Open Letter to Melbourne Christian Fellowship (MCF)

The Little Ones List

UPDATE: 3 more families added today (Tuesday, Dec 3rd, 2019).

This is a list of people and families abused by MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship)/BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship) and its offshoots, mostly, but not exclusively, since 1992 (i.e. due to the Vic Hall ‘guru messenger‘ word). It does NOT (yet) include hundreds of people affected by David Falk-induced business losses at BCF and TCF (Toowoomba CF) or dozens of people stupidly mistreated by Bob Stevens and David Bonham in the 1980s/90s at Leongatha CF or harsh treatment in Shepparton CF because I have no first hand link to these testimonies (please contact me).

It’s mostly anonymized (indicated by quotes around the pseudonyms).

None of these people, including myself, are perfect. But they/we are not the monsters or lost souls that MCF/BCF makes them out to be.

Their/our only crime was often simply: being compliant. Or not able to 100% meet MCF/BCF expectations of perfection. Or none at all. And it was always at threat of loss of salvation or loss of relationship with family and friends. What makes it so insidious and abusive, is that we were living together in a community, friends and family. And so, we were taken advantage off precisely because . . we were compliant ones or didn’t want to lose relationship. If the only way to live like that is to agree 100% with eldership, then you will end up with a horrifically abusive cult that employs bullying and manipulation. And we did.

INVITATION: Let me know by the contact page or 0411 091 999 SMS if you want to be added here, anonymized or otherwise, or want an entry modified or removed. It’s time for the code-of-silence to be lifted! Shout the truth from the rooftops.

Adding more every day on this page . .

