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Author Topic: Faithwalkers 2011  (Read 114186 times)
IWishToRemainAnonymous
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« on: December 31, 2011, 08:35:38 am »

Mark Darling, main session:

She said to me, "Mark, I feel so ashamed."

I said to her, "What's wrong?"

She said, "Mark, I've been following Jesus and I've been reading my Bible, but tonight I went somewhere I shouldn't have gone. And I knew I shouldn't have gone, but I did and I had too much to drink and ended up sleeping with some guy."

And I waited on the phone, I just waited. I just let it sink in the phone because see not only was she talking to a friend, but I'm also a pastor. I'm a representative of God. And now, these next few words are going to be incredibly important. So I'm thinking in my mind about all that Jesus has done and I'm thinking about what the reality of the Gospel really means. Do I really believe it? Of course I do. It's been transforming my life the previous 6 years. And I said to her, I said, "Sally do you realize how proud I am of you?

She said, "What?"

I said, "Do you realize how proud I am of you?"

She said, "What the blank for?"

I said, "Do you realize that it's been 60 days in your life since anything like this happened? This used to be your life every other day? God is doing wonderful things in your life, besides, this is what he died for. Forget about it. Forget about it. It don't [sic] change what God thinks of you and it don't [sic] change what I think of you. You're my "daughter" and I love you.

Later "Sally" shared her story at a Bible study. She expressed surprise over being asked.

She said, "Are you kidding me? I mean after what just happened, you want me to share?"

I said, "Of course. You're a trophy of the grace of God. You're God's little girl. And you're mine. And I would love it if you would share your story."

After the study he went up and gave her a hug and he told her he was proud of her. She began sobbing. He mentions the woman who wiped Jesus feet with his tears and tells of how his shirt is getting soaked.

She said, "Mark, you're the first man who's ever given a damn about me."

And I thought about the Lord. That moment for me was maybe one of the few in my life where I've felt like Jesus Christ. That I got to be Jesus Christ to this woman. That I got to embody the characteristics of the Savior who loves the broken and loves the hurting..."

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« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2011, 01:50:59 pm »

listen to this http://tinyurl.com/markdarling-quotes

Mark claims to be a prophet, does not need to know Greek or Hebrew, everyone knows he nearly finished high school with all D's, defines Scripture in his own ways, and the list below says it all:

1. "Special claims"   - i.e. following the New Testament more closely than any other Christian group
 
2. Authoritarianism   - that everyone should submit to their rule without question and any challenge is perceived as a threat to the system
                                         
3. An "Us Versus Them" Mentality   - constantly protecting their territory to establish themselves as a unique higher level of  Christianity and to legitimize themselves as an acceptable Christian organization by perceiving those who question their ways as the enemy   

4. Punishing those who struggle or falter  - treating them harshly and even publicly attacking and removing those who would upset "their reputation"

5. Overwhelming Service   - sacrificing family, friends and much more to serve the system, not God, often leading to burn out, depression, and numbness

6. Painful Perfection   - On the outside happy and peaceful, but on the inside emotionally drained and distraught, feeling empty and spiritually dead, inadequate and often hopeless of achieving "perfection".  As my friend astutely observed of the group I was in "Almost everyone was smiling on the outside, but crying on the inside"

7. Closed Communication   - information is only valid when it comes from the top down or the inside out.  Much spiritual superiority ignoring others as equals who have individual gifts and who (Biblically) should be very important to them and to the body

8. Legalism   - system of rules and distortions of God's truths leaving Him out of the relationship

9. No Real Accountability   - those labeled as "accountable to" or "in support of" are perhaps doing so with a very edited or erased past and present history; and who very likely do not have real knowledge of the actual experiences   of those who were brave enough to leave and free to voice very serious abuses and controls.  A very controlled facade has been placed upon this organization to try to make it appear as a legitimate and 'superior' Christian organization.                                             

10. Labeling Those Who Oppose   - naming those who oppose their system as "contentious", "bitter", "divisive", "probably never saved",  etc. in order to bring their good judgments  into question, and silencing them to squelch a viable revolt.
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Janet Easson Martin
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« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2012, 08:08:22 pm »

Dear IWishToRemainAnonymous,

Sounds like you were LISTENING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU, which sometimes is your gut feeling WEIRD or YUK about a matter.  Seems from what you wrote that was said (I didn't hear it firsthand, ofcourse) that red sirens may have gone off in my head  "DANGER:  EVACUATE!!"

