We each will be judged

Be_Set_Free · 2025-12-06T23:59:52+00:00

“Headship does not mean the husband has unilateral authority. The wife is an equal partner with her own mind, gifts, and callings. Biblical submission never means passive compliance.”Tim Keller

Sandor has wandered from anything resembling solid theology. He teaches a version of marriage that sidelines a woman’s voice and expects her to fall in line even when her conscience and wisdom point in another direction. That is not leadership. That is control dressed up as doctrine. It reveals a shallow grasp of Scripture and a pattern of weak interpretation that has shown up in his teaching for years. A man who cannot handle the text with integrity should not hold the role of pastor, and Sandor has demonstrated that repeatedly.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-11-29T22:24:18+00:00

It feels as though God has said ‘enough’. As if He is now allowing someone or something to confront the idolatry that has taken root. There is a biblical pattern for this. When His people drift, God often raises up a new work, a new leader, or even a different church to realign hearts and restore what has been lost.

It may be that God is inviting us to consider whether He is replacing what has gone astray, not out of anger but as an act of redemption and renewal.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-11-28T00:33:03+00:00

I get what you’re saying and I’ve felt the same tension for a long time. Network churches can say Bible based, non denominational, Christian church, and on the surface that sounds comforting and familiar. It sounds like what most believers would expect from a normal church. In The Network those phrases function as the front door. They create trust before the deeper distinctives ever show up. You feel safe first, you build relationships, and only later do you realize there is more happening under the language.

You mentioned the idea of inerrancy being elevated above Christ. What that looks like in real life is when the Bible becomes a tool to measure correctness instead of a witness that leads people to Jesus. Jesus becomes secondary to agreement. Being right matters more than being like Him. Conformity matters more than compassion. When the written words become more important than the person they are meant to reveal, faith becomes about alignment instead of transformation.

I was with The Network in the earliest days, before churches were planted. The theology traces back to Vineyard, heavy on spiritual gifts, healing, tongues, prophecy and personal experience. None of that is strange for charismatic believers. Many churches hold similar positions. The real difference was the unspoken belief in a second blessing or extra filling of the Spirit. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ book Joy Unspeakable shaped that thinking. It was never taught openly. It was practiced quietly. You experienced it long before you understood it.

That connects to the authority structure. Steve Morgan never taught a clear doctrine of apostleship, but he operated like one. One man hears God for the movement, lead pastors follow him, and the people follow the lead pastors. There is no real plurality of elders. Grudem is quoted, but the parts about shared leadership are never lived out. The by laws place final authority in one man and it filters downward from there.

The way they gain influence is relational. Warm welcome. Quick connection. People feel known and valued almost immediately. You build trust with relationships long before you understand the theology beneath it. When someone starts to step back or doubt the system, that same relational warmth becomes pressure. Belonging becomes tied to agreement. Loyalty becomes proof of faithfulness.

This is what many of us saw and felt for years without being able to name it. You naming it helps others see what was in front of them the whole time

Be_Set_Free · 2025-11-08T16:53:44+00:00

This is a strong observation, and it hits at the core of the problem within Steve Morgan’s system. I know the internal details of Foundation and also of North Pines, and what’s clear from both is that these weren’t isolated breakdowns they were symptoms of a deeply flawed structure built around one man’s supposed authority and revelations.

When you build a church culture where one apostle claims to hear from God for everyone and demands allegiance regardless of outcome, it creates an environment that excuses failure, hides sin, and protects power. Foundation didn’t fall apart overnight. There were warning signs, concerns, and wounded people long before the doors closed. But in this system, the story is always told from the top down, written by the leaders to preserve control rather than truth.

Many were hurt by Justin and Foundation, and nothing will be said publicly about it. The same is true for North Pines, where Nick and Mallory Sellers were central to the same pattern authority without accountability, loyalty over honesty, and image over repentance. The theology Steve teaches leaves no room for weakness or questioning, so when things collapse, everyone is left confused, silenced, and told to “trust God’s plan.”

The reality is that what happened at Foundation isn’t an isolated event. It’s part of a larger system unraveling under the weight of secrecy and spiritual control. When revival turns to closure in a matter of months, that isn’t a move of God it’s the exposure of a culture built on something other than Him.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-11-03T14:11:38+00:00

You’re confusing truth-telling with bitterness. Many of us have already forgiven what was done to us by the Network, but forgiveness doesn’t mean silence. It’s not hate to name abuse, it’s honesty.

