The Door Church is one of the few churches where the number of visitors is increasing. Especially young people are attracted to it, including in Leeuwarden. Former members frequently express criticism. “I realized that I grew up in a cult.”
The Door is the Dutch branch of the Potter’s House Christian Fellowship, founded in 1970 by Wayman Mitchell in Arizona. In Leeuwarden, the church has about 150 members. In Groningen, the evangelical church recently bought a commercial property for 1 million euros to accommodate the expected influx.
There are several Facebook groups where former members share their experiences with the church and find support from each other. The international group, Escaping the Potter’s House: Stories of those who survived the CFM cult, has nearly two thousand members from around the world. The Dutch group, Close The Door, has just over a hundred members.
Former members talk about manipulation, control, and social pressure. Two want to tell their story, but anonymously. The names used are fictitious. Their real names are known to the editorial team.
Really bad.
Frits’ daughter attends an evangelical school where members of The Door also attend. He doesn’t want her to be affected by it. Chris is afraid he’ll jeopardize his family ties if his name is mentioned.
Frits was with The Door in Utrecht until 2002. When he joined in 1987, the church in Utrecht was very small. That’s why many activities were organized with other branches. So Frits saw how things were in Utrecht, Zwolle, Amersfoort, and Amsterdam.
“When I was sixteen, my twin brother and I went to a movie night,” Frits recalls. “At first, it was very pleasant. They let you acclimate, but it goes further and further. And then you’re expected to be there for every service. At one point, I had something for the church every evening. I think I spent thirty to forty hours a week on it. We got drawn into it.”
Chris’ parents were already members of The Door when he was born. Until he was twenty-five, four years ago, he faithfully attended The Door in Zwolle, even when his parents left after 37 years of membership.
“Then I really made my parents’ lives bitter,” Chris says. “When your whole family is in the church, you have a higher status. Suddenly, I didn’t have that anymore. People from the church looked down on me. Suddenly, I had a lower status, I was the son of a rebel. That’s what they call someone who asks questions.”
Frits is familiar with the term rebel too. “My twin brother started attending services. So he was put on a pedestal and got the reputation of a disciple. I was portrayed as a rebel.”
Different from the rest
The two are far from the only ones critical of the church. ‘At first, it seems very nice at The Door,’ writes one of the members of the public Facebook group. ‘People shower you with attention. That’s how you get drawn into the church. At some point, your whole life revolves around The Door.’
“I’ve always said my whole life: I will never leave,” Chris says. “Everyone at the church thinks the same way. The idea is that we are different from the rest of the world, we have found a purpose and a calling. We are part of the best movement there is. That’s what they believe, and I did too, very strongly.”
‘Your world becomes very small and one-sided,’ continues the former member. ‘You make decisions in consultation with your pastor (in other words, he decides on your life). It’s dangerous that in these churches, there’s only one pastor who chooses his own elders. So, he hardly has to be accountable for anything. Now that we’re out, everyone has dropped us, and we have no contact with anyone.’
Another former member writes, ‘Personally, I realized afterward that I experienced spiritual abuse there. I now have such an aversion to religion, indoctrination, and manipulation. Also, the feeling: how could I ever have fallen for that.’
“The pastor has quite a say in your life,” Frits says. Chris adds, “If you want a relationship, you have to ask the pastor for permission. Then again when you want to marry. The pastor had agreed to marry us but withdrew when I asked too many questions. We had to wait six months.”
Both find the church manipulative. Frits gives an example: “If you’re not present at a service or if you take a job that they find too far away, you’ll be removed from the ministry.”
“The ministry involves different things. Collecting offerings, serving coffee and tea. At some point, you progress and are allowed to maintain order during a service. If you deviate even a little, everything can be taken away from you.”
Different name.
Dirk van Rijn, pastor of The Door in Leeuwarden, finds it difficult to imagine that one of his members recognizes themselves in this criticism. “This is not my style,” Van Rijn says. “I don’t want to go into too many details about it. But precisely because I had a manipulative pastor twenty years ago, I make sure I don’t misuse the pulpit.”
“I won’t say if you don’t do this or that, God won’t be pleased. I try to highlight things from a positive angle. If I think it’s good for someone to come more often, I say: it brings me so much joy to be here.”
“It might be different with other pastors,” Van Rijn thinks. “Several pastors have been sent away, and things were different twenty years ago. I try to be extra vigilant with my people. I instruct them not to manipulate. I find it very unfortunate that it comes to the point where people leave. I regret it for both sides if something went wrong within the church.”
During the ‘miracle campaign’ at the Oldehoofsterkerkhof, the focus was mainly on healing medical conditions through prayer. Van Rijn previously stated that people who believed they were healed should still check with a doctor. Chris and Frits still believe in healing through prayer. “But that’s a miracle,” Frits says. “It can’t just be prescribed. And healing can also happen in the medical world.”
Chris and Frits have no experiences with The Door in Leeuwarden. According to Van Rijn, all Door churches are self-determining and autonomous, but in practice, they don’t decide differently from the Potter’s House or The Door in Zwolle. “We’re not a splinter group; it’s just a different name.”
Last week, there was a conference in Zwolle for pastors from around the world. The son of the founder, Greg Mitchell, who now leads, was present. From August 10th to 13th, he was in Leeuwarden, where hundreds of people visited him hoping to be healed of their medical conditions.
Other side of the ocean.
The Door in Zwolle is the first establishment in the Netherlands. “Zwolle supervises,” Van Rijn knows. “They also bear the financial responsibility. And suppose I’m unreasonable, people can go to Zwolle to seek justice.”
The Door spreads by letting churchgoers
in another place start a new branch. A pastor trains the newcomer for about three years. A requirement to become a pastor is that you must be married.
The church where he is trained is called the guiding church, and the new pastor must be accountable there. Leeuwarden pioneers work in Lelystad, which means Leeuwarden has sent a new pastor to that city. Zwolle is the guiding church for Leeuwarden.
Then Zwolle reports to Prescott, Arizona. “I see it as a problem that they have to be accountable to their pastor,” says Frits. “People are afraid that everything ends up in Prescott. My twin brother found that particularly scary because he was in Zwolle. The moment you do something wrong, it goes all the way to the other side of the ocean. Then the whole world knows.”
