I just had a quick look at Companies House to see what was happening with the finances at Struthers, and discovered their annual accounts are overdue. How could this happen?? If it was any other organisation, I would cut them some slack: there are pressures in any organisation; someone may be ill, mistakes happen and all that. I think this is probably the first time their accounts have b
Forum: Destructive Churches

On a totally different note, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association lists a number of personality disorders including Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I suspect most of us know at least one person who has some of the traits of a narcissist, and recognise narcissistic behaviour when we see it. More recently, psychologists and other behaviouralists
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi Rensil, Yes, I looked at the Register for Teachers, which is publicly available, and Emma Rukin is listed. No idea if she was always qualified or obtained that qualification recently, but she is certainly currently registered. As for your point about people leaving, well, in theory, anyone can of course leave at any point, but the leaders do make that very difficult by the way they put lo
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi MW89, and welcome to the forum. Thanks for your comment which really does say it all – “my experience was similar”. That is exactly the issue. It there were only two or three people, it could possibly be dismissed as an anomaly (although I would argue that the parable of the lost sheep would still require the leaders to seek out the person and deal with them kindly, not in the usual cal
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AlDuff – yes, plus-sized Pentecostalism may indeed be quite an appropriate strapline. It will be interesting to see if anyone does report the incident of a pupil being struck. According to the church policy, any member of the church who is aware of an incident should report it, so any current member reading this thread should of course report the (alleged) incident. To do so would of c
Forum: Destructive Churches

I see from Instagram that Diana will be preaching in Glasgow this evening on the theme of: “The Church Restored, let the waste places be inhabited”. Guess most of us could guess much of what will be in that sermon. A few things to bear in mind if listening to that: 1) The sort of “thus sayeth the Lord” approach that is fairly common in the old testament never occurs from the book of Acts o
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi curiositykillsthecat, and welcome to the forum. It is really interesting to read of your experience in the Cedars school. I know very little about the school, but it is interesting how your description of what goes on has parallels with how things work in Struthers churches, as favouritism is very much a way of life, with certain people being given the platform and others simply ignore
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi Free@last_sometimes, and welcome to the forum. It is remarkable to see new people still coming forward to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of the Struthers leadership. There must be near sixty people now - sixty people that could do with a bit of understanding and support but are just ignored by the Struthers leadership. Totally callous and the opposite of the approac
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Hi thetruthneedstobetold, and welcome to the forum. Your user name is spot on – the truth does need to be told, whether that is about owning 16 house (16! really? what happened to the idea of storing up treasure in heaven?) bullying, hidden behaviours or attitudes to mental health. That last one I find interesting for many reasons, as it seems they pretend it is not real if you are in SMC, bu
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Hi FatHippo, and welcome to the Forum. It is amazing to find more and more people willing to share their experiences and remarkable just how many similarities there are in all the different stories - the pain, the sense of rejection, the sense that you are the only one feeling this, that you are somehow worse than everybody else. No wonder the leaders do not encourage people taking to each
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Hi anonymousfornow, A fair question - I guess I shouldn't really talk about surprises without being willing to comment further as, unlike Struthers, I do believe in openness and transparency :-) I do want to remain a bit coy on this occasion however, mainly because I do not want to put people off listening for themselves and making their own judgements. I probably already make too ma
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Thanks for posting this link anaoymousfornow. Wow! One or two surprises there!
Forum: Destructive Churches

There was an interesting article about Destiny Church in the Times on Saturday (and, now that I look, there are a number of related items available online). According to that article, the leader of Destiny had quite a focus on the “prosperity gospel” saying that God would make you rich if you gave to Him. I think that is a bit of nonsense, although there are of course verses that say God
Forum: Destructive Churches

I was reading Galatians Chapter 6 today and it reminded me of another point. QuoteGalatians Chapter 6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they
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Regtree1234() I am not at all surprised by this –one thing all branches seem to have in common is that they shun anyone who leaves. There is of course absolutely no scriptural justification for this and many, many parts of scripture that advocate exactly the opposite approach. The problem is also compounded as it is an “unwritten law” in Struthers. You will not find it in writing anywhere
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi all, and good to see the comments over the last few months – including some from new contributors. Great to hear from you all! Escapedtofrance, I really liked the article on warning signs of a cult that you posted in January – very apposite. I know some dictionaries might define a cult in terms of the doctrines and beliefs, but anyone who provides support to people who are suffering menta
Forum: Destructive Churches

