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/

https://ethicalcustard.blogspot.com/2023/08/who-paid-for-mike-pilavachi-interns.html

The collection money from young people/charity at SS was paying for expensive gap year experiences. The interns were all sons of friends/MP godchildren. There was no route to apply externally.

The girls had to pay for their courses which was a different set up.

I hope that the charity commission is going to robustly examine this.

@Sameynamey Thank you for sharing the article.
No wonder the Charity Commission are investigating the financial situation at Soul Survivor.
Having attended Soul Survivor a number of times I do not recall that around 25% of the collection would be used to fund interns at Watford Soul Survivor Church, though it is a long time ago.
It does seem quite bizarre that money given to one charity was routinely moved into another.
If a chunk of the collection was for Soul61 then why not just say that.

Most of the young men were also paying for the soul61 gap year training. It was only a selected 2 to 4 young men each year that did the free internship with MP.

So young people at Soul Survivor festivals were essentially paying towards the sexualised targetting of selected young men?

We really were encouraged to give. Which is shocking looking back. They talk about the cost of a t shirt or a game and ask us ti put God st the centre.

One year they wanted something else towards a project too - but I can't remember t shirts?

Does anyone remember when Steve Chalk did a talk (going to hazard a guess at ‘92/‘93) and he said …There are x amount of children living in poverty and you don’t give a f k. And what’s more, more of you are shocked that I said f *k rather than the amount of children in poverty.

And then we all ran back to our tents and got clothes to donate. And I donated my jeans because they were most special to me.

*My memory is of it being Steve Chalk but I have heard of other pastors using a similar phrase and it might not have been him.

Yes, look at how much was spent on the international travels for MP godchildren. Approx 18k each some years. No selection process, it was all friends and all boys.

The girls had to do the gap year which was a separate course, they all had to pay.

Yes, this is what’s been uncovered.

I think many more financial irregularities will come out in time. And how much was spent on the offspring of members of staff compared to other young people.

I really think church leaders have a completely different attitude to money.

One of the churches I worked for (not c of e) just thought if they wanted something/to do something then it was God's will and the church should pay.. . We have 2 lovely retired accountants that used to despair
..

‘To fund work that Pilavachi runs? Yep, most of the donations to Soul61 go on Mike Pilavachi's interns, not on the gap year programme they make lots of noise about’

messed up the bolding but this is what happened.

@LotsOfBalloons totally this, new car, holiday, extension to the vicarage 🙄

Yep. All those things... I'm still resentful all these years later it seems!!!

I almost trained for ministry it was at the stage I was getting disillusioned with it all, but the housing/set up would have been nice!

The finances thing is interesting. The church I joined at age 15 when I first became a Christian was quite open about income and outgoings. We all knew how much the staff were getting paid, and what his housing costs were. This was a Baptist Church, and we all had a say in whether the accounts were approved.

The hardcore charismatic house church I did my year out in was the complete opposite. We were told absolutely nothing.

Ah yes similar journey. Baptist was v open and voting on all changes.

Modern charismatic was the one that was completely away with the fairies looking back

Yup. The church I did my year out in just claimed that the money was spent in accordance with "God's will", and us little people didn't need to worry about what that entailed.

No checks or accountability because it has the word Christian involved? It’s insane that this continued for so long.

Can relate to a lot of what has been said - the SS brainwashing, searching for something! Best thing I gave up was the idea of hell! Left church about 15 years ago - still have faith though - cant seem to give it up! So I do feel a bit isolated though sometimes ... I've tried other churches but the ulterior motive conversion etc grates and you cant mention certain topics! It's hard to know what category I fit in! Have thought about going to greenbelt but wouldn't have anyone to go with ... plus other ideologies that are present there put me off a bit.

@duvet Have a look for the evolving faith community online. There's a website with podcasts plus a bit of a community going on on Mighty
It might suit. Really accepting of wherever and whatever you think plus many people deconstructing from evangelical and or charismatic Christianity.

I wasn't there but this quote, whoever said it, has been ingrained in my mind ever since I heard about it, for some reason!

Totally, it’s utterly disturbing.

Yes I remember a version of that talk doing the rounds. Still a good point!

Greenbelt is fab. It is a good resting place for a lot of hurt Christians. And they're hapoy for you to have no faith too.

We'd go back if we could afford it/lived nearer!

Greenbelt is indeed good. For various reasons I don't go any more - last time I was there was 2018 - but it's a great place to hear different perspectives and have a good think about things. It was the very last Christian event I was involved in.

It was my spiritual home too but their increasing involvement in promoting trans ideology is the reason I would not return, unfortunately.

@Cherryana I didn't go that year but I remember reading about it and worrying that something similar would happen when I went. My mum sat me down and said that this kind of thing was aimed at people who had loads of designer clothes and my old favourite threadbare rugby shirt that was too worn out for the charity shop wouldn't be wanted. I also remember my parents telling me that if I wanted to give 10% of my weekly pocket money (about 25p I think) to soul survivor at the end of the week then that would be a nice gesture but anything else wasn't necessary.

I wish my mum and dad had been more ‘on it’ with this stuff. However my dad was totally taken in and I was a ‘good girl’.

I really feel as if it’s taken me 30 years to wake up to how manipulative it was/is.

And yet…. I couldn’t tell you if I have a faith or not. I sometimes pray and I definitely miss some things..