[Video was taken by Brian Standerfer and is posted on his blog as "Schaffranek'd" and on YouTube.]
It happened! The church I was preaching at this morning got Schaffraneked. Horst Shaffranek's German cult that I told you about yesterday, sent followers around the UK to infiltrate churches and create a disturbance in order to deliver their prophecies. Two German ladies, followers of Horst, turned up right at the end of my sermon and as soon as I had finished, they launched into their routine . . . the same routine that has got Horst's followers kicked out of churches and events [and even a funeral] all over Europe.
Once, or so I read, they had to be escorted by police. I had thought of warning the police before the service but decided we could handle it ourselves.
Honestly . . its quite traumatic. People were really shaken up. One lady was in tears. But we were half expecting them to turn up and God had prepared us for them. As you will see in the video, I had some overhead slides on Keynote that I projected during their outburst. I didn't want to compete in a shouting contest and figured i might as well give people something to read while the ladies gave their word. I used some info from Evangelical Times as well as 4 accounts from yesterday's comments.
Here is my first slide:
One of the ladies complained that we cannot trust the internet and that this document was 2003 . .. as if being a cult in 2003 is not relevant anymore . . . but i then showed the comments that came in last night and this morning. The two German ladies were quite taken back that information about their sect/cult was displayed on the overhead. They tried handing out their literature to the church people but no one really wanted it.
I offer these same resources here in case your church gets a visit and you need some reading material for your congregation. The movies are self-playing and change slides every 20 seconds. Set them on a loop. If you are preaching, you may want to add them to the end of your presentation just in case they visit your church.
[PDF] Download horst.pdf
[Powerpoint] Download horst.ppt
[Quicktime movie] Download horst.mov
[AVI movie] Download horst.avi
The 3 elders of Stromness Baptist church were great. They had already talked to the ladies and told them they could speak after the service IF they came before the service and passed on their "prophecy" to them beforehand - something that they decided NOT to do - which actually was not a surprise to anyone here.
What really shut the ladies up was the worship leaders (Mark Shiner the harp maker and his wife Kate) starting up some vigorous singing. Mark said later that he had never heard them sing so LOUDLY!!!
Anyway, take a look at the video taken by Brian Standerfer who happened to be standing right behind them. As far as I know, this is the first video anyone has ever caught of this group's ecclesiastic terrorism in 20 years.
I spoke to them afterwards. This German lady told me I was full of sin and needed to break it in my own life. I agreed and told her I do this daily. But then she said we should be sinless, without sin because of Jesus. I asked her if she was without sin about 4 times but she never answered my question. I guess 'sinless perfection" is another of their beliefs.
Eventually they left. And when they were gone, James asked me to get up and talk to the church. Which I did, sharing what i had learned the previous day, complimenting them on the excellent way they handled themselves, and leading them in a prayer. This was quite a healing and completing kind of experience and was much needed.
Anyway, we are guessing they will hit Kirkwall Baptist tonight. Angus, the German teacher who was in our service this morning, will be at Kirkwall tonight and i am sure will be perfectly equipped to deal with them if they come and if they do their thing. And other church members have gone out to warn the other local churches. I guess the whole incident has caused us to work together as one body . .. which of course we are.
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