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Pastor Bob Merritt of the multi-campus Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota. Reported to multiple ministry heads and managers with some incredibly unpleasant, borderline abusive, managers. Seeing Spirits // Does God really fight for me? He wrote letters of regret to victims and church members, and set up a $30,000 trust fund to help . Were just trying to reach people for Jesus Christ so that they can see their lives change as they begin to follow him. ), DeSoto said kids are expected to maintain a cheerful demeanor. About this app. She realized after leaving the church that shed been suffering from depression for years by that point. Merritt said that even though he is feeling a sense of loss from his retirement, he felt the timing was right. Villareal was at a loss. I was going so fast. I feel a great deal of loss right now, Merritt told The Christian Post after returning from a week out of the country with a group of friends. Any success weve experienced has little to do with us, and everything to do with the grace of God. Required fields are marked *. "It's not about being big, never has been," he said, adding, "It's justGod keep using us, and we'll try to follow.". In the early years it morphed and expanded under the charismatic leadership of Pastor Jim Durkin. Gospel Outreach emerged from the hippie utopia that was Lighthouse Ranch, a commune of ragtag spiritual seekers, recovering addicts and countercultural Jesus People who, during the 1970s and 80s, lived and worshiped at the abandoned Coast Guard station that once sat atop Table Bluff. His messages are also posted online, with viewers in all 50 states seeing them. Music varies from campus to campus, with no organs in sight. At that point I was particularly vulnerable and I fell into a relationship with someone toxic from a sister church [in Olympia].. In the 70s and 80s the Gospel Outreach movement spread around the globe, establishing churches in U.S. cities from Alaska to Hawaii to New York and sending missionaries to Europe and Central and South America. And they unloaded. I taught pre-algebra. Paulsums up thissectionwith a not-to-be-forgotten truth: it is God who gives the growth, whether in an individuals spiritual life, or in a churchs statistics. Merritt said he plans to take the next few months to quiet his mind to figure out what God is calling him to do next. Sarah escaped when she was 19 and drove to the house of a friend whose entire family had left the church six months earlier. Although Eagle Brook will still be his family church, Merritt said he is now just a church member. He worked out an agreement with Strand that he will always be available to offer advice but will not do so in an encroaching manner. After that, girls were not allowed to play paintball. He compiled 240 pages of feedback from all these people and spent three days reading it back to me. And in the last couple of weekends, we've had 31,000 people [attend] and 25,000 watch online. But I knew in my spirit that he was ready. 1,892 talking about this. Sczepanski is the executive director and sole administrator. 25K views, 519 likes, 239 loves, 381 comments, 197 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Eagle Brook Church: You are watching today's LIVE service, broadcasting from Lino Lakes, MN. Brainwashing is kind of an overused phrase, but it really is brainwashing.. He said, Oh, you let girls play paintball and tug of war with the boys? she said. Its definitely a cult, said Esther Mandville, a 24-year-old former member who was raised in Gospel Outreach. And so what I would say to pastors in this area is, if you've never given yourself the gift of seeing a coach or a counselor, you got to do that because I guarantee that you got some blind spots, some dysfunction, and it's affecting your life, your marriage, your career. "The first message that I heard the day I walked in I felt like I was the only person in the room," she said. Come for some fun, worship and fellowship. She said her stepfather would play emotional games that kept her up well past midnight. All the music, the meetings youre hardly sleeping. the Christian hippie commune at Lighthouse Ranch, the hippie utopia that was Lighthouse Ranch, registered with the California Department of Education, employed by Christian slavers as justification for human bondage, PARTY COMPLAINT 400 Block of BAYSIDE CT, Animal Hazard at Hillcrest Dr and Humboldt Hill Rd. With engaging music, great kids and students services, and the personal teaching style of Pastor Gene Appel, we're a place where you can . Much of the education at Gospel Outreach reinforced the churchs strict gender roles, which call on women to be subservient, according to the former members we spoke with. The church staff turned an old K-Mart into an $18 million facility. Unfortunately, the cons are many. Abigail Mandville, Esthers younger sister, said instruction both in school and out was more about indoctrination than education. I realized I was in a place that makes me unhappy. Many Gospel Outreach members live in the suburban-style homes along St. James Place. I literally thought my life was over because they tell you theres nothing outside, that if you leave, you will go crazy, do drugs, become a lesbian. I would often get three or four hours [of sleep] a night because there was always a new recital or a project or a play.. A historic first: Vietnam allows Franklin Graham to hold evangelism event with 300 churches, Teen who had breasts removed says health system lacks 'standards of care', School district rejects student-teachers from Arizona Christian University, Its smut: Kid reads sexually graphic book he got from school library to school board members, Ukraine war exposes weaknesses in Russia and the West, ChatGPT, consciousness and the human mind, Done with That: Escape the Struggle of Your Old Life. Back in May, two former members of Gospel Outreach of Eureka, a church that grew out of the Christian hippie commune at Lighthouse Ranch, contacted the Outpost to report a COVID-19 outbreak among the congregation. You might be thinking, "No definitely notthe tree is up, presents are wrapped, Christmas music on repeat" Pause. Merritt is also the author of several books, includingDone with That: Escape the Struggle of Your Old Life andGet Wise: Make Great Decisions Every Day. Therefore, I apologize for what Wednesdays front page article may have communicated about our church. If you would prefer not to see