A while back, Mike Kekel wrote an article on his blog called "Ain't Misbehaven". Yesterday, Don and I were talking on the phone, and we were both astounded that Mike would even publish and openly display such information. Approximately one year ago I posted an article referencing what Mike wrote titled "The Irony Of It All". Directly below is a link which will take you straight to that article. Anyway, I wanted to repost what M.C. Kekel wrote because I'm still amazed that he'd be so careless as to throw his father-in-law, RWD under the bus in such a fashion. Either that, or it's part of yet another New Testament Christian Church master plan to allow in what they've called "compromise" for decades.
M.C. Kekel wrote...
"I do not make the rules, and have only recently had opportunity to affect them. In the past I have only been in the unfortunate position of having to enforce them. That doesn't mean I agreed with them. If so be they were mistakes, they weren't mine. As for the church organization? I have nothing to do with policies and doctrines of the organization concerning things like TV (which ministers aren't to have if they carry license in NTCC- unless it is solely as a gaming monitor or something, and not connected to TV input) and couldn't change them if I wanted to. If that gets changed, Rev. Olson will have to do it by mandate or through board approval. I have no such power. Even in the Bible School realm I am limited."
"My influence on the bible school rules has only been to lighten them, not increase them. Further, since I wasn't a bible school student during that time, I was not UNDER those rules. The sports rule was not bible based to begin with, and was for bible school students. Not me."
Chief said...
These statements absolutely amaze me!!!!!! They're jaw dropping. I don't know how anyone in the New Testament Christian Church could ignore these statements if they have a conscience or any intelligence and common sense. Do you really trust the NTCC leadership with the task of guiding you to heaven? Really? There are two people who are key leaders in the NTCC; R.W. Davis and M.C. Kekel. These statements (written by one NTCC executive board member, namely M.C. Kekel) made a complete mockery of the Founder of the NTCC, namely R.W. Davis. Who do you think came up with all the rules and or endorsed every last one? RWD!!! Basically Mike wrote, (and of course I'm paraphrasing here) that he was the unlucky scapegoat who had the dubious distinction of having to enforce a bunch of bogus rules that he didn't agree with and had nothing to do with in the first place. Boy if that ain't throwing RWD, and the rest of the general board under the bus, I don't know what in the world is?
Listen here people and please listen good. Armed with this information, I'd have no reason to believe that God inspired one single rule that RWD ever spewed out of his big fat mouth. "Ask permission to go visit who"? "Ask permission to stop where"? "Ask permission to accept a job"? "Ask permission to date or talk to who"? "Stand against the wall just to talk to a woman"? "You said it's a sin for all women to work"? "Where is that rule found in the Bible, Proverbs 31"? "REALLY, ARE YOU SERIOUS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME"?
Obey them that have rule over you? When I know that they have a history of coming up with a bunch of stupid rules that Kekel doesn't even agree with, and he considers himself as being unfortunate for even having to enforce them? REALLY? Huh!! Never again. I'm a grown man with a family to look out for. You can follow a bunch of stupid rules and con artists if you want to but I'm not the one.
Cha Chief, Cha Chief, Cha Chief Chief Chief
P.S. I wouldn't follow M.C. Kekel or RWD to find a toilet (say no less as spiritual leaders) if I had diarrhea blowing out my butt like it was shot out with an air compressor at 200 PSI.
215 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 215 of 215L.Travis said "Hey leaders of the ntcc...
"You don't get to decide who God is."~F.Chan"
Larry, that is awesome! They don't get to decide who does or does not go to heaven either! M.D Reed
mdr
They think they do and that's the problem.
Chief
I can tell you who is not going to heaven. If what RWD and his pastors taught is absolutely true and if 1 Tim 6 is true, the NTCC leadership isn't going to heaven. The NTCC leadership will wind up having judged their own self on that one.
Chief
MDR said...
Larry, that is awesome! They don't get to decide who does or does not go to heaven either! M.D Reed
LTravis said...
I was thinking about all the stupid rules these guys made up and they called it holiness. They would say if you don't look and act like pastor you are rebellious and are going to hell. Right?
