The Cheeky Chicanery Of The Gladstone/Madison Cult : Under The Eye Once More

These are trying times. Everybody's trying something and getting caught.                                          The Church Lady, 1987

In January 2025, a major newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio published it's own investigative series on the Queen City's very own Gladstone/Madison cult movement and the unending controversies it has championed for well over twenty years.  Written in the well qualified neutral tone that a legally-curated document in our litigious age can be expected to be presented in, the article nevertheless stirred the cultural pot around the burgeoning enclave of Madison Place where the movement has insinuated itself. 

Gladstone/Madison is as culty as cults can be. They like to protest how misunderstood they are and commend their feigned and persecuted sanctity as martyrs for a pure, communal New Testament lifestyle. For all of those years, led by a core group of now middle aged single men pushing their interpretation of Christian community as the only correct way to live, they've successfully enchanted hundreds of men and women to live in economic, social and spiritual compact with one another in a variety of group homes and businesses there. 

During all of that same time, their practical and doctrinal excesses have infected all of the good works and piety they have expressed. While preaching the Christian gospel creatively through a variety of mission works and cooperative efforts with clueless churches partnering with them, they come off as a gentle and winsome band of youthful zealots for Jesus even as their leaders privately and continually use a full court press of control, manipulation and abuse upon them to compel their submission to a  this coercion as a discipline of "Spirit-led" formation. Innumerable testimonies of personal violation, the destruction of external family ties and an absolute domination of idealistic disciples through cultic mind control and a compulsory form of what is a virtual slave laboring have been circulating there for many years and remained an ugly reality simmering beneath the bright colors of the community's chipper public persona. This isn't a testimony of "gossip" or jealousy - just the unvarnished truth.

Many of the Gladstone movement's neighbors in the area were clueless about their history and the report stated that it was a Reddit posting in 2022 was what got them looking into things. It missed, of course, the existential reality that those living there have long known of the manifold homes, businesses and the  church 'Gathering Place" among them where its populace of mobile pedestrian membership constantly walk around them from building to building.  People quickly looked away, in perfect American civil aplomb, even if whispers and even eyewitness accounts testified to warped doings there that underscore their socially questionable place.

But thanks to the sacrificial and courageous testimonials we had already been taking from family and former members  about it, a full year before the Enquirer's work emerged, in October 2024 Spiritwatch Ministries published a six part expose that was based upon first hand testimony and documented evidence about the cult that had remained largely unexamined for decades.  The story is far bleaker than the polished book report about it which the newspaper presented. It is instead, we found, a tale of deceit, compromise and human trafficking.  There are horrors beyond belief routinely borne by hundreds if not thousands of people in its orbit, while most churches around it empowered it to go on, even insisting that their example was a model of stellar Christian community that only ignorance and jealousy could misunderstand. This became very apparent as we first examined the Gladstone controversy in 2022.  

During our investigation, we also published on our "Where Are We Going" podcasts and YouTube channel livestreams several interviews with many of the same people who would be quoted in our expose - and who would go on to add their proverbial two cents to the Enquirer reporter.  They helped document that an agenda of literal oppression advanced by smiling, cunning leaders steers the lives of dozens of smiling young people and families whose sunny visages conceal the abuse of mind, spirit and body that they are subject to every day.  This has been the operative reality for over two decades which the Madisonville neighborhood has beheld all around it, their communal lifestyles magnifying their own tradition and its unique control over them. And as it usually goes in communal cults thriving in American society, none outside the grouop seem able to fully see the unethical, abusive and at times illegal activity they are charged to cheerfully endure while posing as "a Christian fellowship and part of the Body of Christ in Cincinnati."

One ex-member with close ties still within Gladstone wrote a few months ago a brief overview of the state of affairs within what they call "Community"  since the latest release of the Enquirer's work:

Since the front-page article, what we’ve seen is not repentance but resistance. Instead of humbling themselves, Community has doubled down. A few have left, but many are still trapped and hurting. Rather than confessing sin, the leadership continues to cast blame outward—painting us as the source of their troubles. In their meetings they use vague words like “we messed up,” “we made mistakes,” or “we were immature.” But there is no confession of sin. No stepping down. No real accountability. 

When Benjamin Von Korff and Cebastian Hilton left leadership, the internal narrative within the community quickly shifted to, “It was all their fault—now things will be better.” But the truth is, the same patterns continue. Zak Kijinski may no longer hold the official title, but it appears Brian Roselli is functioning as the leader.

Meanwhile, outside of the community, the responses have been revealing. Some ministries and Christian leaders have rightly severed ties. Others are clinging tighter, as if protecting their own reputations. And still others are silent—hoping it will all just fade away. But silence is complicity. We are still waiting for local Christian leaders to speak publicly and say, “We were wrong.” They were wrong when countless desperate families came pleading for help, only to be told that “Community was the army of God.” 

They were wrong to ignore the cries of the wounded. And they remain wrong today if they continue to look the other way.

Every elder, every Christian leader tied to Community, has already been given multiple private opportunities to respond. The time for silence and excuses is long past. The truth has been exposed. What remains to be seen is whether they will repent—or continue to protect the system that has destroyed so many.

 

To those of you who have carried the weight of this—ex-members, family, and friends—please know this: your courage in speaking the truth matters. You are not alone. The deception is being uncovered, and healing is possible. What they refuse to confess, God still sees. And what they will not repent of, He will bring into the light.

Another former member, when asked about it, gives an eye opening perspective on why the beatific smiles and manner of current members persist even to this day:

As an ex member I know that any evidence of peace seen in each of the members faces is most likely due to the unfortunate reality of brainwashing.

