Anonymous (4.10.174.70)
07-26-2004, 01:16 AM
This is long, but I wanted to post my experiences with my former church cult and how an apostle from World Breakthrough Network has stepped in and covered up and condoned many awful things that have happened.
After attending for over 12 years,I recently left in a haze of hurt and disillusionment.The pastor became increasingly power-hungry and authoritative, repeatedly demanding "covenant" loyalty and both privately and publicly rebuking anyone who had any concerns or questions about him or "his" ministry. He verbally assaulted many of us, both privately and publicly, criticizing us, belittling us, and accusing us of things repeatedly that we never did or that were only sins in his twisted perception.
In addition to the abusive authority issues, it has been concretely proven with corroborating evidence and witnesses (more than the Biblically required 2-3) that he has embezzled more than $30,000 over the last few years. He had almost exclusive use of the church checkbook, with his name as the signer. He also evaded taxes by grossly overstating his parsonage usage. Despite the fact that his embezzlement caused our little church to greatly suffer financially, he placed the blame on the congretation, saying numerous times that we were not "bearing enough responsiblity" and that our lack of giving showed the "condition of our hearts".
He also has been arrested for a DUI. He tested positive for prescription painkillers and as part of his probation was forbidden to have any narcotics. He had become addicted to Vicoden and repeatedly obtained the drugs in violation of his probation by keeping the details of his arrest secretive and lying about his addiction in order to obtain Vicoden from church members who were precribed it for legitimate medical and surgical reasons. When he could not get enough of the ddrugs that way, he got it by having a church member steal a precription pad from her doctor ex-husband, and asked her to write illegal prescriptions to obtain the painkillers, for which she was eventually arrested. (He wasn't arrested, as he left her at the scene when he saw police approaching her. Great integrity.....)
Additionally, he and this same church member were prayer partners in an intercessory ministry focused on helping pray for people to come out of satanism. It has now been proven that over a 2-3 year period, the church member fabricated over 50 different personas that she would use to contact the pastor via e-mail. These fake persons would claim to be involved deeply in high-level satanism. The pastor would correspond with each "person", leading them to witness to them and counsel them out of satanism. Of course, all the while, the many "satanists" were reality the church member with whom he was praying. The two of them - the pastor and church member - would spend many hours interceding and praying for each "satanist" until each one, via e-mail correspondence, would relate that they had seen the light and were leaving satanism. This was a horribly deceptive and evil thing this church member did, and numerous ones of us in the church repeatedly went to the pastor to tell him that we suspected that these "satanists" were not real people, but were actually the church member pretending to be the satanists. The pastor would refuse to listen. Instead, he would berate us questioning ones for daring to question his discernment and authority and for accusing the church member of something so evil. Well, in February of this year, it was technologically proven that this church member indeed had fabricated each and every one of the "satanists", creating their respective e-mail addresses and maintaining correspondence with the pastor that would create a self-confirming intercessory ministry between her and the pastor, that their many hours of prayer were effectively getting people saved and out of satanism. Myself and another person from our church proved that the IP's of every e-mail address originated from and traced back to the church member's home or work computers. Her work was alerted to her unethical and illegal usage of computers to help perpetrate the falsified e-mails. The computer tech guy at her work was able to, without her knowledge, get screens shots of her keystrokes, concretely showing her fingers typing the fake e-mails. The pastor refused to believe the evidence. Instead, he maintains that he and the church member have been "set up" to make it appear that she fabricated the e-mails. He is too prideful to admit that he was conned and in turn refused to heed others' counsel, thus making him a part of the hoax by his willful blindness.
Yet in spite of all of this - the abuse of authority, the embezzlement, the immoral relationship, the drug addiction and ensuing illegal obtainment of the drugs, and the participation in a hoaxed prayer ministry - he is still in the pulpit. He was asked to step down, which he refused to do. Some of us have left. Some are refusing to see the truth and are continuing to believe his lies.