"I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.  I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."                          2 Corinthians 11:2-3

Beth Moore says it better than I do:    "Please notice a critical element in Paul's accountability approach:  his desire was their devotion to Christ--not their devotion to him.  God-ordained yokefellows are jealous for us to be God's, not theirs.  Godly accountability is never codependent."  (excerpt from her 2010 Workbook "When Godly People Do Ungodly Things", pg. 99) [bold emphasis mine]

"Any relationship in which we begin to emotionally attribute some of the biblically specified activities of Christ to a person is not only an unhealthy tie, it is a mess.  God will not share His glory with another.  He will neither bless nor tolerate someone becoming a saviour to us.
     ...  I pointed out that many caught in relational seductions used the word web to describe them. ... Job 8 speaks of those who forget God somewhat like the one who transfers his or her devotion to a false Christ.  Surely "What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web" (v.14).  Isaiah 59 speaks of the unrepentent whose fingers are stained with guilt and whose lips speak lies and wicked things.  They conceive trouble.  They spin a spider's web (v.5)"  (same reference, pg. 91,92)  [bold emphasis mine]

Doing especially Week Three of the above Bible Study put words to much of what I experienced in GCx from 1980-1990.  I noticed the "teaching" you highlighted was from this past year, 2011.  It seems there have been several witnesses to a particular leaders' grave misleadings, and yet the "shepherds" sound no warning.  Sticky and seductive relationships are still fostered and encouraged.

Glad you posted this,

Janet


P.S.  To any who are seeking to follow the Lord, and not men, pray about these verses and listen to the Holy Spirit God has made to reside in you.  What is God himself saying to You?
      
« Last Edit: January 11, 2012, 07:12:51 am by Janet Easson Martin » Logged

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IWishToRemainAnonymous
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« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2012, 09:28:38 pm »

A link to the Faithwalkers talks. The quote was from Session 3. My purpose in quoting was to expose the unsound teaching and alert parents to the false teaching that their children are being exposed to.

http://www.gccweb.org/conferences/faithwalkers/midwest/2011_teachings
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Linda
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« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2012, 10:19:38 am »

One of the things that is astonishing to me is the lack of accountability among the elders/leaders. It seems as if the "slander" rule makes it possible for men to teach anything they want without being challenged. This is horrible teaching that makes a mockery of the holiness of God. And, no one confronts him on it. It remains up on the web site as a message others should hear. If there were any accountability, this message would be removed AND public correction would be made. This is not about "persecuting" MD, this is about accountability in what is being taught to young believers. This is about misleading people.

Take his statement and replace it with other sins and see how it sounds.

"Do you realize how proud I am of you? Do you realize it's been 60 days since..."

...you robbed a bank?
...you molested a child?
...you shoplifted?
...you committed adultery?
...you lied under oath?
...you drove drunk?
...you beat your wife?
...you killed someone?
...you had an abortion?

I am flabbergasted that this story (which I have heard before--he's been telling it for years) has gone unchallenged. Grace is not license to sin. Plus, the teaching that 1 John 1:9 is for unbelievers is not true. John is writing to Christians. The idea that when we sin, we should acknowledge our sin before God does not mean that we have to "keep getting saved". For some reason, I think he mixes up salvation with confession.

The fact that no leader has the guts to stand up to this obvious heresy and that it has gone on for years is proof to me that there is no meaningful accountability in the GC system.
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« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2012, 09:25:02 pm »


Well said, Linda.  This isn't about bashing anyone.  It's about witnesses to abuse of "spiritual authority".  It's about exploitation of mostly young people not even out of college.  It's about "spiritual manipulation" of people's life choices for the good of the "movement", not for God's pleasure. 
   
