… continued from “The church destroys families – Part One.”
The church I had come to know back in 1991 that had preached grace, family and friendship turned out to be a sect shaped by rabid competition, the male ego and fake relationships.
Tragically, I found myself in the perfect environment for me to blow everything up. For in me there had been a time-bomb ticking away since my childhood about which I had no real knowledge. Until, of course, the bomb went off. It was not consciously a cry for help. I completely lost control. And I am truly sorry.
Once this had happened, there was a rush of hysterical activity amongst the Newfrontiers church leaders. I was disciplined and within 12 hours my existence was deleted from every Newfrontiers church website with whom I had ever been associated.
As you will see, there is no mention of my decade of leadership or the enormous sacrifice our family made to plant a church in Berlin.
My wife was instructed by the church leaders to return the UK with all four children and to leave me on my own in Berlin. While I was out one afternoon, three church members came to my home and removed over 1,000€ worth of my books and other property and all the church members were instructed in no uncertain terms that they were not to have any contact with me. The only couple who refused to obey this command were thrown out of the church which today calls itself Mosaik Kirche Berlin.
A photo of just some of my things that church members stole from me.
My wife was put under so much pressure (church leaders and their wives were flown out from the UK to Berlin to convince her) to return to King’s Church Hastings that she felt she had no choice but to shut down our apartment in Berlin and return to England, even though our two oldest children were telling her that they would not get on the plane unless I went with them. The church in Hastings paid for the flights for her and our four children as well as for the removal expenses of all our furniture.
However, when the day of departure arrived, our two oldest children, aged only 16 and 14 at the time, did indeed refuse to go with her and so remained literally living on the streets in Berlin for several weeks. The dreadful consequences of this church-induced rejection and homelessness are still to be felt to this day.
Meanwhile, I secretly went to the airport to say good-bye, in my heart at least, to my wife and our two youngest boys but was caught and even blocked by one of the church members, a very dear young woman whom I had personally brought to salvation and who now works for King’s Church Hastings, and who had accompanied my wife and younger children to the airport. I had been so proud of this young woman and had loved as my own daughter. Solely out of respect for her, I decided to leave the departure area and went to the top of the airport car park from where, with my face drenched in tears, I watched the EasyJet plane take off, believing that I would never see them again.
A secret photo, taken on 1st October 2013, of the EasyJet plane on which my wife and two youngest children left me in Berlin. I call it to this day “Der fliegende Sarg” (the flying coffin).
I was subsequently reprimanded by the Newfrontiers leaders for being so stupid, selfish and unrepentant as to go to the airport.
These same leaders also told me that I was to have no contact with any of my children, not even the older ones. Out of a mixture of fear, bewilderment, sadness and guilt, I initially obeyed. Then one morning, my daughter contacted me by SMS, asking to meet up with me, and my paternal instinct suddenly overcame my obedience to the sect. At this time, I too was living as a tramp under railway bridges on the streets of the city, next to drunken old men masturbating into their sleeping bags, and the entire remains of 53 years of my life as a christian Oxford graduate could be found in a locker at Berlin Alexanderplatz station.
The locker no.25 at Berlin Alexanderplatz in which I stored the only “property” I had left with which I lived on the streets with the homeless.
By the way, not one single friend from the church I had started and sacrificed our lives for in Berlin made contact with me, except for the couple who had been thrown out. And just like David Stroud, the so-called Newfrontiers apostle to the UK churches, who had sent us to Berlin, never once visited us, so the current leader of King’s Church Hastings, who would never have been appointed as a leader there, had it not been for my heavy intervention with Newfrontiers apostles, never came to Berlin to help me through this devastating crisis. A betrayal that reveals the ugly level of devoid-of-relationship, personal ambition involved. And actually, the Newfrontiers apostles were right. This man has transformed the church from a pioneering, exciting, Holy-Spirit-charged, working class, mission-orientated church to a comfortable, middle class, sheep-stealing, politically project-oriented church that will inevitably go the way of Wesleyism. And I only just realised whilst writing this blog post, that most of the current leadership team, were discipled by me and not by him. He hasn’t even brought one single person that he has personally discipled into leadership. Fail.
Meanwhile, grace, understanding and genuine friendship were all to come instead from secular people, in particular the parents of my children’s friends. With their advice and support, I quickly built up the contact with our two oldest children and soon the three of us made arrangements to return to our former, empty apartment.
Slowly, we began rebuilding our lives. My two oldest children tried to get back into school, I continued to work to provide for them and I managed to buy enough new furniture for us to get by in our old home. Whatever happened, we had to remain there for 3 months until the rental contract came to an end.
At this time, I asked the leaders of the Newfrontiers churches who had been supporting us with the new church in Berlin for 3 months’ financial support so that we would not get into debt until we could downsize our apartment. I was told at first that they would help us. I still have this assurance in writing from a leader who was nicknamed “the old woman” by other, even so-called apostolic, leaders.
The promise of financial help for my children for just three months, after all that they had endured for the sake of Newfrontiers church mission, that never materialised.
However, all the financial support was withdrawn without any notice a week later and my children received no support, mainly on the grounds that they were rebellious sinners who should have obeyed their leaders and gone back to England with their mother and two brothers.
To be continued …