Thanks for all your replies and comments. Like Chesterk55, I totally agree with all of them. I heard that SMC held a celebration recently, to celebrate 60 years of being in existence. I believe this to be rather an exaggeration because, as far as I'm aware, SMC didn't exist as an actual church 60 years ago but comprised only a small number of people who left established churches and
Forum: Destructive Churches

Why doesnt the leadership of SMC reply to the questions about its teaching on issues such as finances, marriage, divorce, treatment of children in meetings, rights of members, etc if they have nothing to hide? Why not reply with a statement regarding the questions posed on the Latigo website? If SMC is just one of many evangelical, pentecostal churches which seek to spread the gospel and see pe
Forum: Destructive Churches

Welcome, HappiestEver In your first post, you've written about your knowledge of the psychiatric problems suffered by a large number of people who were brought up as children in SMC. That is a shocking piece of information but I have no doubt of its validity. Surely such information should cause all of us great concern because it involves children, minors, in the care of their parents and
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hello lintar123 and welcome to the Forum. I am glad that you found this Forum and that it has been helpful to you, as it has been to me since I found out about it. Reading your posts has made me feel very upset at what has happened to you and to your husband. I joined SMC in the early 80s too so I know exactly what it was like then and I stayed for many years until I saw the truth about what
Forum: Destructive Churches

Most people who become a part of SMC for any length of time, I have found to be very committed and sincere Christians who are genuinely seeking to develop and grow in their Christian faith and to live sanctified and not worldly lives and follow the Bible. I do know people who have left SMC and are no longer believers in Christ, which I find rather sad, considering how they must have been whilst
Forum: Destructive Churches

There is certainly lots of repetition going on in the preaching and teaching at SMC. As Chris19 says above, we were constantly being told that we weren't yet holy enough, committed deeply enough to God, surrendered enough etc etc, which only led to introspection and consequently, discouragement about one's spiritual condition and future. Certain spiritual giants were spoken about agai
Forum: Destructive Churches

I read the article referred to by The Petitor above. I do have concerns that SMC leaders aren't always aware of the great responsibility which they have when caring for children, both those in church families and those from non-church families. The problem is, as has been said on this Forum already, SMC is accountable to no-one above them; in other words, they have autonomy and they make
Forum: Destructive Churches

I feel for you as well, SMCedars, and for Susie too. Firstly, SMCedars, do not consider yourself a backslider because you have left SMC. I know this is what people are told, that if someone leaves then it means they are a backslider and couldn't live up to the level of commitment which the leaders aka the Church requires. This is a complete lie. I used to believe it myself until I saw th
Forum: Destructive Churches

Personally, I wouldnt be happy at this point in time with disclosing my identity via a specific Facebook page. One reason for this is that I live in the cenral belt of Scotland and therefore I sometimes encounter people who are still in Struthers as I go about daily life. Also I was in SMC for quite a long number of years and had many experiences there and made connections with many different p
Forum: Destructive Churches

I'm a bit surprised to read in previous posts that Struthers are/were involved with Churches Together events because I don't remember this happening in the Glasgow and Greenock branches. On the contrary, however, the leaders discourage people from getting involved with such events and explain that Struthers church leaders do what they feel God has given them to do and that this does no
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi Anthony Thanks for posting on this Forum and for having the courage to do so. I hope that you and your family and friends are now fully recovered from your experiences concerning Struthers and have not carried any burdens of false guilt and condemnation with you. I hope you have found a supportive church. By posting here, you've added to the number of people who have been abused by SM
Forum: Destructive Churches

I dont know much about accounts but could Gifts include flowers for the sick, money for summer youth missions, gifts to visiting speakers (though there are very few of these now), gifts to short term missionaries,. The amount designated for Missionaries, I presume is for the full-time couple who serve abroad whom all members know about and receive news about. However, the fact that I dont really
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Hello John McK Thankyou for posting on this Forum. Firstly it is easy for you to say what you have put on the Forum because you were not at SMC for very long and I presume were not fully involved in this church and fully committed to it and its ministry. Mr Black was indeed a kind and compassionate man - one would expect a christian pastor to be so - and he often had people who were struggling
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Totally agree with you re soul-ties, Clare. Thanks for explaining it so well. Yes, wrong soul-ties definitely exist between leaders and people in SMC. I know this to be true because I know some people who have had to have these soul-ties broken spiritually during special ministry from wise, discerning anointed Christians. Yes, it explains why it's so hard to leave SMC even when you'
Forum: Destructive Churches