It is quite necessary to report and expose their abusive actions because they have made themselves accountable to no one, really.  Even their history seems in the process of being "rewritten".  Their paper of "weaknesses" was not the whole truth, it was not a repentant apology.

It is possible that the verses below describe God's feelings about their "Weakness Paper" and their attitude  : 

"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they have no shame at all"
Jeremiah 6:14,15

Joining Him in Exposing Spiritual Abuse,

Janet             
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« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2012, 10:41:08 pm »

"persecuting" MD, this is about accountability.....well said by Linda.  We are not doing that.  As well, Janet said another powerful phrase: Exposing Spiritual Abuse.

I would say that Brent, Mark, and others at the ECC church do that without knowing that they do that.  Their power over people is strong, and when we stand up to them, like Linda leaving ECC and her husband writing about it in a blog, then the "pastors" try to break up their family.  That is spirtual abuse 101.  Brent, Ken, MarkD, Mark Bowen and the rest have harmed too many. 

I wonder why they get so mad when we stand up and say something?

-Blonde
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« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2012, 07:31:38 pm »

One of the things that is astonishing to me is the lack of accountability among the elders/leaders. It seems as if the "slander" rule makes it possible for men to teach anything they want without being challenged. This is horrible teaching that makes a mockery of the holiness of God. And, no one confronts him on it. It remains up on the web site as a message others should hear. If there were any accountability, this message would be removed AND public correction would be made. This is not about "persecuting" MD, this is about accountability in what is being taught to young believers. This is about misleading people.

Take his statement and replace it with other sins and see how it sounds.

"Do you realize how proud I am of you? Do you realize it's been 60 days since..."

...you robbed a bank?
...you molested a child?
...you shoplifted?
...you committed adultery?
...you lied under oath?
...you drove drunk?
...you beat your wife?
...you killed someone?
...you had an abortion?

I am flabbergasted that this story (which I have heard before--he's been telling it for years) has gone unchallenged. Grace is not license to sin. Plus, the teaching that 1 John 1:9 is for unbelievers is not true. John is writing to Christians. The idea that when we sin, we should acknowledge our sin before God does not mean that we have to "keep getting saved". For some reason, I think he mixes up salvation with confession.

The fact that no leader has the guts to stand up to this obvious heresy and that it has gone on for years is proof to me that there is no meaningful accountability in the GC system.

I think the context here is key.

If someone had lived years of their lives doing any of the above, found Jesus, and then didn't do them for two months, only to slip again and then beat themself up over it... I can understand where M.D. was coming from. Grace is not a license to sin, right. Part of grace however is forgiveness from our sins and sometimes (all of the time?) we miss this and instead choose to harbor guilt or shame instead of God's love and forgiveness.

Does this mean we can do whatever we want? Absolutely not.
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Linda
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« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2012, 09:09:28 pm »

The proper response to this situation is NEVER "Do you realize how proud I am of you?"

Sin is always bad and should never be taken lightly.

The response given by Mr. Darling made a mockery of the holiness of God.

Yes, I understand that people struggle with sin and sometimes fail. A proper response, it seems to me, would be one that helped this woman realize that she had done something wrong (she seemed to already know this), and then offer her encouragement that she could confess her sin to God and ask God to help her get victory over her struggles.

Mr. Darling, however, misinterprets 1 John 1:9. He teaches that Christians do not ever have to confess their sin. I think this bad teaching explains a lot.

I once told Mr. Darling that the plurality of elders thing could be a cover for sin and that a pastor could have an affair and the congregation would never know about it. To this he replied, and I quote, "I'm sure it's happened."

