It is the start of a New Year and yet I find myself going back to the past trying to relive what I thought was a good life but ended in epic ruin of everything I held so dear to me. Shattered by the years of being a slave to man and totally thinking it was the will of God for my life to be completely submissive to my pastors telling them every private detail of my life without ever seeing the warning signs of the danger ahead. All I can say is that I truly pray that this year I break free from the bondage of the past and run the race of indurance. No more researching what old friends, pastors and other PC people are doing. I need freedom and that can only be found in Christ Jesus. God bless all of you who have shared your tue deep and moving stories I pray that the Lord would restore the years that locust have eaten away. Dont be afraid to allow God into your life. Man is not perfect and will always dissappoint and at times misuse you but the Lord is always there to wipe away your tears and restore your heart. God bless

I am overcome with sadness that people put each other down the way yall have. We have to remember that when we point a finger 3 point back at us. We are all imperfect and we all need a savior. That is what Jesus came here for. He is the only perfect person to ever walk this earth.

I grew up in Potters house. My parents were missionaries. They apparently left the fellowship because of past hurts. I was a child and didn't know about all that. We went to another church that later became a Praise Chapel. I personally know most of the Neville family and a great many Praise chapel pastors. As long as I have known them which is about 23 years they have been nothing but kind and loving. They have helped my immediate family and my extended family through some very rough times. They have descipled us and helped us more than we can ever repay. I pray that God continue to bless them.

As for the Potters House and any other fellowship, all have made mistakes. But we as Christians need to love and forgive each other. I have family who is a part of Praise chapel, some who are a part of the Potters house and others who are Baptist from various churches. The important thing is that we teach Gods word, talk Gods word, and walk Gods word. We need to work together to reach people for Jesus and take them from the grasp of the devourer.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:34-35

part of the body:

People can criticize churches and the leaders and it's biblical.

Remember that Jesus warned many would come in his name and he would not know them.

Paul also harshly criticized church leaders in Galatians.

The issue that causes problems is typically accountability. If there is democratically elected church government that can fire a pastor and control the budget transparently, the potential for serious abuse decreases dramatically.

The overwhelming majority of Protestant churches have such safeguards in place. They may also have an additional layer of accountability to a denomination regarding such things as doctrine, educational requirements for clergy etc.

Red flags to look for:

Is the pastor accountable to a democratically elected board that serves fixed terms and then stands for re-election? Can the pastor be fired by the board?

Who sets salaries? Is it the board? Are the church's finances disclosed in detail through an independently audited budget published annually and distributed to all contributors? Does that budget disclose salaries, all compensation and expenses paid out from church funds?

If you don't have that level of disclosure you really don't know where the money goes and there is no meaningful financial transparency.

There should be a church constitution that provides for all these safeguards through its bylaws.

We expect this in city, state and national government. Most churches also provide this.

If your church does not then it is potentially unsafe.

Happy New Year!

As I sit here and contemplate my post - I'm having mixed emotions on how to respond or if I even should; but I must say that "part of the body" post is a standard generic fellowship response and doesn't surprise me at all. It actually did make me a little sad and tired to read it because it seems nothing ever changes. Its always the same old rhetoric. I feel for these people - they have been conditioned and indoctrinated from childhood to accept these abnormal and destructive forms of behavior as normal and Godly.

By their own admission of pedigree and how they choose to respond perfectly illustrates exactly what other posters and I have been saying on this and other cult websites. How any person with an ounce of common sense can read the experiences and abuse suffered and come back with what this type of response is still a little disheartening to me. To use an example of Christ's compassion and love when they themselves have no concept of it is exactly what we are talking about. Even if one doesn't agree with what we are saying - there should be a level of empathy and respect for what another has gone through and feels what has happened to them.

Unfortunately, this is not the case when someone has spent time and been initiated into the vacuum that is the ph/pc fellowship. I hope that this poster shares this website with the nevilles and the pastors; so they can become aware that people are waking up to their deception and communicating it to whoever will listen.

Beautifully said silentnomore, there is no need to down grade someone elses experiences in praise chapel just because you live in your pc bubble where everyone in the fellowship is just so kind and compassionate to their fellow brothers and sisters. The moderator is right in pointing out the truth that people should be aware of how their church is ran and that there should be accountability especially for the pastors. At my church we were asked to do some things that were donw right illegal and then lie about it. So please believe there are a number of pastors that are doing their own thing in the name of "reaching the lost". wake up

Well said "ravenbynight."

larry neville preached either last Sunday or the Sunday before at the mother church in Huntington Park and gave his sister-in-law pastor neville an award that the HP church gave the most to missions in the fellowship. If we took a poll of the finances of the people in the congregation I wonder how many we would find are either on unemployment, welfare, general relief or have had their hours cut at their jobs. Remember, I went to this church for over 20yrs and I know who makes up the congregation. There a few at the top of the Pyramid at HP who may have given the bulk of it that are ok financially but I can tell you the vast majority are struggling. If they can't give financially they are brow-beaten into free labor which is called the ministry. Knowing how the nevilles operate I wonder how many of these "awards" were given out for the same thing to different congregations? They really believe that people from different churches don't talk to each other. I loosely called what larry neville does as preaching - if you've ever heard him you realize he is nothing more than a salesman/motivational speaker who constantly throws out catch-phrases and slogans like they are from the Word of God. No matter how he starts a sermon it will always end with appeals for more money and more time to the church from people who are already giving more than what they have.

Not long ago jason neville pastor donna neville's son preached on a Sunday morning that if you have been in the church for any length of time and not in ministry "shame on you." This from the guy who used to count the offerings and then put it in his own pocket. He had his church handed to him in downey in a prime location with 10 faithful tithing families from HP to start with and has never worked a real job in his entire life or even taught a sheepfold for any length of time. Must be nice.

