The intensity of the pain is such that if I let myself go near it my chest hurts and I feel as though I cannot breathe. Some things were said about Driscoll soon after his downfall; most notably by NF leaders Andrew Wilson and Matthew Hosier, with NF church leader Phil Whittall saying more about this after podcast series Rise and Fall of Mars Hill chronicled the history of New Frontiers and Mark Driscoll. It is not proportionate to the harm I have experienced at the hands of Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor, and the impact this has had on my life.

They confirmed that “an abuse of power relating to his ministry, and spiritual abuse; described in guidance as ‘a form of emotional and psychological abuse characterised by a systematic pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour in a religious context’. When John Wimber visited the UK back in the eighties, these people were young and idealistic, still relatively powerless in the grand scheme of things. I have been shocked and saddened that my prayers have been regarded by some as an unqualified endorsement of whatever he is found to have been doing.Saunderson was a Director of the Lambeth Trust from 2012 until July 2023, [xxxii] and was also a Director of Soul61 from 2013 until 31st March 2023, [xxxiii] two days before the Church of England and Soul Survivor issued statements about Mike Pilavachi stepping down.

On 11 th July, Mike Pilavachi took to his personal Facebook page and his private Instagram account to share the news that he was resigning from Soul Survivor. xxviii] Until 2018, both Mike Pilavachi and Andy Hawthorne were Directors of Hope (alongside Rachel Jordan and Laurence Singlehurst), with Roy Crowne as Executive Director. More recent concerns ( HERE and HERE) in Newfrontiers churches raise further questions about the church network founded by Terry Virgo.July – Terry Virgo (founder of New Frontiers) has issued a statement on Twitter ( HERE) and Facebook ( HERE) about his public support for Mike Pilavachi.

xxix] In the year 2000, the Message partnered with Soul Survivor to run Message 2000, an event across Manchester in which over 5000 young people participated. I found myself blocked by Justin after I responded to his tweet HERE and HERE by saying, “To help who? It’s not about rubbishing the person who messed up, it’s certainly not about saying that their organisation must never do any work ever again. They saw the way that other forms of faith had been corrupted or stripped of power and they sought, with great enthusiasm to follow where Jesus was leading.

July – The Telegraph published THIS article about the Soul Survivor situation, “ The abuse scandal tearing Christianity apart“. September – Telegraph piece published HERE stresses concerns by those abused by Mike Pilavachi that the findings will not be made public from the investigation substantiating allegations against Pilavachi. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,and who meditates on his law day and night. August – Premier report HERE that UCCF have apologised for how long their investigation into two of their male senior leaders is taking. In THIS article about trauma expert Judith Herman’s new book “ Truth and Repair”, she makes explicit what most of us who’ve been abused know, that the pain of being failed by our community can be just as unbearable as the abuse we were subjected to.

November – Youthscape publish their second podcast “Processing Our Collective Grief” HERE, with Kate Middleton about Youth Ministry After Mike Pilavachi. Relational Mission 2012: Early to get Mike Pilavachi involved was the Relational Mission Sphere; particularly Mike Betts, who recently shifted from being the sole Apostolic Lead of that sphere to a team model, with Mike Pilavachi speaking at their 2012 “Elders and Wives” event (each sphere would independently hold one of these annually). This post came not long after he extricated himself from the Anaheim Vineyard situation, with a statement which while likely giving him splinters from sitting on the proverbial fence, managed to insist that Alan Scott ( now credibly accused of spiritually abusing a dozen people) and his wife Kathryn are “ people who listen diligently to the Lord and simply seek to obey.

Hillsong Australia (spoke at their annual conference the same year as Michael Gugliemucci was sharing his made-up testimony). November – I posted THIS guest post from a woman who reported her experiences with Mike Pilavachi to investigators. The Man told us it was “all about Jesus” and that Jesus (it turns out) declared it would be better to be drowned in the depths of the seas than to cause even one of these little ones to stumble.