WINGS Note: Written by a professing couple and posted with their permission.
May 9, 2023
Dear Folks,
We want to ask for your input on what follows below. Your suggestions are needed for how to encourage change, as there are many people with serious concerns about the Ministry. Also please feel free to share this message as this is about transparency, accountability and honesty.
A few months ago, when the CSA tipping point arrived in our collective view, we knew that there were very few people that would be willing to tackle this matter. However, over the last couple of months there has been momentum growing and people that were previously reluctant to speak up and stand out are now doing so.
We truly value the blessings that flow from Fellowship in the Spirit but without unity true fellowship through the Spirit is not possible. Going into a future where there are camps of those that support the status quo and those that do not will destroy unity, which we are already experiencing. Most of you know we have had an unsanctioned Sunday meeting for the last 6 weeks or so and we have had some of our most precious meetings in that time, with the Spirit very clearly present. If our hearts and true intentions are of God, we will get true bread and we will be strengthened. This is a storm and foundations are getting tested.
Unfortunately the foundations of the Ministry are being shaken and are not faring very well. We don’t intend to write this as a “call to battle” or as people looking for a platform of support to further a personal agenda – far from it. We would gladly pass this on to anyone else better equipped to handle this. We are motivated by the Love of our Fellowship and of the Doctrine of Jesus and find the hurt that people are experiencing too much to just stand by and observe. We pray for Gods guidance every day in this, and we have Faith that the Spirit will be with us and will guide us.
List of possible changes:
These are suggestions and we ask for your input please:
- No more Overseers as we know it. The oversight of the Ministry be both Servant and Saint (men and women). Elders and Overseers are interchangeable in the New Testament. This will promote balance, accountability and transparency.
- Accountability and transparency of how Ministry money is spent and a return to living by Faith.
- Do away with the “culture of conformance” (as opposed to following Doctrine) and fear of being sidelined or ostracized.
- Keep an active watch against Cultism. The Ministry culture of male dominance, power and weaponization of fear must stop. The latter should apply to the friends as well.
- Administrative and planning meetings to not be held by Overseers only, but a combination of Servant and Saint.
- Convention time workers’ meetings to include Elders and Deacons. We need transparency, not secrecy.
- New workers be screened for suitability.
- Life experience – paid rent, held down a job, etc.
- [No] Criminal past.
- The work should not be a place for people who have no other options, as this becomes a natural reason applied to a sacred calling.
- Workers are not immune to being questioned about their actions. – this should be about open, transparent and constructive communication in the Spirit of Christ.
- The Spirit of Christ does no harm to a neighbour, so a culture that results in so many traumatized friends and workers both male and female, needs to be urgently addressed.
- Stay away from politics and socio-political issues.
Other thoughts:
For many years there has been a culture of covering up bad news and we believe that in some cases the intentions were noble but severely flawed. One such reasoning was that we don’t want bad news to discourage the sheep. However the sheep walk before God as individuals. We will be disappointed in man from time to time and we should not be surprised or discouraged by it. Secrecy is discouraging, not transparency.
Again we welcome any suggestions and understand that we may not all agree with each other but Prayer, Love and Grace will enable us to come together and with God’s help fix the Fellowship we love and cherish. You can text us with any input, feedback or suggestions. Our contact details:
Jeremy cell REDACTED
Leonie cell REDACTED
Kind regards,
Jeremy and Leonie Tomlinson
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I agree with everything you’ve stated. I’m not sure why your Sunday meeting isn’t “sanctioned “, perhaps you’re not free to speak to that, but I wonder if those attending have left other Sunday meetings that are sanctioned…if that’s the case ,then the call for unity rings a bit hollow, perhaps even somewhat hypocritical. There’s already a lack of unity among the workers regarding divorce and remarried friends taking part in the meetings.
I believe this letter is written by some folks in Canada, if you go back over the last 6 weeks and read letters written from Canada it sounds as tho things are exceptionally bad there. So we cannot point fingers of judgement, in my opinion on the sanctioned or non sanctioned mtgs because we are not in their shoes. I agree with nearly every point that is made here by the Tomlinsons. There needs to be some pretty drastic surgical measures to remove the cancer of a “secret society” of an “us” vs “them” culture of the workers and the saints. We should ALL be pulling together as a team as is suggested and nothing hidden by one society from the other. I have had a family member that had to leave the work and they immediately went to the “them ‘ category when they left the work. You can’t be a part of the secret club any longer when you leave. That’s sad. I hope positive changes are coming.
I’ve had a bit to do with those in Western Canada. They seem to be more conservative and hard-core there.