Person	Place	Elders	When	Abuse	Comment
Helen Pomery	BCF	Vic Hall	2000s	As reported on the Four Corners national TV program in 2008, Helen Pomery was forced to shun her own daughter (due to the daughter’s assumed ungodly living) to the extent of not talking to her after her daughter was kicked out of the house. Helen was required to write written reports of her obedience or otherwise to her husband and the elders. Then she was kicked out of her own home and divorced by her BCF elder husband whom she had loved.	There, of course, is no Biblical justification for divorce other than unfaithfulness. God does not expect wives to obey husbands like slaves.
Paul ‘Kovaks’	MCF	Laurie Holland David Bonham Steve Anderson Steve Holland	1995-2016	At the continual threat of hellfire, Paul Kovaks, a PhD CSIRO scientist, was banned from doing an essential ‘postdoc’ internship and forced to stay in a job 5 years longer than he wanted to. He was banned/delayed from commercializing his software for 7 years. He became unemployable, lost complete confidence in his abilities and the family of six lost their home. He was ultimately banned from thinking about technology at all or from any ministry over a 20+ year period. It amounted to psychological abuse for 20+ years, causing him to believe that he was sinning to loss of salvation simply for wanting to switch careers.	That’s me. It was very hurtful and I cried every week for 20 years, often while mowing the lawn.
Simon Doyle	NCF SCF	Clay Williams Tim Maurice	2000-2017	Simon Doyle grew up with a childhood somewhat warped by XCF fear mongering (they’d made him think a few seconds of flirting would forever damn him) only gradually noticing the exclusivity and cultishness of NCF/SCF. Ultimately he was forced to take up a career he didn’t want, study it their way, lost his sister for many years and was banned from a marriage.	Crazy, destructive & prescriptive ‘guru headship‘ bullying.
‘Thanomere’	ICC (Ipoh)	Vic Hall	2000-2015	‘Thanomere’ was a young leader, loved by all in Malaysia, nurtured by Vic Hall, and top man in Ipoh, at the expense of his supposedly wayward parents who he was to shun. But then, when Than began to mix with other churches, Vic Hall turned up, verbally abusing him, accusing Than of all sorts of ridiculous sins such as being damaged and feminized and so on and telling lies to the other elders without Than present. Than was brutally cut off from leadership and the congregation he loved, and which loved him, especially the youth. Reputation. Ministry. A life’s work. Finances. Destroyed overnight.	Apparently this is typical Vic Hall in action. Causing division between friends and family members. And then coming with his hatchet.
‘Martin’ & ‘Liz’	BCF	?	1999	Devoted couple, still in BCF, sold all their brand new boat and water sports equipment due to it being declared an ‘idol’. Then lsot their son forever when he left due to the control freaks.	Just stupid and mean spirited. And I noted this lovely friend of my wife’s has 3 boats in his backyard now.
Aad & Aria	SCF	Tim Maurice	2005-present	Hugely giving, exuberant Dutch couple. Gave their daughter up to Sydney and then banned from making contact with their grandchildren when they left MCF. Why? They didn’t 100% agree with MCF/SCF teachings.	Aad gently, kindly and Scriptually warned me about MCF’s wayward teachings around 2000. I’ll never forgive myself for having largely ignored him (I did agree on some points) and losing contact.
‘Eleanor’	MCF	?	2000-present	She was the most giving girl in church in her ministry to children and in every other way. But then her flat mate ‘minders’ (leaders) in a girl’s share house kept criticising her exuberant nature and other so-called imperfections, the church dumped endless babysitting for elders’ kids, not to mention leaders destroying her career despite her winning teaching awards, and she eventually cracked. She left and was cut off from her huge and well-connected family and banned from seeing her nephews and nieces.	Unforgivable presumption and experimentation of a stupid theory. At least her parents are talking to her again.
‘Nell’ & ‘Jimmy’	MCF	?	2005	This senior couple just loved sharing the gospel and singing and playing organ at old age homes. When they wouldn’t lay down their ministry at the elders’ request they were declared ‘unworthy’.	And the poor ol’ organ player, Jimmy, was blind. No understanding of common decency. And these were just about the only MCF ones ministering to the community!
‘Chris’ & ‘Catrina’	MCF	?	1992-1997	Asked to stop seeing her parents up country. Later he was recommended to switch jobs for no real reason. And they saw what was happening to others. They got out early, not wanting to pointlessly waste their lives away.	Dodged a bullet.
‘Damien’	MCF	David Bonham	1992-2000	Forced to do a career he didn’t want to do.	Ridiculous mentoring of the most friendly and kind-hearted young person you could imagine. Miss you D.O. You up in Qld? Contact me!
‘Cameron’	MCF	David Bonham	1992-2004	Olympic level runner continually bullied for his running interests. Accused of idolatry. Declared ‘un-marriageable’.	Treacherous counsel of a talented young person. Creating disgusting burdens for people. Soul destroying declarations. Totally anti-Scripture.
‘Jack’	MCF	?	1997	Lovely partly disabled gent, probably hitting his 40s. Married a non-MCF Christian girl. The day before his wedding, all his friends were called up by MCF and banned from attending the wedding and reception. Can you imagine that at the reception?	Just cruel. Ends justifies the means hey? But MCF, even your ends are misplaced! And your means? Disgusting, demonic. God bless you RW.
‘Pete’ & ‘Eva’	Nhill CF	Ashleigh Miller	1998	Wonderful couple, needing to take up a job offer further North. Told they’re idolizing work and lacking faith. Treated like visitors for their monthly attendances back at Nhill. Screamed at by her relatives.	Just mean spirited. Why can’t you respect people’s sanctification to make their own decisions? And accept that there is life outside of XCF? Your actions show that there is little Christ in you and XCF is a near worthless place, not a blessed place! And, my friend Ashleigh, have you apologized?
‘Stefan’ & ‘Rose’	MCF	?	1999	Partly disabled man and his girlfriend hitting forties banned from marriage. And he was asked to donate most of his disability payout to the church.	Typical MCF, insisting on their judgement of perfection. In a real world. And on an still almost young couple getting older every minute.
‘Shawn’ & ‘Jeanie’	MCF	David Bonham Steve Holland	2004	When their 14 yo daughter ran away from home, the close knit homegroup was called up not to contact this distraught, ultra-giving couple. Later, he was banned from taking up a promotion in Bacchus Marsh. Now about to retire, it turned out to be the only promotion he ever got.	Just pure evil. Sick. Later the other couples in the homegroup explained how much they had wanted to comfort them.
‘Brent’ & ‘Kim’	MCF	David Bonham Steve Anderson	2009	Was a quiet guy who finally found a bride overseas who joined the fellowship. But they had to get married outside of church due to being banned from marriage. Later told by Steve Anderson that that leader had ‘no heart’ for ‘Brent’.	No understanding of the differing journeys people take. Horrendous leadership.
Milena ‘Kovaks’	MCF	Rhonda Bonham Helen Holland	1990s	In her 50s, long time Christian, starting to come along to MCF with her committed husband. Instead of being welcomed she was told to her face that she was one of the ‘young women’ that needed to learn from the ‘older women’ despite her life experiences and gifts of hospitality she was already sharing with younger women.	Zero wisdom on the leaders’ part. No attitude of welcoming to inclusion.
Jeff & Annette Hammond	MCF	Ray Jackson Jnr Vic Hall	1995	An ground-breaking elder kicked-out because he wanted to discuss the new ‘guru headship’ teachings. But was told it was a ‘Fathered Word’, ie, already discussed up in BCF.	Jeff & Annette were the ones who had academically validated the earlier (good) restorationist teachings. And they get left out of the validation of the new word?

