An Organic Dialogue:


When  Xenos / Dwell Leaders Confronted With Inconvenient Truth Bail & Demonize
 


You may view the entire video of our attempts to engage two leaders of the Dwell Community "Church", Conrad Hilario and Kate Mizelle,

in substantive discussion over our findings below:


                                                     Click on our screenshot below to access our recording of the entire call:

                           

 

12.20.21

Megan and Rafael, thanks for giving us an opportunity to respond to your findings. Can you please share that recording with us? 

Conrad R. Hilario

Dwell Community Church

12.20.21


Hey everyone, Just wanted to send the links to the teaching material we mentioned in our meeting today. This is the material we teach in our classes that are required to become a deacon in the church. This material is also regularly re-visited with leaders after they are finished with classes.

Confidentiality, Gossip, and Openness in the Church

Leadership and Authority in the Church

Another helpful article to check out might be: Questions People Ask about Dwell

In addition to the leadership accountability structures mentioned that are in place within our church, it may be helpful to know that we are also an extension site for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and regularly host outside Christian speakers from around the world including people such as John Lennox, DA Carson, Ajith Fernando, Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, Larry Crabb, and many more. If you would like to get an outside, trusted Christian perspective, these might be people worth considering speaking to as they are familiar with our church.

Please let us know if you are interested in dialoguing about your concerns or understanding the church in a more thorough way. Thanks for meeting with us.
 

Kate

12.20.21

Conrad and Kate - 

Thank you for providing your materials that you use in house to give us a better insight.  Once again, thank you for taking time out of your day to meet with us.  I have no doubt Rafael has gone over the materials, after the holidays I will be sure to give them a look as well. Were you given today's recording?  If not, I will make sure to get it to you. 

Best,

Megan Cox

12.20.21

Thank you for responding, Conrad and Kate:

Megan and I uncovered these following charges in our investigation of Xenos/Dwell. These are from a wide variety of members who were in your organization across a wide timeframe from 2000 to 2020. This is not an exhaustive list but strictly a sampling. These people assert that these things took place.

Any discussion moving forward will focus upon these areas. We will seek discussion on these matters after the New Year as I am heading into a holiday time with family and will be unavailable to further respond after today, as will Megan.
 

1.11.22


Thanks for writing us back, Kate, Conrad and Keegan.

Megan and I have been conferring about how to respond to your correspondence to ensure we don't lose the full input each of us are providing. We don't want to have different emails going different places and want to keep everything on a single email thread. So what I'm going to do is provide for you the full text that each of us have provided in response to your 1/11 email answering each question.

We will begin with Megan's:

Hi Kate, Conrad and Keegan!

I had a very restful, wonderful holiday with my family, thank you.  I sincerely hope you did as well.

I appreciate your, Keegan's and Conrad's attention to this as well as giving us materials and transparency to further educate us on how Xenos/Dwell is run and what you stand for as an organization.

As a woman, cult/abuse survivor and a leader myself, I personally feel compelled to point out a few things.  I 100% understand that there are two sides to every story.  At the end of the day however, each person's perception is their reality, regardless of anyone's intentions, lens in which they view the world, etc.  You, Conrad, Keegan and myself both know that as a leader of people - religious or otherwise, it is incredibly important to live out and be the example of what you are asking from your people.  I say that not to shame, but to empathize with your positions and let you know that I understand and appreciate what you go through day after day.  What I am noticing is an incredible lack of accepting responsibility and instead wanting to explain what your stance is and how you are teaching.  While I believe that you are teaching these things and setting this example, it is absolutely plausible that some of the people you place in leadership are not "walking that walk" so to speak ESPECIALLY if you don't have a set vetting process and just let anyone be a leader.

It is absolutely plausible that while you may never have witnessed it doesn't mean that it didn't happen and that's a flimsy excuse.  I do understand your stance and what you believe, I also see and understand those that have left your organization's viewpoints and perceptions as well.  It is important to listen with open ears not to respond, but to understand.  Whenever anyone has a grievance, they should be heard and treated with respect because at the end of the day, the problem very well could be solved through clear communication or just by even listening in the first place.  I wouldn't want one of the men that sexually abused me as a child tell me that I deserved it or it aligned with their morals so therefore it's all good.  Are you catching my drift because that's exactly what you are doing to all of the people that have come forward and shared their experience while they were in Xenos/Dwell.  That's how Remnant Fellowship handled me and all of the other survivors.  Deny, deny, deny and show "proof" that they've never done anything bad.  You're human.  Humans do bad things and make mistakes no matter who they are, what they do, etc.  How you fix it is admitting, learning and doing better, not sharing policies and flimsy solutions.

