Community Chapel, Seattle Wa

[Walk and Talk]

Originally Posted by Scott Hutchinson

From what I understand these folks were sincere at one point and following The Lord, but got off into some things involving sensual dancing which later led into wife swaping and adultery.

The process of falling involved many things. The scope of all that happened good and bad would take an analytical book to explore. Too much for my comments here to adequately lay out.

Yes, originally it was a wonderful work of the Lord. The church and Bible College began in the 60s. Most of the congregation was very young in the Lord - some right out of the hippie movement.

Since the church had a Bible College, the pastor set guidelines that seemed necessary for helping the young ex-hippie kids learn about being Godly in actions and attire; especially since many felt called to the Bible College with a desire to eventually be used by the Lord in the ministry. Men were to be men, and the women were to be women. Suits and dresses were the expected attire. For the most part, the men did not have facial hair, nor long hair. Women wore dresses and were encouraged to have longer hair. There were guidelines about dating and avoiding the trappings they had engaged in in the world.

The pastor had a lot on his plate as he needed to teach many balances and perspectives. He let everyone know they needed to trust him as he guided the ship. I personally feel he did right by these guidelines.

However, as the congregation grew in maturity, and as some doctrines came forth, he still kept a ruling hand on the thinking and actions of the members. Thus, in my opinion, it grew from being a good work of the Lord into an imbalanced group (cult - if you please). I don't feel the cult like activities happened until the last 4-5 years. Starting about 1982/83.

There were some pre-dancing doctrines that come forth that I feel helped lead into the fall. However, the dancing and the "connections" doctrines/practices were the major imbalances that brought the house down - big time. The connections doctrine/practice was what led into adulteries, divorces, etc. It was not a practice of wife swapping, rather of people being allowed to fall in love with others, courtesy the "connections" teaching.

Since the fall was major and involved several thousand people, it was very public. Some of the public actions were not all the fault of the leadership. The actions of some reflected on the entire church and the church got the blame. However, the pastor and some of the leadership were responsible for much of the disgrace.

The mystery seems to be how many people, very well trained in the Word, could be so led down an ungodly path. As things came from the pulpit and through those women "used" in "prophesying" that seemed slightly off, there would be frequent altar calls to submit to the pastor and trust him as Jesus' under-shepherd. These commitments to trust and obey took many, by little baby steps, down the road into doing things that 10 years previous everyone would have fled from.

As the church began down the wrong path, many elders and members began to express concern. These people, knowing things were going terribly wrong, and that they had no chance to awaken the people from within the church, left. Many of those that left tried to rescue as many as they could. Many helped set up support networks for those that eventually came out - hurt. The congregation was told not to listen to these people (the dissenters) as they were being used of the devil to fight the work of God. Thus started the obvious cultic blocking of the members from having outside voices speaking about what was going on.

It was once a very good church that fell in its later years. Yes, some that have left say it was rotten from the beginning. However, you will find most of those voices coming from people with deep hurts, or those that have reverted to their prior trinitarian ritualistic churches.

Know that many left as things were going down. Many received the tremendous good that represented the church and Bible College in the first maybe 15 years. Many that have been hurt have had twenty years for receiving a healing and finding good churches to be members of. Some backslid. Some are still floundering - thought when you consider how big the church was (along with its many offshoots (satellite churches)), the percentage of the membership that are out there still floundering is small.

Well, that is just my input.
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