Re: New Frontiers International
Date: January 16, 2018 05:39PM
As has been said, not all Newfrontiers churches are the same, each is a self governed individual church.
A relative of mine was a member of a Newfrontiers church in the south of England, quite a number of years ago. She was in her early twenties and was going out with a young man who was not a practicing Christian. An elder the church somehow became aware of this and counselled her against being "unequally yoked with non believers." She politely thanked him for his counsel but pointed out that they were not "yoked" in any way as they were only going out together and nothing more serious was foreseen. At this the leader told her that he did not agree with her, she was wrong, the relationship was wrong, and that she must choose either the young man or the church. She made her choice there and then, turned her back on the leader and walked away. Several months later the relationship between her and the young man had lost its romantic aspect, but they were still friends. No more than that. One day she happened to meet the church leader in the street and she politely informed him that she was no longer going out with the young man and that she would like to return to the church. The leader asked her whether she still saw him, and she replied that they were still friends but were not going out. There was no romantic relationship. The elder told her she must break off all friendship with this fellow if she wanted to return to church. With that she told him in no uncertain terms exactly what he could do with his church. I will not repeat her words here. Sadly the result was that she was completely closed off to anything to do with God or His church for a great many years afterwards. She has since regained her faith in God, but will not make any commitments to any church of any denomination.
In contrast, I have been a member of two different Newfrontiers churches and have found their leaders to be honest and open and in no way controlling. Like a lot of denominations these days, you have to weigh what you find. You cannot tar them all with the same brush, However, I view with suspicion claims of modern day apostles and I am definitely against the idea of leaders who are not accountable to anyone, and would definitely warn against joining a church where a leader or leaders were controlling.