Lintar,


Yes indeed, make no mistake about it, people are still suffering, and the leaders will one day be held accountable.

As Jesus himself says:

Quote
Luke 11v11-13
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children…

This is Jesus speaking – “if a son shall ask bread of you, will he give him a stone?” followed by “if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts…”

Listen to what is being said here – even evil people know how to give good gifts. What does that make the leaders of Struthers? Beyond evil? People are asking for a simple gift – the gift of talking to them. Not talking down to them, just talking to them. There are dozens of folk that have asked for that simple gift over the years and have been given a stone – something they cannot digest and does them no good at all.

People are suffering, present tense. The leaders have a responsibility. The “not my problem” attitude is very far from Christian behaviour.

Hi folks
I’ve enjoyed, if that’s the right word, reading all your recent posts. Friendly Face’s post from someone who had checked what the latest AI system would think of Struthers teachings was very cleverly done. I’d always wondered what ChatGPT thought about Struthers!! Now we know! I guess he won’t be joining anytime soon.

I came across this poem online and thought I would share it. I found it to be apt concerning what it’s like when you find yourself out of Struthers and trying to rebuild your life again. It’s like you have to discover yourself again and learn to gently love and accept that person, the real You, who you are deep down. Be kind to yourself. You now make your own decisions and are the master of your own destiny. You’re not the person the Church told you that you were.

Love after Love
By Derek Walcott

The time will come,
When, with elation
You will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, and in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome

and say, Sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger
who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread, Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love-letters from the bookshelf

The photographs, the desperate notes,
Peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

What a beautiful poem ! And so true for the damaged people ..of whom there are many .

Many will no doubt remain silent .. embarrassed or fearful .

So important that there is a voice for the many who suffered and continue to suffer .

Prayers for those vulnerable and caught up in the web .

Hi All
Haven’t been posting for a time but welcome to beautyfromAshes …love that verse from Isaiah.
Thanks to Phoebe2 for her recent post.
‘SMC has for years been preaching and teaching a false Gospel -- or I should say a truncated Gospel. While they teach, rightly, that we are saved by grace, yes, they also teach, both implicitly and explicitly, that we are sanctified (become holy) by our own efforts.
The Biblical Gospel, on the other hand, teaches us that the pursuit of holiness is a joyful response to God's undeserved, unchanging love, motivated by our love and gratitude to Him for such a wonderful salvation -- a response of heart and life empowered by the Christ who lives within, not by legalistic pressures from without or our own morbid introspection.’

I’ve said it before one of the main problems in SMC is that the Word of God is not delivered in a biblical way. They deliver the word many times through what they call ‘the anointing’ which is basically what they say God the Holy Spirit is telling them to say….so therefore since they say the interpretation is coming directly from the Holy Sprit the congregation cannot argue with them or disagree because to do so would be disobeying God!
So their doctrine of sanctification is man-made, leading to legalism and a people who become more self-centred instead of Christ centred. The irony is that they preach Christ-centredness but utterly fail the sheep because they heap burdens upon them and make them man dependent or should I say ‘woman dependent’!
The people look for their worth and calling from leadership, whether they are accepted or not and if not accepted (which many were not under AS ministry) the people see this as a rejection from God. It is a lie and I believe at this time God is moving to renew His Church to the truth of the real gospel.
We see this with the Anglican Church. In 2008 GAFCON had the Jerusalem Declaration(where the Global Anglican Communion want the Bible to be restored to the centre of the Communion) and this has now come to a head and GAFCON has declared they are no longer part of the ‘Anglican Communion’ which includes not accepting leadership from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
So SMC had a chance to take similar steps i.e. return to the proper preaching of the word which is gospel centred.
New leadership came into place which gave the opportunity to listen to constructive criticism (e.g. Pauline Anderson/ Alan’s letters) and to re-evaluate the SMC structure and how things could move forward in a Gospel centred way.
But to date this doesn’t appear to be happening.
Just preaching salvation is not the whole Gospel, the Gospel of Christ as we know is centred on the whole Life and Work of Christ ….where do we learn ALL of this? How do we live out our salvation? Only from learning and studying the scriptures in a Christ centred way. Not from what a person says it is because they are the anointed one.

I wish to say publicly to those precious souls of Jesus whom I didn’t reflect the correct life of Christ to, please forgive me, when all you got was judgement or a legalistic view of God. I say this because I was talking to Someone recently whom I love (they are yet not saved) and we were speaking about the person of Jesus and who He is I.e. the Son of God or just a prophet of God or someone you choose not to believe in and I could see their heart was opening to the real Jesus as Son of God. And in that conversation they told me that they were put off Jesus and Christianity for years because of what I and others presented about Jesus while in SMC. But by Gods grace that wrong representation has not stopped Gods real grace reaching this person.

BeautyFromAshes I think you maybe of a younger generation than myself. My hope and prayer is that your generation will rise up with courage and declare the true gospel and through that see all the damage done to your generation and the younger ones, particularly through AS and her circles ministry, healed and completely restored. That God will open doors for you and others in Glasgow or Greenock or wherever you are to truly fulfil your ministry and calling. I quote Luke 22:32, where Jesus tells Peter, "But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.’
I’ll end by saying there won’t be an apology from SMC leaders.
That is something I don’t seek personally.
On this forum we have brought to light the spiritual abuse that has gone on for years and the damage done to many souls. Just like us all I believe they are in Gods hands….they will be held accountable before God as leaders and what they have done with that ‘gift’. But unfortunately for many in leadership, that ‘gift’ and calling was handed down by ‘man’ and not by God. We see this in particular with AS. There are also some in SMC who do have a genuine love for Gods people but they have chosen to stay in a culture which is ‘man driven’ and the mistakes of the past will just be repeated again and again.
AG

Hi everyone, I haven't been on for a while because I get annoyed reading the way that people have been treated. I had a look at the chat GP summary that 'friendly face' posted. Thank you.

