Quote
Rensil
The first part of her entry seems to refer to how the SMC movement came about, when a small group left a large church which they considered to be cold and backslidden. Then in the second part she refers to those who leave SMC because they are backsliding and carnal, and judged to be so by an "on fire" leadership!
If this isn't an example of twisted scripture and re-interpretation of a Bible verse to make it fit what you want, I don't know what is.
Absolutely! But that is always the way with Struthers - do not try to understand scripture. Instead, take your peculiar world-wiew, find a single verse that can be used to illustrate that view in some way, and twist everything to fit. They really have now lost any sense of the authority of God or scripture. They no longer even make a pretence at looking at how a topic is addressed across scripture and instead try to relate everything back to their own (imaginary??) "deep experience of God".
The idea of an on-fire leadership is such a joke, They do not actually do anything - just talk about how bad everyone else is. They have had 30 years or more to sort out this "cold-hearted congregation". Can you imagine a football manager surviving that record? "Yes, I know we have not won anything for 30 years, but it all the fault of the players. We have excellent managers that are the best in the world, but the players on the pitch just aren't pulling their weight." Nonsense.
Try encouraging, motivating, setting an example and being a bit less arrogant, that might work. Or get out there and deal with some real people with real problems, whether these are relationships, substance abuse or financial difficulties. If you look at organisations like "Christians against Poverty" you will see countless lives being changed in the UK by Christians who are living by faith and practicing what Christ preached - being a good neighbour to others. That seems to me to be more in line with the calling of Christ than buying ipads for privileged kids.
Re the Refuge - my understanding is that is just the name of the building used by the local branch of Struthers. A number of answers to the question that was posted have also now been posted on the new thread on the refuge. It will be interesting to follow that and see how things develop there.
Finally, going back to the Rensil comment, does anyone know how the "cold congregation and cold leadership" Struthers left behind (presumably the Elim church in Greenock) got on?