GCC votes to dissolve

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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[Child_of_Arkham]

In the midst of 2020, I had no idea this had happened. It is true that many of us still have to heal, but we now know that a big weight has been lifted off the shoulders of all the victims involved. This is proof that God redeems and never gives up. To God be the Glory! Amen.

[Janet Easson Martin]

Hi, Child of Arkham!  Yes, I was encouraged, too by that announcement.  I hope that the spiritual abuse would cease also.  Apparently, there are some churches from the 3 or 4 way split who are going in a healthy direction.  Others, it seems are continuing the sad traditions of GCx. 

I totally agree.  God is working.  He is answering prayer and closing doors that should never be opened again.

[Vince Capobianco]

Hi!  For anyone who would like to actually HEAR Jim McCotter address all these accusations, Jim is willing to take LIVE questions on his weekday podcasts every Friday at 4pm.  It's time to actually "put your money where your mouth is".  Tomorrow and every Friday at 4pm, you can log onto the podcast on facebook @jimmccotterlive, or on his youtube channel...well?  Are you going to step up and ask your questions to find out the TRUTH, or just keep believing the rumors?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-a-MOV_qjSKEpLcx9pR3g
https://www.facebook.com/JimMcCotterLIVE

[Janet Easson Martin]

The above post of advertisement for McCotter does not represent or support the vast majority of former members of GCx for whom this site was created.


Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.

“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’ 


Matthew 7:15-23     The Message (MSG)

[Vince Capobianco]

You're quoting from the message version of the Bible?  Lol... case closed.

[Janet Easson Martin]

“Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”


Job 40:8

[thewombat]

"Some churches may band together to form a new organization in the future and others may affiliate with other church associations."

Hmmmm. Not sure what to think. We know that some new associations have already formed. M28 Alliance and Lift Network. Makes me wonder if this is an elaborate way to change the name from GCC to something else so it's not searchable. Time will tell. In the meantime, many broken lives are left in the path of destruction of this group.

The on-going evolution of this cult’s name reads like the list of aliases of a repeat sex offender.  Having been duped into being a member of this group during the eighties, I am over the moon thrilled that it has folded as an incorporated entity.  If any of the newly orphaned churches survive, I can only hope it is because they found their moral compasses and have decent intentions.  As for the rest of them, there is nothing more disgusting than evil disguised as righteousness.  

I hope those reading this feel vindicated.   I know I do…

[margaret]

Well said, wombat. Welcome.

[Huldah]

Welcome to the forum, Wombat. I'm sorry you ever got lured into GC but glad you found your way out again.

[Janet Easson Martin]

Glad you spoke up, Wombat. “Duped into being a member” is a pretty accurate description of how we were assimilated into GCx. I was there during the eighties also.

Just because the men at the top say or imply that what we have said about our experience is not true, that doesn’t make it so. Sadly, too many Christian leaders have denied abuse toward their people, but the truth eventually finds them out. I am also relieved such meaningless and deceptive rhetoric no longer has an “official” influence. Like you, I hope the remnant still meeting together will become honest with themselves and God’s people and practice justice as they learn to walk humbly with their God. Otherwise, as the word says they will become like a “lonely flagstaff on a hill.”

[Janet Easson Martin]

Here is where that phrase comes from which I believe is quite applicable to GCx.

“Woe to the rebellious children,”
declares the LORD,
“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,
who form an alliance, but against My will,
heaping up sin upon sin. ...

Go, write on a tablet in their presence
and inscribe it on a scroll;
it will be for the days to come,
a witness forever and ever.
These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.
They say to the seers,
“Stop seeing visions!”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy to us the truth!
Speak to us pleasant words;
prophesy illusions.
Get out of the way; turn off the road.
Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,
trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,
a bulge in a high wall,
whose collapse will come suddenly—
in an instant!
It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar...

A thousand will flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you will all flee,
until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.


Isaiah 30:1, 8-14, 17    BSB

[Huldah]

The GCCWeb link in the first post of this thread is no longer active. The July 13th statement can still be viewed via the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20200814142043/http://gccweb.org/july13-statement/

[Janet Easson Martin]

Thanks, Huldah.

[WoodBern82]

Is anyone else curious just what fruit has occurred with the dissolving of Great Commission??  This event is certainly old news but I would think anyone still in the remaining shell of GC churches has to now wonder what positive fruit has resulted in the dissolving of the denomination.  My take on it is that it breeds less accountability.  If ANYTHING should be clear after the Mark Darling event and other events it would be that the local congregation leaders need local accountability and outside accountability.  I feel its basically still the good old boy network.  Is the mindset like.....I will choose who I am accountabie to of the other church leaders and hopefully pick someone who won't ask hard questions.  Please prove me wrong.  And if anyone is reading this who is still a part of GC convince me there is fruit.  And that especially applies to Hometown church since that is the place I called my home church for a while. 

