Testimony of Matt and Jenna

We were very disturbed and discouraged after a prayer meeting in which staff were told by K.P. that leadership was considering sending certain staff overseas to work in various international offices. The reason for our dismay was that K.P. specifically stated that if they told us they wanted us to serve overseas and we asked to have time to pray about it, we would be sinning because we were not submitting to them unquestioningly as our authority. There was also an implied threat that if we didn’t obey without question then we would be asked to leave the ministry. This specific incident is a prime example of the pervasive environment at GFA where staff are conditioned to believe that leadership is much more qualified to hear from God and discern His will for the staff than the staff themselves are. The core issue here is that the GFA leadership, in a man-made, rule-based attempt to “protect” the ministry, has far overstepped their bounds in what authority they should have over the lives of the staff; examples being where to live, who to associate with, church involvement, etc.