Miracles after we left MCF

After we left MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) in 2016, there were a few rapid minor miracles that occurred:

MIRACLE 1. The day after Justine decided to join me in my departure of MCF I pinged Jeff & Annette Hammond on Facebook:

Help! We’ve left MCF and need to talk!

My Facebook PM to Annette Hammond, September 2016

Leaving MCF was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do in our lives for both Justine and I. And Jeff was an elder we knew well who had left and was going from strength to strength in his ministry in Indonesia and elsewhere.

Well, the first miracle was that Annette replied immediately and . .

Incredibly we’re arriving back in Melbourne on Monday. Let’s meet at Pancake Parlour.

Annette Hammond, 5 minutes later

These are ultra-busy people. Ultra-not-in-Melbourne. That was a miracle.

We almost cried when we saw them for one of the first times in 20 years. Great pancakes too, their shout.

They helped us appreciate that we were not leaving the Body of Christ (of course). But it is how we were feeling after all the cultish teaching.

And, also, how much they were continuing on in the original solid reformationist teachings of MCF.

Within a few days we caught up with Phil and Jenny Baird, Matt & Shelley & Craig & Carol who all helped us immensely. Life would go on! And get better.

Matt loaned us Kevin Connor’s biography which is a real eye-opener. EVERYONE should read it. We now have three copies available for loan anytime to anyone. Explains the whole thing about MCF. The good and the bad.

MIRACLE 2. In our search for a new church we dropped in on the nearby Life MInistry Centre (LMC). It was ex-Pastor Hal Oxley’s 100th birthday. The yhad bed sheets up on the walls everywhere showing his old 1970s teaching materials on . . Biblical restorationist teachings that looked suspiciously MCF-ish, in a good way.

Then Pastor Oxley testified:

To learn the Bible I met every week with the great Australian and US Bible teacher, Kevin Connor. We would spend 6 hours a week together on Thursday nights from 8pm to sometimes 2am. Everything I know, I know from Kevin Connor.

Pastor Hal Oxley, October 2016

Justine and I looked at each other and almost fell of our chairs. Kevin Connor was a great proponent of MCF’s original teachings, and the elder who left MCF in the 1970s because of the known immorality of the top dog Ray Jackson Snr. And the fact the other elders wouldn’t listen to him or Bob Holland.

We immediately felt at home and made LMC our home church. We even got to meet Kevin and his wife (from City LIfe) before he passed away in 2018.

That was a miracle.

MIRACLE 3. After a men’s breakfast at LMC that October 2016, I met an amazing young guy, Sergio. He has a really honest healing ministry and just tries to help people and preach the gospel.

Well Sergio asked where we had come from. When we said MCF, he said ‘Funny you mention that because I asked the Lord last month, what is this MCF place?’

Because Sergio had seen the street signs on Maroondah Hwy.

He went on to finish the story. Apparently within a week of his prayer he was having dinner with his wife in the city somewhere. The lady on the table next to him was complaining to her husband of a really sore ankle that just wouldn’t heal. Sergio overheard and said, ‘Could I briefly pray for you?’ She said ‘sure’, Sergio prayed, and she thanked him. I think the pain began to lessen.

But here’s the miracle for us. A man on a third table, said ‘You really shouldn’t pray like that for random people.’ Sergio had a brief chat with him.

Turns out the guy was an MCF elder.

MCF just doesn’t believe in any one taking any initiative . . on anything. Even praying in public is forbidden by the sounds of it.

So Sergio knew miraculously all about the naysayer, don’t do anything way of MCF, the WEEK before we turned up at LMC!

That was like three confirmations we did the right thing!