A Six-Week Challenge

Several of the Churches here in San Luis Obispo recently had something called, 'Forty Days of Purpose'. It was a comprehensive endeavor, involving everyone in the church who was willing to participate in purposeful prayer, fellowship, renewed commitment and repentance. From the responses I received from those who participated, it was a wonderful forty days.

I would like to suggest something for all of the people caught in the post-Geftakys Assembly. Again, this is a suggestion, but I think it has real merit.

Take Six Weeks off! Yes, do not go to any meetings at the Assembly. Do not get together in large groups, or even small groups, where "Assembly fellowship," behavior is likely to occur. Don't plan or discuss the future of the Assemblies. Above all, leading brothers should not get together and "talk." Take a complete break from the system that has totally dominated and directed your lives for as long as you have been there. Get away, let your head clear, and then seek The Lord regarding your future.

We have all been programmed. None of us could think straight. We were totally blind, and deceived.

For example:

Two months ago, many of us thought that George Geftakys was a godly man. We went to his "seminars," and listened to his tapes of past seminars. Many of us thought Betty Geftakys was a twentieth century Madame Guyon. We adopted her diets and other practices, disciplined our children and roommates according to her "wisdom," and hung on her every word. That was all delusion.
We were deceived. George has been a thoroughly wicked man since before the Assembly ever got started. Betty, among other things, counseled the women that George abused to keep silent about it! On top of this is the whole issue of David and Judy Geftakys, and the abuse that occurred there. In The Assembly, we were all systematically taught to have NO DISCERNMENT WHATSOEVER!! You must get free of this influence if you are to ever understand what God's will is. We were so fooled by the Geftakys's partly because we fooled each other.
The rank and file were programmed to give place to the leaders. The leaders were programmed to rule over the rank and file. Even now, in some of the meetings where the leaders have, "stepped down," the ex-leading brothers are leading! They aren't trying to be deceptive in this, at least most of them aren't, they just can't help it!
When all the saints get together, under the context of The Assembly, they can't help but act and think like they did two months ago, when they sincerely believed that a wicked, evil man was God's anointed servant, and that weak, blind and ineffective leaders were "men of stature."
This is the big one. The truth did not come to this group of people from within. Not one of the current leadership discovered the abuse and cover-up. (Several of them knew about it and lied, for whatever reason.) No, the truth came to the Assembly from without, in the form of a website, published by someone who was considered an enemy. This paints the picture of deception that hung like a heavy fog over the Geftakys ministry better than anything else. George and Betty Geftakys taught and ate in our presence for thirty years, and we were unable to see who they really were. Yet, many people from outside the ministry were able to see clearly. The outsiders have proven to be correct, while the insiders were blinded. How can anyone think that the will of God will be found in this context, when in the past we all called evil good, and truth a lie?

So, I challenge every gathering that is seeking whether to continue meeting, or who should lead, or what the new dress-code should be, or whether one Geftakys doctrine or the other is correct, to take six weeks off. Get total separation and retreat from the dysfunctional Assembly culture. Go apart, and seek the Lord. Get counsel from other Christian leaders. Visit other churches. Walk on the beach with your family.

If God wants the groups to reform and continue, He will make it clear. If he wants all of them to disband, do we really want to try to keep them together? I have heard from scores of people about how their joy and vitality has dried up over the last several years. How much more of a wasteland will the Assemblies be if we attempt to keep them going without God's blessing? On the other hand, if The Lord wants to keep something alive and restore it, how will seeking Him for six weeks hinder what He wants to do?

Shall we start the Six Week Challenge this Saturday, February 1st? Have a nice vacation!

Brent T.

January 27th, 2003