An "apostle" from was with whom my pastor and church have had a relationship, has stepped in at the request of the pastor and a few people in the church. This man is a member of both World Breakthrough Network and his own apostolic network, which is called Global Transformation Institute. Several of us from the church sat down with him and went through the awful things that had happened. He greatly minimized the sins that my pastor committed. He had little patience with those of us who have been hurt. He even said that the pastor didn't need to go to former members and that if anyone was hurt, it is their fault, not the pastor's fault. He said that we should just forgive and move on and keep this an in-church matter, without contacting the legal authorities. He has now deemed the situation "taken care of", as the pastor gave a generic statement of apology from the pulpit, apologizing for "those he has hurt". He never specifically publicly addressed any of his sins, and has privately either denied or greatly minimized each of his sins. This statement was made 3 months after those of us who left had already left. We have yet to hear an apology from him. I doubt we ever will. The pastor and apostle are together now heading up what is left of this church. The apostle has assured the church that with his covering and network leadership over the pastor, that no more bad stuff will occur. I guess it doesn't matter that alot already has occurred. I guess it doesn't seem odd that anyone would want a pastor who can only behave himself when he has someone watching over him. I guess adding the church into the network and was more important to this aposle than standing for truth and righteousness. He seems to operate in the mentality that a church leader should retain his leadership role regardless of what is done. Where in the Bible does it say that a pastor or other church leader is exempt from the same laws that non-church leaders are subject to? And even if no law is broken, where in the Bible does it say that a leader can say and do unethical, unGodly, unloving, abusive things and still stay in his leadership role? Leadership is not permanent. The "anointed ones" do not permanently retain that anointing and calling regardless of their actions. Where is responsibility? Where is humility and obedience to the Word? If anything, isn't the Church called to set an example in walking in Godly behavior and in taking responsibility and disciplining or removing its leaders when they fail to do that?
I have also heard this "apostle" preach at my ex-church several times before I left and was very uncomfortable with much of his teaching, which centers over and over on "kingdom" theology and "new truths" being imparted that do away with the old truths. Also, the leadership structure of World Breakthrough Network is disturbing. It is hierarchical, with the Founding Apostle at the top and different levels of apostles underneath him. They are required to demonstrate "unbreachable loyalty" to the organization among other things. They also have a large section of their website devoted to their corporate side, which has the goal to build a common supply of "kingdom finances". Kinda scary of that falls into unGodly hands...
Given my experiences with this apostle from World Breakthrough Network and having heard his teachings numerous times and having read the networks' websites, I sincerely believe there are many red flags to be concerned about with this organization. Anyone whose church is considering joining it should run, not walk away.
http://wbnetwork.org
http://globaltranformation.org
After attending for over 12 years,I recently left in a haze of hurt and disillusionment.The pastor became increasingly power-hungry and authoritative, repeatedly demanding "covenant" loyalty and both privately and publicly rebuking anyone who had any concerns or questions about him or "his" ministry. He verbally assaulted many of us, both privately and publicly, criticizing us, belittling us, and accusing us of things repeatedly that we never did or that were only sins in his twisted perception.
In addition to the abusive authority issues, it has been concretely proven with corroborating evidence and witnesses (more than the Biblically required 2-3) that he has embezzled more than $30,000 over the last few years. He had almost exclusive use of the church checkbook, with his name as the signer. He also evaded taxes by grossly overstating his parsonage usage. Despite the fact that his embezzlement caused our little church to greatly suffer financially, he placed the blame on the congretation, saying numerous times that we were not "bearing enough responsiblity" and that our lack of giving showed the "condition of our hearts".
He also has been arrested for a DUI. He tested positive for prescription painkillers and as part of his probation was forbidden to have any narcotics. He had become addicted to Vicoden and repeatedly obtained the drugs in violation of his probation by keeping the details of his arrest secretive and lying about his addiction in order to obtain Vicoden from church members who were precribed it for legitimate medical and surgical reasons. When he could not get enough of the ddrugs that way, he got it by having a church member steal a precription pad from her doctor ex-husband, and asked her to write illegal prescriptions to obtain the painkillers, for which she was eventually arrested. (He wasn't arrested, as he left her at the scene when he saw police approaching her. Great integrity.....)