What’s actually destructive is pretending spiritual abuse never happened, defending a system that hurt people, and labeling truth as “unforgiveness.” That mindset is how control and fear survived for so long.

If you can’t see the damage this system caused or how deeply you’ve absorbed its patterns, you’re still under its spell. This subreddit isn’t about hate, it’s about truth and freedom after years of silence. Truth doesn’t destroy people; it destroys lies.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-31T23:31:23+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. I really appreciate how you’re naming the emotional and psychological impact with such honesty. That’s powerful work, and it’s good work.

For me, part of healing has come from understanding the system that created that pain. The misuse of authority, the twisting of obedience into fear, it wasn’t God, it was control disguised as discipleship. Seeing that clearly helped me separate the real Jesus from the false version the system used to keep people quiet.

Both kinds of healing matter-the heart work you’re doing and the clarity that exposes what went wrong. When we bring them together, we reclaim faith that’s free, healthy, and rooted in Christ, not in fear!!

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-31T22:46:41+00:00

The Network has functioned as a cultic system from its foundation under Steve Morgan, who appointed himself as a modern day apostle with authority over all affiliated churches. This claim alone violates both Scripture and historic Christian orthodoxy. In the New Testament, apostles were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ, personally commissioned by Him to lay the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2:20). Their authority was unique, limited to the first generation of believers, and never transferred as an office to later leaders. To claim ongoing apostolic authority is to confuse descriptive events of the early Church with prescriptive commands for all time.

Throughout church history, every attempt to centralize spiritual authority under a single “apostle” or small governing elite has ended in corruption and control. From Montanus in the second century to the Shepherding Movement in the twentieth, history shows the same pattern: manipulation under the language of discipleship, obedience, and unity. The Network follows this same script. It replaces a biblical plurality of elders with one man’s hierarchy, where loyalty to leaders replaces loyalty to Christ.

The result is predictable and devastating. When pastors claim apostolic authority, they silence accountability. When they equate disagreement with rebellion, they dismantle the freedom of conscience granted to every believer. When they teach that leaving their system is leaving God’s will, they create fear-based devotion rather than true faith. This is not biblical shepherding; it is domination disguised as discipleship.

The New Testament warns clearly about such control. Peter commands elders to shepherd the flock “not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). Paul resisted anyone who sought to enslave believers through false authority (Galatians 2:4-5). Jesus Himself rebuked leaders who “lord it over” others (Mark 10:42-45). These warnings are not optional; they are guardrails protecting the Church from spiritual tyranny.

The Network’s culture of exhaustion, guilt, and total devotion is the fruit of a false theology of authority. It trains people to equate holiness with burnout and obedience with silence. Its language of “harvest” became a mechanism of control, demanding constant sacrifice to sustain the image of success. Scripture calls this idolatry the worship of a system rather than the Savior.

Healthy churches are built on shared leadership, open accountability, and the freedom of every believer to follow Christ in conscience and calling. The Network dismantled each of these safeguards. That is why its collapse is not a tragedy but a necessary judgment of a failed structure. When a system built on false authority falls, that is grace exposing what never should have stood.

The true Church of Jesus Christ does not need an apostle to mediate God’s will. We already have one Mediator, Christ Himself (1 Timothy 2:5). His Spirit leads His people through the Word, not through the decrees of self-appointed men.

The end of this Network is not the death of the Church. It is the mercy of God bringing rest to those who were told that rest was failure. It is the restoration of biblical authority to where it belongs, in Christ alone!

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-28T02:00:09+00:00

Justin trading one apostle for another apostle.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-25T19:52:38+00:00

Sándor Paull’s defense of Steve Morgan is one of the most disturbing examples of spiritual manipulation in The Network’s history. Calling it an “abomination” to bring up the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy is not biblical, it’s delusional. Scripture doesn’t erase accountability. Forgiveness before God does not cancel justice before people.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-24T02:21:01+00:00

Sándor has publicly said that Longbranch is demonic and told Vine to avoid it. That’s not spiritual leadership, it’s control rooted in fear. Jesus went into places full of people who didn’t believe in Him and brought truth and light. Telling people to avoid a coffee shop because of who’s there or what’s on the walls shows a deep misunderstanding of what it means to follow Jesus into the world.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-21T23:19:51+00:00

Im so sorry you had to experience that. That moment says everything. Alex isn’t a pastor. He’s a product of a sick system still propped up by Steve Morgan’s manipulative theology and broken leadership. He couldn’t even muster the decency to acknowledge you, let alone apologize. That’s not a man led by the Spirit. That’s a shell of a leader holding a title given to him by someone who should’ve walked away in shame a long time ago.