Characteristics of (false) super apostles

IMO, the type of leadership at MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) and BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship) we lived under for more than 25 years is best described by 2 Cor 11.

Paul describes the characteristics of so-called ‘super apostles’, ones that were claiming to be apostolic messengers:

5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” . . . 12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. . . 19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 20 In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face.
2 Cor 11:5-19

I don’t know about you guys, but those characteristics and behaviours are EXACTLY what we lived under at MCF:

enslaving
exploiting
takes advantage
putting on airs
slapping you in the face

They did it all. And continuously.

They paraded in front of us as kings and princes. Especially Vic Hall.

They enslaved us in purposeful and/or pointless endeavors.

They took advantage of our lowly positions and complying natures. So that, if we were low and trampled enough, they could ask us to give up anything.

They rubbished our plans and contributions: a slap in the face. 100x.

In fact, in my letter to them I described their continuous rubbishing of my plans and contributions as their:

. . vomiting and defecating crap and pissing over my life as I lay on the ground under them, after their spiritual whippings and bashings, with my eyeballs metaphorically knocked out of their sockets.
My letter to the MCF Presbytery

They literally mocked me and almost laughed at me:

There’s a man with blocked goals.
David Bonham to his henchmen about me, in front of me. As I was weeping.

Bastards. Absolute low lifes. Not men enough to admit it later to the point of accountability.

And that was the obvious stuff.

Living in that place every day, knowing you were five rungs below almost anyone else was like utter misery. Watching the strutting. Just trusting that somehow God knew. And despite knowing we had contributions to make. But we couldn’t say anything unless it was glorying a Vic Hall book.

St Paul forgot to add:

partial
wasteful

MCF was the most partial and wasteful place I could ever CONCEIVE of!

They were so partial and wasteful it was sickening.

You knew when you suggested something it was going straight into the waste basket. We may as well have been living there.

Could Vic Hall’s visitations of Christ be true?

I would like, in good faith, (and essentially as a hypothetical) to take Vic Hall at his word, and if he says he has had visitations of Christ, I’d like to believe him, with only a few caveats: was it really Christ or someone else? And does Vic tell us everything said during the visitation?

This is timely, because, thanks to Boundary Rider on StreetCar, we have Vic’s latest accounts of his visitations of Christ.

What I want to do is see if they are consistent with what Vic Hall preached and, what we are saying here about MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship)/BCF and what we know about Vic Hall’s calling and tendencies.

Here’s Vic’s twin visititions, supposedly, by Christ:

1975: He said, ‘I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.’ Rev 2:4-5.

2007: (The Lord) gave me the option to die. However, at the same time, He asked if I would continue to serve another generation. I took up the second direction because the unction of the Spirit was urging me this way. He said that He was displeased with how I had functioned among the presbytery. Under my oversight, men had crept in unawares and had devoured the resources that belonged to His little ones.

Firstly it should be said that Vic, in his testimony reported by Boundary Rider, reads a lot between the lines, for both visitations. That he allowed collegiality, multiple tiers of leadership and other minor problems in, for example. All side-stepping the real issues of wayward teachings and a lack of love.

And, secondly, and more importantly, nowhere does Vic apologize for the ‘devouring of the little ones’ that Christ supposedly accuses him of.

If this were all really true, Christ would have criticized his theology of guru headship. In the account, He does not appear to, unless he Lord’s threat of death was due to this wayward and self-serving teaching (he had pancreatic cancer at that point). Maybe all we are getting is Vic’s reading between the lines, and maybe – if it was true – Christ did criticize his guru headship stuff more directly than the comment about the ‘devouring of the little ones’?

But given the fruit of destruction by this move under Vic Hall, I simply can not accept that my God has chosen Vic Hall and THEN ALSO stood by him as late as 2007.

I can accept that, if this was Christ, it’s quite true – in our experience – that Vic & Jackson Snr and MCF/BCF ‘had lost their first love’.