I honestly can't believe the nonsense that is being "preached" still after all these years. "Trust leadership" The Bible warns us constantly to be on the lookout for false teachers and to compare what is being taught, by trusting in the Word of God, checking EVERYTHING like the Bereans

Part of me wants to go back there and attempt to speak to those caught up in this nonsense, in a calm manner.
I heard so much dribble when I was there. I was spoken down to or ignored at times. I'm not raging, just really frustrated and angry at the way people have been treated. I can't believe that this is still going on especially as most of the "leaders" have left or died. I know that it would be pointless to talk to them though as it's difficult to convince listeners that this church is a cult. I would probably have more success during to JW's

I really wish that I could do something to cause change. You are all so strong, you might not think it but you are. xxx

I just listened to the New Year "word" 2025

More scripture, ripped out of context to meet struthers agenda which is designed to control and manipulate those who sit under the teaching. This is the same tactics used by ALL cults. Basically they build a reliance upon leaders, taking away people's ability to think for themselves.

Just had to say

I've just been listening to a podcast by Sarahbeth Kapusta: "A Definition of Spiritual Abuse", which includes her personal story of 25 years in a Baptist church with cult-like characteristics. Much of what she shares will be chillingly familiar to members of this forum, even tho' the context and some of the details may be different from their own experience, including her ongoing journey towards healing. Now 9 years on from leaving the church in question, Sarahbeth has a regular podcast "Reconstructing Your Faith" aimed at supporting other "survivors". Definitely worth listening!

Pheobe, that sounds really interesting. There are quite a few books about people “deconstructing” their faith due to being treated badly, but not many that get beyond that and look at how people can journey to healing and a stronger faith. I will have a look.

On another note, I was listening to a recent Tim Keller podcast about God’s relationship with us and thought there were some interesting insights (Gospel in Life: “A Covenant Relationship” released on 25th August 2025). He basically spoke about two kinds of relationships: “transactional” relationships and “covenantal” relationships.

He explained that going to the corner shop to buy a pint of milk was a transactional relationships. You hand over money and get your pink of milk. You may know the shopkeeper and have a good relationship but the interation is still transactional. You are under no obligation to buy your milk there and the relationship is likely to come to a swift end if one party does not hold their part of the bargain.

The way God works is however covenantal – He makes a promise to be faithful and true even if you do not keep up your part of the bargain. It is a commitment and promise, not just a transaction.

Lots of interesting stuff in that Episode (and in other related Episodes) including a statement at the end of this one that when you entering a covenant with God, you are also entering into a covenantal relationship with the church. Well worth a listen to hear what TK means by that.

As well as these two possibilities, there is of course a third possibility – an abusive relationship where one party exploits the other. This can be in a marriage where one person is abusing their partner physically or in other ways, it can be in a work situation where an employer is abusing their workers or it can or it can something like neglecting a child. In these cases, it is the reverse of a covenant. Instead of a person offering a covenant by saying “I will be with you no matter what” they are saying exactly the opposite – they are saying “you need to promise to support me no matter what”. Please note the subtle difference here – offering to treat a relationship as covenantal by promising to be there and supportive versus trying to force another party to try to treat it as covenantal by trying to get them to promise to be there and supporting. These are complete opposites.

So we have three possible types of relationships (1) a covenant relationship where one party (or both parties) makes a commitment to keep loving supporting and caring for another even if they do not live up to expectations, (2) a transactional relationship where two parties agree to continue the relationship as long as it is of mutual benefit and (3) an abusive relationship where one party tries to force the other to continue to support them even though they are not upholding their part of the bargain.

The reason I mention all this is that, in her sermon on Sunday 19th October, Diana said:

…’if you are estranged from your family, remember we are your family ... your mother / father / brother / sister ' …

So Struthers is offering to be ‘family’ to people. The question is what kind of relationship are they offering? Using the idea of ‘family’ would suggest it is more than a transactional relationship: that what is on offer is more like a covenantal relationship - a commitment to continue to love and support even if times get tough.

Regrettably, the evidence paints a very different picture. There are a many people on this forum who were taken in by that sort of rhetoric, and lived to suffer greatly when the rug was pulled from under them and support was withdrawn.

I think this is one of the key reasons there is so much pain and discontent. Many churches say something along the lines of “What matters is your faith in Christ, not which church you go to - you can have a transactional relationship with us as a church. We hope you will get something out of the services and that will encourage you to keep attending this church rather than going elsewhere, but it is up to you.”

That is not what Struthers says though – it says “we will be your family, your mother/ father/ brother/ sister”. What they mean by that is however not that they will stick with you through thick and thin but the opposite – that they expect you to stick to them through thick and thin. Just listen to the sermons – they are full of that “you must be faithful to the leaders” rhetoric.

No wonder people are hurt when the leaders refuse to speak to them. All that has happened is these people have taken the leaders at their word and expected them to behave like a caring family – to be there “in sickness and in health” and fulfil their commitment to be part of a transactional relationship.

Many, many people continue to suffer as they wait for the leaders to fulfil that commitment they made – that covenant they said they were entering into - to be like a family.

Instead they get an abusive relationship which is the opposite of that – it is all about the leaders trying to get the followers to be there for the leaders no matter what they do wrong.

So, listeners beware. The offer of being ‘family’ is not an offer to support you, it is a demand that you support the leaders. The evidence for that is overwhelming.