Nothing is absolved because you've changed policies(which one of them was updated almost a year ago).  Nothing is absolved because you have a "complaint department".  What rights those wrongs is truly, openly and with empathy listening to those that have been wronged by Xenos/Dwell.  With the apparent lack of confidentiality among leaders - how can anyone actually feel safe coming forward and filing a complaint without fear of retaliation or being shunned?

I also watched that video of the young woman who was suicidal.  I have anxiety and depression through both genetics and consequences of the abuse I've endured through my life.  Telling that young woman to focus more on everyone else and that she was being selfish is absolutely disgusting.  I get help with medication and counseling - while I am not fully healed and I may not ever be, I recognize the triggers and do my best to work through them, find healthy coping mechanisms, etc.  It's not because I'm selfish and focusing on myself.  It's never been that for me, in fact, the cult I belonged to LOVED to tell women that they were selfish and needed to do more for their husbands/church/family.  I suggest that if you're going to counsel people on mental health, then you need to get actual professionals, not just people who know the bible.  One story of someone overcoming their suicidal tendencies does not absolve all of the other times that beautiful young people have taken their lives while being a part of your organization.

I am no longer asking to be given policies and stances, you've been very clear where you stand.  I feel I owe you that same clarity in return, until you're truly ready to admit where you've strayed as leaders and an organization, I don't want to hear a peep.

All of the best -

Megan Cox

1.11.22

(From hereon out, the responses below in italics came only from Kate in the emails. We did not see anything actually written by Conrad whatsoever). 

Hi Megan and Rafael,

Hope you both had good holidays and were able to get some good time with your families. We wanted to send our response to the things Rafael listed in his follow-up email after our zoom meeting so that you can have our thoughts and time to consider our perspective about the various issues you brought up. (I'm sending this to everyone that has been included on emails because I'm not sure who all should be included.)

Rafael's response:

I am listing several of the questions here to address at once. This first group of queries are concerned with the imbalance that is we believe is institutionalized in your ministry houses and your church polity.

I have chosen to group these, with your responses to them, in << >> brackets.

>>Your response to the questions :

• lack of confidentiality in mentoring relationships allowing gossip to continue among disciplers 

As mentioned in our meeting, we teach and equip people about the importance of confidentiality in discipleship, friendship, home church leadership, etc. This article details our stance teachings, and practice on these things. Additionally, our teachings in the home churches and at our central teachings center on expository Bible teaching which regularly cover passages that discuss the value and importance of transparency, accountability, confidentiality, and condemning gossip.

• confession of sins in group settings that becomes public shaming sessions in ministry houses

While we do teach the biblical concepts of accountability, transparency, and confession (Gal.6:2; James 5:16), we disagree that these are in any way synonymous with shaming or scolding someone. Any public shaming is unbiblical and would be condemned by leadership in Dwell.

• mental illness viewed as evidence of sin and poor spirituality in discipling relationships

We teach and practice that mental illness is a clinical issue that requires professional consultation. In fact, we regularly refer people to clinical counselors and urge people to consult with their physician. If interested, please see this testimony from one of our members who decided to share her story regarding her personal struggle with mental health.

• leaders who make snap judgments upon the spirituality of others that is abusive and judgmental

Is there a specific complaint that would be helpful for me to respond to here? The issue of church discipline came up in our zoom meeting, so I figured I might add some things on that if that's what you are referring to here. We do not have a "three strikes and you're out" policy like you mentioned in our meeting. We practice church discipline in line with the example and command for it that we see in the New Testament. Jesus makes it clear that we are looking for repentance ("winning over your brother"). This type of formal church discipline is also reserved for extreme and grievous types of sin. You can read about our policies on church discipline here and here.<<

Rafael's response continues from the 1.11.22 email:

I appreciate your attempt at candor here. But it is evident among the group of former members we’ve been in touch with that while you affirm in this email that Xenos’ position is based upon moderation and discretion in your interactions with those you believe to be errant, that their experiences have been just the opposite. There have been high handed and unscrupulous manipulations done by group dynamic and individual house group leaders that are easily as abusive as those committed by classical cultic movements.

