In 1970 George and Betty Geftakys launched their Assembly ministry in Fullerton, California, in the wake of Chuck Smith’s burgeoning Calvary Chapel. It was based on early Plymouth Brethren concepts, and fueled by the enthusiasm of the Jesus movement and the spiritual awakening that was sweeping across America at that time. The Geftakys ministry imploded in 2003 after “Brother George” was excommunicated from the Fullerton Assembly for serious moral lapses. This exposed underlying problems, which opened people’s eyes to the abuses that had developed in the Assembly system. Articles on the Assembly Reflections website detail the Geftakys ministry, and provide many resources for identifying and recovering from the bullying, legalistic control, perfectionism, misuse and misinterpretation of Scripture, etc. Articles and links on this site are particularly relevant to “New Testament”-style Fundamentalist, authoritarian, high-performance Christian groups, but the similarities to other varieties of spiritually abusive Christian organizations are amazing.