Re the L and M story, the word or couplet which comes to me is "soul tie". When a soul tie has been formed, for good or ill, it also has to be broken if it not a healthy one. In my view, this story is about a soul tie which will still be in operation spiritually until it is broken. Perhaps that explains why M is still struggling with the issue. Vows and oaths have weight and are rea
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Archbishop Laud - I totally agree with your view that Mr Black took a great amount of Exclusive Brethren teaching into Struthers, including the idea that SMC is a special group chosen by God and called to live holier lives than other Christians and keeping its members isolated from society in general and from other christian gatherings. I agree that he couldn't have been free of the eff
Forum: Destructive Churches

To Chris19 Welcome to the Forum. Your story is very interesting and informative; thankyou for sharing it. I was in SMC for over 20 years and often wondered what happened to people who left SMC and who had been favoured by the leadership and given special attention and training by them, and were in so-called ministry. Of course, we were told that such a person had backslidden and had done so
Forum: Destructive Churches

There are two new excellent articles on the Latigo site. Both have been an absolute eye-opener for me. I had no idea of the information contained therein regarding the church finances, loans, accounts, employees, which ones get paid and who are church "members". I don't remember any of this information being made available at church meetings or announced from the platform by lea
Forum: Destructive Churches

In reply to Clare above: I'm not sure how long you were part of SMC or when, but quite a number of contributors to this Forum were in SMC for many years and were deeply involved in it. I know this has been covered in previous months on this Forum, but what I'd like to say is, we have asked the leaders questions, we have queried things that were spoken from the platform, we have asked
Forum: Destructive Churches

Re The Petitor's post above, about whether other churches are seen as the enemy, we were continually told in SMC that it was not a good idea to visit other churches or outreaches, because, we were told, Christians in other churches were not living as holy lives and weren't as fully committed to Christ as SMC members and leaders were. I heard this said again and again from the platform
Forum: Destructive Churches

Re Clare's post about looking after the body because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit and practising what you preach, I came across a quote from Martin Luther. Luther argued that marriage is part of God's divine plan. To those who tried to prevent or limit the way of marriage and make that way seem less holy than a celibate state, he wrote, "It is a pity that men should be so st
Forum: Destructive Churches

In connection with the above post by seekingsusan, you can read two posts about the above Buckinghamshire group, on the Struthers Memorial I P Church Forum on this website, on page 17, dated May 17th 2011 and posted by "Stephen" who says he attended there in the 80s. Yes, it's the same church and same leaders.
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hello Concerned Mother As Chesterk55 has posted above, the leader of the Struthers group at The Refuge is Scottish, from Glasgow, and spent 15-20 years in the Struthers Glasgow church before apparently receiving a call from God to move south and lead a group of people in the London area who had been coming up to Struthers Camps and conferences in Scotland for many years. She set up her group in
Forum: Destructive Churches

The quote is very appropriate, whoever said it, Susie. In case anyone reading posts here still thinks that SMC is a loving, healthy upbuilding church which adheres to the Word of God, I'd like to share something. In the early 90s SMC produced a church magazine about 4 times a year and I had kept some copies. In one of them, I read someting which I found very disturbing. The entry, wh
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Hi Anonymous43762 It was great to read your story and to know that you have found reassurance through reading this Forum about other people's bad and unhappy experiences in SMC. I hope you can now realise that Struthers church isn't representative of many, even of most, evangelical groupings and that you won't find what you have described in other churches. I hope you will take
Forum: Destructive Churches

You're right, seekingsusan, I also heard warnings given in SMC, from the leaders in my case, about the dangers and wrongness of the Shepherding movement. We were told SMC does not use heavy shepherding, we are not like that, shepherding is wrong, they said. However, as the above posts outline, our natural secular lives were strictly controlled regarding jobs, time, marriage, place of resid
Forum: Destructive Churches

I didn't realise that leaders tried to direct young folks' career choices in this way, but I am not really surprised. In the 1980s there were a lot of young people in SMC who had joined while they were students, because SMC held outreaches at that time in the various universities and colleges including teacher-training colleges. The result was that after a few years, there was a h
Forum: Destructive Churches

To Seekingsusan, I apologise for getting it wrong about Annihilationism; I didn't realise the full meaning of the term. On thinking back, I have actually heard leaders in SMC say that someone who goes to Hell will eventually cease to exist and we won't have any memory of them. So I guess this is, by the definition you give, Annihilationism. I had never thought of that before, so th
Forum: Destructive Churches

In answer to some questions posted recently on this Forum: Re the teaching on revival in SMC, Mr Hugh Black wrote three books about Revival which were mainly based on sermons he had given previously. In his first Revival book, he reviewed revivals from past history and also included the prophetic vision given by Jean Darnall, an American lady who was used in prophetic gifts and who was invited
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Yes, Clive, I am aware that SMC members have been told not to read the posts on this Forum. This instruction was given on Sat night of 12th March which I think was the last one to be put on podcast. No doubt members will still be getting told not to read the Forum. I just thought that if they read the Forum posts, they might do as the Bible, which they claim is their authority for leading an
Forum: Destructive Churches