While it is on my mind, let me do that and quote a few more verses that I suspect will never be heard form a Struthers pulpit. QuoteJames 2v1-4 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special atten
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Hi Rensil, and thanks for your comments on the verses I quoted. It is not exactly hard to find these verses, I can open my Bible almost anywhere and see things jump out that never get mentioned in Struthers. Re the shops, I think you are right - they must be struggling to get volunteers, and that creates a problem, as the only alternative is to pay some people. I can imagine that is in its
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Well, I did say I might add to these verses over the next few weeks, so here are some other thoughts. Please note I am NOT saying the things Struthers preaches are wrong. They may be, but that is not what I am arguing here. What I am arguing is that they miss out whole sections of the Bible. I think there is no doubt about this. There are for example literarily thousands of verses that
Forum: Destructive Churches

I was chatting to a couple of people about Struthers last week, and in both conversations, the point about how they avoid certain verses of the Bible came up. I thought readers of this forum might be interested to think about some of these, so have listed a few verses below. I will probably add to these over the next few weeks. Feel free to join in or comment, and of course correct me if I eve
Forum: Destructive Churches

Those who have been around for a while will know that I occasionally post information about the finances of the church. All of this info is from the annual accounts. The reason I am posting this now is that I have heard that the bookshop/ coffee shop in Falkirk is not opening again when lockdown is eased. That made me wonder what is happening on the finances front, so I have pulled together
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Hi Anonymous for now. Thanks for passing on that info, and thanks also to Rensil for the additional background info. Not at all surprising, but there seems to be a bit of misinformation and misdirection by the Leadership. The report from Pudsey Parish Church says, "The small Fartown congregation have taken the decision to stop meeting in person after COVID-19" which implies they w
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Hi Rensil, all interesting stuff. Re Kirby, you are forgetting the Struthers cannot possibly do anything wrong, so they will no doubt claim that God led them to create a link but Kirby then went off in the wrong direction, missing God's high calling. Because of this God of course rejected the Kirby Fellowship and left Struthers as the only true church. By pure coincidence, the explana
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I can see, I am pretty sure there were strong links between Struthers and Kirby at some point, with the Kirby fellowship or leaders visiting Struthers camps for a while, but they eventually decided to go their separate ways. To be honest, I suspect that was inevitable - Struthers would have wanted to incorporate Kirby as a "branch" and they probably did not want to lose status in th
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Rensil, yes, I agree with all you say. Just a quick comment at this point, and that is in connection with one very important point you make, which is that you can go to any church you choose. In these days of lockdown, many, many churches have online services that you can listen to at any time. I would really encourage everyone to make use of that. For those in Struthers, it will increas
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Hi all, and welcome to the all the new contributors in particular – I make it six new people in 2020: escapedtofrance, thisisme, seethelight, phoebe2, wise piglet and Rob 1967. Welcome all, and thanks for your insightful contributions. I have to say I have lost track of the total number of people who have now posted here, but it is amazing that there are still more people coming forward. Amazi
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Hi Rensil, and thanks for you encouragement. The hats issue is an interesting one. I think the fact that hats are no longer worn at services has been mentioned before on this forum, but it does create a huge problem for Struthers. The point is that the whole power/ obedience to the leaders thing is based on one key premise, which is that the leaders "walk in the anointing of the sprint
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Ah we'll, looks like no takers of my "counter-attitudinal argumentation"challenge. That being the case, I think I will have a go myself by laying out what I think those in Struthers believe and what mainstream Christians believe. Feel free to correct me if I have any of this wrong. Please note, this is NOT an attempt to convince anyone that Christianity is true or that my beli
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Hi Rensil, Yes, that "do not talk to each other so that you can soak up the presence of God" has not been a very successful strategy, has it? I am not convinced it has any Biblical basis, and on a practical level, it seems that many people who tried it have ended up depressed and ineffective. Not surprising really, as we were after all created for fellowship! A core message of Chr
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Rensil, Good to hear from you, and interesting to hear the reasons behind some of the SMC decisions. They are like most things in Struthers including wearing hats, drinking wine, going on holiday, the appointment of leaders and the purpose off the coffee shops. No-one ever talks about the purpose and the reasons for decisions openly, as they would then have to explain any change in position
Forum: Destructive Churches