But by 2007, the horrific guru headship practice was in full destructive force for at least 12 years.

However, the interesting point about letting men creep in who had devoured the resources of the little ones EXACTLY describes what happened to me.

There are two more ‘buts’:

We know that Vic Hall and his BCF presbytery were horrifically harsh themselves. Not just ones that ‘crept in’. Look at what Vic himself did to a young leader in Malaysia, destroying his ministry and dividing his family.
The implication that Vic Hall really is God’s chosen leader is hard to accept. Everything we’ve heard is of an egotistical, ambitious, cruel and love-less man with a strong religious spirit. And his actions and fruit support that.

So, although, there is a truth in the supposed words of Christ as to Vic’s failings, especially allowing ones to ‘take resources from the little ones’, this was all due to Vic’s careless, self-serving and non-Biblical teachings and so we can only assume that these visitations are: untrue, or not properly reported or from a demonic source.

A religious spirit explains absolutely everything. We all wanted to hear directly from Christ! We all wanted revelations! But in Vic Hall’s case, he craved them, he sought them and went on and bragged about them. And probably manufactured these teachings, possibly with demonic help.

The irony is that Vic gagged us ‘little ones’ for 25 years from having even the slightest input, let alone ‘revelations’ and ‘visitations’. This is a Satanic move of God now responsible for the waste of thousands pf people’s lives.

Vic, your own father was a messenger to you. He told you before he died that you were in heresy with your messenger nonsense. When you ignore messengers, of that sort, you will become deceived, even initiating the visitation of false messengers that you ‘want’ to hear from.

Vic, look at how each of your visitations puts YOU on a pedestal!

I suspect the visitations are demonic, and occurred because of Vic Hall’s egotistical and religious spirit.

I declare this myth, that Vic Hall had visitations of Christ, as least as described, and certainly the one in 2007: BUSTED.

Will true unity come?

I’m a true believer (in John 17 etc), so yes.

But how? And what will it look like?

Well, only MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship)/BCF would believe that it’s going to be them, but what will it be?

Will it be

Grassroots Christians just coming alive (more in quantity & quality)?
Leaders coming together?
More agreement on theology?
Churches unifying?
All of the above?

I don’t know. But Jesus prayed that :

they would be one as He and the Father
are one so that the world may believe that you have sent me
John 17

so it’s got to be something that will happen before the 2nd coming.

Guess what? I think it IS happening.

I was just chatting to someone over email about Christian unity and it struck me that:

I’ve noticed (IMO) it’s getting easier to talk to most other (evangelical) Christians and find stuff in common beyond the obvious.
The traditional churches are becoming more evangelical (except for the very ‘progressive’ churches which are falling away from Scripture).
eg my sister’s Presbyterian church is on fire for the Lord and evangelism.
It’s helped by (IMO) the fact we all mostly go to the same Christian bookshops and even normal Christians (eg Baptists and Anglicans) go to Hillsong stuff etc because Hillsong are not too nutty.
It’s unifying the Body WITHOUT going MCF/BCF nutty.

It doesn’t mean that eventually some of MCF/BCF stuff wont come true, but what it means is that EXCLUSIVITY is not the way.

Definitely can’t be exclusive:

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.
Matt 24:23

And it’s happening anyway. Without exclusivity. MCF, your exclusivity is cutting you off from unity and your lampstand.

There’ll be more IMO, but it starts with the fact we all go to the same Christian bookshops and enjoy the fact we’re rubbing shoulders regardless of denomination.

Good memories of MCF

There were lots of good things about MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship). Mostly before the 1992 Vic Hall cult take over but not all.

We miss our friends at MCF
The congregation is so dedicated. Almost everyone was at everything. And a lot of the time we all really wanted to be there.
The early teaching was solid: early church like, everyone contributes. Multiple eldership. Restoration of all things. Clarity of understanding. Bible based.
The early practice of Priesthood of All Believers was great
The family Easter camps at Warnambool were fantastic in word and fellowship. We met in a huge circus tent from all over southern Australia and lived in caravans or tents. Fun concerts too. All of this got banned by Vic Hall of course.
Home groups originally fantastic. Everyone contributing. Until Vic Hall. NOw its Vic Hall book regurgitation and testimonies of giving up idols and how hopeless we all really are. Quite lifeless now. Fellowship was always good though.
Bible studies early on were edifying. Body of Christ. Eternal plans of God. Feasts of Israel. End times. Holy Spirit living. And so on.
Recent family camps for families with teenagers were fantastic. Great times with your billets. Not much fun for the kids unless you got billeted with families with kids though.
Lots of fun teaching Sunday School until they brought teach and plan by committee in. Really bad way to teach Sunday School.
Youth? Very cliquey in my day. And focused on band member talents. Later got better I think, by observation, but locked into Vic Hall word now.

