Milestone, Maranatha, and Every Nation

Understanding our history is a key part of understanding who we are today and why we behave the way we do. The same is true for churches.

If you aren't familiar with Maranatha churches, which morphed into MorningStar, which morphed into Every Nation, it's best to google the history and get familiarized with it. Because Milestone Church was an Every Nation church and certainly carries some of the DNA of those ministries.

In short, Maranatha and EN were/are both very controlling ministries that were birthed out of the Discipleship/Shepherding movement of the 1970s. You can google that movement as well. Very interesting stuff. And eye-opening. Here is a blog on the topic: everynationexposed.blogspot.com if you're interested in reading more. There is also a facebook group for former Maranatha members that has some interesting discussions.

The concept behind the shepherding movement was that people in the church weren't getting discipled properly so there was a big emphasis placed on everyone getting discipled and having a discipler. Of course, discipleship is great. Only. Only we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Not of someone else. And that's exactly what the Maranatha/EN churches wound up doing. Putting the discipler in place of Jesus. Which, of course, causes major problems and pain for those involved.

So the result was a group of very controlling people exerting way too much power over others and consequently winding up on a power trip themselves. And, as we know, power trips and Jesus don't mix.

I will say this about Milestone Church: I don't think they were as intense or controlling as the Maranatha movement (from the things I've read about that movement). I think that they were far more balanced than Every Nation as well. And yet. There were so many ways in which they ignored warning signs and continued in their controlling and spiritually abusive ways. After all, when you know that many people outside of your church think it's a cult and you don't seriously look into that, you're really not living in reality.