I agree with this whole heartedly, and my only suggestion may have been covered by the intent of removing the culture of conformance and fear of being sidelined. We need to get out of the judgement and punishment business. We need to welcome everyone as they are and allow God to change or remove people as He sees fit. The idea that we have some kind of authority to enforce a standard is not scriptural and results in nothing but harm. Our duty to one another is to love. If we can all do that as hard as we can I think the results will be more powerful than we can comprehend.
Amen!! Church should be more like a hospital, were the wounded and sick can come together and receive healing without being judged! IF the outward appearance matters ( and I don’t think it does) God will take care of it. It is not for us to make rules about it. Our church has become very exclusive, judgemental, and arrogant and it needs to change!
I agree with your suggestions. Transparency and truth, a light on everything. To many things have been hidden. There is something wrong when so many things are minimized and swept under the carpet. This is more in line with the Devils work. Darkness. Enough is enough. This is a ground zero moment for the TRUTH.
Agree with much that has been said. However there is much more answers needed. Who started this fellowship? When was it started? Is this fellowship the “only way”? Why are workers today not married? Were all the apostles not married men?( 1Cor.9:5) A truthful response to these questions and others will bring us to ground zero where God’s truth can prevail and His Holy Spirit can direct us in a way forward.
It has been said that the greatest religion in the world is the “i-think” religion. The suggestions in the above letter are a prime example to that.
The most dangerous religion is the world is the “I don’t think” religion.
I found number seven heartbreaking…being in the work I had a wonderful overseer is this precious experience. This was gone on from years and thanks to Doyle it is now being addressed. Overseer(s) are needful. Elder and worker meetings are important…very important. There are good points in this. Jesus lead and chose the ministry…they were not screened but chosen.
Can someone take my number down. I didn’t mean to post it for all to see.
Done
Hi Tomlinsons,
Thank you for your courage and advocacy for change.
Priority 1 expectations (ideas that confront the CSA/ SA issue directly and require professional input):
1A) [Ministry safe training & CSA awareness document] required for all workers, elders & wives; and recommended for all parents and grandparents so we are all aware and can help recognize and stop grooming behaviors which can be very subtle to the uninformed. In our area this training has already been encouraged for all.
1B) [Child safe policy] coming next in our state . Other areas have already published similar.
1C) [Code of conduct] in the plans for our state for workers and elders(?). Some areas have this already. Rule of 2 when visiting homes and w/ people. (a boyscouts policy following their scandal), This may be in the child safe or code of conduct policies.
1D) [A new zero tolerance policy] if not already included above as part of 1b that focuses on doing all of the things required by law(reporting suspicious behavior promptly), in addition to the morally right things(no cover up dishonesty/ letting things slide, which is also terribly wrong).
1E) [The implementation/ enforcement of that new zero tolerance policy] which we are already seeing this start with each removal. This also means going forward removing these people promptly from positions of any responsibility if not fellowship entirely for life (1Cor5, and professional recommendation) and reporting to law enforcement as required by law, not discouraging survivors from pressing charges.
1F) [Removal of any overseer from overseer duties that is not on board or comfortable with making appropriate changes at this time].
1G) [Encouraging the offenders to practice the 3Rs as recommended by professionals] including sincerely apologizing to their victims, admit to their crimes, and paying for therapy for their survivors.
1H) [Fundraising to help survivors pay for therapy] through advocatesforTHEtruth.com or similar. If there is some big trust or account that is being pulled from for conventions etc we should be pulling some big percentage of those funds to pay for therapy for survivors. So far the fundrasing there is embarrasingly slow considering we have so many affected worldwide and over decades. Part of this is b/c people don’t know about these websites, and because advocates is new with little content so far. We should practice compassion for the survivors. We own blame for grosley and very naivley mishandling CSA/SA in the past. Judges 20 most of Israel didn’t even recognize their idea for handling the first issue in Judges 19 was also very wicked…the Lord knew and made it clear.
1I) [Cease and desist immediately from exporting problem people] to other locations/ parts of the world. Ensure any with CSA/ SA history are recalled home to be dealt with.
1J) [Ensure our people in other parts of the world/ languages are aware of this issue]…right now I’m guessing we’re likely dealing with issues mostly from the English speaking parts of the world (I don’t have info to support this assumption). I’m really concerned for all the Spanish speaking countries especially.
1K) I wonder if some may have a [stash of old letters/ documents regarding past issues]. I’ve heard 1 example of this. My best guess is all these offenders didn’t just materialize in one month, people w/ responsibility likely knew about quite a few of them…time to go through it and clean out/report all the issues now.