When a member is introduced to the leaders and the system, at first there is the struggle they face as they are introduced to a new ideology. The leaders “help” the person to second guess themselves while introducing a new way of thinking and living. The right amount of personal pressure to comply with it using disapproval and intense love is applied by the social system all at the same time. Personal boundaries are crossed in the process and power by the leaders is asserted for them to buy into the system Hook, Line, and sinker. 

The new member's will is eventually broken and kept pliable by instruction to confess any doubt or insecurities about the leadership as sin to secure their control and to keep their will broken. Finally, the numbed expression of peace becomes stamped on their facial expression as they learn to obey the rules and . no longer disrupt the system.

This brutal revelation explains how this religiously abusive trauma owns so many so firmly that the few who manage to physically break free never quite actually get truly free, remaining damaged and wounded, fearful of the voices of Zak and others ringing in their heads as their conscience of torment.  

It comes from a former subject of "The Army of God" - a term coined for what has been for years an ad campaign that starry eyed yet blind piety among religious outsiders have depicted the Community to be. This virtual anointing has come from within the diseased imagination and defective discernment of a generation of churches and parachuch ministries around it that have empowered their deception.  Our expose tells this grotesque story and the Enquirer simply never went there to begin to address it. Supposedly an elite vanguard of cutting edge New Testament spirituality, the reality is that Gladstone/Madison is a purely human bondage behind the surreal pseudochristian atmosphere that extends throughout the overlapping social circles of the group - from the home fellowships to the Madison Place coffee shop and beyond. 

These same members confirm that in the past 2 years, since our podcast content and the expose has widely revealed the Gladstone/Madison oppressions, the group's social strictures have actually loosened considerably.  Within the group leadership caste, enough dissent arose that precipitated the elevation of Roselli after Hilton stepped back - supposedly as some harbingers of reform that would bring better days. Suddenly, community members are inexplicably now allowed to visit families outside of their communal Madison Place settings, without chaperones who would tag along to make sure they kept micromanagement over them. 

Pool parties with mixed bathing where alcohol flows freely and freer interactions among the sexes are part of the recreational scheme there where members are engaged with a daily schedule of dawn to dusk domination of their time, energy, hearts and minds.  These carnal lubes of human nature have become a sanctified part of  " sharing all things in common" -  except of course, actual dating or marital relationships.  And the harsh and vicious criticism by leaders among the group of those who have left has "toned down" somewhat and even reapproaching some of them has become a touching, even winsome, act of apparent "Christian" charity the community's outreach has included. Suddenly, relationships with ex-members outside the community that were iced over for years by silence and distance have thawed and the "love" always seems so real, so authentic. 

These refreshing gestures may be an attempt to soften their puritanical persona to make a point that "Community is changing". This delusional assumption is only bought into by those within and without the community who still accept that party line uncritically. It soothes whatever burnt stump of conscience may remain in those church and community leaders who bent over backwards in the past two decades to enable the cult's activity among them.  But these haven't stopped the ongoing waves of investigation that the Gladstone/Madison cult has been facing and faces today. 

Over the years, a variety of regulatory agencies have been quietly  probing the secular fringes of the cult's businesses and social settings, as well as their financial doings. We are aware that the Internal Revenue Service and Ohio Child Protective Services have initiated investigations in the past which as far as we know are ongoing. Others reportedly are probing alleged violations of labor law and occupational safety missteps in the cult's businesses. The latest CPS investigation was started in late February at the behest of an ex-member whose identity we are unaware of but which we've emailed them about, expressing our concerns about where the past investigations have gone. The public should have some way of learning about this and all child protective service agencies nationwide should be accountable enough to it and verify and explain what they do in a given situation within reasonable limits for confidentiality sake.  We are still awaiting their response.  

Within the closed circle of the community's insular existence, the leadership's free access to a massive work force made up of church members and a fluid populace of immigrants and visitors in recovery from addictive lifestyles has helped provide an economically potent labor force energizing their industries and supporting the overall operation of the group. Since the group involves a never ending inflow of people, family units that include children and teen agers, it's fairly easy to see how widespread their influence has been, especially when they routinely shuttle people from all over the country and the world in to bolster their activity, especially when its passed off as a Christian missionary effort.

However, flyers have started to again circulate throughout the neighborhood highlighting Gladstone/Madison's shady past and - quite without any doing of ours - started to call attention to the Spiritwatch exposes. A place truly blessed by God - as the New Testamen shows -  finds favor with God and man and grows until it shakes a city up with a testimony to the truth of the Gospel. This community of well meaning and yet horribly aberrant people are nothing of the sorty and their religiosity there in Madison Place has lost its luster even if it still can win hearings and cooperation with too many ignorant civic and church leaders there. The testimonies continue to mount and the outrage continues, as it should, and we hope the scrutiny starts to finally shine an unforgiving light into the darkest corners of the place. 

We are hoping to field more testimonies in our future "Where Are We Going" podcasts that will further reveal it's dark side and to demonstrate how spiritually bankrupt the personality cult championed by Brian Roselli being puppetmastered by Zak Kijinski actually is. Stay tuned. Other stories and testimony remain to be crafted.

A Letter To The Protectors of Cincinnatti's Children and Youth 3.2.2026

 

Subject: confirmation of investigation

Date: 2026-03-02 11:02

From: rafael@spiritwatch.org

To: Communications@childrenandyouth.ohio.gov

My name is Rafael Martinez. I am a licensed minister and pastor located

in Northwest Indiana. For the past 4 years, I have been asked to assist

victims of a dysfunctional faith community located in the Madison Place

neighborhood of Cincinnati that has many questionable doings for well

over a decade. This group is called the Madison Place Community Church

and is also popularly known locally as the Gladstone Community and has

had significant amount of local church support as well by places such as

the Marymont Church and others.

