One man ministry

This post was prompted by reading about another doomsday cult exposed. Not all cults or radical Christian groups are that extreme but perhaps they share a theme.

I've commented previously about the huge number of "Christian" denominations. A common pattern is that a naturally charismatic person gets a radical idea which he or she reckons is a divine "revelation", and attracts a number of followers who are already disillusioned with their own faith or lack of it and are looking for meaning in life. Feeling they have been helped by this one person's ministry, after a while they become so blinkered that they fail to take appropriate action when they detect error. At the early stage the group claims that they have revelation beyond any other group. If they are to remain loyal, members are told they must take radical steps like setting up a wilderness community. The group adamantly denies being elitist or being "another denomination" and decries the idea of a "one man ministry" but time proves otherwise. Eventually the main leader is recognised for what he or she is, or is superseded or dies and thereafter the movement's teaching dissipates or gradually declines and resolves into "mainstream Christianity" but we are left with yet another denomination.

Here are some examples:

Methodist (John Wesley),
The Peculiar People (James Banyard),
Quakers (George Fox),
Shakers (Ann Lee),
The Move (Sam Fife),
Mormons (Joseph Smith),
Plymouth Brethren (John Darby).

You might disagree with some of my examples or you might think of others but my point is the common theme.  And we know this theme, because we have been there, done that - under a particular "ministry" but, mercifully, we escaped relatively unharmed. But we hear rumours of those who were physically abused or were forced into debt not of their own making. I do not think in our case that the leading ministry was intentionally manipulative: it was just the way he was, and we weaklings followed as the lamb to the slaughter. One lesson to be learned is to take off the blinkers.