Vic Hall. BCF presbytery. MCF presbytery. You are to blame.

MCF is now based on a false gospel

MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) is based on a fundamental shoe-horning, by Vic Hall, of his ideas on identity and calling to not just be a major part of the gospel, but BE the gospel.

We got taught that the gospel WAS finding your naming, your purpose, your works. And you do that through your guru elder.

Of course, it was occasionally stated that the basic gospel included Jesus dying on the cross for us. But boy was it minimized and we rarely – if ever – talked about Christian basics at home group over a 25 year period post-1992.

Most of the wows were about the ‘present word’. We knew we would get lots of noddings from leaders if we said how fantastic the present word was. I do not remember anyone ever saying how awesome Jesus was to make His sacrifice for us.

Now at MCF, the Sunday School was fantastic Biblically, but the lesson guidelines on teaching emphasis frequently was MCF/BCF-ish (ie about naming and offering and sonship etc). But it was pretty solid.

So, it’s almost like they thought, we taught you Jesus at Sunday School, now we’ll talk about the ‘meat of the word’. Great. But it wasn’t. It was a game of words as clarified by my father’s 2019 vision about MCF.

The gospel of course is layered.

We meet Christ.
We are born again
We let Him become Lord in our life
We let him transform us.
We take up our cross.

Is any of that alien to any evangelical?

Of course not.

But at MCF they kept emphasizing that nobody else was teaching this.

MCF’s game was to put fancy words around those teachings and try and get you to believe that nobody else was doing it or teaching it.

NCF, this is the epitome of disgusting bullying presumption

The ‘letter of prophecy’ I’ve been given permission to publish, was written sometime in 2017/2018 to an ex-SCFer (Sydney Christian Fellowship), Simon Doyle, who used to worship at NCF (Newcastle Christian Fellowship, NSW).

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It’s typical of XCF.

It’s unforgivable misuse of leadership really, because prophecy is to be ‘tested’ and ‘weighed up’ (1 Cor 14:29) by the hearers. And there should be multiple prophecies for confirmation.

But at MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) and its off-shoots, it’s not like that. Instead, they think, as elders, that they have the Lord’s mind and sight ON TAP at all times. And it’s frequently prescriptive, thus negating the need for the hearer to seek the Lord on it. It is proclaimed. It is a done deal. It’s totally anti-Biblical. And the prophecies will always amazingly align with the current word being preached, and not particularly with Scripture.

While I was there I came to realize that this church believes that whatever comes to their mind AND IS RELATED TO THE PRESENT WORD PREACHED, then it IS the word of God. That’s how it works. But some of us have integrity. That’s why I was as quiet as a mouse and they blabbered like talk show hosts all those years.

In the prescriptive letter to Simon Doyle (ex-NCF/SCF), he is essentially damned to hell and not allowed to make his own decision where to attend church. And in a most ruthless and disgusting manner. And note the emphasis that there are no other worthy altars on earth other than XCF.

You do not need to know anything about Simon (it’s just irrelevant) but FYI, he’s a strong believer in Christ and His word and simply wanted to (and did!) marry his Christian girlfriend.

Can’t you see XCF, you are bullies!

You must have your way.

You must be right every time!

For now, we ‘see dimly’. Life wasn’t meant to be prescriptive and controlling like you want it. You are babes in Christ at best.

Reality check: you are just normal humans like us. You do not have special sight. If you had wisdom you might have some good advice but then it wouldn’t be prescriptive and bullying like this!

Grow up and act like true representatives of Christ!

Vic Hall’s ‘Guru Headship’ . . revisited

Well, today, Nov 18th 2019, the MCF(Melbourne Christian Fellowship)/BCF daily ‘devotion’ is on . . you guessed it, guru headship!