I support the First Amendment clause to the free exercise of religion

but this is never to be a cover for the breaking of the laws of our

land. Child abuse is universally an evil blight we are to resist and

bring to accountability every opportunity we have. Part of the serious

issues there at this Madison place group have been situations I've been

hearing of in which children and youth are alleged to have been exposed

to instances of mentally and physically abusive rearing practices and

even situations in which supposedly registered child sex offenders might

have been authorized by the group to be in their immediate proximity. I

am aware that a homeschooling facility is run by this community in which

they could have easy access.

As a minister I'm bound to report these kind of situations to law

enforcement and your agency. I have not reported on these issues since

the allegations of of these, I have been told by those intimately

familiar with this group, have supposedly been already in place. But I

have never pursued any verification that this was actually was done.

Supposedly there have been at least four or five other instances in

which a complaint was made about these activities.

And I have heard that last week an individual whose identity is unknown

to me made an hour long call to someone involved in your agency

detailing an extensive litany of complaints along these lines and

others. There are some very serious accusations of medical neglect,

abusive corporal punishment and others as directed by the leaders of

this group.

MY QUESTIONS are these:

1) Is there an active investigation process going on right now since

last week with the Madison Place Community Church and it's leadership,

namely Brian Roselli and others?

2) In the past several years can you please confirm how many other

complaints that led to active investigations have you received about

this church and any other people connected to it such as Zak Kijinsky

and others? Can you clarify the nature of these complaints?

3) What would be your agency's response if you found that registered sex

offenders had been within the reach of the children and youth of this

community and nothing was done to safeguard them?

4) A fluid and mobile populace of immigrant families and children have

come and gone there and many concerns have been shared with me that they

were victims of criminal abuse by neglect and sexual exploitation. Has

your agency been aware of this as well?

I have a large group of people I am in touch with who are former members

and family of the participants in the Madison / Gladstone group who are

gravely concerned about this situation and I'd like to know how to

respond to them. However, the greater good of a community that has been

beholden to all of this for many years requires an upfront and direct

communication from your agency on this. We would appreciate your speedy

response.

Cordially

Rev. Rafael Martinez

Spiritwatch Ministries

The Michael S Black Conversations: Hearing Is Believing

In one of those interesting twists found in the broken fields of life, 2025 found us meeting and sharing online with one of the most momentous of guests of our "Where Are We Going" podcast we've ever had. 

None other than Michael, the son of the fallen cult leader Gwen Shamblin Lara, approached us to share about his long, sad flight through the black skies of the Remnant Fellowship stratosphere. As one of its defacto leaders, Michael Shamblin - now going by his nom de guerre Michael S Black - he sat at ground zero to behold the conception, birth and mutation of his mother's cult into the monstrosity it became. The experience was almost beyond telling and frankly, this was a meeting that I don't think either of us ever imagined would ever happen. But it happened! 

Our conversations ultimately became channeled into what has been one of the deepest dives into the deception I've ever done.  Michael's work is a personal testimonial to just how black the depths of a cult can be and how it can so terribly impact a young man who was completely absorbed into it from the days of his youth onward.  How he finally emerged from it is one of the most gripping personal reveries you'll ever hear. It is unsparing, direct, delivered without dramatic flair, intensively real and transparent. We invite you to tune in and are grateful to Michael's contribution to discernment shared out of his own unique and unenviable perspective. 

While you can click on to hear the podcasts at the link above, you can also access them at this YouTube playlist link here as well. 

The Silence Of The Wolves : The Response of The Hirelings Of Xenos - A Telling Tale

It's been a while since we last blogged. Too long. 

Our calling and election has had us pursuing a lot of ministry elsewhere, namely in our podcasting and livestreaming. As we've explained in one of our last "Where Are We Going" podcasts , in so far as myself and my wife Elizabeth have been led, we are redirecting ourselves toward working much more closely with our local home church, the Central Church of God in Portage, Indiana,  to help revitalize it through aiding our new pastoral leadership. We have felt honored to be a part of our congregation aiding in pastoral, children's ministry and security team response there. 

That of course requires a reordering of our time and priorities. As our podcast has stated,  we will continue to maintain the work of Spiritwatch Ministries to aid victims of abusive spirituality and do what media ministry we have opportunity to do, but the more hidden work of behind the scenes investigation, counseling and research that helps to engage a variety of interventional and investigative concepts is where we are now heading.  Our work continues, as it can, and we're waiting on the Spirit of God to direct us accordingly.

There is one bit of unfinished business we should review for closure and perspective:

On January 22, 2024  we posted on this blog about our attempt to invite the leadership of the Xenos/Dwell movement to reconnect with us. We'd confronted them concerning the religious abuses exposed in a week long investigation of their operations in Columbus, Ohio and they were challenged in a Zoom call in December of 2021 to discuss it. We tried to restart dialogue. 

Today is March 9, 2026. 777 days later. 

The photo above is of their response as seen in our post office box.

The photo below is of their commentary.

The Last Days Primer Series : Exclusive to Our Facebook Page

At the first of this year, as part of a personal reapproachment to our ministry of discernment, we shared 12 passages of Old and New Testament content that provide the sharpest and clearest insight into the nature of the End of all things, a season humanity has been shamelessly rambling through. With some commentary, we've shared these on our Facebook page here.

