Ask any church leader who has come into contact with Gothard followers, and far too often you will hear about stories of divisions caused within churches, rather than people who are known for their love or unity. Many instances of division can be traced directly back to the teachings of Bill Gothard through the […]

Sometime last year I told my wife that the pastoral staff of our church were preparing a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Having not grown up in the ATI world (in the Advanced Training Institute), I had not anticipated her less-than-enthusiastic response: “Yeah, I’ve had enough teaching on THAT to last me my […]

  The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Chapter 5: Identifying the Abusive System We continue our series blogging through “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.” The first post in the series is here. What are the common characteristics of spiritually abusive systems? This chapter looks at the unhealthy dynamics that commonly dictate how people function […]

  This is the second of two re-printed articles examining the biblical character, Abigail. To quickly summarize the first article (found here), Abigail was a hero. Her quick thinking and action saved lives. David praised God for using her to save him and others from needless pain. From the Pages of Scripture This article looks […]

  The first Abigail is a wise and beautiful hero, an inspiration to women and men everywhere. Her quick thinking, deliberate action, and diplomatic speech saved many lives. We meet this Abigail in a delightful story told in 1 Samuel 15. Sadly, many of us raised under the Institute in Basic Life Principles and ATI’s […]

I have heard many people talk about how they still want to be involved in ATI (the Advanced Training Institute), but be “normal” families and just “filter out the bad stuff.” I’ve seen some of those responses in the Recovering Grace comments. If that’s your premise, then this post is for you, because that’s my […]

Jesus must have enjoyed short stories. He used parables frequently. One of those stories appears in Matthew 20:1-16. It arrested my attention recently and I wondered how someone would tell the story in today’s world. Perhaps something like this: The strangest bonus Jim ever received was for a large project he worked on for six […]

I sat in the middle seat of the wood-grained station wagon, peering over the blue leather seats ahead of me, trying to get the best view I could out of the front windshield. I was on mission with my family to complete an ATI homeschool assignment for that day: “As a family, drive to a […]