The church our family was involved in for 5 generations is a worldwide affiliation of home fellowship gatherings we call the 2x2s from outside. There were so many of these gatherings, that while on vacation, fellowship in someone’s house could usually be found nearby. We were taught to read our Bibles and pray twice daily, to have a personal relationship with God.
One thing I miss from those years is old school hymns sung acapella style in 4-part harmonies. I’m not saying most of us were any good at singing! We heard a wide variety of men and women preach, and we heard twice each week from members in the congregation. I began speaking nervously from the Bible twice weekly at 10 years old after “making my choice” as we called it.
The 2×2 ministry is unique. They are unmarried, not seminary trained and would give away nearly all their belongings to travel, preaching. Many of them in a practice of bounded choices felt called by God to Ministry and reluctantly followed that calling in the best way they knew how. Many continued their entire lives in that lifestyle. They took no collection or salary, but we gave them money when they would come stay in our homes. Some people left entire estates to the cause, on rare occasions, millions. Most of these preachers likely started with noble intentions and sacrificed more than most believers have. For many years, it seemed similar to the Book of Acts to us, with a few updates. The results of all our works tell a much darker story.
The 2x2s started in 1897 in the UK. The origin story was not known to most of us, and not talked about until a few authors, including my aunt, spent many years trying to uncover and prove it. There are roughly 75,000 active 2x2s today, though they have been shrinking by thousands annually since the 1980s. From inside we called it “the truth” or “the way”. Those names make me cringe now.
Until 3 years ago, my wife and I couldn’t see it yet; but legalism, many false doctrines, and idolatry of the church and those preachers have been the norm in the 2x2s for a few generations now. An idol is anything that for us, takes the place God should have. Jesus IS THE WAY to salvation, NOTHING else can take His place. Even good and necessary things can become idols to us, if we’re not careful. Worship the Creator, not His creation. Trust God, not man.
Over the years we heard a few incredible stories of personal transformation and God reaching people in unusual ways in our former church. That God was undeniably working in some people in our group despite its many issues is partly because God saves souls, not organizations. From personal experience, I know God can reach people in difficult circumstances, wherever we are, whatever we’re struggling with.
Despite being college educated people, it took my wife and I 43 years and a huge crisis to figure out that our family had been born into a cult. That label has been confirmed recently by two of the world’s leading cult researchers. Before we began advocating for changes during the crisis, we had almost no questions – they had been our people. That was our culture. We still have people we love who are spiritually asleep. You likely already know, trying to lead upright lives in our own way and strength doesn’t work – instead it produces pride. Revelation and transformation is the Lord’s work. God’s way is Jesus and He has the power to transform our lives.
Over the years I had a few times when I thought about wanting to leave that group, and this thought would come to me: something like Ruben Mata will happen again; THEN, it will be time to leave. Ruben was a preacher who died in prison having received justice for his crimes against children. As far as I knew, something like Ruben happened very rarely. I kept it to myself until after we left – my wife would have worried about me even more than she already was. I was not as devout.
In 2023 what happened in our former church was WAY bigger. Over the span of 3 years, roughly 1,200 people were accused of sexual abuse in approximately 23 countries. Thousands of people woke up around the same time. The FBI and their counterparts in several other countries opened investigations that are still ongoing today. My wife and I self-reported our involvement as we are trained to do in our careers and asked for advice. Multiple media outlets picked up on the aftermath. The news reports and Hulu documentary I saw don’t adequately describe the depravity and horrific stories I heard from many survivors.
The unmarried, travelling preachers that had stayed as guests in our houses, accounted for nearly 40% of the alleged abusers. The works of the flesh were evident. I naively assumed EVERYONE but the evil doers would want this problem fixed. Instead, the church mostly pretended nothing was happening and the false preachers refused to repent or consider changes. These men and women the congregation had idolized, decided right and wrong for them – most of the people seemed to be disconnected from their own conscience. The term “vertical morality” that people have been talking about recently is a similar concept in secular terms. The Bible calls it a “seared conscience” and it happens when we get in the habit of NOT listening to it. A seared conscience is perhaps the worst of 7 conditions of conscience recorded in the New Testament.
Not all cults are religious. They often don’t seem dangerous at first, but become obviously dangerous towards the end. After nearly a year of many people including us, trying to inform families, fund raise for survivors, engage professionals, set up a survivor advocate network, call for resignations and failing to change much, a friend of mine in his 80s shared something profound. “Jesus didn’t try to fix the religions or governments of his day. He simply called people to himself and is still doing that today.” My mindset shifted.
We eventually realized the only thing we could change was ourselves and that already seemed nearly impossible sometimes. If what happened next was common in the cult, people kept it to themselves…I only recall hearing 1 person I knew share anything remotely similar. One day while being instant in prayer, my wife heard directly from the Lord. She came home excited saying it was as if Jesus had been right there with her. The first thing He said was: “Don’t be afraid. I am with you”. It was exactly what my wife needed – she had been afraid her family might shun us. She was now ready to leave, like I had been.
3 days after firmly communicating our decision to family and people who had met at our house for many years – I was trying to work. I was ruminating and anxious about whether we had done the right thing or not. People that knew us well would say that we had lost our salvation and had fallen away. An intense thought just kept repeating in my mind: “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you.”
I called a friend. He didn’t hesitate to share that about 2 weeks prior he woke up around 2 AM one morning with the same verse repeating. His family of six had just left. Afterward, I shared it among about 4,000 of us that had been wanting change and heard from nearly a dozen people around the world who the Lord had personally spoken the exact same message to! I had always heard a caricature of assurance of salvation preached against, but the Lord spoke assurance of MY salvation to ME – you can imagine how I felt!
As we continued waking up, we realized we had been living in survival mode…we had been dead to feeling as a coping mechanism. Paul called it “past feeling” from his own experience. As we felt freedom and shed our religious pride, we began to love God and people more than ever before. I can’t blame how we were on anyone else. We had participated in deceiving ourselves over many years. This is one of the 3 times I’m aware of, where the Lord helped me out of a very dark experience. The Lord is my comfort and strength. Our family is closer to Him now than ever before.
How we got here is probably different than most people, but that doesn’t matter now. We are followers of Jesus. Our family comes to church to learn from the Bible, to guide our children and to find fellowship with others following Jesus. We search scripture to discern what is true. Sometimes it takes years before God provides revelation, but he has provided so much more than we have time to share today. If you see us wandering around with silly grins – it’s because we’re happier now than we have been for a long time. These days I look around at the beauty, expanse and complexity of creation and I KNOW God not only exists – He is AWESOME! God is still speaking to humanity in many ways, still drawing people to Himself. He speaks at depths our souls can feel.
By Will Sumner
California
September 2, 2026
Link to Will Sumner’s Exit Letter: https://ex2x2.info/2024/03/14/sumner-will/