Sin is taken lightly. The plurality of elders doctrine is meaningless.
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« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2012, 07:15:13 am »

This is just another example of the abuse of power in the GCx.  How do these idiots (GCx leaders) continue to find suckers who will listen to them? What bothers me about the spiritual leaders of the Great Ommission is that they use the pain and suffering of others to sell the need for pastors to make personal decisions in life for us. I have seen examples of this kind of inapropriate abuse of power by Great Ommission leaders time and time again.  It is a very sick and misguided way of thinking.  
  
Why would a religious leader want to turn such a personal and confidential thing (a woman's sex life) into an open discussion in his religious teachings?  

Do these morons understand that things we discuss with our Pastor should remain confidential?  

Why would anyone who is not brainwashed want to have their sex life discussed in public?

Why would anyone who is not brainwashed tell your GCx Pastor ANY personal story or discuss anything confidential with a GCx Pastor?

It seems as though the sins of the members are all open to be used as "lessons" to all other members of the GCx. The more sexy and interesting the story a person tells a pastor in confidence, the more selling power a persons's personal struggles have when they are used as "lessons" in sermons with the GCx church flock. The greater the sin means the greater the need for everyone to let your pastor make personal decisions for you.  These sick church leaders use the personal stories of sin and pain as though they were competing for some kind of personal prize.  Whoever comes up with the wildest church gossip must win something during the pastor's conferences.  

Do you think Mark Darling is as disillusioned as he appears to be?  Does he really think he is Jesus Christ sometimes?  Does he really think this woman is "his"?  It sounds more like he believes she is an object to be possessed instead of a real human being with feelings, emotions and genuine problems.

The abuse of power demonstrated here is sickening and wrong on every level.  
« Last Edit: February 14, 2012, 08:07:27 am by Neverbeengcm » Logged

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« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2012, 07:53:29 am »

Mike Stohlmeyer died this weekend.  He had 30 years of health problems due to Crohns disease.  I was curious why he isn't listed in the obituary or his tribute as ever an elder at GCC?  He was an elder for many years in the 80's.  He is listed as a member.  His obituary is online on the Ames Tribune. 
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« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2012, 12:36:21 pm »

The proper response to this situation is NEVER "Do you realize how proud I am of you?"

Sin is always bad and should never be taken lightly.

The response given by Mr. Darling made a mockery of the holiness of God.

Yes, I understand that people struggle with sin and sometimes fail. A proper response, it seems to me, would be one that helped this woman realize that she had done something wrong (she seemed to already know this), and then offer her encouragement that she could confess her sin to God and ask God to help her get victory over her struggles.

Mr. Darling, however, misinterprets 1 John 1:9. He teaches that Christians do not ever have to confess their sin. I think this bad teaching explains a lot.

I once told Mr. Darling that the plurality of elders thing could be a cover for sin and that a pastor could have an affair and the congregation would never know about it. To this he replied, and I quote, "I'm sure it's happened."

Sin is taken lightly. The plurality of elders doctrine is meaningless.


What? I mean, what?

I realize you do not like Mark Darling much - and in fact I also dislike his... "style" if you can call it that - but think about this for a second.

Someone goes from being a perpetual "sleeper-arounder" to nearly none of that sort as a result of meeting Christ and Christians. Bam. Wow. This is an incredible work of God if you think about it. A couple months later, she messes up. She calls... completely aware of her sin and ashamed of herself and probably totally disappointed she let down their mentor/father figure. It seems really obvious from that conversation she knew of her sin and knew she should not do what she did and probably was somewhat despairing.

Now, imagine you are the father figure or otherwise in Mark's position. What would you have said?

God doesn't ask us who are in Christ to dwell on our sin (and we WILL sin) and feel sorry for ourselves and feel shame for our sins. He wants us to repent and not sin, absolutely, but in this situation I would strongly agree that Mark's encouragement to her was what was needed. She needed reassuring from a father figure that she still mattered and Mark gave that to her.


Maybe you are luckier than all those I know, but my tendency when I sin is not to look to God but rather feel guilt and shame. Sometimes (always?) it takes Christians in my life encouraging me to "get me through." This is exactly what Mark did for this woman.


