a cult experience yourself you’ll very much relate to this exposé, just as you’d relate to The Village.

When people who have never been in a cult themselves hear accounts of a cult they typically exclaim, “Why didn’t those people just get out of there? What held them back? Have they all lost their minds?” The answers are somewhat complex, except for this one: Yes, in a sense, they did lose control over their otherwise very sane minds. That’s not to say that any of them ever were or became stupid or crazy or mindless drones. They’re not any of those things. Anyone who believes they are too smart or invulnerable to coming under the mind control of a master manipulator, such as a Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., may be a prime cult group recruitment candidate themselves. Millions of people have gone through experiences just like the people of Boerne Christian Assembly. Those millions would have no trouble at all believing the stories of BCA victims.

Also, this.

Thankfully there are those who see clearly that Doug Phillips is nothing more than a master manipulator. To quote Nathan Huber, a former Vision Forum intern and BCA member:

“I thank God that I experienced the art of manipulation from a master and can now spot it a 1,000 miles away.”

I am very grateful that my eyes have been opened to the techniques of "spiritual manipulation" through my experiences with Great Commission.

[Linda]

Also from the last linked post:

Another sure sign of a religious sociological cult is what happens when anyone tries to leave. In a normal church, if a member wants to leave, they can just leave. More formal churches have more formal expectations, such as requesting a letter of transfer to another church. But in all cases, real churches will always permit members to leave for any cause, at any time, with relative ease. A sure sign of a cult is that the cult leader makes it difficult to get out. If a request is made to leave, or for a letter of transfer, and the response is a threat, you know it’s a cult. Like all other cults it’s relatively easy to join BCA. One attends a membership class and then signs “The Covenant.” The problem is that Doug views The Covenant as being akin to marriage: ‘Til death do us part. To quote Doug Phillips: “There are only two ways you can leave BCA. You can die or the Elders can agree to transfer you to another church.”

You know, there's another bride in my life. I have two. One I'm married to, the other I'm part of. It's called Evergreen. It's called The Rock. It's called The Urban Refuge. And do you know what? We can do the same thing with that bride, can't we? We start comparing her to the features of another. We start comparing. We start looking at the flaws. We start violating Philippians 4 verse 8 and the God of peace is no longer with us, but we are filled with the God of turmoil. And the God of frustration and the God of exasperation. And the God of what I don't have. And discontentment begins to fill our heart instead of a deep well of appreciation and gratefulness for what we have. I want you to look around you for just a moment. Look around you. Look at the person next to you. People behind you. This is the bride you belong to. We are borrowing tonight another bride's home. But this is the bride you belong to. And the question that we want to ask ourselves tonight is how much do you love her…Do you know how we know that you are really passionately committed to Christ the Head? Because of your passionate commitment and devotion to His body the bride. The people sitting next to you. Your love goes no deeper than that. Your commitment goes no deeper than that. You've had mine, as you know, for 18 years and you'll have it till I die. Because when I love you, when I think wonderful things about you, I'm loving God. I'm loving Christ. You see, God, He put me in this church. He didn't put me in the church down the street. Do I hate the church down the street? No because they are also the bride of Christ. But that's another man's bride. You're mine…Your heart is in love with Christ as your heart is in love with your local church. You serve and are passionately committed to Jesus Christ as much to the degree as you are passionately committed to your church…Would you say that I really loved my wife if I withheld my money from her? Would you say that we really love God if we keep it from the bride?…I want to challenge you tonight from my heart that loves you. Let's become people that focus in obedience to the Scripture on what is good and what is lovely and what is admirable and what is praise worthy and what is excellent about this church. Let's stop critiquing it. Let's stop tearing it down in any way that we may in our own mind. Let's stop fault finding for the Bible says if we continue doing that, we devour one another…I've been now 30 years with Great Commission churches. I'll die with Great Commission churches. I'll die in a Great Commission church. You are part of Great Commission Churches. Evergreen, The Rock, Urban Refuge, all part of Great Commission Churches. You have my heart. Are they the greatest best thing? Are there other people that have wonderful  things. Of course there are. Just like there are other men they're proud of they're wife. They've got a wonderful wife, but I'm really proud of mine. And I'm really thankful for what God has done…I'd like to ask you tonight to make a renewed commitment, the Devil, he's fighting us tooth and nail, he's fighting God's people all over this city, all over this world, and I'd like to ask you tonight to make a renewed commitment that says, "God, freshly I give you my heart and I give this church my heart.God freshly I give you my life and my talents and my resources and Lord, I freshly give these  men and women, this band of men and women that you have put me with, I give you and I give them my commitment my love, my loyalty, my devotion, my service, my joyful service, I will do all in my power, oh Lord, to make this bride beautiful and to treasure her and to value her and to speak admirably of her to focus and thank you Lord for what's good and what's lovely...

[MidnightRider]

How prevalent was Doug Phillips and Vision Forum in GCx?

[Linda]

To be clear, Doug Phillips has no direct affiliation with Great Commission that I know of. I posted the links because of the uncanny similarities between the theology and practice of Vision Forum/Bourne Christian Assembly (the organization and church Doug founded and ran). Doug is a founder of the Patriarchy movement and very active in the homeschool movement. (Although I homeschooled for 27 years and was never tempted to follow him, he did influence many though. Very legalistic. Daughters should not go to college and should live at home until they marry and serve their father to prepare for serving their husband.) His dad, Howard, founded the Constitution Party.

There is a connection to Great Commission, however, through Doug Phillips and Jim McCotter's mutual friend Geoff Botkin.

Here is a link on this forum about that.

http://forum.gcmwarning.com/jim-mccotter-gc-history/info-about-gcm-in-new-zealand-mccotter-geoff-botkin/

I just reread that message Mark Darling gave, the one where he says he had two brides and I am sickened that I and 1000+ others listened to that and didn't find it bizarre. (Well, actually, we found it bizarre and one of my son's friends laughed and told me that he was sitting behind me as he said leaving the church was like divorcing your wife and heard me say under my breath, "What the heck?") How could we all be that mesmerized? It is frightening. It did not set right with us and we had it explained away as "Mark is an evangelist and he gets carried away with his words sometimes", but still if a person refers to "two brides" and calls the local church "his bride", that is not just a slip of the tongue that should be overlooked. That is something that should publicly be corrected. The fact is, they thought that talk was so great they gave away copies of the message to those who weren't there for free. We have a purchased copy. It is awful. Also, they kept teaching it as a core value. So, clearly, he did not misspeak.

[Linda]

MidnightRider,

Here is another link that Puff put up a few years ago about Botkin and McCotter.

http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2008/12/who-is-geoffrey-botkin-vision-forum.html

[Linda]

And another link.

http://undermuchgrace.blogspot.com/2009/05/botkin-update-who-is-geoff-botkin-and.html