 

Our ministry of discernment unapologetically is based upon the assertion of Scripture that the wrath of God upon our sinful planet is indeed coming and woe betide those who ignore it at their peril. Nowadays, most people view such dark tidings as needlessly dramatic myths we can readily dismiss. In a day and age in which the sobering concepts of the Second Coming of Christ, His impending Judgment on all  humanity and the rise of the apostate world order under the spell of a very literal Antichrist before His destruction of it are little more than plot twists for apocalyptic Netflix series, we expect this. 

Yet we still lift up our voices to proclaim just how on the edge all creation really is. And these verses provide for us twelve Bible mandates on how to understand the times we live and what to expect as the extremism of the times accelerates. We offer enough commentary upon it to spell out the plain warning of the verses, which are largely prophetic declarations we should take heed to. We hope you'll take the time and read them, as posted directly from the page. Scroll up to catch all 12. 
 

We Know Cults When They're On The Clingy Side: How Cult Recruitment Still Snares People Today

The Cultworld, that culture of cultures bent toward countless sectarian chapters of elitism and control, is an insidious aspect of toxic human nature. These groups are usually at their most visible when actively doing their best to troll entire populaces of targetted audiences associated with schools, seminars and college campuses. Even with the chilling of the world in the blanket of isolation that the COVID pandemic left us all struggling within, cults never quite stopped their aggressive recruitment. They just shifted gears, went online and turned to the Internet like never before.

However, the harvest fields of young hearts and minds found in university communities and beyond have always been one of the softest of targets for their proselytization. An older article we did some time ago has noted how cults recruit freely in such places to great effect and impact because of how readily the young men and women, caught at a time of transition in their lives from young student adulthood , never quite see what is coming when a friendly bunch of people sing a song of belonging and inclusion all pulling together under a shiny idealism.

Such college- aged recruitment of young men and women is one of the most hidden of things in society. It happens, but there's rarely any warning or caution put out about it, despite what horrors it personally brings.  What's all too well known about them is how readily the appealing lure of cultic community seems to attract too many recruits who uncritically accept what they say and jump into involvement .. usually through the most innocuous of avenues like outings, parties, gaming and food fests held not far from the college campuses themselves.  As our article indicated:

As we are all too familiar, people are basically insecure creatures who will spare no effort to find the means to satisfy their need for personal security through personal fulfillment. In short, they will seek "the itch for their scratch." Cultic groups target people struggling with such issues with their astonishingly effective means of personal recruitment based upon meeting those needs, thereby gaining significant means of leverage and control over them. And their recruitment is usually as successful as their group's ability to foster that instant sense of rapport and community with those they seek to convert. It is this kind of immediacy in purely relational issues that most powerfully influences the seeker. Their payoff - facilitated by the recruiter's personal contact  -  is a carefully controlled outpouring of positive regard by the collective group aimed to impress upon them how valued and cared for they are: this is done in three ways

• Immediate Importance -  the prospect is affirmed to the extent that they are made to feel essential and important to the success of cause they are confronted with - since it is how those needs and their fulfillment will be met ..         

• Instant Intimacy - the prospect is provided with a high degree of almost instantaneous caring and sharing with other group members who unhesitatingly make themselves available for the development of deep, close relationships ..  

• Interactive Introduction - the prospect is brought into (and caught up with) a community of people who have a vibrant social life totally centered around their collective involvement with the revelation or philosophy that the group holds is the "truth" that will save the world .. 

In short, this is what we call fast food fellowship. It is quick, delicious and satisfying and can be obtained easily from the right places relatively cheaply. There are no shortage of franchises to choose from. The menus differ to some extent, but the fare is the same. And ultimately, no matter how tasty, the diet is imbalanced and unhealthy and leads into a real rut that is very difficult to get out of! Another terms used by cult researchers to describe this phenomenon is "love bombing".

<snip>

Check out how this same frivolity translates into the kind of recruiting gambits that many cultic movements engage in which focus on broader audiences in our podcast "Target Practice" in which four survivors of four different cults explain how cults will cling to their intended targets so convincingly and how they became involved.  
Cultism is a transformative nightmare only one hope away. 

The Delaware Affair: Understanding the Error of Pastor Sam Rosa

There's nothing more dangerous than a "friend" who has taken up the cause of a very real and very wiley enemy. We didn't go out of our way to discover a grotesque and contemporary example of this - it came slapping us in our face in the fall of 2022 when we were in the midst of producing podcasts on the advance of the Xenos/Dwell cult in Ohio. 

This podcast details the initiative we had to launch to confront an evil so winsomely established within a community of Christians being errantly led by its pastor down the proverbial gates to hell.

 Listen to it HERE.

 

The Absence of Love In Abusive Spirituality: Our EMNR 2023 Video Online

This is probably our most indepth look into the spiritual depravity of cultism we've ever had an opportunity to produce.It takes a long and hard look at why two "cutting edge" churches are just plain cutting cults.

This is a review of how Biblical agape is absent from the indoctrination of cultism, specifically in the toxic formation practiced by two Ohio Valley cults largely off the radar of countercult discernment, who have been enthusiastically abusing their recruits for a total of some seventy years. Our case studies will focus on Xenos Christian Fellowship (now called Dwell Community Church) and Gladstone Community (now called Madison Place Community Church), fulfilling Matthew 24:12.

A video presentation first broadcast at the EMNR conference entitled "Engage 2023: The Cost of Failed Discipleship.' WARNING - Explicit testimony of cult abuses may trigger cult survivors. View it HERE.