There are specific complaints indeed, but at this time, we are not going to identify the parties or the details involved. As a pastoral counselor, I believe in the principle of confidentiality with those who I have counselled privately about personal matters. It is enough for me to have heard them mentioned in multiple personal settings, that they are substantial and we believe credible. Unless they feel comfortable in allowing us to bring forward specifics, we will not do so. Frankly, after the trauma they’ve asserted they’ve experienced, it’s understandable why they have not and a miracle they’ve opened up to what they’ve said so far. We are certain that if required, their testimony will stand in a court of law to represent factual incidents and not fatuous slander.

Contrary to your assertions, there have been many instances in which what you characterized as “discipline” was indeed shaming, belittling and abusively manipulative. this is what we are hearing and what you are stating here is that you just don’t have these problems because if you did, you’d condemn them. It’s difficult if not almost impossible to believe you’re unaware of these issues as being a real problem in your fellowship since you have apparently found the need to relentlessly remind your student leaders by published treatises and position papers to delineate what constitutes “accountability, transparency and confession.” Using the questionable judgment of student leaders over the years, you’ve allowed these abuses to go on for decades and yet we are hearing that while you’re aware of the problems, you dismiss the testimony of those who have been traumatized and objectified by what you call “discipline.” The bullying doesn’t appear to concern you.

As a pastor, I am aware of the need for vigilance and intervention by dialogical confrontation when sin/moral failure break across the peace of Christian community that is supposed to be governed by Christian love and liberty. I have admonished and rebuked in proper church contexts in the past. What we’ve heard in the testimonies we’ve been compelled to take fromformer members of your Xenos communities is what appears to be a well-embedded cultural tendency devoted to punitive sanction that abusively withdraws or harshly expels those who don’t meet up to your community standards. Again, contrary to what you are saying, we are hearing that the well known Matthew 18 passages have been misused regularly to compel those found wanting among you to immediately submit or face expulsion from the community of ministry house settings Xenos creates to micromanage those who may need admonition in a very vicious manner. I again repeat that the Biblical standard of divine grace found in 1 John 1:9 which should be respected in the ongoing process of developing a holy life appears to be ignored in each of these in a grotesque manner unworthy of the characterization of "Christian discipling". Love that offers patience, gentleness and yet firm accountability in Christian community appears largely absent if not obscured in whatever forms of discipling Xenos sets forth.

Worse, a substantial populace of students have been made to feel like they are some kind of damaged and twistedly dangerous persons for embodying some besetting problem like mental illness, sexual orientation or even personal trauma in their lives and then advised that they were essentially a contagion of instability whose presence could not be tolerated among the presumably more “rational.” The Pauline principle found in Romans 12 about weeping with those who weep and incarnationally identify with their need also has been jettisoned in these situations.

Perhaps the tragic suicides you endured in your community several years ago could be tied to such abusive handling at your own congregational behest .. horrors which your founding elder Dennis McCallum characteristically used to exalt his own theology on suicide in the coldest and most revolting manner I’ve ever seen. His email in 2006 to your college ministry hardly sounded like the cry of a weeping shepherd but that of an annoyed, bitter hireling who had to handle yet another bit of bad PR illuminating the questionable side of your organization.

The next set of questions will also be referred to here and your responses checked into ..

>> • peer counseling equated to professional therapy in discipling relationships

While we agree with the Bible's command and urge for lay counseling (Rom. 15:14; Col. 3:16), we do not think that lay counseling substitutes for professional counseling for clinical cases that demand professional help. We regularly refer to professional, clinical counselors. mandates that female students stay in abusive relationships, whether dating or in marriage. It is important to note that we make it clear in teaching and in practice what areas a Christian leader has legitimate authority in versus what areas they do not have authority in. Our stance on this is outlined in detail, here.

Additionally, far from mandating a female to stay in an abusive relationship, we would urge an abused spouse to pursue legal separation to get out of physical or financial danger. We would also encourage the abused spouse to involve the police if they were in danger. You can read more about our stance on divorce and remarriage, here. 

• male students provided leniency with their infractions while female students were harshly disciplined

Speaking as a woman, I have never experienced this or witnessed this in my entire time in Xenos/Dwell. And as a woman elder who is deeply concerned about the fair and equal treatment of women in the church, I would be the first to take issue with it. As I'm sure you know, there is no biblical concept for treating men and women differently when it comes to sin so this is not something we teach or practice.<<

Rafael's response:

Again, without revealing specifics, we’ve heard on multiple occasions that these are apparently quite well established. The double standard your movement resorts to regarding peer counseling’s exaggerated authority as well as an inexplicable inequity in intergender practices of “accountability, transparency and confession” is quite evidently in play. Your shock is not very convincing since this is part of the hidden curricula of ministry houses and house churches .. when applying “discipline,” you clearly allow men a deference women can never hope to find, compelling sick relationships to remain in place to force an avoidance of the stigma and bad press of divorce suits among Xenos couples who should never have married in the first place.

