Have you or your kids been to Soul Survivor?

[Coffeeandcards]

You might want to read this if so:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/12/mike-pilavachi-soul-survivor-charity-watchdog/

Yeah, it was announced in 2018 that the 2019 festivals would be the last. At the time they were still phenomenally successful and popular, so if you put the spiritual reason aside, it does make you wonder.

Thinking about church leaders and SS, many of them may not be in churches anymore.
During my time in that sphere, a lot of the church leaders with children and youth were barely out of college themselves. There was a lot of gap year youth work programs where people could take a year or two out to be a youth/children's worker or youth pastor. Most people I know who did those years and took groups to SS aren't in any form of ministry anymore.

Every so often I feel the anger, and Google people, and I have even emailed a church employing someone now.

But I know I'll be written off as a mad woman, so what can you do except move on.

Yes

I remember driving my dds to the one in south West

They went for a few years but no problems

I think that sometimes there are blurred lines and inconsistency between actively safeguarding, and protecting people....and acting in a godly way/forgiveness because "we are all sinners" etc

I've heard about people hosting a paedophile and having him stay at their house with young children because it wasn't for them to judge, he had been punished etc. A recent tv series, based on a true story, the 6th commandment had a murderer who was training for ministry. He had had psychological assessments and was found to have psychopathic tendencies....and was still accepted on the training programme.

I think it is because people think that forgiveness means you shouldn't have any boundaries.

That's the MASSIVE problem with all this. If you're abused, you're not allowed to want justice or punishment for the abuser.

The money thing surprises me. I thought they were raking it in. All those worship albums and other merch shift in industrial quantities.

I think there were some issues around using Shepton Mallet, as New Wine has moved around a bit since around 2018 too.

To get back to MP, do you think the safeguarding team understand the damage done by sucking young men with low self-esteem into a personality cult and then spitting them out less able to deal with what life throws at them? Surely this is the model of how NOT too youth work!

I think this is what this thread is getting at, with one pos

with one poster saying that a year's internship set his whole life off track.

Unfortunately, it's only when someone gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar that anything is see to be wrong. The wider picture isn't looked at.

He'd got as far as having a place on a selection conference but he wasn't yet training... Not that it's a heap better!!

Someone mentioned Josh Harris unthread and Kiss Dating Goodbye. I disagree that he has done enough about saying it was wrong. He made a lot of money off that book and movement and now he has just washed his hands of it. I wasn’t of that age but I’ve heard a lot of people have been hugely damaged by it long term. I would be more respecting of him if he put some of the money he’d earned onto resources to help those affected. Instead he has just said he’s not a Christian anymore and walked away.

He has actually done quite a lot and sought to be very fair on the people he damaged.

I've got every reason to hate people like him but I think his turnaround is genuine. I'm not sure quite what else he's supposed to do.

I have remembered something disturbing that happened at Soul Survivor one year. (I hope this is not triggering for anybody.) In one session in the big tent, there was a focus on sexual purity. They said anyone who had sinned sexually could go up to the front and be prayed over and God would “restore your hymen”. Does anyone else remember this, or similar? I feel quite disturbed by this memory, I haven’t thought about it for years.

Thank you everyone for the support on this thread.

@PrimitivePerson what has he done? All I’ve seen is a few sardonic you tube videos but happy to be proved wrong.

That is atrocious

Ewww, that's enough to make your skin crawl.

I'd heard of "God restoring your virginity" stuff in America, but they're much bigger on purity culture than we are, and I didn't realise that was a thing here.

I've always found the fundie obsession with virginity to be exceedingly creepy and verging on fetishistic in the worst possible way.

I didn’t go to soul survivor but other similar things (pioneer conference, Faith Camp etc) and I can totally imagine that happening (about the hymen restoring prayers) and what’s worse and horrifying to me is that I can totally see 15yo me believing in it.
To the poster that mentioned TIE team; yes I hear you. I did a short term summer one for younger teenagers and our church hosted the year long ones. And I totally recognise what you say

They are obsessed with premarital sex in the evangelical church

As you get older you start to think who cares who goes to bed with who - there's a poem I think

There are plenty of other 'sins'

And what about the blokes? Or was it only aimed at the horrible promiscuous women? Irregardless, it's horrendous.

Oh, it's HORRIFICALLY sexist. Purity culture really does a number on women, far worse than it does on men.

To be fair I think sex is forbidden outside marriage in the bible as it is in most major religions so I don’t think that is a really wacky teaching although the delivery might be a bit questionable in fundamentalism.

And what about the blokes? Or was it only aimed at the horrible promiscuous women? Irregardless, it's horrendous.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Ugh...a choice of ritual humiliation, or staying guiltily seated (after all, how many healthy teens and young adults haven't 'sinned sexually' according to the hypocritical moralisers?)