Dear all
I posted some time ago saying i had recently left SMC, I wanted to update you on what has happened since then.
I have found a wonderful amazing church and made lots of friends in the church. I have felt accepted and loved in a way i have never felt before. (i never relised i wasn't before).I have had to work through a lot of issues that have arisen because of my time in SMC such as feeling inadequate and not feeling "good enough" i have come to see that it is by grace i am a daughter of the King. I now understand what people talked about by saying ]heavy Shepherding[ sure i have made mistakes since coming out of SMC but its because i was not allowed to make these mistakes earlier because i was so held down by rules and restrictions. I have had to make these mistakes to learn.but i feel so free in a way i have not done in years.
I am also free to be vulnerable in a safe environment and not feel like i am "in sin" because im having a bad day at church. The church is varied and mixed and no one feels any better than anyone else. They also have a leadership team who make decisions together, and welcome suggestions from the congregation and as a church we are told that we are a body ministry and everyone has there part.
i in no way feel intimidated but feel loved and valued. i cant believe that i spent so many years living under the restraints and domination of the main SMC church in the west, even although i was in an outlying branch.
Be encouraged if you are reading this and are still in SMC wondering what to do, there is life outside SMC, i was told by a certain member that i was backsliding by leaving SMC, and that hurt but i have not backslidden in fact i feel its amazing being a christian now!! something i have not felt in years. Take the jump, it was worth it for me! :)

Hi Grace-girl

I'm sure everyone here joins me in saying 'Hallelujah!' for you. It is so enlightening to realise that you're not doomed because you have left the confines of SMC and you are completely correct about the lack of love there. It's wonderful when you find a loving, caring church and you suddenly realise that life was meant to be fun and not full of guilt about never being good enough for God. God doesn't want us to be perfect, he loves us because we are imperfect and we need him to guide us through life.

Don't let the 'back-sliding' thing get to you. They say that about everyone who leaves the church but the truth is that no one has 'back-slidden'; for some their faith has grown stronger, some have hung on to their faith by the skin of their teeth and some have been so badly affected that they have lost their faith entirely. The fact that the church leadership and policies have been the direct cause of some people to lose their faith will be abhorrent to God and this would not be a case of the person back-sliding but a case of misguided and downright corrosive advice from people who pretend to know God's will.

I wish you all the best and God bless you richly. xxx

Grace-girl

What a beautiful and moving testimony. I am sure everyone who reads it will rejoice in the peace and freedom you have found. Like most people here, I have found that there are many churches that daily demonstrate that they are Christ’s disciples by loving one another. I am glad you have found one and have been willing to share this experience with others.

I also love Clive’s idea that members of SMC keep a record of prophesies and their fulfillment. How could anyone object to doing this? If they are proved true, it will be a wonderful record of the miraculous. If not… well, yes, that is a question for members of SMC, isn’t it? What do members do if all the rhetoric is without foundation?

I have another question for members of SMC, partly linked to grace-girl’s post.

My question is a very simple multiple-choice question about the following statement.

“If someone is criticised for leaving a church to join one where they see God is moving, they should wipe the dust from off their feet and not look back.”

My question is whether this statement could apply to the kind of story grace-girl has told or, in more general terms, whether the statement is:

a) Largely or totally True
b) Largely or totally False
c) That depends on whether Mr Black said it and it also depends on whether the person is joining or leaving SMC.

It seems to me that most people in SMC would answer (c) to almost every question in life.
That seems to me to be total nonsense and abhorrent to a God who has created us as responsible individuals.

Grace-girl, I love not only the fact that you have found a wonderful, amazing church, but also that you say you have “made mistakes to learn”. That is certainly the only way I have learned in life!

The thing is, I think that sort of support for learning through our own decisions and mistakes used to be present in Struthers. Like others, I remember Ma Jewell and the fact that she not only ran the cookhouse (and all the duties we had to do – anyone remember drying dishes with a soaking wet dishtowel?) she also offered homely advice, giving people the chance to talk about issues and helping them find answers for themselves. I think that something went wrong when that sort or multi-level support was replaced by a single “we will pray for you to have a deep experience” solution. From the evidence on this forum, and in the lives of the depressed and despondent who are still in SMC, that approach simply does not work.

[By the way, if anyone wants to know whether the above quote is from Mr Black, feel free to message me privately.]

Hi ThePetitor

Quote: (and all the duties we had to do – anyone remember drying dishes with a soaking wet dishtowel?)


YES! LOL and washing dishes in cold greasy water coz there was no hot water left :-)

It seems that love and the joy of life have deserted SMC now but thanks for the happy memory!

Quote
ThePetitor

I also love Clive’s idea that members of SMC keep a record of prophesies and their fulfillment.