They’re quoting 2 Cor 4:6 again that they, as the elders, are the face of Christ to us:

Monday | 18 November 2019
Light from the face of Christ
Summarising the ministry through which a person is born again and is then brought to maturity as a son of God, Paul wrote, ‘For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’. 2Co 4:6. To explain this point, Paul drew our attention to the ministry of Moses.When the Lord spoke to Moses concerning the Law Covenant, He wrote on tablets of stone. This covenant had a glory, meaning that it revealed the conditions of God’s Covenant through which an Israelite could receive their sonship as an eternal inheritance. After Yahweh had spoken His word to Moses from the fire of Their fellowship, the glory of this Covenant shone from Moses’ face. Exo 34:29-30. 2Co 3:7.

The people of Israel were unable to relate to the glory of the Law that shone from Moses’ face. He wore a veil on his face because the children of Israel were afraid to come near him. Exo 34:30,33-35. 2Co 3:13. Only then could he fraternise among them. The veil on his face was the veil upon their heart. Because of this veil, signifying their bondage to fear, the children of Israel were unable to access their sonship. Rom 8:15.

Paul explained that this veil remains on the face of the Jews, even today, when the Law is read to them. 2Co 3:14-15.Paul described the New Covenant as ‘the ministry of the Spirit’. 2Co 3:8. He said that the glory of the New Covenant far exceeds the glory of the former covenant that shone from the face of Moses. The Father shines the New Covenant into the heart of His aggelos messengers through the four ascension-gift graces of Christ. 2Co 4:6. When these presbyters have been born of this light, which is the life of God in Christ, the glory of Christ shines from their face.

Did you read that?!

Here’s the cult:

Somehow this gets switched from Paul to the ‘presbyters’ = elders! They are saying that Christ shines from the faces of the elders. Again!

If anything it can be applied to all of us as we shine Jesus as messengers! There’s nothing in there about ascension gift ministries or elders.

And they say that this shining in the elders hearts makes it shine from their faces! But 2 Cor 4:6 ACTUALLY says the light in their hearts is to give the light of God shining in the face of Christ. Not the face of the elders.

MCF/BCF ARE right about one thing however: the context of 2 Cor 4:6, indeed is that God revealed Christ to Paul and his fellow ministers of the gospel for our sake:

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ²Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Cor 4:1-9

But here’s the correct, consistent, face-value interpretation of these verses:

This Scripture is about Paul (and his fellow messengers) getting the original gospel of Christ from the Lord and bringing it to the people.
It’s about the revelation that Christ is the Son of God and died to save us! (That’s the gospel Paul preached: Christ and Him crucified.)
It’s not primarily about future day elders. If you want to apply it, it’s about anyone who is a messenger of the gospel. And we are all called to be ambassadors of Christ. ‘We have this treasure in earthern vessels’. We all do.
And it’s 100% certainly not about elders giving us advice about our daily lives and jobs and careers and ministries and marriages and houses and finances and hobbies and travel plans!
Along the way, MCF/BCF is trying to equate itself to the original receivers of the gospel!

Lastly, what is ‘this ministry’ that Paul is talking about nd who is being transformed into ever increasing glory? We find it in the last verse of the previous chapter.:

¹⁸And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Cor 3:18

It’s ALL of us, as we allow Him to transform us. It’s not the elders. And it’s not primarily through the elders. The Bible just does not say that. As it says, it’s from the Lord. Of course.

They are still at it folks.

This twisted ‘devotional’ stuff is what they all read every morning at home in bed. Or at prayer meetings together.

We never, ever looked at it critically. Even though they took over our lives from that point in 1995 or 1996. We were not encouraged to read the Scriptures in context to see what they are ACTUALLY saying. And the code-of-silence ensures nobody ever points out contradictions like this at home group. The only time stuff was debated in my 25 years of Vic’s stuff, the guy had to apologize later.

We need to make it known to those still in there that that teaching is extra-Biblical, destructive and hurtful and wasteful of 100s of lives if not thousands.

The ‘Perfection’ thing. Was it a root cause?

Something I’ve alluded to a few times is that in both the earlier, pre-1988 incarnation of MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) and the post-1992 Vic Hall period, there was an varying emphasis on the ultimate ‘perfection of the Church’.

This was always, to me, a no-brainer, that this was correct, as it’s based on the Scriptures on unity of believers (John 17) and the promise of a spotless Bride of Christ (Eph 5:27).

Now, MCF/BCF’s emphasis was that this perfection was to be on Earth before the 2nd coming. And John 17 is consistent with that because Christ prays for perfect unity ‘so that the world would know’.