[Janet Easson Martin]

I realize you are asking what the results of “dissolving GCC” have been, WoodBern82. I have no idea, first hand. As you probably know there are others who have come to this site who were former members of “Hometown Church” (formerly named “Evergreen Community Church”) who may be able to provide some feedback at that level. Glad to hear of your concern for accountability.

Tragically, for nearly all of GCx’s history, there has been very little biblical accountability  among leadership either locally or nationally. That is what has allowed vast and startling spiritual abuse to continue for decades. This site has been the only safe place for many members (former and current) to speak up for the last 15 years about such perversions of Christianity. Both the “oversight” of the National Board and the “assurance” of the ‘plurality of elders’ turned out to be mostly a public front to convey a sense of security to people.

In fact, only with an outside legal source was a National Leader accountable for a fraction of his sexually inappropriate words and actions toward at least nine women church members who actually came forward. According to this site, various people reported this inappropriate treatment many years before with little to no action taken as a result.

When actually being accosted and manipulated by the False Teachings passed down by Jim McCotter and his disciples “accountability” was nowhere to be found. In fact, for years “it was all in our head.” Only when GCx leaders were informed a book was about to come out titled, “Churches That Abuse,” with GCx in a starring role, their tune changed and ‘maybe there was some small truth to the matter they might have been responsible for, but nothing that serious, mind you’. They did damage control and sent a Paper to a small select group of people (including some “squeaky wheels”) which contained such an insincere apology that it disgusted most of its victims who finally got wind of it.

So whether they are a large National Church group, a Regional Church group, or a single local church they were all appointed an elder/“pastor” by Jim McCotter or his down-the-line disciples. They still have never publicly called out their founder/mentor/teacher as a False Teacher, as the Bible clearly identifies him by his “proclaiming Jesus” yet isolating us from sound information, falsely threatening us with possessive and fearful arguments to keep us captive, slanderously shunning those discovering his lies, and manipulatively instructing us on “biblical” discipling and evangelism for his glory and fame. (Note, a False Teacher is different than an Anti-Christ.) He may have drawn in thousands of people, but he was not connected or connecting to The Vine and therefore not really bearing fruit in keeping with scripture; according to hundreds of people brave enough to speak out. The GCx-loyal leaders have yet to say that he severely spiritually and otherwise wounded thousands of people, especially believers.

No branch can bear fruit by itself;
it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me.

John 15:4


... what more have I to do with idols?
    I will answer him and care for him.
I am like a flourishing juniper;
    your fruitfulness comes from me.”

Hosea 14:8

[Good Riddance]

I find it interesting GCC decided to dissolve in November of 2020, ten months after The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy after facing the possibility of having to pay out huge amounts to victims of sexual abuse.  It smells like they are trying to make themselves a very difficult financial target for possible suits from victims of their abusive practices.   I am sure there are hundreds or even thousands of people who suffered emotionally, physically, and financially - e.g., being advised to not complete expensive degrees, or not use such degrees in order to follow the whims of controlling leaders.

"Each church in GCC is autonomous. Churches appoint and employ their own pastors and staff. Also, GCC owns no church buildings."

 

[Janet Easson Martin]

Welcome, Good Riddance!

Some former members have posted here that they were pursuing formal charges or lawsuits against GCC (or whatever GCx’s alias was at the time); and for the true reasons you stated (of cultish control of followers) it would not be unthinkable that such a thing had been approached.  

It smells like they are trying to make themselves a very difficult financial target for possible suits from victims of their abusive practices.   I am sure there are hundreds or even thousands of people who suffered emotionally, physically, and financially - e.g., being advised to not complete expensive degrees, or not use such degrees in order to follow the whims of controlling leaders.

-Good Riddance

The claim below by the GCx organization and its leaders is part of their grand impression management scheme.

"Each church in GCC is autonomous. Churches appoint and employ their own pastors and staff. ...”

As many have later discovered, the truth is that all GCx pastors had to be appointed by those GCx organization leaders above them regardless of the GCC [GCx alias] Church they were part of. These GCx organizational leaders were appointed by those including National Leaders who were appointed by their essential founder, Jim McCotter. McCotter bears all the biblical evidence of a False Teacher, though corruptly he was never called out by the GCx National Leaders. GCx Churches never selected or voted on elder/pastors outside this chain.

Most tellingly, some GCx National Leaders threatened to cut funding to any GCx Churches that did not support their position that one of their own National Leaders was innocent of repeated and ongoing sexually inappropriate words and actions toward GCx women members. Not supporting their stance would have resulted in some of those GCx churches folding.

I very much agree it is a good thing to be rid of the GCx National Organization. It still remains a danger that many of these “GCx” leaders mentored by their cult-like leader, McCotter, have splintered into newly named organizations with the same old cult control. These splinter groups are also highlighted on this Forum for others to be warned and informed.

Good Riddance, did you have experience with GCx Churches or are you close to someone who did?

[Mishaelundek]

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