Quote
Do these morons understand that things we discuss with our Pastor should remain confidential? 

Why would anyone who is not brainwashed want to have their sex life discussed in public?

My guess is, that if she herself has shared this story publicly, she probably was ok with Mark using it as an example in his messages.

Regarding your second note, I tend to think if we have fully repented of our sin we should not have shame/etc over it. If we are truly living in Christ that part of us is a separate part of us. Just read through Romans and see Paul's struggles... but as Christians we are fighting this flesh. Now, this does NOT mean I necessarily am in favor of the... ah, openness with respect to these things common in GCC nor am I saying we should all air our past sins. But I think that I often catch myself feeling ashamed about my sin - normally it means I have not fully repented and turned to God with respect to that sin. I am harboring some "I can fix it!" or "I can do this without God the next time I swear" thought. It is only when we realize the full depths of our broken nature and the futility of fighting sinfulness by ourselves (thanks be to Christ this is not the case Smiley ) that we can really accept and understand what God has done for us and see the fight of sanctification not as a personal solo-mission.
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« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2012, 03:04:23 pm »

Quote
Do these morons understand that things we discuss with our Pastor should remain confidential?  

Why would anyone who is not brainwashed want to have their sex life discussed in public?

Anonymous wrote:

My guess is, that if she herself has shared this story publicly, she probably was ok with Mark using it as an example in his messages.

Anonymous,

Please don't tell me that you are naive enough to believe that Mark Darling did not ask this poor woman to tell her sex story in front of others.  What kind of exhibitionist would actually volunteer to confess to her "sins" in such a public way. There is no doubt in my mind that she was brainwashed by the GCx cult into thinking that any normal person would talk about their sex life in front of others so that she can be used as a lesson for others. I certainly would not talk about my sex life in front of a church..would you? This poor woman was feeling so much guilt about what she had done and Mark Darling took full advantage of that.

Mark Darling MADE A CONSCIOUS DECISION to talk about the personal sex life of this woman in an obvious attempt to sell the idea that the church should be intimately involved in every part of our daily lives. He CHOSE to air her dirty laundry in front of the world on the internet. He could have been discreet and done the right thing here.   But…N-O-O-O!!!  He wanted to bring this sexy gossip to everyone’s attention.

I would never tell a GCx pastor or anyone else in a GCx church anything that would be construed as sexy gossip.  The GCX church uses a kind of sick methodolgy to coerce members to tell on "the sinners" when they get this kind of information and then the Pastors use these stories for their own personal gain (power in the church structure)…And then in this case Mark claims to be Jesus Christ in order to fulfill his own ego.  I am sorry (for those of you who love mark Darling).  He is just another example of what a church leader should not be.  Those of us looking in from the outside can see it plain as day.
 
I am sorry if some of you can’t see this yet.  A healthy church organization has leaders with the love of our lord and savior in their hearts.  A good Christian Pastor will not use private discussions for his own personal gain or for the personal gain of the church.  That is wrong and is simply another form of gossip.

 What a loving messenger of God should have done was to privately counsel her.  Using her personal sex story to sell for the church is not acceptable and is an obvious example of abuse of power.  Can I possibly make this any clearer?
« Last Edit: February 15, 2012, 03:11:41 pm by Neverbeengcm » Logged

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« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2012, 03:11:22 pm »

Quote from: anonymous
What? I mean, what?
I realize you do not like Mark Darling much - and in fact I also dislike his... "style" if you can call it that - but think about this for a second.
First off, let's stop the ad hominem and stick to rational, logical discussion of the points being made. Starting this discussion by trying to discredit me by saying "you don't like Mark Darling" is offensive to me and not true. It also has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.

For the record, I don't personally know Mark Darling. I have spoken to him a handful of times. I only know what he teaches. (Some of it is great and some of it is, in my opinion, heresy.) I have nothing against him personally, so stop saying or implying I do. I wish him and his family only the best. I have a lot of issues with his theology and practice and I address them on this forum. I don't even mind his edgy style. It is actually quite effective. What I do believe is that the people around him to whom he is accountable have done him a great disservice in that they have never really held him accountable for his teaching. His edgy style has slipped into error and vulgarities (using the "f" word while addressing teens comes to mine immediately) and has gone uncorrected.