Update On Our "Brother Trickster" Ebook on the Gladstone / Madison Cult

Thanks for visiting our blog, which due to the sheer amount of work we've done online, through our podcast and with many other ministry projects, didn't begin to reflect the amount of updating we've been wanting to make mention here. We're sorry for not being more in touch!

THE BROTHER TRICKSTER E-BOOK IS COMING! It is the adaptation of our six part expose on the cult of Zac Kijinski's creation called the Madison Community "Church" in Cincinatti, but is more widely known at the Gladstone Community "Church" about one of the most insidiously parasitical abusive cults we've ever seen.

The editing has gotten more involved than we thought as well as our attempts to , but we hope within a month's time to finally have it ready for distribution. We are still weighing options for how to make it available. We will be asking a donation for a download of each book, and depending upon our delivery system we choose to go with, the amount of that requested donation will vary. We will keep you advised. 

In the mean time, you can read the expose in six parts here.

 

Discerning The Journey of Change Our Fallen World Slouches Along To ..

Why is it so dark?

In the beginning, it is always dark.

We are indeed going somewhere. Our podcast summarizes our direction for the coming year in helping shine a light on the very dark places we are going that are awash in sunshine and flowers.

 

Round Two : A Request For Renewed Dialogue With Dwell

Rafael Martinez with Megan Cox

Spiritwatch Ministries
Post Office Box 2165
Hammond, IN, 46323

Thursday, January 17, 2024

Conrad Hilario and Kate Mizelle
Dwell Community Church
1340 Community Park Dr

Columbus, OH 43229

Dear Conrad and Kate:

It has been two years since our last communication regarding the testimonies we have presented to you about the abuses of a substantial number of people within your church community. We have long wanted to reconnect with you for further conversation on this very matter but our email connection came to a disappointing end. 

At the time, we were affiliated with Everywoman Studios and no longer are. Yet our position then remains as it is now, that a disturbingly persistent subculture involving authoritarian and manipulative domination appears to be far more rampant within your movement then how you have represented it. Additional personal discussion with former members and leaders confirms this over the past 2 years, much of which I am certain you are quite aware of. 

We would like to ask that you candidly respond to this additional evidence and do so in the same format as we previously dialogued with you, using online meetings to do so. We would use Google Meet, record them and make this recording available to you as soon as technically possible afterwards. The recording would be used publicly in our ongoing discussions about Dwell as you used the first recordings from 2021 for your own purposes.

There's far more, Conrad and Kate, then you thought you'd encounter by opening this discussion. We are not seeking damnation but discernment and have approached this not to scandalize but with sobriety. There are very clear problems within your movement that are well documented which you need to squarely address that dishonor the Gospel and militate against your belief that Dwell is an embodiment of New Testament Christian community. 

And I as an activist against institutionalized abuse and Megan as a survivor of it have a real desire for frank discussion on this and are requesting that you - or anyone else in senior X/D leadership at your level - to respond to our invitation and actually do so.

We look forward to your response.

Rafael Martinez
Spiritwatch Ministries ****** USPS Tracking HERE.

The Gladstone Report by Ernie and June Stickler: Courage At The End Of A Weary Day

In 2018, a Christian couple who had come into the fellowship of a band of young disciples helming their own church found themselves compelled to leave it. They loved these young men and women as their own spiritual children whom they tried to offer guidance and light to throughout their time among them. But even though they were initially dazzled by their vibrant spirituality and pragmatic approach to applying their faith to their lifestyle, they learned after 4 years among them that there were profoundly troubling things going on there.

Sadly, these tidings were so disturbing that, conscience torn, they felt bound to admonish the community of what they perceived to be profound errors they were laboring under. They then, heartbreakingly, chose to leave it altogether, knowing that the group was resisting their warnings. This community was the Gladstone Community, now calling itself the Madison Place Community Church of Cincinatti, Ohio as led by a self-proclaimed "elder" named Zac Kijinski. This couple, Ernie and June Stickler, did not leave the community until they made sure that the chronicle of their findings was sent to the entire community's membership by a mass e-mail. We've found that the Stickler's letter is one of the greatest efforts by truly compassionate Christians seeking to warn people bound by the wiles of cultic deception. It is a wonderful epistle filled with heartfelt Scriptural warnings and uncompromising calls for them to change their ways.

With their permission we are providing the full text of what we call "The Gladstone Report", which first surfaced in the inboxes of all of the community members in 2018. Click HERE to download it. 

We will be producing a full report on the Gladstone cult in the near future on our website and in our "Where Are We Going" podcast, we've had guests we've interviewed on the program who were survivors of the group telling their story.  These podcasts have shaken a lot of institutions in Cincinatti, beginning with the Gladstone group themselves and we know more exposes are on the way.

You can hear more about the Stickler's experiences in this episode of our podcast from last summer when we interviewed June about their time there. 

Houses Of The Holy: The 2016 Article On The Queen City's Haight-Ashbury

 

Aside from Reddit links, scattered Facebook pages and it's own hagiographical PR treatments about itself, there's very little information on the Gladstone Community on the internet aside. Their website page has been revised several times. Since we are unable to drive several hours and stay around for a week to try to connect with them, we're forced to start on the web in our research. 

But in many instances, that's a lot to say right there. As you read these forums, you hear and see that there's something about Gladstone's activity that leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Ultimately, some of this is just plain bias and irreverence and can be attributed to a scorn for spirituality so common today. But by no means can that explain it all away whatsoever. The vibe people read from contact with Gladstone's activities as well as their past doings isn't something you can just dismiss out of hand. For a group claiming to be the only true expression of New Testament Christianity on the earth, it's abrasive attitude seems out of place especially when you realize that this is where they've been since their inception.