I was reading a book and the author said "Beware of human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life-it is a fraud."
I can't believe I used to think I'm going to hell because I didn't do what some other sinner demanded.
I remember them guilt tripping me to do them favors and no doubt if I would have said I'm not going to shine your shoes I would have been put on display at the next "service." LTravis is rebellious because he didn't cut his hair short enough or he didn't shine my shoes, just writing this stuff is stupid. I should have been asking myself where is the atonement in that.
I embarrassed that I was even associated with this bunch of goofs. I'm thankful for the blood and Grace of God.
I'm heaven bound because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross.
Wholesale abuse and misuse of authority is an integral part of the very foundation, fabric, and functions of an ever increasing number of church groups today who are engaging in the most insidious form of hyper-authoritarianism by which they are dominating, controlling, and manipulating their followers for personal gain and private kingdom-building. Being able to readily identify the signs and symptoms of authoritarian abuse and psychological enslavement is absolutely essential for every believer in their quest to know and be personally related to the Great Shepherd, who is the Prince of Peace and the true "Guardian of our souls," rather than the thousands of counterfeit shepherds claiming to be the proxies of Christ.
Apotheosis of the leadership — exalting them to God-like status in and over the group;
Multi-level authority/government hierarchy;
Absolute authority of the leadership;
No real accountability of the leadership to the corporate body;
Hand-picked sub-leaders, based on their demonstration of submissiveness to the ultimate leader rather than on the basis of their leadership skills, spirituality, and anointing and appointment by God;
Pervasive abuse and misuse of authority in personal dealings with members;
Paranoia and insecurity by the leaders;
Abuse, misuse, and inordinate incidence of "church discipline;"
Personal materialism, covetousness, and self-aggrandizement by the leaders;
Members and/or sub-leaders must make a "spiritual covenant," sometimes a signed covenant agreement, pledging their total commitment and financial support to the leadership and church/ministry;
Partitioning of the group into smaller groups that are led by internally "raised up" lay-leaders who have not been anointed or appointed by God for leadership within the church;
Financial exploitation and enslavement of the members;
Inordinate attention to maintaining the public "image" of the ministry;
Doctrinal demeanment and devaluation — the requisite of espousing and teaching "sound doctrine" is demeaned and devalued;
Theological incompetency by the leadership, especially with respect to the rules of hermeneutics and Bible exegesis employed in the formulation of doctrine, giving license to twisting and adulteration of Scripture in order to provide proof-texts for unorthodox and invented doctrines;
Spiritualism, mysticism, and unproven doctrines;
Abuse and misuse of prophetic giftings as a means to dominate and intimidate;
Devaluation, disallowance, disregard, and displacement of the true Fivefold Ministry within the church;
De facto legalism, or works mentality, and its resulting loss of the "joy of salvation," though "freedom" is forever preached from the pulpit and the church is constantly touted as being a "safe church" by the leadership;
Esotericism — hidden agendas and requirements revealed to members only as they successfully advance through various stages of "spiritual enlightenment," i.e., unorthodox, unproven indigenous doctrines;
Isolationism — corporate and individual, especially with respect to exposure to outside ministry sources;
Performance-based approval and promotion system of members predicated on "proven" "loyalty" (i.e., submission) to the leadership;
Devaluation, suppression, and non-recognition of members' bona fide God-given talents, abilities, gifts, callings, and anointing, as a means of subjugation;
Requiring members to perform menial tasks, such as cleaning toilets, setting up chairs, and acting as the leader's personal valet or slave, as a supposed means to humble them and teach them to "obey their leaders;"
Constant indoctrination with a "group" or "family" mentality that impels members to exalt the corporate "life" and goals of the church-group over their personal goals, callings, and objectives;
Members are psychologically traumatized and indoctrinated with numerous improper fears and phobias aimed at keeping them reeling in diffidence and an over-dependence or co-dependence on their leaders and the corporate group;
Corporately, there eventually develops an inordinately high incidence of financial, marital, moral, psychological, mental, emotional, and medical problems, including sudden deaths and contraction of "incurable" and "unknown" diseases;
Lack of true personal spiritual growth and development, especially in terms of genuine faith and experiencing the abounding grace, forgiveness, goodness, blessings, kindness, and agape-love of God;
Members are required to obtain the approval or "witness" of their leader(s) for decisions regarding personal matters;
Frequent preaching from the pulpit regarding not getting out from under the "spiritual covering" of the leadership;
Members departing without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership leave the group under a cloud of manufactured suspicion, shame, and slander;
Horror stories frequently told by leaders about individuals or families who left the group without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership, and the terrible consequences and curses they suffered as a result;
Departing members often suffer from various psychological problems and display the classic symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
To all; I am posting excerpts from an aticle on Spiritual Abuse.