It is interesting to note, that somehow people assume that disagreeing with someone implies you dislike them. How shallow.

Quote from: anonymous
Someone goes from being a perpetual "sleeper-arounder" to nearly none of that sort as a result of meeting Christ and Christians. Bam. Wow. This is an incredible work of God if you think about it. A couple months later, she messes up. She calls... completely aware of her sin and ashamed of herself and probably totally disappointed she let down their mentor/father figure. It seems really obvious from that conversation she knew of her sin and knew she should not do what she did and probably was somewhat despairing.
Let's rephrase that. What if instead of "sleeper-arounder", we changed the word to "adulterer". Would it be appropriate in a counseling situation with the offended spouse to say, "I am so proud of you, you haven't committed adultery in 2 months. Way to go."

Or, how about this. "I am so proud of you, you used to have one or two abortions every year and you haven't had one for 2 years."

Or, "I am so proud of you, for 20 years, you molested children and you haven't done that for 2 months."

As I said in my post, "I understand that people struggle with sin and sometimes fail. A proper response, it seems to me, would be one that helped this woman realize that she had done something wrong (she seemed to already know this), and then offer her encouragement that she could confess her sin to God and ask God to help her get victory over her struggles."

Also, does anyone find it odd that Mark Darling, a man on the GC national board, would say (in response to being told that GC elders are so afraid of slander that a pastor could easily have an affair and the congregation would not know about it), "I'm sure it's happened." I said that to him as a caveat at our final meeting with him (when I realized that the pastors had each other's backs when it came to defending bad teaching) where we made our decision to leave. There was another pastor in attendance. If I were that pastor, I would want to ask him why he gave that answer. Also, if I were a church member, I would want to ask him if he was aware of any covered up affairs.

Plurality does not insure accountability. It can insure cover-ups--especially in organizations where slander is improperly defined.

« Last Edit: February 15, 2012, 03:38:40 pm by Linda » Logged

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« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2012, 09:18:16 am »

What I don't understand in all of this is the urge to confess everything to the PASTORS.  I understand the "confess your sins to one another", but in my ideal world, wouldn't it be better or best for a woman to confess to another woman or a man to a man, especially when it comes to areas of sexual sin?  Maybe this lady needed that "father figure", but I can't imagine confessing that type of sin to my own biological father, let alone a "father figure". 

I do not understand this mentality at all...... clue me in??
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« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2012, 07:41:02 am »

Linda,

Good Point about the idiocracy of Mark Darling's comment about How good she has been. If you put anything in there in place of her sins, it sounds absolutely rediculous to tell her, "good job on only doing drive-by shootings once every 60 days!".  I know some people don't believe in the 10 commandments.  they do mean a lot to me. Mark Darling does not seem to care about them. 

If she truly did "sleep around" with that many people, I wonder how many of these guys were married?  Mark seems to be such a small-minded person.  He is so proud of the fact that she told him about her sex life.  He felt obligated to brag to EVERYONE so tht they know how great he is. He never considered encouraging this poor woman to seek professional help.  Mark is obviously not able to comprehend the depth of the problem she is having. 
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« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2012, 03:37:09 pm »

Quote from: MD, Faithwalkers
I just let it sink in the phone because see not only was she talking to a friend, but I'm also a pastor. I'm a representative of God. And now, these next few words are going to be incredibly important.
AskingquestionsaboutGCI, I totally agree with you as you question the urge to confess to pastors. I'm not disagreeing with the idea of confession. As you mention, it is Biblical. What is odd, is that the man stated that he is a representative of God because he is a pastor. All Christians are representatives of Christ. Ambassadors is the word used in the NT. His words are no more significant or important than the words of any believer.

Also, the father image is telling. Sort of priestly.

This should be a red flag.

