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www.icsahome.com/infoserv_conferences/2007brussels/2007_handbook.htm
Every Nation Churches and Ministries: Maranatha Reformed or Reborn?
Bridget M. Jacobs, M.A.
Maranatha Campus Ministries was widely known as one of the most active Bible-based campus cults in the 1970s and 1980s, characterized by the mainstream, religious, and academic media alike as being a harmful, aberrant, “shepherding/discipleship” group in the same class as the International Churches of Christ. Maranatha legally dissolved amid a great amount of pressure and criticism from university administrators, countercult activists, Christian leaders and former members, as well as growing discord between founder and leader Bob Weiner and other top leaders/elders of the group. This discord culminated in an internal rebellion against Weiner, and the parent organization formally disbanded in 1989-1990. However, between 1990 and 1993 a core of former Maranatha leaders operated under the aegis of several spin-off entities which continued to cooperate and network with one another, and in 1994 former Maranatha leaders Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, and Steve Murrell formally merged their entities together as Morning Star International (MSI), which soon became the largest and most successful Maranatha descendant.
For the next ten years, Morning Star International quietly expanded and brought other former Maranatha churches, ministries, and leaders into the fold as well as those who had not before been affiliated with Maranatha; aside from near-scandal in the mid 1990s revolving around a National Football League (NFL) investigation into Maranatha-turned-MSI sub-ministry Champions for Christ (1), the new organization was very careful to divorce itself from its Maranatha past and protect itself against public and internal criticism. The group and its leaders would refer to their previously working together in “campus ministry,” but for many years Maranatha was rarely if ever specifically named as that ministry. Legally binding bylaws were later put into place which could be used to quell and isolate internal dissent and rebellion among churches and pastors before they leaked into the public realm as happened in Maranatha. However, while they publicly used more standard evangelical language as compared to Maranatha, much of the group’s core leadership continued to promote many of the same teachings and practices as before, including exerting increasing control over individual members’ lives, arranging and/or coercing marriages (or breakups of existing relationships), heavily emphasizing “sacrificial” financial giving and submitting to "delegated authority" where leaders were to be considered "fathers" of "spiritual family" who were therefore agents for God, and using in-house discipleship materials, conferences, its local church-based leadership school, and residential advanced ministry schools to first promote trust of and submission to leaders and then to gradually indoctrinate youth and/or prospective leaders into a more extreme dominionist worldview.
In 2003-2004, after former Maranatha and MSI pastor “Big Tommy” Sirotnak was removed from leadership reportedly for teaching on the “priesthood of the believer,” and later posted his testimony on the Rick Ross discussion boards, several other former members were empowered to post first on Rick Ross and then on FACTNet. While the group soon renamed itself Every Nation Churches and Ministries, it did not mitigate the growing publicly available evidence that it was directly descended from Maranatha, or the significant financial and leadership allegations and scandals which were exposed online in mid to late 2005. In addition, two fairly high profile lawsuits, one involving an Every Nation church-affiliated student group at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2), and one filed by two families against Every Nation-linked defendants in Nashville, TN (3) led to mainstream and evangelical Christian media coverage and renewed critical interest in the group. Increasing scrutiny, along with the subsequent departure of several key churches in the network, appear to have led to the resignation of co-founders Phil Bonasso and Rice Broocks from top leadership positions, although rumors persist that they are not really “out” of leadership but instead in line with the group's beliefs in lifelong, covenantal loyalty and "spiritual family" are being"covered" and protected by other top, inner circle leaders including fellow co-founder and current president Steve Murrell.
While not formally organized like REVEAL or other similar groups of former ICoC members, the current grassroots movement among former members has had a similar impact in that, like the ICoC, there have been significant leadership changes, and Every Nation and its current leaders claim to be reforming away from an authoritarian “apostolic team” approach toward Policy Governance ®.
However, like in the ICoC, time will tell whether these changes are sincere, may be an attempt by the group to divert and diffuse criticism, or if, if like the ICoC’s Kip McKean, Broocks and/or Bonasso may still be attempting to exert influence and control over the group from behind the scenes.
(1) Freeman, Mike. “Teams Seek Inquiry into Religious Group.” New York Times. 2 August 1998.
< www.rickross.com/reference/champions/champions3.html >.
(2) “Alpha Iota Omega—Concerned By Descendant of Maranatha Christian Church. Cultic Studies Review 4.2 (2005): 25 Jun 2005 < www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_issues/csr_toc2005.2.htm#News >.
(3) “Hospitalized Teenager Suffering ‘Religious Indoctrination.’” Cultic Studies Review 4.3 (2005): 4 Jan 2006 <http://www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_issues/csr_toc2005.3.htm#News%20Summaries%20b>.
