As a Christian for a couple of years I was hugely excited when I heard that a Calvary chapel was to be planted in Bristol, my home town. Unfortunately my subsequent experience was much like many others I have since read on here. The pastor required that his 'flock' do everything that he said, and made ridiculous requirements upon their time to the detriment of family life. It was all very subtle, but if you did not comply then basically you were treated as a second rate christian and given the cold shoulder. It seems the minions sent over from America to teach us 'little people' were products of some bible college in Siegen Germany where they memorise Chuck Smith tapes prior to being unleashed onto the unsuspecting populace. The man sent was ill equipped, clearly had little or no knowledge of how o plant let alone run a church and the whole thing was a disaster.

Needless to say I, along with the rest of the six strong congregation saw through the power hungry pastor and one by one left. Shortly afterwards the pastor left with his tail between his legs. However another guy did take over...I am staying well away. THIS GROUP IS A CULT STAY AWAY THEY ARE HARMFUL!

Sorry originally posted in wrong forum!

So many of them....

Oranpolois,

I can completely understand taking issue with power hungry leaders who have poor people skills and unrealistic expectations of church members. But I must ask you, what exactly constitutes a "Cult" for you, and how have you concluded that Calvary Chapel is one? I don't think defamation of others and encouraging division is a godly move on your part or helps promote the kingdom of God in anyway. Unless, of course, you can clearly demonstrate that your statement is true. And on that note, I would exhort you to never make such claims without first:

1. Going to the source of the problem and addressing the issue you have with it/them in hope s/he or they will repent
2. Following the biblical model of rebuke and correction as stated by Jesus in Matthew 18
3. Supplying clear and defined reasons for your conclusion so that readers of your post can make intelligently informed decisions about what to avoid and why

Without taking these steps, you may just find yourself more guilty than the accused. And by the way, have you met the 'new guy' so that you can malign his character and ministry with such confidence?

Grace and Peace,

Mark Nigro

Mark Nigro:

"Going to the source" may be a losing porposition. Leaders are likely to simply deny everything and become punitive.

There are some simple common sense questions that can be asked to determine if a church group might be potentially unsafe.

1. Is the church governed democratically according to its bylaws? That is, are there regular elections by secret ballot mandated by the bylaws to elect a board to fixed terms? Once elected by the congregation does this board have the power to fire and hire staff, such as the pastor? Does the board control the budget and church spending?

2. Is there an indpendently audited annually distributed church budget that discloses in detail all the salaries, compensation and expenses paid out from church funds? Is that budget distributed to all contributors?

If the answer to these questions is yes without exceptions than the church leaders have meaningful accountability to the cogregation and contributors have meaningful transparency regarding monies given to the church. If not the church may be little more than a dictatorship.

The overwhelming majority of Protestant churches have these safeguards in place.

Most of the complaints and bad press Calvary Chapel has received historically revolves around the problem of accountability.

See [www.culteducation.com]

Jesus warned that many would come in his name, but he would not know them. Paul rebuked bad leaders in Galations.

Thankfully the overwhelming majority of churches don't have these problems.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2012 09:04PM by rrmoderator.

Mike nigro by the sounds of it you are a product of the calvary chapel machine and so are unwilling to see any fault in the group.
Let me explain several things that make calvary chapel a cult.
1)Their dear leader makes predictions about the end of he world which have not come to pass. Please tell me if your dear leader did not predict the end of the world, and I will show you the evidence.
2)They have a group speak. By this I mean everyone loses their individuality ( which christ gave us as unique creations) and everyone uses the same phrases and terminology, one feels like an outsider if one does not speak in the same way.
in normal churches I do not find this ( and I have visited many).
3) their leaders study tapes of chuck smith to qualify as pastors, and continually mock other christian groups as being lesser then calvary chapel. They have no knowledge whatsoever of churh history.

I could go on but to be honest I have wasted too much time with this nonsense. When one feels bad ( because he knows the pastor would disapprove ) of going on a ghost train at a fair, the are problems my friend deep problems.
Mike I hope you enjoy your time at calvary chapel if it makes you happy, remember ...fixed grin, lots of back slaps and they'll all be happy,

Peace

Hey everyone, I came across this post when looking for the website of Calvary Bristol after visiting them for the first time. I would like to add to this discussion that the new pastor and his wife are such lovely people, and their sweet kids. I truly feel that this fellowship is in great hands (the Lords of course), but also with this new pastor.

The atmosphere in this fellowship is so loving, and it feels a world away from the fellowship mentioned in this post.

Anyway, just adding from our positive experience.