We have found people who have told us that after sharing their concerns with Xenos leadership that there was no urgency about assisting these members struggling in inappropriate and abusive relationships: it just was not found. Men who were perpetrators of abuse all but got away with murder. Physical, verbal and sexual violence were what women were threatened or exposed to. And few ever reported these to law enforcement agencies because of your stellar Christian counseling which was considered better than secular intevention. We didn’t make this up. This is the unvarnished truth.

You are **quite right** that there is no Biblical justification for such treatment, yet the former members who were victimized by your movement still were able to recite the questionable explanations and positions they learned at Xenos which justified it. Are you calling all of these people who submitted themselves to your “accountability, transparency and confession.” liars? Are they just gainsaying and slanderous people whose testimony is not to be trusted and whose spiritually abusive wounds are to be ignored just because you have a PDF file uploaded to your website and a bunch of bored young people slept through a leadership class or signed off on reading that file which explains how you “really” feel? Your position papers can't silence those voices, and you need to remove them off your ears and your heart. Your people are suffering and smiling all the while.

The final set of questions address the concerns shared about the illegitimate influence wielded by Xenos student leaders

>> • discouragement given to students to graduate in 4 years, keeping them in ministry houses longer

The ministry house is in no way connected to being in school. Many people choose to live in a ministry house even if they do not go to a university and many others choose to continue living in the ministry house even after they graduate. Others choose to move out of the minsitry house while they are still in school. Many who choose to live in ministry houses work full time jobs, go to two year colleges, or go to trade schools. Ministry house residence is in no way tied to school attendance.

• usage of monitoring software in ministry house Internet surveillance

Some members voluntarily use Covenant Eyes or Accountable2U software on their devices because of unwanted pornography addiction. This is voluntary, and they pick a friend, spouse, or roommate to be their partner. Leaders do not survey or monitor our members' internet usage. We take pornography seriously here because of the damage that it causes its user, but also in large part because of its objectification of women and how the sex industry enslaves and harms women.

• codes of conduct suppressing freedom of choice in non essential lifestyle matters in ministry houses

Is there something specific you are referring to here? As mentioned in our zoom meeting, the ministry house is an optional place to live and therefore it is people's choice as to whether or not they wish to agree to the expectations of a ministry house. The ministry house agreement attempts to outline the vision and purpose of a ministry house so that if someone desires to live there, they have a clear understanding of the vision and expectations of living in the house so they are not surprised when they get there. It would be unfair and unreasonable to let people move into the house and then place expectations on them that they didn't know about. If someone decides that the ministry house lifestyle is no longer something they are interested in, they are free to leave at any time.

Again, I think our stance and practice on the scope and authority of Christian leadership is important to bring up here. We specifically teach that the following areas are not to be regulated by leaders: dating and romance, hobbies, sports, time management, choosing friends, personal spending, etc. You can read more on our teachings of these topics here.<<

Rafael's final set of responses

The usage of surveillance software is a reality there on a far greater scale than you are willing to admit. Once more, we have spoken with many former members recounting their discovery of their house leadership having deployed this software within their individual ISP routing within the house. This was not a “individual” choice resorted to by a struggling young man or woman in regards to their temptation but it was imposed upon all. What does this say about the spiritual and moral development of young men and women who supposedly are living sanctified and holy lives and yet whose questionable spirituality demands such chilling intervention on a mass scale? In addition to this intrusive and draconian control, the ex-members testified to the systematic collection of private information about ministry house resident struggles and moral failures gathered from every source possible that close exposure within a ministry house could afford. This is no paranoiac fantasy. It is apparently viewed as quite normative in Xenos culture. Overtures made to ministry house residents to change majorsand consider staying longer in their studies and therefore, the Columbus area are apparently also a normal part of living there.

And every single person we met that week (who we did NOT know of until we arrived in Ohio) all affirm that these negative regulations of lifestyle choices are very much are part of an agenda of micromanagement that Xenos leaders and student leaders leverage upon hapless students who are indoctrinated heavily long before they ever get there that there’s only one “career path” to pursue as part of leadership development which involves a total immersion in the student culture that Xenos has created. I cannot believe you are ignorant of this. Twenty people from twenty different backgrounds who barely knew or didn’t know each other are all somehow mistaken when they all tell the same story?

