So many posts and not enough time to respond to everything!
I'm afraid I don't share the optimism that either big changes are going to happen or that the whole thing is going to crumble. Apart from perhaps toning things down slightly from the platform, it's business as usual at SMC.
Any other church would have been upset at the posts on here and also the information on Latigo and would have addressed them. To simply ignore the issues raised is deeply and profoundly un-Christian. For now, that is going to continue. I'm sure that some people actually see it as a badge of honour as though they are being attacked for 'doing the work of the Lord'.
On a personal level, I will never again allow another human being the level of control and influence that I have done in the past. I'm getting my spiritual mind and my Christianity back.

Hi Blackwatch

I'm so glad you're taking control of your own life again. It does seem that the changes that are happening is a dwindling of the membership of SMC as folks begin to realise that their teaching is quite wrong and their actions are not the actions of true Christians. The whole thing may not be crumbling but at least they are ruining fewer lives than they were in the past and, hopefully the more discerning among the present congregation will take the bull by the horns and make their own moves away from the destruction and quite anti-Christian teachings of SMC.

Those who are still attending SMC and hanging on their leaders' every words are to be pitied by the rest of us because they are obviously too weak to make their own choices and be responsible for their own walk with God. What a huge amount of love and joy they are missing from REAL LIFE with God and what a shame that they choose to stick their heads in the sand and refuse to see the reality that they are not being taught the true Word of God.

The bible tells us that the 'MEEK shall inherit the Earth' not the 'WEAK'. Another word for meek is 'humble' but there's very little humility in SMC especially among the leaders. Perhaps if they learned some humility before God, they'd be in a better position to lead others. The leaders are supposed to be shepherds to God's children, in the bible the shepherd left all his flock who were safely locked up for the night to go out and save the ONE lost sheep. SMC do the exact opposite, they continue to nourish those who cow-tail to them and actively SHUN the lost sheep. Not only do they shun the ones they should be looking after but they actively encourage the rest of the church to be as un-Christian and un-caring as they are themselves. Shame on every single member who has actively ignored or shunned fellow human beings because they have been told to do so by some self-agrandizing idiots whose proclamations make them out to be more Godly than God himself!

You guys who still attend SMC need to WAKE UP to the truth of God, read the bible for yourself and don't just digest what others tell you; be very very wary of false prophets. Not one single human being has the power or the authority to tell you how you should conduct your daily walk with God. It's a personal relationship for which the individual is responsible and not your pastor or minister.

It ought to be ringning every alarm bell within you when you are being told to actively shun people who were once your friends and even to the point of splitting up families!! How UN-CHRISTIAN is that? And why do you continue to follow this kind of very DESTRUCTIVE leadership? It certainly beats me why anyone would believe that this is Godly or Christian behaviour, considering Jesus went out of his way to be with the shunned, ignored and abhorred. There are more stories in the bible regarding OUTREACH to fellow humans than there are about anything else.

I could go on and on here but I'm sure you all get the gist. If you want to live a healthy, loving and caring Christian life you need to get out of SMC and into a church or group who actually teach and live the real Word of God.

As always, love and JOY to you all xxxx

Blackwatch, you really do sound like you have the strength of character others have mentioned recently, but do take care of yourself. I was a pretty well adjusted person and Christian until my - (compared to many) relatively short - association with Struthers, but I have to say (without being too dramatic) that it's taken much longer to feel on an even keel again. Coming to the conclusion that I just must unknowingly be of deeply dubious character and that my soul was of no importance affected me profoundly. You sound like you've been there for a long time, like many of the other contributers to this forum who've taken much more serious abuse than I ever did. I could be wrong, but unlearning the stuff you've been taught about God or made to feel about yourself and others may take longer than you think. Like I said though, you sound like you're doing remarkably well!! :)

Blackwatch. Your are so right when you said that any other church would be upset if they saw similar posts to those reported here. That to me is un christian and very arrogant. It is a worry that so many of the pastors and their close friends and family work in the educational sector they seem to be spreading their tentacles ever wider. They cannot be concerned that parents or even their bosses will see this site. If they thought the postings were inaccurate or false surely they would have denied them or ask to have them retracted. Blackwatch do I understand correctly, do you currently still attend SMC and if so do you derive any benefit from it at all. I know it is hard to walk away but it might be better for you if you did. It may be difficult but being a member of SMC is not good for your long term wellbeing and you are obviously having doubts about it. I feel concerned that the children attending all the meetings and camps will find it so difficult to de programme themselves when they are adults and will feel isolated and alone if they do decide to leave the church. The church is not expanding and the prophecies, especially those made by the Cumbernauld pastor have not come to pass. Could it be they are not infallible after all. Time to do some soul searching I think SMC leadership why di you want to isolate youself from the wider Christain community and other churches what is your vision of the future.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2012 12:43AM by mandrake.

mandrake, I have to say this....... and am prepared to be shot down in flames by all! :)...... I'm not talking about the headteacher, some of the things she says from the platform are 'questionable' from what I've seen on Latigo and she's in charge so I realise there's a question mark over the whole thing AND I don't particularily agree with private education ...... BUT those that I know well or reasonably well from the classroom teachers of the church school I would have no qualms in allowing to teach (and we're only talking the 3 'R's here).. my children. They're very good at their jobs



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2012 03:22AM by squareone.

