GCMW: Thank you Gigi. This is an awesome resource. I will make a special note of it in a post.

These leaders need to be encouraged to obey God and not allow his house to become a den of theives.

Youre right if the WORLD can see this and call it out, God help us who are supposed to have spiritual discernment and power. Heaven…we have a problem.

blessings

If those surrounding them (other bishops) will not or cannot hold them accountable, then they certainly will not hear you. Its been proven over and over. When people disregard what the scriptures say, they most certainly wont follow their own bylaws. So that kills out any legitimate couse of action they have proscribed to handle situations.

What they do is beat you down and make laity feel guilty about knowing the truth. This is accomplished with verbal beatdowns about gossiping, speaking against the man of God etc, etc. Thus the people are kept silent, fearful and ignorant.

This recently happened in a denomination I was a part of for 5 years. We were told to go home, fast and pray and not gossip as if we were stupid children. The leader’s sexual malfeasance was known at least a decade yet nothing was done about it. When God forced his sin to the open, his comrades circled the wagons instead of forcing him to repent and remove him. I think the reason they lack the ability to disciplien their peers is because they have multiple sins and scandals and they all know what each other is doing. They have no moral authority to correct anyone. But they are still “leaders”. What a massive affront.

At this point I would advise public shaming. Some people will not hear God until he takes away their money, positions and power.

I believe that if someone is overtaken in a fault that those that are spiritual should restore in the spirit of meekness and I also concur with the need for discipline in the church out of love for the soul of the offender as well as to preserve the purity of the church.

I am not asking for a response, I will just share some of the experiences that I have had and bring to light the truth about some of the many conditions in the churches today and the falling away from the truth that is creating dysfunctional churches.

I appointed as Chair of Finance for a well known Church of God assemble. As chair, one of the first things that I did after my appointment was to look into the practices of the church and the mechanisms for financial transactions. What I found was truly shocking and the depth of corruption and level of theft that was being practised was sickening; financial abuse is a huge problem in the church today. I spoke to the Bishop about what I had audited but he totally ignored the issues raised; he was on the payroll. I made appointments to see Regional Overseer who told me that he knew of these things but that we should pray that The Lord would turn things around. However no sooner had I met with him the Regional Overseer told the perpetrators of these crimes of what I had reported and he detailed my concerns to them. This was not done to bring them inline but to make them aware that I was onto them and what could they do to deal with me.

I wrote to The Ministry Board and outlined my concerns with the evidence that I had gathered on their activities and on receipt of my document I was brought before The Ministry Board and accused of challenging the authority of The Ministry and questioning their decisions. I was told that The Ministry have a dual role, not only of being spiritual leaders but also to make whatever decision that they think is best for the church whether the church thinks it is right or not and even if their judgement was proved to be flawed it was their privilege as ministers being released by the people to decide the standard for the church; I am sure that God’s Word is the only standard. I asked about what about God’s decree on a matter and His choice and the need to seek The Lord’s Counsel. The response was an eye opener, “God has no say in what happens in this church! And what authority do you have to come and tell us to seek God? We have been told to occupy till he come, so we don’t need to ask Him anything!” I was accused of all manner of things, none of which were true and not a single one could be proved in any way. To exemplify this one minister held up a piece of paper and claimed that he had a document to prove that I was a trouble maker, time has now shown that he held up a blank sheet of paper as his prop.

I went back to the Bishop in private on a one to one basis and his response was that minister were the dignitaries of the church and that I had no right exposing their actions. The main point of their argument was their claimed that as God had put them in those positions that they as ministers were above reproach and even if they did wrong, they could not be held to account for their behaviour. I met with the Bishop on countless occasions both at his home and at the church and we talked about the issues and after much pleading and petitioning he held his hand up and admitted that there were many ethical issues in the church. However when I was next brought before The Ministry Board, the Bishop joined in and agreed with the false accusations and took the side of those in the wrong in besmirching me. I made it clear that my concerns could be substantiated and that morally the actions of many of the ministers were in clear conflict with The Bible. I was told by one of the Senior Ministers that no accusations will be allowed to be brought against any minister and regardless of the evidence that I had the people will never know the truth and the bottom line was that it would be easier to make me a scapegoat than lift the lid on the secret sin of The Leadership. I made it very clear that the evidence was clear and that truth could be easily identified, at which point I was told that the church does not believe in proving what is true and that the church does not go down the route of proving what is true, regardless of however much evidence or witnesses there may be.

During one of the many inquisitions and disciplinary hearings that was held to discuss me the Bishop stated that the people would never know of what has been going on because it may damage the church and that it would be easier to blame me so that the church can go on rather than bring The Ministry down. Image has become another problem in our churches today, if it looks or sounds good and make people feel good, it becomes plausible even if its source is unethical or conflicts with God’s Word. The Bishop’s attitude was that as long as he had a church that was backing him getting his monthly salary), he didn’t care who left, what people did or didn’t do and he even told the church that he would not preach against sin because it was not his job to clean up the church. The Bishop suggested that the people could not be allowed to know of what has taken place because they may lose confidence in The Leadership and become discouraged and stop giving to the church, which he was not going to allow. I was made the sacrificial lamb and people were lead to believe that I was a trouble maker who needed to be removed from the church because it was suggested I was damaging the church, when in truth I stood on The Word of God and challenged the corruption and immorality of The Ministry. I never had any intention of bring The Ministry down but their fear of me created the kinds of responses that were ungodly.

I was threatened time after time, Sunday after Sunday I would sit listening to minister hurling their missiles at me and the Bishop was more than compliant with this, however as painful as it was I refused to lie down for them and refused to cover up their deceit. I was beaten verbally time after time and the verbal abuse was shouted from the roof top so that everyone knew that there was a Hate Agenda; they even drew up a Charter of Hatred that was signed by ministers and circulated around the church; sowing discord. I was removed from all positions that I held in the church and each Sunday I went to church I became the fixation of The Ministry’s anger and hatred and for over 2 years I subject to this abuse from ministers.

At the Church Business Conference I was publicly disgraced and many of the members could not understand why I was challenging The Ministry and one member asked, “If you have some issues why have you not addressed them with Bishop?” I told them that I did but the Bishop stated that he had never spoken to me. The Bishop even had the gall to suggest that he tried to talk to me and that he pleaded with me but that I refused to listen and because of my rebellion The Ministry decided to bring me before the church in he hope that by publicly humiliating me, that I was bow to them. Some of the members stood up for me and a couple fought for me but they were shouted down or disgrace and one even accused of being in collusion with me. I refused to rail, curse or argue I just let them make their false accusations but when I suggested that I have proof of my concerns the Bishop threatened the church and told the members anyone who reads the evidence would be disciplined. Suffice to say I was publicly disgraced, my family were shamed and eventually I was discharged from the church.

Having be born in the church and having accepted Christ as my Saviour as a young boy, to be kicked out and made ‘homeless’ after 2 years of torture, false accusations, being publicly humiliated was painful beyond the words that I write. The shame that came with being disfellowshipped was really difficult to swallow but moving to smaller church and being cared for and prayed over has contributed hugely to my healing and today I can run again the race that is before me because I know that The God that I believe in is the only True and Living God.

And what of the church that I left behind? The deceiving ministers continue to deceive and many of the people hold a grudge against me, simply because of what they were told by ministers. This is not fiction or a story that I have come up with to add to this site, the scars that I have bear witness to the pain and shame that I endured but God is still God and in the midst of it all, He is still God and even if I never see justice done. He is still God.