About

Beginning in the early 1970's George Geftakys began planting small high-demand churches called 'assemblies', beginning in Califoria and Illinois. It was the decade of 'the Jesus Movement'. Eventually there were Assemblies around the country and some in Europe, Africa and elsewhere. In 2002 Brent T., formerly of the San Luis Obispo Geftakys Asembly, launched this website, The Geftakys Assembly.com, to expose corruption in the Geftakys ministry, and to publicly call the leaders to take action.

The site was hard-hitting and didn't pull any punches. Initially the site reported his son David's unchecked domestic violence. Then within days it came to light that George was a serial sexual predator of young Assembly women. George Geftakys was removed from the Fullerton Assembly. The website had accomplished its initial purpose.

In 2003 Brent handed over the site to Steve and Margaret Irons, with the goal of developing it as a resource for understanding and recovery from the spiritual abuse. We renamed it Reflections... on the Geftakys Assembly and Spiritual Abuse. Eventually Margaret became the editor/webmaster. Visitors were coming to the site from many other high-demand churches, and eventually the name was changed to include them.

Steve and I were leaders in the Geftakys ministry for twenty years until we left in 1990. Our story tells how we got involved with George and Betty, and how we came to leave their ministry. It is crushing to realize that we had given our lives to something that was destructive on so many levels. We are deeply grieved for the damage we perpetrated on others. Our work on this website is part of our effort to try to make amends in some small way, and promote insight and healing.

In the future Daniel Teater may take over the site, with technical assistance from his brother, Mark. They are second-generation adults from the St. Louis Assembly. Daniel is a therapist and a licensed Church Conciliator.

The site has two parts: the history and internet archive of information about the Geftakys Assemblies; and a compendium of information we have found in the process of understanding high-demand cultic churches. Print copies of Geftakys Assembly publications and other original material are archived, catalogued and available for viewing on request as the "Fullerton Assembly Project" section of The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History at Cal State University Fullerton.

On this site the divisive words 'cult' and 'cultic' appear in some articles and links. We use them here in the sociological sense, to describe the way the Geftakys ministry functioned, not in the sense of heresy. The point is not to label or attack Bible-based groups, but to shed light on cultic group dynamics in churches.

Some people will disapprove of the secular content on this site, feeling that people who've been caught in a spiritually abusive group need spiritual help only. We agree that spiritual damage needs the healing of God's grace, and better theology. But recovering from cult dynamics requires specific knowledge.

We agree that secular wisdom is incomplete, and some of it is erroneous. But what is good in it derives from Ultimate Wisdom, is compatible with it, and gives much-needed tools for disentangling reality from misinformation and deception.

"The AssemblyBoard" linked from this site is an archived forum on the Geftakys Assembly that had no administrative connection to this site. It was active from 2002 through 2010. Over a thousand topics related to the Assembly and aberrant Christianity were discussed with fervor and are available for viewing.