It is a must read!
Are you one of the many loyal and sincere church members who faithfully and cheerfully attend, support and participate in a local church, but have a nagging, persistent inward "thought" that "something is just not right here?"
Each time it rises within you, you peer around the room at the faces of fellow-worshipers caught up in seemingly heart-felt worship, you tune your ear to the soothing, melodious music crescendoing upward, and listen intently to the inspiring exhortations flowing from the lips of the various leaders on the platform...then...once again...you begin to chastise yourself...and "take authority" over those terrible carnal, negative thoughts, and command them to leave your mind. Now! there! no more of that! Right? Right!
That is, until the next time...and it happens all over again! You are enthralled in blissful worship and praise, focusing entirely on the Lord and His Magnificence. You begin to feel that familiar, but awesome sensation of His Presence filling the room and settling gently upon you. And then...BOOM!...there it is AGAIN!!—that still, small inner voice, telling you He is pleased by your expression of love, adoration, and praise; it is a sweet savor which He has received from your heart to His. But, still, He wants you to be aware there is something wrong here...with the leadership...their teaching, their "leadership" attitudes and methods, their motives and ambitions, their personal life-styles, their earnestness regarding ministering on His behalf to the needs of the hurting, needy multitudes for whom He died.
Is it possible this really IS the Lord speaking to you? Is that possible? And then you go through the drill once again, looking, listening, analyzing. "But," you reply inwardly to the voice, "look at all these people here, the volunteer workers, the ministers, the musicians and choir! they can't all be wrong! and there wouldn't be this many people here if it wasn't of God! Look at this wonderful building, its furnishings and decor, the instruments, all the regalia, all the money it cost? God has to be endorsing this, otherwise the money for all this would not have come in! Listen to the inspiring music and messages by the leaders! And look at all the people who've been blessed! This CAN'T possibly not be of God! God! what's wrong with me? why do I think such horrible thoughts?" you cry silently within.
Then, you begin realizing, somehow, somewhere along the line you began losing your joy, your zeal for the Lord. It used to be you could hardly wait for the services and to be involved; now it is drudgery to go at all. You used to have such a light and blissful feeling as you worshiped the Lord in the services; now you just go through the motions, feeling heavy, staring placidly toward the platform, sometimes wishing you were somewhere else. You used to be able to "look past" the leaders, and focus only on the Lord; now, all you see during the service is people, people behind the pulpit, people on the platform, and people in the pews. You used to feel God's love and pleasure with you; now it seems all you feel is unworthiness, guilt, and that nothing you do is ever enough or pleasing to Him.
"What on earth has happened to me? What's wrong with me?" you ask yourself. "Is it just me?" Then, you begin to look around the room and study other long-time members. You compare how they are now to how they were when they first came. Is their life, as it should be, appreciably better, or have they and their family experienced an inordinate share of tragedies, seemingly inexplicable difficulties, and reversals? By and by, you begin to realize that many of the other members have lost their "first love" too, their zeal, their enthusiasm, their joy in serving the Lord, and that, though Christians, like everyone else, certainly experience adversity, many of these members' lives have been on a gradual, downward spiral, instead of advancement and blessing.
Does this scenario sound familiar to you? If so, don't think you're alone—it's repeated several times every week by multitudes of sincere, faithful, and trusting believers. They've had this inward intuition for quite some time that something was just not right at their church or in their group, but just couldn't put their finger on precisely what it was. The teaching "sounded" right, all the right things were being said, good things were happening, many members were being "used" in various "ministries" of the church. Still, this nagging sense something is awry persists.