In GC, it seems as if pastors believe and teach that they always speak for God. Very dangerous belief.
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GodisFaithful
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« Reply #17 on: April 10, 2018, 06:50:33 pm »

I ran across this thread from a Mark Darling "teaching" in 2011.

To me it is relevant to the current allegations and wrong and hurtful on so many levels.

I listened to the whole thing on Strong Disciple, so I don't feel I am taking anything out of the context of his message.

1. Mark Darling tells intimate details about sexual sin in the life of a very needy girl that he met. He never says that he has permission to tell her story. She is not in the audience, and he does change her name, but he says he has shared this story many times.

2. He gave her his card and told her to call day or night. He said that she would call him for counseling, and that he often would stay up late.

3. He tells this woman that she can be a virgin again and this is how he introduces Jesus Christ.

4. The woman messes up after a few months of reformation and falls into sexual sin again. He tells her that he is proud of her because it has not happened for a long time. (Can she become a virgin again? He does not say.)

5. Mark seems to encourage dependence on himself for love and affirmation instead of pointing to God being her father and loving her and forgiving her sins.

6. Why on earth is Mark Darling counseling women about their sex lives? Why don't they have trained women counselors? Does he really think this is appropriate? I can't help but think this kind of thing is what has gotten Mark Darling in the trouble he is in today. He thinks he is helping women and then he does not have the self control to understand that he has gone way beyond appropriate boundaries.

7. Mark, in this teaching, says that he has counseled beautiful women with bulemia and anorexia. Why is he doing this?? And why oh why is someone not telling him that this is inappropriate?

You can listen for yourself and decide what you think about it. It has huge red flags for me.
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Huldah
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« Reply #18 on: April 10, 2018, 07:34:54 pm »

I've heard the tape, too. The audio is at the Great Commission website,
http://gccweb.org/media-and-resources/audio/#preacher-sort_mark-darling, scroll down to "12.31.11 Main Session 3: Blessed to Be Forgiven".

5. Mark seems to encourage dependence on himself for love and affirmation instead of pointing to God being her father and loving her and forgiving her sins.

6. Why on earth is Mark Darling counseling women about their sex lives? Why don't they have trained women counselors? Does he really think this is appropriate? I can't help but think this kind of thing is what has gotten Mark Darling in the trouble he is in today. He thinks he is helping women and then he does not have the self control to understand that he has gone way beyond appropriate boundaries.

These two points particularly stood out to me. So far, I've only listened to a grand total of three Mark Darling tapes in my whole life, and only since this latest controversy started. My first reaction to these tapes, quite honestly, was, "Wow, I've learned a lot about Mark Darling, what he's been through, what seems to matter to him, what gets him worked up and all enthusiastic. But who is this Jesus guy that he mentions from time to time?" Maybe three tapes aren't enough to form an opinion, but that's my first impression. I've also noticed that he has a lot to say about counseling women, and about these women benefiting so much from his counsel, but so far he hasn't mentioned ever counseling men. I will try to listen to a few more tapes to get a bigger picture.

In the meantime, it's disturbing that he spoke so freely at Faithwalkers about something as personal as someone else's sexual sin. Even though he didn't use her real name, I got the impression that she was someone known to some of the listeners, based on other details he gave about her life. It's disturbing that a pastor thinks it's acceptable to have lengthy phone conversations with a woman about her sexual past (he says that she was from a Catholic background, so she treated him as her confessor). I'm not arguing against the idea that God used Mark in her life. God can use us in spite of our sins and poor judgment. However, I'm agreeing with GodIsFaithful, that if Mark had not allowed himself to fall into the habit of counseling women on such intimate areas of their lives, then maybe he wouldn't have crossed the line into the kind of inappropriate sexual discussions that have been alleged against him by Suzanne and the other victims.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2018, 07:45:03 pm by Huldah » Logged
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« Reply #19 on: April 11, 2018, 07:34:15 am »

Listening to the teaching right now.  It really makes my heart sink for so many reasons. 
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