ads, we have another option. So on behalf of Eagle Brook Church, as its senior pastor, I need to say that we are not that kind of church. Her dad apparently felt otherwise. I thought of them like brothers. Gospel Outreach of Eureka. Ill still do certain things like constantly worrying if everyone else around you is okay. At one point it was all I could do to feel. Chauvin and Sarah recounted how their own stories of abuse were met with dismissive attitudes and religious slogans. And if you point out that somethings wrong or doesnt seem right? My son, who was 15 years old at the time, said, I just want to know why my dad's angry all the time. And it wrecked me, he said. Lutherans and Catholics make up almost half of the state's faith population. Although Eagle Brook will still be his family church, Merritt said he is now just a church member. In Shakespeares play, a man named Petruchio marries then tames a headstrong shrew of a woman, Katherina, by employing psychological torments telling her the sun is the moon, for example, until she agrees, at which point he says the opposite. He prayed over me and said I had unconfessed sins and that [my cutting] must have something to do with that., At age 11 shed been diagnosed as diabetic, a condition that required her to get regular insulin injections. Help keep The Christian Post free for everyone by making a one-time donation today. Search past episodes of Eagle Brook Church Podcast. History [ edit] Well, the Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about immature believers and celebrity pastors, and he wrote about them in 1 Corinthians 3, For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? Watching. Excellent fellowshp, all are welcome, friendly and truthful. Looking back she thinks that this containment, this narrowing of the world into a hermetic and rigidly controlled society, is as damaging as anything else at Gospel Outreach. ), Basically the culture [of Gospel Outreach], with the ultimate leadership being the men, it really lends itself to abuse, Chauvin said. You feel like you're truly connecting with people and sharing your faith. Abigail said Joshs suicide continued to weigh on her, though she stayed in the church for more than a year afterwards. OBITUARY: Dwight Galen Griffith, 1990-2021, Quarantined: A New Law Is Disrupting California School Reopenings . Suggested duration 1-2 hours Asked what she hopes for in telling her story, she just wants the kids still inside to have more information. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. Allow this non-statistician to hazard a guess myamateur interpretation of the data tells me that the mature people were primarily there forJesus, not Chuck, and they stayed and kept giving. Thats a reference to a passage in Genesis in which one of Noahs sons, Ham, finds his dad drunk, passed out and naked inside a tent, and instead of covering him up tells his brothers about it. I called the current E.V. What does that tell you? Thats frowned on., Chauvin, who is now 34, was entering sixth grade when the Gospel Outreach school opened, and she remembers it as a turning point. My arms would just be bruised, black and blue, and my parents would be like, Dont antagonize him., The abuse didnt stop there. Therefore, He is ultimately the only one we should ever look to for spiritual sustenance, though we recognize He uses undershepherds. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Its an abrupt stop from a life that I have lived for 30 plus years. The most stressful scenario for many of the kids came during the morning circle meetings, where students would gather with Pastor Sczepanski to talk about his latest sermon and other spiritual matters. So much of it is being told the same thing over and over again until you develop a language and phrases not used in the outside world., Sarah remembers the schedule as exhausting. (This same passage was employed by Christian slavers as justification for human bondage. A self-proclaimed introvert, Merritt speaks from Lino Lakes. He had sexually abused me. She told me if I just put my head down and come under, if I became virtuous, then the Lord would give me a husband to take me away from all the abuse.. Hed long been depressed, they said, and about a year after he left the church he killed himself. I should be in the office, interacting with my colleagues and thinking about the message and getting busy with writing that. In the morning youre doing math and language, basic subjects. Were building in Woodbury because God loves Woodbury, and there are people there He wants to reach. Then in the second year, we went from 300 to 400 [members], then from 400 to 500 and then it just started to climb.. Little white lie or major fibdishonesty can happen to the best of us. And I was just split wide open.. I think there may have been issues down the road for the church as if often the case when well-known pastors leave). I told my mom and [my parents] had him buy me a new pair of rollerblades. Which, I believe, is why it is so popular- nobody asking you where you were last Sunday, no committees and such to dodge, etc. The more immature people on the other hand they were followers of a celebrity pastorand werent giving anything anyway. Cupholders? Petruchio also tortures her by withholding food and water until she becomes compliant and obedient. . But at some point, you gottta knowpushing towards the things you want will cause you to miss We all have blind spotsanyone else think its unfair that theyre so obvious to everyone but us?! Eventually, her dad asked her to get coffee with him and they had a conversation. The one building grew to nine campuses, from Wayzata to Woodbury to Rochester, making Merritt one of . Martin Luther employed the phrase to describe human nature as so thoroughly corrupted by original sin that it curvedly, and viciously seeks all things, even God, for its own sake.. Well never sell your personal information. Your email address will not be published. Eventually someone cries and then we can go to choir practice it was really so predictable like that. Celeste Villareal was nine when, in 1997, she, her mom and stepfather joined Gospel Outreach after moving to Eureka from Mexico, where theyd been doing missionary work. Two to three days a week that would happen.. Watching. A lifelong addict, he says he's found faith and sobriety. Its got to line up with my giftings. The mentality is that everybody is totally depraved, she said. I was losing hair, including eyelashes, she said.