Good to know, but just as a reminder, I would like to reiterate that i’m encouraging concerned SMC member to record _anything_ that an SMC leader says that could be cause for concern, not just prophesies ( although that is relevant too ) , so that includes anything said in defence of themselves ( such as Mrs Diana or other might do - for example entreaties and threats pertaining to this forum, attempts to justify their actions with regard to person who have posted here.

So basically , concerned SMC member, just make a mental note to write down what you’ve just heard or experienced, as soon as something strikes you as being odd, worrying, or cause for concern. But yes - of course its important to note down prophesies, and any other utterances that might indicate and inconsistency.

For example in my dim and distant past, I can recall many times when something was said one week very emphatically by someone on the “platform” but a few weeks later it was clear that the whole thing had been forgotten.

Sermonisers and visiting preachers in charismatic churches seem to very often depend on their hearers having very short memories for their “ministries” to remain popular !



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2012 01:50AM by Clive.

That is so good to hear about Ma Jewell again. I am amazed but not surprised really that she has been air-brushed out of the Struthers story and was not mentioned publicly or privately after she left. I have a story involving a wet dish-towel too but not a happy one.
Myself and another young person were washing the communion glasses, after the meeting, in the church kitchen at Greenock. We were working away, talking a bit, but not laughing or larking about. Miss Taylor came into the kitchen and glowered at us. We then heard her speak to another adult who then came to us and said that Miss Taylor wanted us to leave the kitchen because for some reason, we werent fit to be handling the emblems of the Lord. Emblems? We were washing small communion glasses! So, filled with fear, we left the sink and went out of the kitchen. The other adult then said to us at the door that Miss T wanted to handle the emblems herself and wasnt happy about us doing so. A verse oft-quoted in SMC is "Be ye holy, who carry the vessels of the Lord". Maybe this was an application of the verse by her. (By the way, I'm sure that is not the meaning of the verse).

Of course, we knew, or had been told, that Miss T could see things that we couldn't, so we thought she must be right. We were left with the impression that we must be so sinful and impure that we weren't qualified to wash these glasses, as they were communion ones. It kind of reminds you of the Pharisees and their cup-washing regulations, which Jesus condemned. The incident just made us feel under condemnation. It was years later before I volunteered to wash the glasses again.

Furthermore, I would never dream of treating young people in that manner especially young people who are well-behaved, committed to the Church and helping out in the kitchen.

Petitor, I really love your multiple-choice question - that is so clever and it says it all, really! And great to hear how well you are doing, Grace-girl.

It's gone very quiet on this thread, I guess everyone has busy lives and maybe, everything's been said anyway? I agree that it would be very surprising to get
any sort of response from the Struthers leadership directly on this forum but perhaps heed Has been taken and treatment will be better for people in the future. I hope so. I know this doesn't really help us but it would be something wouldn't it.


Thanks to you folks I have been able to make some sort of sense of my
experience at Struthers. I think I might be going to be ok and I want to thank you all very much indeed. Grace Girl, I too once again know that I am a child of the King. What a beautiful way to put it.


To those still struggling can I recommend a book called The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, it was also a great help to me.


To those still in Struthers for whatever reason, can I recommend that you read your bibles for yourselves so that you won't be shortchanged by your leaders quoting parts of verses to you out of context, to make their points. This happened to me and the verse in question meant the opposite from what it was being used for when read as a whole and in context. That was a very wrong thing of the leader to do if it was done knowingly. But maybe they just didn't know their bible...Either way it's not good is it?Make sure you know the Word.


Love to you all

Fairly recently, I had the great privilege of sitting under the ministry of a pastor who had been properly trained in biblical scholarship. His exposition of the word was a real eye-opener to me. Why? Because it was totally different from the sort of 'teaching' we get at struthers. This was a structured, methodical, intelligent and faithful interpretation of the passage. I can honestly say I have NEVER been exposed to this type of preaching before - it was simply in a different class.

For now, I remain where I am but I continue to read this site and the latigo site with interest. Incidentally, I know of at least 1 person who is privately recording the Saturday night preaching.

Hi blackwatch

I'm glad to hear that. I think if people sit down and listen to these sermons with an open mind and knowledge of the true word in the bible, they will find (as many others have) that they are full of contradictions, confusing messages and twisted interpretations of what the bible actually tells us. It is very enlightening and says a lot about SMC when you know that they removed many years worth of live sermon recordings from their website last year and these have not been re-introduced. If the church has nothing to hide and is beyond reproach this action certainly casts aspersions on just how 'holy' the speakers really are!

I pray some good will come of this eventually and that God will open the hearts and minds of the people still involved in SMC and show them the truth of his Word.

Love to all xxx

Delighted by your post Blackwatch.

God bless you.