Wednesday, October 19, 2011

For Moses Model Churches

For those wondering about Moses Model churches, in particular Calvary Chapel churches, this site, Calvary Chapel Abuse, takes a look at the problem of the Moses Model structure and the fallout from it. It also questions the practices of leadership in the Calvary Chapel movement, and focuses on one church and pastor in particular, the blog author's stepfather, in one particular California church. Of special interest to Provender is the comments section, in which members from many Moses Model churches weigh in on similar patterns of abuse.

One astute commenter says this: It seemed to us the CC organization would want to know about one of their own that was causing harm to many people. I eventually found that not to be the case when it came to my attention on PP blog that my story was not unusual within CC. I read account after account of much the same thing that had happened to others … sounded like it was the same pastor … yet we were all over the country … or even other countries … in small & large CCs. So often it seemed like people were talking about the same pastor yet that was not the case. Each with stories of the harm unchecked power can cause. 

It "sounded like it was the same pastor." This is telling. When you study spiritual abuse, you see that the same authoritarian and manipulative behaviors occur over and over. The same author. The same signature. To actually read the accounts can help you if you are going through a spiritually abusive situation. Sometimes you can even predict the next step because it's happened all before with someone else. Very eye-opening.