Additionally, he and this same church member were prayer partners in an intercessory ministry focused on helping pray for people to come out of satanism. It has now been proven that over a 2-3 year period, the church member fabricated over 50 different personas that she would use to contact the pastor via e-mail. These fake persons would claim to be involved deeply in high-level satanism. The pastor would correspond with each "person", leading them to witness to them and counsel them out of satanism. Of course, all the while, the many "satanists" were reality the church member with whom he was praying. The two of them - the pastor and church member - would spend many hours interceding and praying for each "satanist" until each one, via e-mail correspondence, would relate that they had seen the light and were leaving satanism. This was a horribly deceptive and evil thing this church member did, and numerous ones of us in the church repeatedly went to the pastor to tell him that we suspected that these "satanists" were not real people, but were actually the church member pretending to be the satanists. The pastor would refuse to listen. Instead, he would berate us questioning ones for daring to question his discernment and authority and for accusing the church member of something so evil. Well, in February of this year, it was technologically proven that this church member indeed had fabricated each and every one of the "satanists", creating their respective e-mail addresses and maintaining correspondence with the pastor that would create a self-confirming intercessory ministry between her and the pastor, that their many hours of prayer were effectively getting people saved and out of satanism. Myself and another person from our church proved that the IP's of every e-mail address originated from and traced back to the church member's home or work computers. Her work was alerted to her unethical and illegal usage of computers to help perpetrate the falsified e-mails. The computer tech guy at her work was able to, without her knowledge, get screens shots of her keystrokes, concretely showing her fingers typing the fake e-mails. The pastor refused to believe the evidence. Instead, he maintains that he and the church member have been "set up" to make it appear that she fabricated the e-mails. He is too prideful to admit that he was conned and in turn refused to heed others' counsel, thus making him a part of the hoax by his willful blindness.
Yet in spite of all of this - the abuse of authority, the embezzlement, the immoral relationship, the drug addiction and ensuing illegal obtainment of the drugs, and the participation in a hoaxed prayer ministry - he is still in the pulpit. He was asked to step down, which he refused to do. Some of us have left. Some are refusing to see the truth and are continuing to believe his lies.
An "apostle" from was with whom my pastor and church have had a relationship, has stepped in at the request of the pastor and a few people in the church. This man is a member of both World Breakthrough Network and his own apostolic network, which is called Global Transformation Institute. Several of us from the church sat down with him and went through the awful things that had happened. He greatly minimized the sins that my pastor committed. He had little patience with those of us who have been hurt. He even said that the pastor didn't need to go to former members and that if anyone was hurt, it is their fault, not the pastor's fault. He said that we should just forgive and move on and keep this an in-church matter, without contacting the legal authorities. He has now deemed the situation "taken care of", as the pastor gave a generic statement of apology from the pulpit, apologizing for "those he has hurt". He never specifically publicly addressed any of his sins, and has privately either denied or greatly minimized each of his sins. This statement was made 3 months after those of us who left had already left. We have yet to hear an apology from him. I doubt we ever will. The pastor and apostle are together now heading up what is left of this church. The apostle has assured the church that with his covering and network leadership over the pastor, that no more bad stuff will occur. I guess it doesn't matter that alot already has occurred. I guess it doesn't seem odd that anyone would want a pastor who can only behave himself when he has someone watching over him. I guess adding the church into the network and was more important to this aposle than standing for truth and righteousness. He seems to operate in the mentality that a church leader should retain his leadership role regardless of what is done. Where in the Bible does it say that a pastor or other church leader is exempt from the same laws that non-church leaders are subject to? And even if no law is broken, where in the Bible does it say that a leader can say and do unethical, unGodly, unloving, abusive things and still stay in his leadership role? Leadership is not permanent. The "anointed ones" do not permanently retain that anointing and calling regardless of their actions. Where is responsibility? Where is humility and obedience to the Word? If anything, isn't the Church called to set an example in walking in Godly behavior and in taking responsibility and disciplining or removing its leaders when they fail to do that?
I have also heard this "apostle" preach at my ex-church several times before I left and was very uncomfortable with much of his teaching, which centers over and over on "kingdom" theology and "new truths" being imparted that do away with the old truths. Also, the leadership structure of World Breakthrough Network is disturbing. It is hierarchical, with the Founding Apostle at the top and different levels of apostles underneath him. They are required to demonstrate "unbreachable loyalty" to the organization among other things. They also have a large section of their website devoted to their corporate side, which has the goal to build a common supply of "kingdom finances". Kinda scary of that falls into unGodly hands...
Given my experiences with this apostle from World Breakthrough Network and having heard his teachings numerous times and having read the networks' websites, I sincerely believe there are many red flags to be concerned about with this organization. Anyone whose church is considering joining it should run, not walk away.
http://wbnetwork.org
http://globaltranformation.org