1L) [A blacklist] some way of ensuring that perps don’t just move to another region/ country and jump right back into meetings/ elder/ the work etc. I’ve heard 2 examples of this. Overseers in different countries and regions will need to work together to try to keep offending/ grossly immoral people out of the work or as elder in other regions or even countries after they are kicked out. Background checks in future would include contacting the overseers from the places that person originated from before they can be trusted with responsibility.
Priority 2 (brainstorming ideas for changing the tradition/ practice things that require overseer, bro/ sis worker and elders & wives input)
Hello,
I’ve been keeping an eye on recent happenings within the organization since I have family members who attend meetings, and used to go myself.
I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts with you because I’ve spent years praying and reflecting on this topic. I believe it would be really beneficial for the folks in the organization to hear a different perspective from someone who understands that Jesus is perfect while recognizing that people are not. I’m not against meetings at all, but I do think having some guidelines in place for any large organization is important to prevent corruption. My aim in sharing my reasons for leaving is to inspire a better environment for everyone in the church.
What is posted above gives me hope. Most of the things addressed by the Tomlinson’s are reasons why I left meeting in the first place.
It was disheartening for me to see how tradition and judgment often took precedence over the love and freedom that Jesus offers us. I knew about the sexual abuse cases and even was a victim myself. From a young age, I came to this conclusion, people are corrupt but Jesus is not.
The secrecy surrounding meetings was a cause for concern for me. I couldn’t help but wonder why the issue of sexual abuse wasn’t openly discussed. I questioned where the money went, who managed it, and how. I also wondered why workers were held in such high regard when they were just as human as the rest of us.
The secretive nature of workers’ meetings made me question the dynamics of power and authority. Being told to have faith and avoid online sources that discussed meeting during conventions raised some red flags for me.
One thing I would like to say today is that I am proud that this is online. I am proud that meeting is breaking tradition and trying to figure out how to be healthier.
Speaking of tradition, there was a lot of pressure on women, particularly when it came to their attire. It was expected for women to wear skirts in the church, even if that wasn’t their usual choice of clothing in every day life.
I used to get panic attacks trying to figure out how to dress for meetings because all I wanted was to show up as myself, not as someone conforming to other people’s expectations.
I’m still feminine and modest when I wear pants. People within meeting have told me that pants and shorts aren’t modest and could cause men in the truth to stumble… but frankly, my favorite man Jesus says this: “If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you”. Most women in meeting dresses modestly and in skirts yet the church is trying to cope with an abundance of sexual abuse cases so maybe it’s time to break tradition and just remember what Jesus says about all this.
(I really have nothing against dresses and skirts. In fact, I love wearing them. But enforcing an unspoken, expected dress code is so silly. Focus on the heart, people!)
Lastly, I’d like to add something to the suggestions for change above. It’s about allowing married individuals to enter the ministry/ permitting workers to get married. Many are aware that there are instances of fornication within the ministry, it hasn’t been openly discussed on this website.
Pulling right from the Bible, Peter was married and a minister of Jesus.
Also pulling from the Bible, Paul says,
“If they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
I want to emphasis again, workers are human too. It is clearly possible to be called to the ministry and to a marriage. In fact, a healthy marriage is the best example of Jesus’ love and the convenent we enter with him. I wonder if allowing workers to marry would prevent further issues of secrecy within the church.
I want to close this by saying, I love meeting. I love many people in meeting and I do miss it at times. I left because I was scared of tradition, secrets and stigmas that came from those who challenged it. I support all the changes suggested by the Tomlinson’s and hope they are taken under serious consideration, for the health of the church and its members.
Love to you all.
At this point, there is nothing worth saving about this religion. There may have been many years past, but now it has more wrong than right. Ecc talks about everything has a time and season. Even our understanding evolves. Nothing remains the same. A few months ago I spoke with a brother worker who seemed to think he could make a positive impact from the inside. He is not an overseer. How can anyone take rotten meat and make a healthy meal? The whole thing needs to be dissolved. I just wish more people could see the truth about the truth. But there are so many worker worshippers that is possible it will remain. Just how far will the wicked fall before they see who they really are before God.
My oldest sibling is 65. She is bipolar and I know some people don’t believe in bipolar but trust me, she is. Very giddy highs, very low-lows. But she has always loved the friends and workers and still attends meetings even though in real life, she does it on her own terms; dyes her hair a bit, wears mascara and lip gloss, has fake nails, “natural-looking.” I sent her an inspirational page from my “Daily Word” booklet tonight and she thanked me but I know that she still chooses to view me as a ‘lost sheep’ because I don’t profess or go to meetings, nor will I ever ever, again. The reason these organized cults and/or religions survive is, those who were born into it and haven’t ever really obtained happy, successful lives outside of it, they are desperately clinging to the fantasy that this cult is the only way to Heaven. And it’s very sad.