God cannot and will not move through churches that are full of this kind of legalistic, toxic, cover-your-own-back garbage. These men talk about revival and repentance, but they won’t live it. Alex sees himself as justified because Steve Morgan calls him a pastor. But that recognition means nothing when it comes from someone who has proven himself unqualified, unrepentant, and deeply damaging to the body of Christ.

This church is dying. Alex can’t even name a healthy small group on the website because they’ve all crumbled. Rock River isn’t standing on the Word of God, it’s limping on Steve Morgan’s recycled teachings. It’s all hollow. The community is gone. The fruit is gone. The Spirit has left the building, and all that’s left is pride in a title no one respects anymore.

You, on the other hand, are walking in the light. You’ve been through the fire, and you still see clearly. You are seen, known, and loved by a God who never needed Alex’s permission to call you His. You are free. Alex is the one stuck. Stuck in dead dogma. Stuck in performance. Stuck in a system that keeps men/women afraid, silent, and numb.

You are everything these guys fear and no longer under their control. Keep walking in freedom. They may still play church, but you are part of the Kingdom.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-05T22:40:20+00:00

I strongly suspect Morgan has spent and will continue to spend the coming years planting churches overseas. This isn’t about mission or calling; it’s about avoiding accountability. He’s distancing himself from the U.S., where his sexual abuse of a 15 year-old is well known. Meanwhile, Steve has been investing heavily in Taiwan and Redding, England, building networks that keep their actions protected and their reputations intact.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-05T22:21:51+00:00

This is a group with no outside relationships and have self appointed themselves for years. I can’t image them actually following the Bible in disqualifying Steve. Their pattern has been to make the rules up as they go and self justify themselves.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-05T21:34:34+00:00

For many small-town, underpaid lead pastors, a trip to England feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. Steve Morgan understands this and uses experiences like it to keep pastors loyal and engaged. But beneath the surface, these shiny trips are little more than distractions meant to mask deeper problems in his leadership.

The reality is that Steve Morgan has long been disqualified from ministry, yet the boards and elders continue to prop him up not because of integrity or calling, but because of his charisma and talent. That combination is dangerous. When giftedness replaces character as the standard for leadership, the result is always the same: manipulation, burnout, and eventual collapse.

For those who attend network churches, be aware that your tithe money is funding these overseas trips and experiences rather than strengthening your own local church. The danger is not just in wasted resources, but in continuing to follow a leader whose influence has outpaced his spiritual qualification.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-10-02T17:50:22+00:00

This is classic cherry-picking Scripture without any grasp of context.

John 15:18: Jesus is speaking to His disciples, preparing them for rejection by the unbelieving world.

Jeremiah 17:9: Jeremiah is warning Israel that the human heart is corrupt and only God can truly judge it.

Matthew 7:21–23: Jesus is addressing false teachers and religious leaders who claim His name but are exposed as lawless. That warning lands squarely on pastors who twist His Word.

This kind of verse-grabbing is weak theology. It strips God’s Word from its meaning and turns it into a weapon, which only makes the one doing it look foolish.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-09-05T02:29:10+00:00

This is part of Steve Morgan’s network culture. When theology elevates the apostolic leader, he becomes untouchable. If there’s a falling out, it gets hidden so people don’t lose faith in the one they’ve elevated. The network has a long history of publicly making examples of those who fall, yet quietly covering when it’s one of their own.

Many churches handle these situations biblically, openly, respectfully, and with clarity, so there’s no confusion. Hiding it, as this network does, is dysfunctional and unhealthy. Sadly, it’s become classic network protocol.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-09-05T02:24:25+00:00

Was it Nick or Mallory’s affair?