The heart of that involves weekly and daily involvement in ministry houses. These are viewed as the only legitimate and optimal place which Xenos’ leadership training modules mandate the training to occur. . You may say “they are free to leave at any time,” but you are not entitled to claim that this is what you really mean. Ex-members are aware of the pressure put on them to remain in ministry houses to prove their worthiness and commitment. They cannot continue to aspire to growth within Xenos without scrupulous attendance what your church clearly views as the ultimate “leader lab” for ambitious young men and women led to view this is the only way to develop a mindset based on the Kingdom of God. They believe nothing else because you apparently encourage no other way to consider this.

Unquestioned obedience to such authoritarian "leadership" is why the house leader of Kwesi Sample could persuade him to engage in the dangerous behavior that ended in the loss of his life - because it was felt by his leader that the experience would be "good" for him in his participation at what was essentially a mandatory outing at the Holden Beach meant to prove the potential of leader candidates. Your church's legal dodge using North Carolina law to avoid accountability was an infernally inspired bit of lawyering. The Bema Seat will have the final word for eternity however.

Can you name one single Xenos leader serving today who never lived in a ministry house? While you may identify a few, that’s clearly not what is the norm there.

Kate's concluding statement: 

In sum, I tried to respond to the various claims you laid out here. However, it's difficult to respond to some of these claims without hearing and getting into specific examples. As I am sure you guys know, conflict often goes both ways and there are always a few sides to the same story. I hope this was helpful.<<

As a pastor and countercult activist seeking answers and truth, I appreciate your sharing with us today. I believe your responses are indicative of a deeper and more entrenched position of inflexible institutional defense we could explore further in another Zoom call but really don’t see much point in pursuing. I am willing to doing so, but this litany hasn’t shown much interest indialogue but more of polemics.

You completely ignored providing any interaction or dialogue regarding the plain impact your fellowship has made upon these victims (and yes, that is now how I have to uncomfortably view them) of religious abuses that have been inflicted for decades in a low key and seemingly orthodox manner by your leaders upon too many idealistic young Christian men and women who expected something better. The vast amount of your attention and energy is meant focusing exclusively on a transient population of people flowing in and out of Columbus who are  highly motivated and open to personal transformation. Yet what we see you leading them into is not Christian formation but something far more related to the work of a collective indoctrination of unquestioning followers. The scope of this is beyond belief and the outrages antithetical to authentic Christian faith and community. It is more the testimony to a dangerous and damaging cultism we find in Xenos than that of a legitimate Christian movement.

You are energetically replicating the error of the Galatian church who thought that their harsh legalism would lead them to Christian perfection. Paul the apostle would say to you

O foolish Dwellers! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Your obsession with imbalanced discipline speaks volumes to just how consolidation of authority and power is your chief concern, and not a passion for balanced discipling. Your passion for compelling people to become clones of one another and not giving God’s Spirit the room to make of them the new creations in Christ that believers should be is quite obvious but we believe that it is a purely human enterprise of top down manipulation and is something we’ve seen again and again in many sects and churches for the past 40 years engaged in the very practices Conrad decried at the end of the zoom call .. that of the abusive shepherding movement. The fact that Conrad is aware of this painfully inconvenient parallel and proximity to Xenos' own stated ethos and operation is a powerful indictment to just how aberrant your organization appears to be.

Moving forward, if we continue our conversation by Zoom, be advised that we will continue to focus upon the egregious activities we've detailed and your responses to them. We would also like to be notified if you intend to again post any Zoom recording we provide you online .. and ask where on your websites, social media accounts and other venues you've offered any further input on the questions at hand.

We ask this because we've been advised that you have posted the Zoom call - which we considered a private communication with Xenos leadership - into an unlisted YouTube video that is accessible to Xenos members who have the URL. If this is correct, could you provide this URL and allow us the opportunity to review online that content?

We also would like a written statement that summarizes your positions you've made here. We would like this to contain your official stance on what we've presented to you today. Thanks again.

Cordially, Rafael Martinez with Megan Elizabeth Cox

.......................
 

Not surprisingly, we heard nothing else from Mizelle or Hilario. 

But as we said, the recording of this we made available to them became an unlisted YouTube post that certainly helped them kill a lot of popcorn. We included our recording of it to show that we omitted nothing from our interaction.

