McCotter Poison

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.

You may read and post, but some features are restricted to registered members. Please consider registering to gain full access! Registration is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

[Janet Easson Martin]

Came across these facts about both McCotter and PBCS in New Zealand. All emphasis mine:

Here are some interesting facts:

McCotter arrives in Nov 2000
New paper comes out in July 2001
Local elections are in October 2001.
About 2000 Plymouth Brethren in New Zealand. The Exclusive “branch” has become increasingly involved in politics, it seems to keep the “legality” of their splitting families apart for separatism. (20,000 in the UK)
PB are not a poor lot. Money and materialism are now part of their culture probably to fit in and proselytize. They own their own businesses. (I think?) You must work for the person the “man of God” directs you to.


Then this entry:

American businessman Jim McCotter [formerly leader of Great Commission International] arrived in Christchurch in November 2000. Within 14 months, he'd set up a media group, bought ailing regional station Canterbury Television, registered 14 new media-related companies and launched newspaper and a weekly magazine. NICOLA SHEPHEARD asks if McCotter's embryonic media stable represents a serious challenge to media giants Independent News Limited (INL) and Wilson & Horton? What is McCotter's game-plan and does his religious-right background hold any clues?
Media watchers were perplexed by the arrival, in July 2001, of a new southern newspaper the Christchurch Citizen.

https://culteducation.com/group/1046-great-commission-international/13291-the-mysterious-citizens.html


The paper sets the intervention in the context of Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) presence in New Zealand, and the consequences of the sharp exposure of them for the Party that they backed as well as for their own profile. ...


From:
The Journal of CESNUR
Why the New Zealand Plymouth Brethren Intervened in Politics in 2005
Peter J. Lineham
Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
P.Lineham@massey.ac.nz

Exclusive Brethren have urbanized, and under John S. Hales (1922–2002) and Bruce Hales as the leaders of the movement members have been relocated to new regions, with the evident aim to spread a Brethren presence across the world, and this has meant that Brethren have been directed to move to specific places in New Zealand to ensure that the “Testimony” remain strong. ...

By the early 2000s secular society in New Zealand and Australia widely suspected closed religious groups of sexual abuse. Inevitably some of this suspicion was directed at the Exclusive Brethren, and may have colored reactions to their political engagement. There have been some allegations about this in connection with the Brethren, and there were allegations swirling in Nelson about this time. Moreover Ngaire Thomas, a former member of the Exclusive Brethren, in 2004 published a colorful account of her life in the Brethren that reflected that young women were frequently abused in the Brethren by the young men (Thomas 2004, 79, 83, 128–29; Cornell 2007). In 2016, a New Zealand newspaper gave publicity to an English doctoral student’s unverified claim that Exclusive Brethren had a higher rate of sexual abuse than typical people in the community. ...

Higher education was not permitted after the 1960s. ...

There was a surprisingly secular focus on monetary pressures. The Exclusive Brethren regime today seems much less theological and more pragmatic, but no less closed and exclusive (Dent c. 2007).

[Janet Easson Martin]

...McCotter, the national leaders, and the local elders are all culpable for their rotten theology, extra-biblical teachings, and ungodly use of "church discipline" as a weapon of control instead of as a means of restoring sinners...

I am more interested in doing as Paul and John did, warning the church that some men oppose sound doctrine inside the church (3 John 1:9-11, 2 Timothy 4:14-15).  Through such warnings, I hope that some will "come to their senses" and "escape the snare" in which they might otherwise have become entangled (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

-EverAStudent


I have often wondered if Matthew 7:15-23 [Watch out for false prophets] was applicable to Jim McCotter...whose influence in starting GC continues to this day with existing elders. I have had a handful of people who knew Jim at one time mention Matthew 13:22 [seed falling among thorns...deceitfulness choke it, making it unfruitful] as applying to him. I wonder if Jim switched masters. [You cannot serve God and Money] I have yet to have ANYONE tell me ONE thing Jim has done for the kingdom of God since he left GC in late 1986...not one person...not one thing.  I am still looking for any fruit...even the blog site on Jim has challenged Jim to answer the question himself.  (And yes Jim has read it...I know for a FACT!)  You would think the people who "defend" Jim would also be able to answer this question too.  I will keep searching.

-Miss Current,   2007


It is interesting to me that even McCotter understood that the Greek word "obey" is a different word in Hebrews, than it is in Colossians where children are to "obey". He points that out and then proceeds to teach the opposite.

Also, notice that McCotter says that the pastor leads the church like the husband leads the family. Must be where our pastor got the idea for the flawed teaching that the pastor is the head of the church like the husband is the head of the family. That can sound great, until you remember what Ephesians says about who the head of the Church is.

-Linda

[Janet Easson Martin]

TRAPPED!

I believe God, The Good Shepherd, is calling us by The Holy Spirit to see through His eyes and hear through His ears that the leaders we were under in GCX churches were trapped by an evil false prophet/ false teacher, Jim McCotter, and had fallen prey to follow and teach his idolatrous ways. I think some of the temptation was that mere men were glorified and given a false sense of approval, importance, and purpose. They were actually given a counterfeit calling. Their devotion to love GCX with all their heart, soul, mind and strength was definitely not divine, but fashioned by men.