Social media is not a good place to find primary sources of information about something. When it's all you got, however, you proceed with caution and a good working baloney detector. So we were quite surprised to find that in 2016, Cincinnati Magazine published an article on this cultic movement that was the first and at this time only such source. It described the rise and presence of Gladstone as part of the organizational prowess of one Zac Kijinski, a likable and bright young man whose spiritual fervor, innovative mindset and charismatic personality remind you immediately of another religious innovator by the name of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon heresy whose stature and bearing commanded a likeability and allegiance of so many around him in the 1800's. 

Unlike the gregarious and extroverted Smith, who would go on to found a cultic religion all  his own, Kijinski doesn't like to talk to reporters. Click on the link to find out why. Thank you, Cincinnati Magazine.

The Gladstone Controversy: Another Cult Hidden In Plain Sight

We first want to apologize for not keeping our blog up as current as it should be. Thanks for your patience if you've been coming by for updates and not getting them!  We have been so completely overwhelmed by the responses to our work in helping bring light upon the Remnant Fellowship and Xenos / Dwell cults in recent months. We're going to try to keep this going! Our major thrusts of ministry have been related to our "Where Are We Going" Spiritwatch podcasts and we've been featuring testimony from survivors of both of those movements who've generously given us interviews into their involvement which are truly worthy of download and that's just a mouseclick away above.

Mindy Munoz' testimony has turned out to be the most downloaded episode of our podcasts so far. A well known and well loved member of the Remnant Fellowship in it's earlier years, her testimony -- barely cited in the "Way Down" documentary -- seems to be resonating with a lot of people in Tennessee. Our metrics indicate that the region around Franklin is ablaze with activity and visits from people there to our podcast. May the truth be told. 

Our last blog post was too long ago .. although we are glad to see that perhaps Dr. Loritts had listened to our entreaties and maybe a few others because he's no longer listed as a speaker on the Xenos Summer Institute roadshow of "Christian apologetics." It's amazing what the power of Internet outrage can leverage, but regrettably, there had been no communication from him about his withdrawal, much less any explanation as to why he was involved to begin with, going to speak at a "Christian apologetics" conference helmed by a religiously abusive and cultic movement.

Discernment isn't pretty but it gets the job done. There's no beauty in this affair but the vindication of truth. 

Moving forward, on our most recent podcast, we want to begin an exclusive expose on another controversial movement that has been contributing to the spiritual confusion of the Midwestern community it currently flourishes in. Well known there, this movement is almost completely unknown anywhere else. And as always, it’s a tragic story of good people in an evil situation, of love twisted by deceit, of the ecstasy of fellowship and the agony of bullying. In short it’s a cautionary tale of how there are still those who lie in wait to deceive in the name of God, those who boldly come off as champions of truth and draw so many to follow a path to hell in this world and possibly the next.

You see, when you speak of such groups as cults being in our very midst, it tends to confuse a lot of people with a sensationalism that clouds perception. Many assume that cults assemble in secrecy in well hidden compounds in some wilderness stronghold where they cavort with demonic forces, sacrifice children and wear some kind of robes, paint and feathers. As the great French philosopher Pepe Le Pew once said, Au contraire!   They are embedded in our society everywhere and are your friends, your neighbors, maybe even your family. They are the barista at the coffee house and the realtor with an office in town. They are intelligent, idealistic and sharp people with families and interests like you. Cult members are quite ordinary people who just so happen to be in the bondage ofa  cultic mind control that ties them to their chosen gathering. That’s something all too ordinary as we’ve been sharing in our podcasts.

Our attention now turns in our podcasts and outreach to come to a place calling itself a Christian church of intentional community, but which has become an antichristian den of intentional control.  Hundreds of people have been drawn into its orbit since 2006 or so, young and sharp men and women who believe it to be the only Christian movement under the sun, just as any well mind controlled cult member might conclude after having been love bombed, wined and dined and then recruited into yet another cultic billet to slave away for "the Kingdom." 

Click here to listen to our newest episode on the movement calling itself the Madison Place Community Church, after being known as the Gladstone Community Church, and before that, the Gladstone Community. The old adage of something being hidden in plain sight gets new life when considering the recent history of this controversial and quite destructive cult. We'll be focusing on them for the foreseeable future to come, as well as in research articles on the Spiritwatch website as well. Stay tuned!

We are exploting ways to launch two podcasts a week since the Xenos heresy's ongoing outrages require ongoing responses. Pray for us. We're busier than a two tailed cat in a rocking chair factory and we need God's hand on us. 

 

Let's Help A Xenos Summer Institute Speaker Get Some Perspective ..

 

Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
Dark Helmet, Spaceballs the Movie

The below text was sent in the comments section of Dr. Loritts' website on April 19, 2022.

I am a licensed minister and countercult activist since 1983 and enjoyed hearing Dr. Loritts off and on throughout the years and was particularly blessed by his admonition at the 2007 Precept conference in which he spoke, aside from his presentation, to give seven serious pieces of advise about false teachers and their insidious influence in the church. It was a riveting moment that I blogged about back then. 

So I'm writing now to ask now for Dr. Loritts to be advised that he's engaging in a highly inappropriate and public association with a seriously questionable group. Honestly, I truly hope that Dr. Loritts is perhaps seriously unaware of this .. but the Xenos church movement institute he is preparing to be a keynote speaker is a dangerous and deceptive assembly. 

