am not coming from a position of knowledge am just trying to understand what the problem is like everyone else. Have no idea if the parents are paying for their children's ipads, was just trying to figure things out.........what did the headteacher tell the members of the church?
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if the £300,000 has gone to the ipads and the parents are paying it back is that not all square??
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could the church have paid for the ipads initially and the parents now be paying them back over a period of time? sorry if this is annoying, but if the accounts etc are checked by outside bodies and nothing untoward is found does that not make it likely that nothing untoward is going on?
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'paid for by the congregation and NOT the parents of the children attending the PRIVATE shcool' how do you know this? (have assumed you are referring to the ipads, apologies if not) I was under the impression that the parents were paying them up over a period of time, don't actually know where I got that from though
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Derren Brown's shows can be very interesting and have a lot of truth in them. Ironically though, I believe he was a bit upset that there were some who suggested that his Apocalypse show was a fraud and the main person in it an actor. Suppose you just have to choose what you're going to believe.....Hanging on to faith by a thread
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Squareone, I tend to agree with you on the point of SMC leaders enjoying the 'wow' factor and the self-importance gained from their apparent 'gifts' thanks cbarb, but this was what I actually said I mentioned it because it came back to me while reading the most recent latigo article the message of which seemed to be that SMC leaders like deliverance ministry because
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ok. I'm going to backtrack a little and say that while I'm 100% sure she was told she didn't have demons I'm not 100% sure she didn't mention the counselling thing herself. I'll retract that bit. It was a chance conversation with someone I happened to be sitting beside and I mentioned it because it came back to me while reading the most recent latigo article the mess
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agree with that sentiment Chris, I retain that hope too The subject of pastors is an interesting one. Now I'm thinking about it Struthers has been the only church I've had a long term association with that has had a pastor and when there's a pastor there comes the expectation of what they should be doing. I think I do have low expectations of pastors, but it's partly beca
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this was a vulnerable person..I suppose the other side of the coin would be that Mrs Gault acted with integrity on that occasion which was what I thought at the time. I guess we'll never know for sure but I think I can guess the majority opinion and I probably Have grown less sure over the years.... What about the other thing? Can Christians be homes for demons?
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It's a good article. Amongst other things it raises the question, can someone who has God's Holy Spirit living within them also have a demonic spirit living within them? That would be something that made no sense to me but I can't claim to know anything about the subject, maybe someone on here could help me out. Here I go again.. I didn't ever go to the camps so the only ex
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Rensil, I don't really know what you mean. Have looked back at all my posts since I first came on this forum 20 or so pages ago and have said very little in defence of the church other than that I quite liked the singing, that I thought the person who may take over leadership at Greenock has leadership skills, that the congregation, of which I was for a time part, has some responsibility in
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Rensil, what I've said about the school is just my opinion and apart from the speculations on here I haven't heard anything negative from anyone who currently uses it, until I do I'll probably stay positive about it. I don't want to say how long I was at SMC as it may help to identify me, but it was a period of years, not months or weeks. I think I've said plenty of n
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there are some genuine friendships there I think..but anyway, yes I'm aware of the gossip...it's called 'discernment' is it not? ;)... and am painfully aware of the hostility to outsiders within the group and the controlling relationships, was in one for long enough. l guess for the love to flow, the members maybe have to take the initiative and go be salt and light where
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'Shows what little trust these people have in gods ability to take care of them, once members dare to make contact with the "unclean''. Preach to them, pray for them, deliver them from demons by all means but don't associate or break bread with them, because you might get infected.' in a nutshell. Yes that's absolutely the meaning I took from them being di
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'I am not drawn to you. I do not regard you as someone I have any feeling of pastoral care for. If you improve you attitude and performance in the following ways ____________________ I may find I am interested in being involved in your spiritual walk at some time in the future. If you want to attend meetings at my church in the meantime, that is okay, but whether you do or not will make l
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ocht I just don't know to be honest cbarb, they may be concerned with people's souls, they may not be. They certainly weren't much interested in mine and you're right, that takes a bit of getting over. I still believe though, that some of them, even some who work in the school are good folks like..er, us! and I do have trouble imagining how anyone could crowbar in much smc stu
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Would even the subtle things not be picked up on over time? What is it now? 10 years? More?... I saw maybe one or two parents from the school visit the church in the few years I was there so if it's an outreach (and it may well be!) it's not a successful one. To me they seem to be more interested in providing quality education ( I can't actually think of a negative reason for wa
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Have since remembered the post about the wee girl at Cedars who became pregnant. Do we Know there was no support from the school? or are we just supposing? A girl in my kids' local authority school became pregnant recently, she's no longer at school but I supposed that was in order to care for her baby as that's what I see her doing and not because she was banished....