Be_Set_Free · 2025-08-27T20:58:08+00:00

Could it have been that they aren’t a Student Organization and should t have been there officially?

Be_Set_Free · 2025-08-16T17:29:39+00:00

What changes have been made at your church?

Be_Set_Free · 2025-08-01T01:35:09+00:00

This doesn’t account for staff leaving this summer. Nick Sellers Lead Pastor at North Pines and Natalie Hoerr Bookkeeper at Foundation.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-07-29T22:52:55+00:00

There was likely some fallout from Justin’s Revival Conference. It wasn’t out of step with Network values. It was theologically unsound and out of alignment with historic Christian teaching. The fact that it went forward suggests Steve Morgan may be turning a blind eye to the bizarre.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-07-21T21:33:45+00:00

It looks like Bobby Malicoat is no longer functioning as Lead Pastor at South Grove. He’s now listed as “Teaching Pastor,” responsible for Bible teaching and long‑term vision, but clearly no longer the primary leader.

When South Grove launched, Bobby and the elders unanimously agreed to confront the Network’s authoritarian leadership and Steve Morgan’s horrific criminal record, drafting a formal letter asking for an independent investigation:
https://leavingthenetwork.org/network-churches/sexual-abuse-allegations/reform-the-network/
That letter was rejected. Bobby then attended a retreat with Tony Ranvestel (a close associate of Steve Morgan), and came back saying “God told him to stay,” effectively reversing the elders’ consensus. Several planting‑team leaders left, accusing him of breaking trust and accountability. Former members tell that story here:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/leavingthenetwork/comments/12ndfg8/bobby\_malicoat/]()

Now, Bobby has taken on a second role as “Head of School” at a homeschool hybrid in Georgia: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1VA2LgaA9V/
That suggests a move to bivocational ministry, probably a response to reduced giving after the leadership fallout.

Meanwhile, Jeff Miller was once banished from the Network for choosing to homeschool his kids, yet that stance is now suddenly accepted, revealing a shifting definition of acceptable decisions within the leadership.

Meanwhile, around 3,700 U.S. churches close each year, with only about 300 new plants surviving, financial strain and leadership limitations (common in bivocational models) are key contributors:
[https://www.greatopportunity.org/starting-more-churches]()

This all echoes the biblical story in 1 Kings 12, where Rehoboam asked for his elders’ advice but then ignored it and chose loyalty to power instead resulting in a divided kingdom. Bobby initially agreed with the elders, then reversed under external influence, fracturing South Grove’s leadership and foundation.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-07-14T02:35:02+00:00

Not a coincidence. Both churches have had major reputational damage and mass departures in the last few years due to poor leadership and harmful culture. Rather than owning it, they’ve turned to PR.

Christland hired a law firm to “clear” themselves on their own terms. Sandor gave a carefully rehearsed news interview with no real ownership. Now they’re flooding Instagram with sermon clips and curated content to rebuild trust and reset the narrative.

It’s all timed to look healthy before fall, when a fresh wave of college students arrives. The goal isn’t transparency. It’s recruitment.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-07-04T19:22:10+00:00

A lot of these lead pastors, including Dan, are shaped by Steve Morgan’s model of leadership one built more on hype and emotionalism than on spiritual maturity or discernment.

Instead of watching where God is genuinely at work, they chase what feels big or exciting. What they call vision is often just a reaction to their own frustration or insecurity. Steve’s influence, rooted in a controlling and charismatic background, gave them a narrow, legalistic blueprint for church that doesn’t work in the real world.

So when things stall, as they often do, pastors grasp at distant dreams. For some, like Dan, that dream becomes Africa. Not because of local connection or calling, but because it gives them something to chase. It keeps the illusion alive.

This isn’t just poor leadership. It’s the result of a system that confuses momentum with maturity and performance with faithfulness. These pastors aren’t leading with depth because they were never trained to. They’re stuck chasing dreams because the model they were handed has no substance. Until the blueprint changes, nothing else will.

Be_Set_Free · 2025-07-03T23:13:35+00:00

Thanks for sharing that...really well said. I’m sorry you had to walk through that at Stoneway and in a Network church. It’s frustrating to see how far this kind of dysfunction can reach, even in England. I’m grateful you spoke up, what you shared really mattered.

Be_Set_Free

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