I am calling on him to reconsider his involvement and even end it. In the past 5 months, I have begun to help assist three generations  of victims of spiritual abuse who were traumatized by Xenos polity and doctrine visible primarily ONLY in private settings.  This is documentable and has been hidden in plain sight. A documentary is forthcoming on Xenos exposing it's abuses and he needs to be aware of this.  His presence there at this institute this summer will be perceived as a tacit approval of their hidden doings and this is exactly the very thing Dr. Loritts warned about in that conference in 2007. I have posted four different podcasts about our findings the past few months and invite you to hear them. 

I must inform you that we will withhold - for now - any public call on Dr. Loritts to disassociate himself from Xenos. I do not want Dr. Loritts to be embarassed, but his embracing of Xenos' leadership is nothing to be commended for. I want to believe he has seriously failed to discern who he is ministering with as 1 Thessalonians 5:12 warns us and simply has believed the ad print and self representations his Xenos connections have made about their "leadership".   

I want to in the most strongest terms possible advise you that if we don't hear from him or a representative about this issue by the end of this month, April, 2022, we will issue on May 1 a public call through our blog and social media resources for him to do so. That is how seriously we take this.

It pains us to have to be so direct and forthright, but in this day and age in which the Christian ministry has to be above board and blameless in all things as 1 Timothy 3 comands, the glory of God and obedience to His Gospel require this direct note to you.  Xenos preaches another gospel, another Christ by the power of another spirit that is alien to the Biblical good news and all while affirming orthodoxy and worldviews that appear rigorously Biblical and at the same time conducting itself as a cultic manipulator of lives, destroying so many for over 50 years. 

You may call me at _________ to discuss this  further.  That God's Spirit will speak very loudly to you from this day forward about this is our prayer. 

No email or phone call was received by Dr. Loritts or his representatives. He either didn't get it or is choosing to ignore it. I have no way of knowing. 

Therefore, we've regrettably but resolvedly determined to post this and make our call public, a week beyond the date mentioned above giving Dr. Loritts time to respond. We will be seeking to spread this information where it needs to be. 

Good is indeed usually dumb. But not this time. 

Like A Thief In The Night: The Doom of Cultism Coming Soon

 

Even as the anarchy, misery and insanity of this world's corruption continues to blaze on the earth, above and beyond the skies above the fires of humanity's miserable state, the Lord isn't surprised, hasty or puzzled. He is still on the throne. He still has all in his Lordship. 

He will root out and utterly pull down all false authority, from the Russian despots to the other cult leaders all over. For starters. 

He has said He will return like a thief in the night and a powerfully orchestrated song by British pop legend Cliff Richard from a Biblical generation ago makes this marvelously and musically alive. Click the link to hear this. 

You? You can fall with the night or rise with the Son. The choice is yours. 

Readings On Cultic Mind Control and Abusive Churches Now Downloads

Our recent blogging and podcasting has made reference to the seminal work of both Dr. Robert Lifton and Dr. Ron Enroth, a psychiatrist and a sociologist, which has provided for us the conceptual framework for understanding the power of cultic persuasion by "thought reform" (or cultic mind control) and for how to recognize it in contemporary movements including supposedly "Christian churches."  

We mentioned you'd be well informed to find their books and study their findings. Lifton's work "Thought Reform And The Psychology of Totalism", along with Enroth's book "Churches That Abuse" are two of the most informative books that can be read to understand the challenge of cults and abusive churches today.  Click HERE to download Lifton's book and HERE to download Enroth's. 

 

The Collegiate Cultism of The Xenos / Dwell Heresy: Three New Articles Just Released

 

In the heart of the Buckeye State of Ohio, the state capital of Columbus stands as a testimony to the passion and industry of the residents there. The city is the home to many typically American institutions, from the headquarters of White Castle, Nationwide Mutual and  Big Lots to the quaintly charming German Village district , the Columbus Center for Science and Industry and the annual celebration of the Columbus Festival Latino. It’s a great place to live and work. And it’s important to remember that Columbus is also the base for the Ohio State University (OSU), one of the most well known in our nation, a point of amazing civic accomplishment that every Ohioan should be proud of.
What is regrettably not as well known is the work of that of a church that regularly accesses the university’s vibrant social life, a place that used to be called Xenos Christian Fellowship until changing its name to Dwell Community Church in 2020. That is until in late February 2022 when a local NBC television channel affiliate began to air a four part series on the church that ended up being stretched into six parts. You may be here reading this as a result of hearing of this reporting, which I and my associate Megan Cox helped to initiate. You’ve come to find out more and we intend to provide you a side of the story you haven’t heard.
Having been an active presence in Columbus as well since 1970, with generations of men and women having passed through their collective doors, Xenos / Dwell’s vast influence is probably one of the best kept secrets of Columbus which many of it’s over two million residents are scarcely aware of. We have mentioned how regrettable it is that more people know little to nothing of their activities. For the Xenos Christian Fellowship, for all of its seemingly upright orthodoxy has tragically harbored scandalously evil social circles under its governance for all of that time, leaving thousands in the know devastated by religious abuse and a perversion of the very Christian principles it purports to uphold. <snip> That's the introduction to the first of three new articles we've released on this group just in the past few days. To read our first article covering a brief analysis of the heretical history and nature of "XD" as we have identified it, click HERE. The second article will explain how Spiritwatch Ministries got involved in helping in the production of an expose on XD and how we investigated them and came to the conclusion that they are a cultic movement, and to read it click HERE. And to view the uncut version of the Zoom Call dialogue we had with XD leaders as well as the full transcripts of emails we had with them afterwards (which they never allude to in all of their public reaction to our efforts), click HERE.

