Jenny and I have come to a place where we feel we can no longer be part of this fellowship due to what we see as structural flaws that have become evident in recent years. The largest of these is the refusal of the ministry to protect the flock from the evil that has been discovered in the fellowship and its ministry. This has been brought to the forefront since the revelation of CSA and SA.
What really bothers us is the lack of righteous anger against those who perpetrated these acts and the lack of remorse and repentance within the fellowship, both by the ministry and the saints. The abuse revealed isn’t something new but has been perpetuated over many years and nothing was done to protect the sheep and lambs of the flock.
I, myself, have been guilty of not speaking out in my youth to protect children. When we lived in Nebraska, I witnessed our elder behaving inappropriately. Because he was an old man, I chalked it up to old age but in reality, he wouldn’t have just begun these actions in his old age but probably committed these acts throughout his life, affecting the lives of others. There were signs that I just didn’t comprehend as a young man. This was called to mind after the recent discoveries affecting so many young lives, girls and boys, and also the lives of some of our beloved sisters in the ministry.
Combating this evil within requires a desire to drive the evil out; this just isn’t being done. We are told to forgive the perpetrators as this is what Jesus would have done, but he also would have been outspoken. In one case, he made a scourge and drove the evil doers out of the temple when they were selling animals for sacrifice within the temple area, stating in John 2:16, “Take these things hence; make not my father’s house a house of merchandise.”
Those who were committing these acts were driven out to protect the sanctity of the temple. The temple leadership should have been the ones to do this but they cared not for the souls of the people but the filthy lucre that lined their pockets. There was no place for this in the temple of God, a place of worship, a sanctified place. The wolves within should have been driven out to protect the flock.
We have come to the same place in our fellowship; the ministry has been more focused on protecting the ministry and their names and reputations than they have been on protecting the flock. This is due to the premise of error of believing that this is the only true ministry. My reaction to this now is, if the ministry had been more focused on feeding and protecting the flock, God would have taken care of the ministry.
This ministry isn’t what saves us, but is the conduit used to spread the good news. It is an admirable calling and that was one of the things that drew me into this fellowship as a young man: the simplicity of the ministry. However, it is the love of Jesus in going to the cross that paid my debt. Because of sin we are separated from God, but God the Father and Jesus His Son, the Christ “anointed one”, had a plan from the creation to pay that debt. Our deaths are the cost of sin, it is to remind us of our debt that must be paid, God doesn’t release us from our debt but by the blood of Jesus we are redeemed and made clean from sin, the debt paid in full.
When the revelation of the Dean Bruer situation occurred, Alissa and Loren, our daughter and her husband, were deeply disturbed that this would even occur in our fellowship, as were we. We tried to talk through it, but they became troubled that little was being done within the fellowship. They felt a calling to get involved and I encouraged them and others to do what they felt they were called to do. We all know how this has gone, and when our younger brothers and sisters began leaving the fellowship I tried to encourage them that God sees what is happening and that it will take a younger generation to fix this problem as the older generation is resistant to change. But those within the ministry leadership aren’t just resistant, they are obstructionists, the policies that were suggested to be put in place have been rejected, saying, we only need the scripture as our guide.
The reality is that we have had the scripture for over 100 years, when this particular ministry was started by a man who felt moved to go forth and preach the gospel, as he had interpreted from reading the scripture. Whether right or wrong is not my premise, I love the purity of the homeless ministry, and yet, evil still persists within the structure of our fellowship.
When my children left the meetings, I was contacted by several in the ministry who told me how sorry they were that our children and others had left. My response to them was to stop and consider why they left. These young ones with their children didn’t leave to go out into the “world” because of the allure of the flesh. They weren’t unstable souls either; our children were rock solid; they loved the fellowship and those within but felt the fellowship had left them.
We have become a religion that is not unlike the children of Israel who had become lifted up in their thoughts, that the children of Abraham were the only true and saved children of God. Instead of being humbled by the thought that God took a people who were not a people and made them into a great nation set aside for his purpose; they became haughty and lifted up and forgot where they came from and the promises made to Abram in Genesis 17 that he would be the father of all nations.
Jesus was confronted with this all the time; only those who had hearts that could be turned and repent from their sins would be saved. Jesus told the woman at the well that it wasn’t in this mountain or in Jerusalem where men and women are to worship, but God seeks those who will worship him in Spirit and in Truth.
If God was looking for a religion, we would all have continued to be Jews. Many of the early Christians attempted to do that very thing, making as doctrine the traditions of man. Paul preached against these very things and sadly we have allowed traditions to enter into our fellowship as doctrine, or maybe they have always been there, and we just didn’t want to see it.
Please understand there is no animosity or any ill will toward anyone, just sadness that a simple way of fellowship could become corrupted just like the early church did in the early centuries. That is why God wants those who will worship him in Spirit and in Truth. Man is indeed a corruptible being, and all that he does or touches runs the risk of becoming corrupted as well; our thoughts are not God’s thoughts.
Having made the decision to step away from the fellowship has not come easily, but we feel that because of the issues before us this is for the best. We will no longer be attending meetings or hosting the Union Meetings. For the time being, we will study the scriptures and pray without ceasing for God’s guidance and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Just like those early disciples of Jesus who were looking for the Messiah, we too are looking for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are confident that we are blood-bought and that many people outside of this fellowship are seeking to please God by believing in the gift of our Lord and redeemer Jesus. Only in Him can we be saved; there is no other.
With love in Christ,
Rick & Jenny Sherman
Iowa
November 2024