Signs of a Controlling Church<<<

[Charnock]

Signs of a Controlling Church

http://youtu.be/IYZ9xVoRDTY

Signs of controlling leaders:
1. Does the leadership teach that God will speak to the leader before He will speak to you?
2. Does the leadership curse people who leave the church?
3. Does the leadership teach that they are the only "true church" and that all other churches are wrong?
4. Are you forbidden to talk to anyone who has left the church?
5. Are you forbidden to fellowship with your family if they are not saved, or do not belong to your church?
6. Is there an overemphasis of teaching on submission to authority?
7. Are you discouraged from reading books that are not approved by leadership?
8. Are you forbidden to attend or visit any church that is outside your denomination or fellowship?
9. Are people publicly embarrassed or humiliated by leadership?
10. Are people afraid to voice any opinion contrary to leadership?
11. Are marriages being broken by leadership?
12. Are people manipulated in their giving by leadership?
13. Does every decision people make in your personal life have to be approved by leadership?

[Charnock]

Eckhardt recognizes these things as emanating from a controlling spirit of witchcraft.

[scotty]

God

Family

Church

If you live under that priority, you'll have none of the above problems.

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by scotty

God

Family

Church

If you live under that priority, you'll have none of the above problems.

Oh yes you will......maybe not within yourself or your family, but with a large percentage of leadership........just tell your pastor you want to skip church on a weekend because you need to spend some time with your family, and see what happens......vacations allowed, family time in town - not so much.

At least with many, not all.......

[scotty]

Originally Posted by Michael Phelps

Oh yes you will......maybe not within yourself or your family, but with a large percentage of leadership........just tell your pastor you want to skip church on a weekend because you need to spend some time with your family, and see what happens......vacations allowed, family time in town - not so much.

At least with many, not all.......

Yeah.

Not in my church.

That is just silly.

Futhermore, my pastor doesn't require me to inform him when I am going to miss.

And I'm in ministry.

But the point is, if YOU hold that priority list, then YOU shouldn't have a problem.

[RandyWayne]

Thankfully, I do believe the churches that exhibit this type of behavior are become fewer and fewer. There will always be some here and there but not like it used to be even a few decades ago (like when we were attending).

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by scotty

Yeah.

Not in my church.

That is just silly.

Futhermore, my pastor doesn't require me to inform him when I am going to miss.

And I'm in ministry.

But the point is, if YOU hold that priority list, then YOU shouldn't have a problem.

I would agree with that.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by scotty

God

Family

Church

If you live under that priority, you'll have none of the above problems.

I do agree with the above completely, unfortunately I have seen something similar to a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors take place with the order. For instance God IS first and since church attendance is mandated by God then church is defacto placed ahead of family.

[Steve Epley]

Originally Posted by Charnock

Signs of a Controlling Church

http://youtu.be/IYZ9xVoRDTY

Signs of controlling leaders:
1. Does the leadership teach that God will speak to the leader before He will speak to you?
2. Does the leadership curse people who leave the church?
3. Does the leadership teach that they are the only "true church" and that all other churches are wrong?
4. Are you forbidden to talk to anyone who has left the church?
5. Are you forbidden to fellowship with your family if they are not saved, or do not belong to your church?
6. Is there an overemphasis of teaching on submission to authority?
7. Are you discouraged from reading books that are not approved by leadership?
8. Are you forbidden to attend or visit any church that is outside your denomination or fellowship?
9. Are people publicly embarrassed or humiliated by leadership?
10. Are people afraid to voice any opinion contrary to leadership?
11. Are marriages being broken by leadership?
12. Are people manipulated in their giving by leadership?
13. Does every decision people make in your personal life have to be approved by leadership?

The two points I would be concerned with is #3 & #8.
If he is speaking of a local church being the only true church I would agree but if he is saying folks outside the Apostolic church are saved then he is in error and a false prophet.
We commanded not to fellowship the unfruitful works of darkness which would be false churches.
Outside of those two I see no problems. He had some odd treachings himself through the years just saying.

[ILG]

The church we took over (where the records were not what they were supposed to be) some of the people int he church were told not to talk to other people in that very church and, of course, they were instructed to not speak to people who left after the church split. I thought that was very tragic. My daughter had a hard time deciding if the UPC was a cult or not. Later, she decided that the church we took (pastored) had been led by a cult leader before we arrived and she decided that that church had been a cult but that the UPC is probably not. (I don't believe it is but some of the churches are.)