Often, these are the symptoms of a church or group laboring under the heavy-hand of hyper-authoritarianism. That is to say, the leadership is dominating, controlling, and manipulating their followers, and exploiting them for their own personal gain and private kingdom-building. Wholesale abuse and misuse of authority is an integral part of the very foundation, fabric, and functions of such groups.
Exploitative abuse of authority occurring in groups where these hyper-authoritarian systems of governance are instituted come in various shapes and shades, ranging from members having to receive the approval (usually referred to as "witness") of their spiritual leaders to date and/or marry, to virtual sole dependence upon the supposed superior spirituality of group-gurus regarding every detail of their personal financial matters and requiring their leaders' approval for virtually every significant expenditure. Commonly, in these groups there is constant allusion to the members as "dumb sheep" who must be "led" by the shepherds, ad nauseam. The definition of the term "led" in these groups is that the "dumb sheep" cannot trust their own judgment or ability to receive direction from the Lord for the important decisions of their lives, but must rely instead upon the transcendent wisdom and spiritual acumen of their "personal pastors."
The proper role of human under-shepherds is to lead people to the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and teach them how to be His disciples, in submission to Him and His authority. Hyper-authoritarian leaders, instead, lead people to themselves, and indoctrinate them to be their followers, in total submission to them and their authority. In essence, these dominating shepherds teach they are the church-members' de facto lord, master, and savior, rather than Christ. They indoctrinate members to believe the spiritual leaders of the church themselves are the members' "spiritual covering" (a totally false and patently unbiblical concept), and any member who ever leaves the church will be "out from under" their "covering," be without any covering or what they call, "uncovered," and will experience terrible curses and other horrible consequences as a result. From the pulpit often come "horror stories" about what happened to such-and-so person or family, who were so spiritually bereft or rebellious as to leave the group without the blessings and approval of their "spirital authority."
In these groups, the "authority" of the "shepherds" is absolute, sacrosanct, and inviolable, that is, without reprisal. Any semblance of anything other than total and unquestioning obedience to the desires and counsel of the church's leadership chain is considered rebellion and insubordination, and simply is not tolerated. Members live under the constant threat of being branded with the Scarlet Letter "R" for "rebel," openly denounced and shamed from the (bully-)pulpit, and consequently shunned by the "covenant-community" for failure to comply with the unwritten, unspoken rules and expectations established by the leadership. An oppressive performance-based approval and promotion system keeps members in constant internal turmoil and fear as they jump through all the hoops the spiritual taskmasters put before them, in an attempt to seek their leaders' approval and favor. Moreover, members are indoctrinated and compelled to accept the leadership-set agenda of the group, regarding which they have next to no real say, as their personal burden and responsibility, and thus to commit their time, talent, And most importantly, their tithe, to its successful completion. Sadly, most never see past the spiritual smoke and mirrors to realize that the so-called "church" to which they have sworn allegiance and promised their wholehearted and unflagging support, is nothing more than the personal "business" of its leaders, and not only are they free labor, but they actually pay out of their own resources for the privilege of being a participant, i.e., member.
excerpt from an article about fontenot
Nevertheless, as harsh as life had been with Michael Fontenot, and certainly the financial strains imposed upon the family by his incarceration added greatly to the family’s struggles, another trauma befell Christina and her daughter upon Michael’s conviction – she was shunned by the NTCC.
When Michael was first imprisoned, Christina informed the leadership of NTCC, specifically founder Rodger W. Davis and CEO Mike Kekel; yet they offered no assistance whatsoever – no financial aid, counseling, or emotional support.
there you have it. NTCC could care less about you. only your money. i can only guess they may not care much about briggs either except for the fact that it's been brought to light they may do something to save face.
here's the full article
Click
poletaYikes! The NTCC Site Faculty faces look scary- contorted weird faces and pictures!
I agree, Double D, the photos are kind of surreal looking. I see there is a Board of Regents page under construction. That is interesting.
Was fontenot the one who painted the drawing on rwd's rv, and the cloudy imagery in the front of the graham church?
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