It has given the XD webmasters a lot to do besides upload endless retreads of their dogma. A  entire section of their site now is filled with their accounts of how misunderstood and maligned they feel they've become. The reactions of many XD has allowed to be posted have to be read to be believed.

And a most intentional reaction set forth by XD featured the vigorous pulpiteering of elder James Rochford  to focus the rhetorical weaponry at his disposal. In an attempt to sound authentic and transparent, he wrote this:
 

Dwell pastor James Rochford says the reports present a difficult challenge. “We sincerely want to grow from mistakes and repent of any sins we’ve committed but it's difficult to respond to claims on social media that are unfalsifiable–there’s no feasible way to interact with an anonymous person or with anonymous claims.” 

Clutching a pretensive fig leaf of moral authority he delusionally believes he has, Rochford just doesn't get it. There has been no growth of XD out of its mistakes and sins that imparted a full blown religious abuse for the past fifty years. We're not convinced any has started. We've shown this and the record of victims proves that :  the claims on "social media" weren't just anonymous blips of data on a screen. They were documented violations his "Church" has committed against young men and women who trusted them, and we personally met twenty of them. They are real. They exist and no longer in the objectifying characterization Rochford makes of them.

What XD contemptuously is saying here is that they want another opportunity to "interact" with their victims in such a way as to simply subject them to another round of character assassination, self-justification and verbal pistol whipping dangling them above the fires of hell. We're not playing that.

Their "Interaction" isn't needed, unless their victims wanted it. And I assure you, as of now, the ones I met refuse to give XD that one more opportunity to stone them. Megan and I represent them and the XD leadership's tone-deaf brushback of our voices for concern just so they can "interact" says much about the quality of their candor. They don't get that their time for "interacting" is at an end. Their reactions here are truly telling. 

James says there’s another difficulty. “Those who want to accuse us publicly can say anything they want; however, if we took the same action in return, this would be viewed as slander, gas-lighting, victim-shaming, and/or emotional abuse. It would be inappropriate to share that person's harmful actions in a public setting.”

Rochford's tenor of his stated "difficulty" indulges in precisely what he rhetorically might do is probably one of the most passive aggressively arrogant things I've read in a while. One of our ministry associates spent some time listening to Rochford's shrill delivery of what "committed Christianity" would be to him, and she reported that it surely didn't involve the spiritual losers who complain about Dwell.

He ended with "I don't really care what people think of me..I care what Jesus Christ says".  Obviously, he does care or he wouldn't have compared you and Megan (covertly of course without names ironically) to Hitler, Sadists, King Nero followers, etc.  Also, he wouldn't need to do damage control by using the pulpit to prop up his church.  It seems you and Megan have been successful at making him uncomfortable.  Because narcissism has been compared to spiritual blindness, it will be interesting what he will be willing to see since this video illustrates the opposite. 

                   



When time affords itself, we'll be posting a point by point response here to Rochford's whiney posturing which, if we follow XD's dictum, truly is a "excellent resource" .. that "excellently" illustrates how utterly lost Dwell is to it's own stinking transgression and "excellently" shows their devotion to a species of  "non traditional" ministry, which Jesus had a few things to say about:
 

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.     Revelation 3:1-3



For those of you who have been victims of the tender mercies of Xeno's brutal objectification and have despaired of the spiritual wilderness you were abandoned in by Xenosian hirelings who themselves were also misled by your "leaders", wondering if you can ever find a spiritual refuge again and if Xenos / Dwell will ever be accountable, let this old Mexican shepherd gently remind you of what the Good Shepherd has already said about you .. and them:


And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.”

7 ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”— 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! 10 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”

11 ‘For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord God. 16 “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”

17 ‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. 18 Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture—and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And as for My flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet.”

20 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep. 21 Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad, 22 therefore I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

25 “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. 27 Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. 29 I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. 30 Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God.’

31 “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God.       

Ezekiel 34



                                                     


Be encouraged. There is indeed a good place with good shepherds God is raising up for you to rest, heal and be cared for. Be looking for what He's promised He will do. He will make sure in such a place that all will treat one another properly and live peaceably. It's not a pipe dream .. it's a prophecy He longs to fulfill in your life if you will be open to what He shares. You are loved by a real and loving God and prayed for by us and others. 

We can be reached here if you need further help but even if we never hear from you, please remember the chapter above. It is where Xenos' death grip ends and your life restarts. 

Your future is as bright as God's promises .. and lit by nothing else. That is what faith is.

 

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