Coven or prayer meeting?
The reason I ask is when a group of people come together and stand in a circle and pray against people that don't agree with them or leave and then curse them-would that be praying or speaking witchcraft over them? Now, some may ask where this is coming from? Well its been in pc and ph from the very beginning. I think its about time for this issue to be addressed. Its no joke. Its actually quite sad. Unfortunately, I confess that before the blinders came off and I got delivered from this deception I prayed the same way. I had to repent. Its still painful for me to think about it and admit it. I thought at the time that we were contending for the wicked to be confounded in the name of spiritual warfare. But what we were really doing was evil in the sight of God. The Lord did not intend for us to use His Word to curse others and change it to fit our own agendas.

When one prays ungodly prayers over another - it shows that that person and/or group does not have the Love of God in them and no understanding of the Bible. They have been taught wrong and some of them feel the tugging of conviction in their heart when they do it but they ignore it for fear of not being accepted and shunned by the group. Which is exactly what does happen if you don't go along; if your identity and life or defined by this group/church you are not prepared for the repercussions and fear the results. It can be so scary that you would rather just accept what you have been conditioned to accept instead of following the true Word of God.

Ever notice how when the true and tough questions are posed to pro praise chapel posters they never come back to answer them? It speaks volumes. They can't answer them. They are afraid that if they really think about them and try to answer them the Truth about what they are apart of may penetrate the rational part of their psyche and they would then begin to realize that they have been living a very deceptive lie. If they take the time to think about what is being asked and see that these questions are valid and necessary then they will have to take stock of what they have been doing with every part of their lives and come to the very unfortunate conclusion that they have been duped by a huge false-gospel congame. Or, they are ok with it because they have been benefiting from it financially and other ways and hope we all just go away. Not going to happen.

Eventhough I have never been to a cfm/pottershouse church - when reading Escape from the Fellowship on Yahoo groups and the threads for them on this website its as though I were there because praisechapel is a carbon copy of them. The more I read the more I can identify. Its amazing how similar ex-members stories all are. Can't be a mere coincidence. I am absolutely convinced that there really wasn't a split or splits in the way they have portrayed it. I honestly think that its ingenious way to grow a fellowship with only a very few at the top who actually know the truth. I have to give it to them its pretty brilliant.

And while the rest of us 'licking our wounds' and trying to recover from the damage they are laughing at all of us all the way to the bank. "What profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" God help them. Woe unto them. Please pray for these people that they turn and repent. This is no joke. They are accountable for what they do to the Gospel and God's people and when we truly begin to grasp the gravity of this situation we will have compassion for them because they are honestly deceived though not very likeable. They think they are getting away with it. The sheer numbers of ex-members with the same stories alone should open their eyes. There are going to be countless more defectors because I believe that their reign at the top of the pyramid is over. People are ready to see and hear the truth.

Its been awhile since my last post - the more time that goes by the more I realize how much time and precious resources I wasted in the pc and its been very dishearting. This is a grieving process with different stages; this one being regret mixed with shame that I allowed this to happen. The further away you get from the constant brain washing and start to think for yourself the more you realize how destructive and deceptive pc was/is and its frightening.

Especially since the people you considered your friends and family have turned their backs on you; but what is so amazing to me is that I look back now and they never really felt that way about me - it was only about what I could do for them and the fellowship. People are a commodity.

There is an episode of star trek the next generation where an high ranking alien government official always has an attractive, vibrant woman at his side and then at some point she begins a steady descent into mental, physical and emotional decline and then ends up in a coma aged about fifty years with the life completely sucked out of her. Thats where the the youth, vitality and lifeforce comes from for the high ranking alien goverment official. This is how he maintains himself and excels.

Well this is how I see pc and the longer I'm out the more I see it. Its sounds extreme but things are coming back to me that I had blocked - incredible memories of countless people who did/and are still doing the same thing I did by being a part of this cult/pyramid scheme and to varying degrees have ended up the same way.

There have been pastors who children are illiterate because they kept them out of school eithere because they moved so much or had them babysitting their siblings so they can be at church 24/7. So many pregnant teenagers because their parents are never home. Their kids are sick and need to go to the doctor and they can't take care of them because its too important for them to be in church or some church function. They would rather be at church doing the "lords work" than be at home taking care of the children; while some of them don't even know where their kids are but as long as they are in church it doesn't matter.

From what I hear I believe that the Exodus has begun and its about time. I believe that people are tired of hearing a false gospel, having pastors who live the high-life on their dime and being treated like mindless sheep.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2012 08:35AM by silentnomore.

It does my heart good to see that people are reading this thread. I hope those who are in contemplation of going to a praise chapel, potters house, christian fellowship church will read this and run as fast as they can in the opposite direction. Those that have feeling that something isn't right and start researching these so-called churches will find this and other websites and read what they have to say and also run in the opposite direction. If you have been in one of these churches for any length of time and feel that something isn't right - you are not crazy or backslidden; its you common sense and the Bible kicking in. Listen to it. It will save you a whole lot of heart ache and wasted years of giving your life to a group of people that do nothing but live off other people's money, time and life force in order to line their own pockets and live an elitist mentallity all the while mocking and belittling you.

If you have a conversation with a leader and something doesn't ring true or you feel worse than you did before you spoke to them - listen to your gut because something is wrong and its your subconscious warning you not to listen to them. These people are master manipulators, con men/women, charlatans and criminals who found another angle that is more lucrative with less risk than traditional schemes and crimes. The only ones that can truly make a living and have full time ministry are the ones that will stop at nothing to follow the leaders at the top of the pyramid.