Statement by Pastor Dominic on behalf of the Leadership Team
This is the statement that we read to the church family on Sunday 25th September 2016
Over the last month we’ve had a number of concerned people in and beyond the church bring a matter to our attention. In light of false narratives we continue to encounter, we feel it necessary to publicly speak into this.
We have been informed that various people from One Church are being encouraged, without our knowledge, to be part of some form of new gathering in Drayton Hall rather than relocating with the church when we move out next week. (Some have even been wrongly led to believe that it is we who are moving who are breaking away from the church that has been meeting in Drayton Hall for the last 6 years.)
To avoid confusion we want to make it absolutely clear that nothing has changed since our previous announcement about moving: One Church (formerly called TLC/ Today’s Lifestyle Church – i.e. the body of people that was legally and spiritually handed over to Elim in September 2015) is indeed relocating from Drayton Hall at the end of this month.
When we made the public announcement about our relocation in July we chose, with a view to leaning towards grace in the face of being severely let down, to be circumspect in what information we communicated about our decision to disassociate from our current landlord. We simply mentioned the withdrawal by the Lind Trust of the previously-promised Cromer Road site and also communicated what we had been told in a formal meeting with the Lind Trust trustees about their medium to long-term plans at Drayton Hall. We could have said a lot more about the challenges we had to face but chose to major instead on the exciting vision that God was unfolding to us about our relocation into the city.
Sadly it appears that our integrity in being circumspect has been exploited and, though easy to demonstrate, we have found ourselves having to confront a number of mistruths and spurious information.
We believe God is a God of truth and operates in the light, so I invite anyone who needs further clarification to speak to me, Catherine or another member of the Leadership Team and we will gladly shed light on the actual facts of the matter.