A Trick Of The Mind: The Persuasion Of Cult Mind Control

Our podcasts continue and last week's episode shared a bit of crucial insight into the deceptive power of cults to ensnare and control people. They come out each Saturday and last Saturday's episode that should have come out on March 5th got delayed as we burnt the midnight oil preparing the three part series we just completed providing a brief overview of the Xenos / Dwell phenomenon in Columbus, Ohio. Those articles are not completed and posted to our Spiritwatch.org site.

One of our foundational principles which contributes to our understanding of cultism isn't rocket science: we have always asserted that cultism is more than doctrine. Cultism involves more than just a warping of one's creed. See how cultism's deceptive power doesn't rely on twisted teaching alone, but their ability to change the behavior of their masses by the change of their thoughts through cultic mind control. Check out our podcast here at our "Where Are We Going" podcast episode page! 

Myths About Cults: Not Just "Those People Over There" Anymore

 

When the sad history of cultism's victims comes to light in the smoldering ashes of their devastated lives, it becomes abundantly clear that the ruin is an equal opportunity storm of destruction. It doesn't matter if you're a rich white American executive or a dirt poor Chinese laborer: the power of cultic delusion is such that it drags down any and everyone who yields to its siren songs. 

And, in typical form, someone who thinks they Know Better decides to edify all around them with their excoriating criticism of a cult victim who, they snarl, should have indeed Known Better.  They rattle off a list of glibly intoned rationalizations that they say prove that the cult victim surely could have "done better," and that their involvement was a tragic miscalculation they saw coming, therefore, they hold the lion's share of responsibility for their involvement and the cost they suffered for having gotten involved. If they were more "mature", more "spiritual", more "educated", etc., they would have then "Known Better."

This strident belief is one of the  most persistently cruel charges that supposedly well meaning observers can inflict upon a cult victim. It leaves them twice victimized and abused and unfortunately it's not at all uncommon among the worlds of pain that cult survivors live in. It is bad enough that they've suffered the religious abuse, personal chaos, lost careers and futures that have left them without friends, family,  resources, even their health. Now you have a bunch of "truth tellers" wanting to essentially scold them and reopen woundings with salted knives of verbal abuse.

It's part of human life for people to want to feel superior to others .. and it's particularly disgusting when these myths are completely wrong to begin with.   We wrote an article years ago that is no less true today about seven of the most popular misconceptions that these armchair therapists like to circulate but which are a break from reality.  Enjoy the no-nonsense rejoinder by clicking here.  
 

"The Way Down" 2.0 On The Way: Until Then Not The Good Girl's Awesome Recap Online

The latest information we've received is that the final two episodes of the HBO Max docuseries "The Way Down" which will conclude this hard hitting expose of the morally bankrupt cultism of Gwen Shamblin Lara and her Weigh Down Workshop/Remnant Fellowship business cult empire, will air either in April or May, 2022, which is literally around the corner.  Keep your DVR's ready.

There's going to be some very tough truth to heed in these and it will be as easily chilling and dark a look into the soft underbelly of the spiritual anorexia that this cult actually does pack in around itself. We look forward to the premiere, having contributed quite heavily to the production of the series and being subjects of interviews and a lot of back office discussion that is completely invisible. Without our work, the series might never have gotten off the ground. We're grateful to have had a part in this second and final installment. 

Until then, a Patreos documentary producer calling herself Not The Good Girl has taken the insights and information shared in the HBO Max doc and created her own gripping and engrossing telling of the grotesque Remnant tale. The linearity and well researched narrative summarizes the whole tragic emergence quite well and we'd recommend watching it if you wanted a recap that is fair, detailed and factual. Not The Good Girl's work can be viewed here. Enjoy. 

In Memorium : Lawrence Pile and Pastor Bill Randles

 

                                                 Lawrence Pile                   Pastor Bill Randles                                                      
                                                    1943-2022                           1959-2022

We recently learned of the passing of these two giants of the faith who you likely never heard of.

Larry Pile was a researcher as well as a facilitator of recovery workshops at the Wellspring Retreat and Rehabilitation center in Albany Ohio and assisted hundreds of people onward toward their own healing and growth beyond the impact cultism had made upon them. He was a well known Bible teacher and wrote a book based upon the epistle of Paul to the Galatians for those suffering religious abuse to help in their recovery of spiritual stability.

Pastor Bill Randles a former Word of Faith pastor, renounced his association with that error and continued onward toward creating a pastoral response to the deceptive doctrines and bad practice that the Faith movement had inflicted upon his church and then began a serious retrenching of his ministry, toward exposing the the New Apostolic Reformation culture (NAR) which emerged in the past 40 years and was based on the profoundly warped Latter Rain error from two generations past.

Both men were gentle, yet uncompromising proclaimers of sound analysis of truth from pastoral perspectives and helped untold numbers of those ripped off by spiritual abuse for decades. I knew of Larry and had only met Bill once but they came highly recommened and the work they gave themselves to speaks for itself. Visit our YouTube and Vimeo channels in the next few weeks as we upload three talks Pastor Bill gave on the spiritual deception the NAR has left behind. For an excellent article by Larry detailing the dangers of the shepherding movement, a vile system of cultic control hatched by Charismatic extremists within it which intensified the lure and damage of the proto-NAR churches then in existence, click here. 

We will truly sincerely miss their discernment, their love of truth and their care for those ripped off by abusive. They were good men who ran the race and kept the faith. Godspeed and condolences to the Pile and Randles families.  Please click on their obituaries above for more information and if you'd like to extend any personal condolences.