So that all made sense. The Church would have a brief glorious ministry before the 2nd coming. Not standard teaching, but makes sense of those two Scriptures (and Revelations in detail actually).

But here’s where it sometimes got weird and cult-ish. When they talked about personal perfection. They quoted Eph 4 re reaching ‘the stature of the fullness of Christ’. It’s there in Scripture. But what does it mean exactly?

I think this over-emphasis on personal perfection and ‘dead works’ (Heb 6) got to their heads and they started to think they were ‘there’ already. And then imposed it on everyone else.

And assumed their ‘sight’ for others was ‘perfect’.

Then it’s not a long bow to think ‘the end justifies the means’.

Hence harsh treatment of the flock. If we’re moving towards perfection, then we only accept virtual perfection from the flock. Or at least perfect obedience.

And it was similar when they wrote books. They were so scared about writing something down wrong initially that they didn’t write books. Then they wrote them carefully together. Then they churned them out like beer from a tap.

But that’s the thing, the fact, they thought that, here on Earth, we could get it ‘perfect’, even before the appearance of the spotless Bride. That was cult. The idea they could write perfect books! And the irony is that we know that, in the end, they are horrifically flawed books!

The torture this idea of perfection puts on people. And even on themselves is hideous but is the common thread thru this move.

When I write this blog, I know that the only thing that is really important is the integrity I write it with. Not its 100% accuracy. Integrity is more important than accuracy. Those men substituted personal integrity with locking everyone into 100% obedience to a model that turned out to be horrifically flawed and yet supposedly infallible. Irony after irony.

So that’s where it became cult. When they thought they were right all the time. It became plain unwelcoming and . . stupid and dangerous.

It ignores the fact we are all at different stages in our journey. And we all have different interpretations of ‘disputable matters’.

And, for now, we see ‘dimly as through a mirror’.

So forcing stuff on people is just crazy.

Dear MCF/BCF congregants

Because of the ‘violence‘ of my/our leaving in 2016, I just want you all to know we still love much of the word we learned at MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship)/BCF (Brisbane CF) and miss all of you guys.

It’s hard not to really dislike some of your leaders because they lied to our faces, and in many cases, dealt treacherously with us for decades behind our backs. But I still like the people they used to be, or, at least, tried to be.

i really admire the talents and hearts of many of the young MCF leaders like Richie and Jona Wills but we’re just really concerned for what they are – in our opinions – being sucked into, and in Richie’s case, knowingly.

Please reach out to us. We still love you guys.

What violence did we exactly leave in?

Well, the leaders did what they always told us they would do with victims. They always preached against victim-hood and when we became genuine victims, boy, did they practice what they preached!

The difference was, in our case, we knew 100% what happened to us over 25 years. Not one of the elders knows the whole story because the elders do NOT keep each other accountable.

They just DO NOT DO IT.

So, in essentially Gary Worth’s words, unless it is sexual abuse, they will not do anything about it.

In our case it was a black and white case of, for 15 years, David Bonham and Laurie Holland and their buddies PRESCRIPTIVELY managing my life, threatening me continuously with hell fire. It was PRESCRIPTIVE. I was hurtfully not allowed to change jobs, banned from starting businesses, commercialize software or do internships. Ultimately banned from thinking about innovation.

Richie Kaa and Bob Stevens made it 100% clear this was not acceptable and were very disappointed in David Bonham et al.

Vic Hall made it 100% clear that, therefore – because they went ‘beyond their mandate’ – I deserved restitution to help us get our lives back together after 25 years of anti-stewarding my career.

That letter from Vic was read to them ONCE and ONCE only. No copies given.

Those perpetrators then claimed to me to NOT have heard Vic calling them to restitution and full apology.

Then your lovely, darling Richie Kaa REFUSED to read it back to them when I asked.

That is why I left without saying goodbye. That is why I consider that even Richie Kaa, (not to mention the perpetrators or the rest of the presbytery) have lied and betrayed me.

Can’t you see it’s a huge cover up? Not to mention a case of disgusting, protracted control and psychological abuse for 15-25 years? And that we deserved financial restitution to help us out of the gutter?

But we still love you. We don’t understand why almost all of you do not want to finally stand up to the eldership for our sake. We do not understand that. Because in our case we have all the evidence available and the perpetrators would testify to at least 90% of what we say.

And I have forgiven them. But when they are ready to pay restitution, I will accept it.

On top of that, I can show you Scripturally, how far off, Vic’s new theology is and why it’s so dangerous.