Quote
squareone
but those that I know well or reasonably well from the classroom teachers of the church school I would have no qualms in allowing to teach my children

I don't think that is any more surprising than someone not being concerned about getting medical treatment from a nurse who goes to Struthers, legal help from a lawyer who goes to Struthers, or even a nice cake from one of the coffee shops.

It doesen't generally cause a problem when people do what they are trained and qualified to do.

The problem is when people claim great authority and knowledge about things of which they have little understanding, no recognised and accredited training, an unclear calling, and for which they show demonstrably little ability.

Some of the people who teach in the school are qualified teachers. Personally I am less concerned about Struthers running a school than I am about Struthers running a church.

Personally I am less concerned about Struthers running a school than I am about Struthers running a church. [chesterk55]



agree.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2012 03:52AM by squareone.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for the comments.

There's no question or doubt, I will be leaving Struthers. I'm not struggling to leave or wondering whether I should or not, i'm going. I'm not having second thoughts or thinking about how I tear myself away or pondering how I will survive without them, i'm well down that road. I'm not allowing myself to be influenced by the teaching, I get my spiritual food from elsewhere (see my previous post). There are times now where I sit and listen to what's coming from the pulpit and have to stop myself from laughing out loud. I appreciate the genuine concern for my wellbeing but i know where I'm going and what I'm doing. I've got some work to do before I go and that is simply to help others to open their eyes and hopefuly leave too.

As far as the comments about the school go, I'm sure most of the individual teachers are doing a good job. But that's not the point. The school is a product of and affiliated to a church with an ethos and worldview that has been brought into question by people on this site and latigo. The school only increases their sphere of influence.

Recently the food standards agency didn't find them so excellent. [ratings.food.gov.uk]
(The status of "improvement required" means that "the business has not achieved an acceptable level of compliance with the requirements of food hygiene law.")

How could that happen? God presumably told them exactly what food to order and how to prepare it.

It looks like some people in the congregation have not been holy enough and that has got in the way of God speaking to his annointed. Naughty congregation.

Quote
blackwatch

As far as the comments about the school go, I'm sure most of the individual teachers are doing a good job. But that's not the point. The school is a product of and affiliated to a church with an ethos and worldview that has been brought into question by people on this site and latigo. The school only increases their sphere of influence.

If there were any truth behind the notion that the holy spirit is among them and that the church is doing god's bidding - then I think one might expect that their congregations would be increasing among adults. They would see the "light shining upon the hill" and be flooding in.

But no. No sign of that. Other churches in the area smell a rat. Discerning christians and pentecostals sense that something is not quite right with this sect and wisely give it a wide berth.
And - according to posts here - the congregation has in fact shrank - from something in the thousand range - down to - what - a whopping 300 ?. Over a period of 30 years.
Very impressive that.


So what to do when adults fail to be convinced that Struthers is the most magnificent manifestation of gods children in the UK ? .
Easy. Take young empty sponges and soak them with the Struthers Way at a stage in their lives when they are the most easily influenced and moulded.

At an age when they will - apart from a rebellious minority - simply accept what they are being taught without question.

When one takes children from a family that has been in Struthers for most of their own adult life, and puts those children into a school specifically aimed to rear and indoctrinate children from such families into all things "Struthers" I think
one can start to understand just how hard it is going to be for those children to critically assess things in a detached way.

Providing the parents are caring and loving, and are perceived to be so by their children, most children will see no reason to rebel or question authority or their parents culture and/or religious community.
Even if sometimes those parents act in ways discipline-wise that would to outsiders seem overtly authoritarian or harsh.

This is why children raised in muslim families mostly stay muslim. Ultra Orthodox Jewish children become ultra-orthodox adults, Taliban children stay Taliban as adults and so on it goes.

What Struthers are striving to achieve here I suspect is a gradual hermetic sealing of their small-minded petty holiness-fetishist world, so there is as little contact with the outside world as possible. Certainly at the very least - not until they are so grown up and "reared" that they become immunised to any outside critiques or contacts that would in a normal person start to get them thinking critically.



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2012 09:02PM by Clive.