Every Nation Churches and Ministries: Maranatha Reformed or Reborn?
Bridget M. Jacobs, M.A.
Maranatha Campus Ministries was widely known as one of the most active Bible-based campus cults in the 1970s and 1980s, characterized by the mainstream, religious, and academic media alike as being a harmful, aberrant, “shepherding/discipleship” group in the same class as the International Churches of Christ. Maranatha legally dissolved amid a great amount of pressure and criticism from university administrators, countercult activists, Christian leaders and former members, as well as growing discord between founder and leader Bob Weiner and other top leaders/elders of the group. This discord culminated in an internal rebellion against Weiner, and the parent organization formally disbanded in 1989-1990. However, between 1990 and 1993 a core of former Maranatha leaders operated under the aegis of several spin-off entities which continued to cooperate and network with one another, and in 1994 former Maranatha leaders Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, and Steve Murrell formally merged their entities together as Morning Star International (MSI), which soon became the largest and most successful Maranatha descendant.
For the next ten years, Morning Star International quietly expanded and brought other former Maranatha churches, ministries, and leaders into the fold as well as those who had not before been affiliated with Maranatha; aside from near-scandal in the mid 1990s revolving around a National Football League (NFL) investigation into Maranatha-turned-MSI sub-ministry Champions for Christ (1), the new organization was very careful to divorce itself from its Maranatha past and protect itself against public and internal criticism. The group and its leaders would refer to their previously working together in “campus ministry,” but for many years Maranatha was rarely if ever specifically named as that ministry. Legally binding bylaws were later put into place which could be used to quell and isolate internal dissent and rebellion among churches and pastors before they leaked into the public realm as happened in Maranatha. However, while they publicly used more standard evangelical language as compared to Maranatha, much of the group’s core leadership continued to promote many of the same teachings and practices as before, including exerting increasing control over individual members’ lives, arranging and/or coercing marriages (or breakups of existing relationships), heavily emphasizing “sacrificial” financial giving and submitting to "delegated authority" where leaders were to be considered "fathers" of "spiritual family" who were therefore agents for God, and using in-house discipleship materials, conferences, its local church-based leadership school, and residential advanced ministry schools to first promote trust of and submission to leaders and then to gradually indoctrinate youth and/or prospective leaders into a more extreme dominionist worldview.
In 2003-2004, after former Maranatha and MSI pastor “Big Tommy” Sirotnak was removed from leadership reportedly for teaching on the “priesthood of the believer,” and later posted his testimony on the Rick Ross discussion boards, several other former members were empowered to post first on Rick Ross and then on FACTNet. While the group soon renamed itself Every Nation Churches and Ministries, it did not mitigate the growing publicly available evidence that it was directly descended from Maranatha, or the significant financial and leadership allegations and scandals which were exposed online in mid to late 2005. In addition, two fairly high profile lawsuits, one involving an Every Nation church-affiliated student group at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2), and one filed by two families against Every Nation-linked defendants in Nashville, TN (3) led to mainstream and evangelical Christian media coverage and renewed critical interest in the group. Increasing scrutiny, along with the subsequent departure of several key churches in the network, appear to have led to the resignation of co-founders Phil Bonasso and Rice Broocks from top leadership positions, although rumors persist that they are not really “out” of leadership but instead in line with the group's beliefs in lifelong, covenantal loyalty and "spiritual family" are being"covered" and protected by other top, inner circle leaders including fellow co-founder and current president Steve Murrell.
While not formally organized like REVEAL or other similar groups of former ICoC members, the current grassroots movement among former members has had a similar impact in that, like the ICoC, there have been significant leadership changes, and Every Nation and its current leaders claim to be reforming away from an authoritarian “apostolic team” approach toward Policy Governance ®.
However, like in the ICoC, time will tell whether these changes are sincere, may be an attempt by the group to divert and diffuse criticism, or if, if like the ICoC’s Kip McKean, Broocks and/or Bonasso may still be attempting to exert influence and control over the group from behind the scenes.
(1) Freeman, Mike. “Teams Seek Inquiry into Religious Group.” New York Times. 2 August 1998.
< www.rickross.com/reference/champions/champions3.html >.
(2) “Alpha Iota Omega—Concerned By Descendant of Maranatha Christian Church. Cultic Studies Review 4.2 (2005): 25 Jun 2005 < www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_issues/csr_toc2005.2.htm#News >.
(3) “Hospitalized Teenager Suffering ‘Religious Indoctrination.’” Cultic Studies Review 4.3 (2005): 4 Jan 2006 <http://www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_issues/csr_toc2005.3.htm#News%20Summaries%20b>.