Nine past members of what is now Mile Two Church told Postmedia the church’s former pastor and other staff pressured them and their families into donating land, proceeds from home sales, personal belongings and substantial portions of their income — gifts that sometimes left them unable to pay their own bills.We deliver the local news you need in these turbulent times on weekdays at 3 p.m.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“If you leave the church, you’re leaving your job. If you leave the church, you’re leaving your community,” Hutchinson said.Article content Soon after, Johnson was in charge. The organization bought a large plot of land at the corner of Pinehouse Drive and Primrose Drive, where the new church was built. A 1985 financial statement says the church bought the land and building with a $2 million loan from the Royal Bank of Canada and other financing.Article content
Roberts, a former member of the church who attended the school as a teen in the mid-1980s, said Johnson would say people who left the church had abandoned God’s path, and that even speaking to them would divert members from salvation. “He became like the iron fist,” Odermatt said. “It got to the point where you were petrified to question anything because you would be labelled as questioning the man of God.”
At some points, Hutchinson said, Johnson behaved like an auctioneer, asking members of the congregation to donate a specific sum of money — starting in the thousands and then slowly counting down. Hutchinson said there were even separate children’s church services where similar offerings were also requested.
Legacy Christian Academy shares the same building as Mile Two Church in Saskatoon’s Lawson Heights neighbourhood. Photo taken in Saskatoon on Aug. 3, 2022.Hutchinson and other former members said they now see the push for donations as part of how the church manipulated their faith.Article content
This is A CULT say NO