Many of us like myself were snared into this trap. (I am not talking about genuine faith in Christ's shed blood for our sins for eternal salvation.) I am speaking of the possession and control of us and our day to day living by this man and those under his spell. Healthy Christians tried to warn me, but I had already begun to forfeit the grace to see and hear by the Spirit. I became "robot" like in my submission to these men.  Like the scripture above says, a sort of hollow shell.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs".

 

(Jonah)

I would not have understood this biblical principle of idolatry had God not revealed it to me with much patience, compassion, and care. Though I have been gone from GCX 31 years now, I didn't start getting a clear grasp on the actual reality of False Teachers over my own life (through my 10 years in GCX) until years later when I started asking him 'WHAT WAS THAT?' For him to 'Show me in his word what was specifically perverted there'. I believe God is continuing to educate us through our own conversations with Him, answering us in his revelational word; and on this forum through His Spirit about what we were really caught up in. I believe He is calling his people who were false shepherds under this wolf in sheeps clothing to come into the light and admit the truth. I believe many of these leaders were not happy, but actually miserable there. Codependent, especially unhealthy "spiritual” ties are extremely difficult to walk away from. But, they are much more dangerous and debilitating to remain in. I am also strongly convinced it is God's divine intention to crush completely this harmful system of “GCx”; to bring it to nothing and nowhere. It astoundingly seems that God is using this Forum as his courtroom where victims can finally come forward and tell their real stories; and God’s Word is the Judge.

Here is an solemn word from our God on his current and coming judgement:

'The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people.
The Lord enters into judgement against the elders and leaders of his people:
      "It is you who have ruined my vineyard;
      The plunder from the poor is in your houses.
      What do you mean by crushing my people
           And grinding the faces of the poor?"
          declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

Isaiah 3:13-15

[Janet Easson Martin]

…it seems to me that their error (and the thing that makes them cult-like) is in the area of "obedience" to leaders and commitment for life.

They talk in circles when you confront them on either of those two, but when no one is looking they say things like, "God wants you to give the controls of your life to the men He works through" and "God wants you to commit to your church for life." Those are fundamentally flawed statements and in order to be faithful to God, people need to stand up and say something. Hence, this forum. …

The unfortunate thing here is that a lot of the leaders were taught under the master [Jim McCotter] himself and they may be nice guys, but they are misrepresenting Christ and ruining lives, marriages, families, and friendships by the things they teach. People need to be warned. Starting with the elders whose doctrine is not sound.

-Linda

[Janet Easson Martin]

Jinger Duggar said regarding the man-made rules she was taught in the group they were involved with; that she wrongly was persuaded that—

“These things will guarantee me favor with God”

Wasn’t that exactly McCotter’s very fearful implication behind all of his teachings of loyally following his methods (and ideology) of “Christianity?”  Didn’t he also very persuasively teach (threaten) or imply that not doing those things would cause us eternal regret. What an unbearable burden weighed on us!


Jinger explains the fear she was under and the skewed view of God it produced in her interview on this “talk show”:

Jinger Duggar Vuolo - Recognizing False Teaching
https://youtu.be/Y7cooTbwff0?si=cgLu0djJCMjTdzYX

[Janet Easson Martin]

My personal conclusion is that only a false teacher and evil man can voraciously exploit & isolate men in the name of God’s gospel for his own selfish ambition of attempting to build an (ungodly) “kingdom” to jealously rival most other true works of God.

-Janet

[Janet Easson Martin]

 McCotter and others who have followed him have made such a mockery
of what church discipline is all about. ...

-GodisFaithful

[Huldah]

Hi, Lilly, and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your story.

"I can say that the “adventure” in GCI helped me be compassionate to those traumatized by even worse cults such as the masons, satanists, mormons, jws etc. and to work for their healing

Interesting, I found the same thing. In fact, for several years, God gave me multiple opportunities to witness to JWs in several places that I used to live. He definitely used my experience at GC to teach me some compassion for people trapped in cults. I have to add that I didn't immediately take an interest in cultists when I left GC. It took quite a bit of time before I was ready.

Q. Is Jim really a millionaire? Shouldn’t that say something?

I don't know what Jim's current financial situation is. Other people have claimed that his wife inherited a great deal of money about the time they got married. Over the decades since he left GC, he created a succession of business ventures both in the US and abroad. I'm not aware of any of his ventures ever succeeding and turning a sustained profit. Perhaps, if he ever really was a millionaire (or, technically, married to one?), the money has all been used up by those ventures. Several years ago, he had a Facebook and YouTube presence, trying to re-kindle his religious and political influence, but he's gone mostly silent since about 2022 or so. You can read more details on his business failures at his Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McCotter or on the old Decommissioned blog, https://decommissioned.wordpress.com/about/.

[Janet Easson Martin]

All I had to do was listen to the first nine minutes of this talk by Diane Langberg at the Forum of Christian Leaders eight years ago, and I immediately and most clearly saw the personality of Jim McCotter. Many others on here have said it first, and the characteristics Dr. Langberg describes seem to leave no doubt. Here is her talk at the Forum:

Narcissism and the System it Breeds
- DIANE LANGBERG

https://youtu.be/4BU3pwBa0qU?si=ua_5xEhVAwaWR9O_