Contact Information
Our Purpose
Our History
Our Journey
Copyright & Linking Policy, & Disclaimer Legalese related to this website.
Contact Info We invite feedback on articles and issues raised on this website. We want this website to be interactive. Margaret Irons and Mark Campbell are reached through the email address, Editor@GeftakysAssembly.com. If you wish to reach one of us specifically, just specify in your email. Mark Campbell says, "I'm a Christian truck driver. I am not a church leader, worker, psychologist, counselor, scholar, or Bible teacher. I have dedicated my life to helping wounded pilgrims recover their faith and to go on to healthy and prosperous lives in Christ. I contribute here in response to what our Good Shepherd has worked into my heart."
We encourage readers to submit articles for the website in keeping with its purpose. Articles will be reviewed for appropriateness of content and, if necessary, changes suggested with your agreement.
Our Purpose Brent T. originally created this website in November, 2002, to call the leadership in the Assemblies to repentance. After the ministry of George and Betty Geftakys collapsed, Steve and Margaret talked to Brent about changing the purpose of the website from one of calling out to repentance, to one of healing and recovery. Brent felt he could not dedicate any more energy to the website and suggested that we take it over. And so was born "Assembly Reflections" in the spring of 2003.
We wanted to make a clean break with the "calling out" period, necessary though it was. Our intention was to present information more objectively. To that end we placed all the documents of the "November, 2002 to March, 2003" time period in The Final Weeks section as an historical archive, concluding the calling out period.
We take no pleasure in much of what is reported on the Final Weeks section, but we know that having the pieces to the puzzle is necessary in order to make sense of what has happened. It is our hope that all the information and resources presented on this website, including the Final Weeks, may help others find their way more quickly than we did to understanding and recovery from an abusive Bible-based movement.
We want to encourage the idea of making a contribution to this website, whether you have left the group or are still meeting. Please pass along to others your story, your perspective on an issue or a situation, information that is not generally known, or anything else you find significant or helpful.
We hope dialogue will continue among ourselves about the issues surrounding the rise and fall of the Assemblies of G. and B. Geftakys. May we not take offense with one another, but listen, pray for, love and support one another, so that valued friendships formed in the assembly may survive the shock and confusion of the collapse of the Geftakys ministry.
We know that while many people will wrestle with the issues within the context of the Christian faith, there are many more who have been stumbled and do not presently want anything to do with Christianity. We want this website to be a place of help for all. We believe that both Christian and secular resources are helpful. (Back to top)
Our History Back in the late 1960's, we (Steve and Margaret) began to follow George Geftakys as he preached at various "overcomer" groups in Southern California. These groups were influenced by the teachings of the Plymouth Brethren, T. Austin Sparks, Bahkt Singh, and Watchman Nee.
Within a year a group of believers formed in Fullerton, California to exemplify the New Testament "pattern" for worship and ministry. The gathering was called the "Assembly". Over time a number of such gatherings were raised up across the country, as well as in Canada and abroad.
Towards the end of the 1980's our son, Lee, a student at UCLA, began to question George's teaching on salvation after reading the writings of many early Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Owen. After several encounters with George in which he raised his concerns and sought dialogue, Lee was slandered and excommunicated from the very Assembly in which he had grown up.
This event, along with a litany of other heart-rending stories told by those driven out from the Assemblies in years past, raised such a loud alarm in our hearts that we left George's ministry in the spring of 1990. We realized that the cancer of emotional abuse, legalism, and authoritarianism was in an advanced stage of development throughout the Assemblies. (Back to top)
Our Journey After we left the Assembly in March of 1990 life was painful and sad for awhile. We had agonizing questions, family issues, spiritual issues....But God is good, and we are now living again in the joy of our salvation, and in happy fellowship and service at Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, CA.
We have found that Reformed teaching has been most helpful to us in gaining a different understanding of the Bible, and in getting over works-based righteousness. As Brent T. has remarked, "There is nothing so encouraging as hearing a Reformed pastor preach the Gospel!" But we don't want to overpower this website with our Reformed perspective. Whoever teaches and preaches the grace and love of God has a contribution here.
We felt resolved about the past until the events surrounding George's excommunication re-engaged us. The information that came out was helpful to us because we no longer had to wonder if our evaluation had been uncharitable. Tragically, the situation was proven to be worse than we had ever dreamed.
We were re-awakened to a deep sense of responsibility to the Lord's people whom we had misled by our support of George and Betty Geftakys and their teaching. We are deeply grieved for the wounding that has happened through that ministry and which we also perpetrated. Our work on this website is a concrete contribution we can make toward the recovery of those who have been abused and damaged. (Back to top)
While you are free to link to any page or individual entry within
Assembly Reflections (GeftakysAssembly.com), Assembly Reflections is
copyrighted © 2003-2006 by Margaret M. Irons.
Note that Assembly Reflections is
copyrighted for one reason only: to protect the integrity of
the material presented. If you wish to use any of our original material,
please feel free to contact us.
Assembly Reflections also uses "fair use" quotations, as well as material for which permission for publication at this site has been obtained by Assembly Reflections. Therefore, you may not copy and reproduce pages or entries verbatim (in any medium, including - but not limited to - Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, and web pages) without express, written (on paper) permission. You may also not frame any of AR's pages, as that would be a violation of the "fair use" principle embodied in international copyright Laws.
Your continued use of this site indicates understanding of and agreement with the terms set forth in this statement.
Information within these pages is offered to facilitate research. Listing links to sites, articles, or other items does not indicate automatic agreement with everything the publishers of those pages believe, offer, provide, link to, or sell. Assembly Reflections is not responsible for the content of sites and pages outside of its control.
Original information on this site is personal opinion protected under freedom of speech laws.
Information provided by third parties (articles, statements of opinion, news items, press releases, etcetera) is included for information and research purposes only. The publisher of Assembly Reflections does not necessarily agree with everything posted within these pages - nor do third parties, whose material is included, necessarily agree with everything posted on Assembly Reflections.
Where links have added to quotes and other third party material, the original author and/or publisher do not necessarily agree with the information linked to.
If any of the original information provided within these pages is considered incorrect, Assembly Reflections welcomes documented corrections.
Neither Assembly Reflections nor any third party provider of information guarantees the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
Assembly Reflections accepts no responsibility for the acts of third parties. That means: linking or referring to third parties (including their websites, organizations, publications, etcetera) does not make us responsible for what those third parties believe, do, publish, organize, post, etcetera. (Again, keep in mind that Assembly Reflections points to research resources, including sites, articles, individuals and organizations whose viewpoints the publisher of Assembly Reflections does not necessarily condone or support).
Any and all meta tags, page titles, keywords and others content descriptions used throughout this site are intended to facilitate research by enabling those search engines that use these features to find, catalog, and present these pages in targeted search results. Unless specifically disclosed, they are not intended to convey any official relationship with or representation of or by the owners of the respective trademarks, service marks and/or copyrights. (Back to top)