Struthers Memorial Church and the helpful leaflet

A theme which has emerged from many of the testimonies now publicly available is the fact that many people originally came in contact with Struthers Memorial Church through friends and contacts in reasonable and pleasant circumstances. They then became involved in the church believing what they were seeing and experiencing would be to be what would continue to happen.

Many soon realised that there were other teachings and expectations which had been kept hidden from them by those encouraging them to get involved with SMC but which then became the focus of their experience and the cause of serious problems.

This does not need to be the case.

We think that there should be a document detailing all the teachings of SMC and all the requirements expected of those attending. We have consistently asked for this to be made available.

In addition - we think a simple one page leaflet should be given to new people the first time they come into any SMC meeting or outreach. This could summarise what is likely to happen later in their experience of Struthers Memorial Church. This way no-one can say that they were presented with SMC initially masquerading as a church with mainstream beliefs and teaching; but then later discovered it was in reality very different from what they had been led to believe.

We propose a leaflet given to those attending any Struthers meeting or outreach for the first time should say this:

Welcome to our       

  youth outreach    

  mother and toddler group

  Sunday school

  musical show

  coffee shop    

  outreach meeting

  camp or conference

If you enjoy what happens here today and decide to become more involved in Struthers Memorial Church you should know the following information:

Nobody in charge of any meeting in Struthers churches has any recognised Christian leadership training or qualifications. But they believe God tells them what to say on each occasion they speak. They believe this is better than what happens in other churches.

It is fully acceptable in Struthers churches for a leader to say to the congregation during a church or camp service:

“I know, because God has told me, what sins each person in this meeting have committed. If I wanted to I could expose your sins publicly right now in front of the whole church.”

Even though this causes great fear and anxiety - as it is intended to - the reason they say this is because they believe God has told them to.

Some Struthers church leaders may come up to you and instruct you who it is acceptable for you to speak to in their church and who they forbid you from speaking to; or from having any kind of friendship with. You will be expected to agree with this because they claim they would not say this if God had not told them to. They believe they are passing on God's instruction for your life.

At some point a Struthers leader may approach you and tell you that they discern that you are demon possessed. You will be expected to agree with this because they would not say this if God had not told them this was the case.  Some of the Struthers church leaders have taught in their churches that God will punish the people who have disagreed with them.

You may be invited or instructed to take part in an exorcism to deal with the demon possession they have identified in your life. This will involve loud prayer in tongues, screaming and possibly vomiting. If the leader chooses, this may take place at the front of a public church meeting in front of families and children. They will tell you after if the demons have gone; or if you did not want that to happen sufficiently for it to be achieved.

Some of the Struthers church leaders feel they have the right and duty to share publicly things you have told them privately about your past sins and your Christian opinions. They would do this because they feel God has told them to expose you in order to prevent you from becoming a hindrance to the Christian progress of other people in the church. If that exposes you to public shame and humiliation that is acceptable to them as they feel it protects the other people.

At some point the leaders may ban you from attending Struthers church. They will give you their reasons at that time. There is no way to appeal this decision and they believe they have the right to do this because God has told them to. Some parents are banned from attending but their children then attend without them. Some married people are banned but their husband or wife are allowed to continue to attend. They see no difficulty with this happening as the leaders would only do it if they thought it was what God wants to happen to your family.

If you ever leave the church the leaders believe they have a right to speak about you publicly in a church service and use whatever information they have come to know about you in such a way to present you as a failure; and discourage others from leaving as you have. They think this is acceptable as long as God has told them to do it.

The leaders of Struthers churches believe they only act and speak what God tells them to. Because of that to criticise or express doubt about anything they do is regarded by some of them as the same thing as people in the Bible criticising Moses; or people denying things which the Bible says are true. If you are in Struthers you are never right to express doubt or criticise anything the leaders do. They believe this is what God has taught them to teach the people in the church.

Some Struthers church leaders believe that, in some cases, they have the right to influence teenagers and young adults to spend less time with their families. If this influence causes problems for the family the young person would usually be told that Struthers teaches God sometimes requires people to sacrifice their family relationships to show God that they put Him first. This would happen if the church leader had decided God was telling them that the family, or parents, of a church attendee were an adverse spiritual influence (for example if they are critical of their involvement in the church). They would think it fully acceptable for the young person to spend less time with family, or parents, in order to attend Struthers meetings. They teach it is often wise for young people to have leaders in the church for the most important mentoring and substitute parent roles in their life. If young people are estranged from parents as a result of this that is something they see as a sometimes inevitable and a fully acceptable result of their teaching.

If you become more involved in Struthers Memorial Church – and particularly if you attend Saturday night meetings, camps and conferences – any and all of these things will become possibilities affecting your life and your family.

These things happening to you are fully acceptable to the people bringing you to, and the people leading, the Struthers outreach you are involved in today. If they disagreed with any of these things happening to you then, clearly, they would not be trying to bring you into involvement with Struthers.

All the people who are involved in Struthers know these things happen and have happened to people just like you. They believe these things are acceptable Christian leadership and they believe they are sometimes necessary. They accept people like you can find God in other churches who do not believe or practice any of these things. But they are concerned that if the leadership was not free to act in the ways listed in this leaflet - you might not find God sufficiently “deeply” in your time in contact with Struthers Memorial Church.