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thanks cbarb, but nah, am pretty uncool :) I wasn't part of things deeply enough there or for long enough to become entrenched in the teachings and I feel very lucky to have had the good foundation of bible teaching that I was raised with, I think it saved me lots of times. I don't feel any freer since stopping going than I did when I started, my experience has just added to the confu
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quote Over and above that, we were genuine people. It's the genuine people they don't seem to know what to do with, it's very, very strange. And if the history you've shared with them becomes inconvenient to them for whatever reason then they rewrite it to suit themselves or conveniently forget it! Must be great. ps am very uncool and also not saying what gender I
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He does at least have obvious leadership qualities though I do mean by that the actual ability to lead people and not SMC leadership skills i.e. the ability to be manipulative and belittle people or the ability to be publicly snidey about someone while having a kindly smile on your face. He may show that he possess these qualities too. But I hope not
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Would this person perchance be a son of one of the SMC Dynasty or "inner circle" guess so. He does at least have obvious leadership qualities though. In all probabilty he would lead the church in the same vein as it's now being led, but how do we know for sure? Unless we're now the ones who are all knowing! ;)tongue is in cheek sorry to be off subject, know nothin
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what I said may have been somewhat misleading I now see. No, what I meant was that at the Greenock church there was a particular male who, to my mind, would be the natural successor when and if the time comes. Could be completely wrong of course.
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am pretty sure the next leader after Mrs Gault at the Greenock church will be a man, will that make him the main leader of the movement since that's Mrs Gault's status at the moment?
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1 Corinthians 12v7 says 'a spiritual gift is given to each of us SO WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER' NLT..emphasis mine, obviously to help, not intimidate..... and we all, from the greatest to the least, have the right - and responsibility - to 'test the spirits'...ie to 'discern' if what we're hearing is from God, as per 1 John 4 v 1
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to clarify my reference to 'spin' was in relation to Miss Black's interpretation of events, not Clive's
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quote So Mrs Black was saying that God was testing the church and its members. And a sign of passing that test was whether or not the SMC members stayed after heading the details ?. wow, that's such a clever spin to put on it if that's what she was doing. Once again it's right back at the congregation. Am not sure if God messes around with us like that but if there was a t
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I like your post Clare, it rings true with me. I'd had no experience of Pentecostalism until Struthers, although when I went at first I didn't know it was pentecostal. Actually, to be honest I didn't even think of church in those terms, to me it was just another group of Christians I was meeting and I had high hopes it would be good for me and that I would perhaps find another bit
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quote God chose to punish those in the congregation for doing so, rather than show spiritual and emotional courage and leave. am not entirely sure what is meant by this, forgive me. But I do agree that God does discipline those He loves.. for a time
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quote Everyone should strive to be "IN HIS WILL" at all times. And WE THE LEADERS KNOW HOW TO DO THIS !!!. well, those of us who are Christians kind of Should seek to be in His will I reckon, but whether the Struthers leaders know how to' do' it or not they don't really convey to the congregation how to do it in any meaningful way. We weren't directed to re
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