#0478sva – My “Purpose Driven” Testimony

In light of the scandal at Penn State, we see that silence is not golden!

A victim of abuse by a pastor in Utah at a Purpose-Driven Church has now come forward after several years of silence.  We hope and pray that this will be a wake-up call to other PDC victims and bring the Balm of Gilead to a host of other victims who have been assaulted, mocked, and their churches destroyed!

TESTIMONY OF ABUSE BY PURPOSE-DRIVEN
PASTOR TOM MERTZ,
THE SPRINGS CHURCH, ST. GEORGE, UTAH

“In 2005, we were attending Desert Springs Baptist Church in St. George, Utah. (It’s now called “The Springs Church”) It was a new work in St. George and was supported by the Open Door Baptist Mission Board at the time.

Tom Mertz was the senior pastor and my husband was ordained and became the associate pastor.

It was in the year 2005, that Tom Mertz went to Saddleback Church for training on church growth. He came back and immediately made an announcement that everything was changing. He brought a coffin into the service and announced that the “Old Tom is dead” and the “New Tom is alive”. I thought than when we become born-again that we are “new creatures in Christ?” (2 Cor. 5:17)

The church would now be Purpose Driven. Just before Tom ordained my husband and went to Saddleback, he approached Ronny and asked him what he would do if “we disagree” and can’t agree on an issue?  This question was very vague. He asked my husband that if that occurred would he leave
the church. My husband told him that he would leave.

Well, things went from bad to worse. My husband could no longer teach the adult Sunday school class. So eventually, we left. There were many people leaving also (about 50%). My best friend, Sue, was told she wasn’t welcome in the church because Tom didn’t approve of her home Bible study. This Bible study was made up of mostly her neighbors and not very many church members at the time.

 My husband and I decided to write a letter to the Mission Board because Tom was now teaching this “Purpose Driven” doctrine and not the doctrine that the Mission Board believed he was teaching.
I also included clippings out of our local newspaper, which showed the advertising that Tom was doing and in one of the ads it clearly stated that the church was Purpose Driven.

 Tom was always looking over his shoulder because he was afraid that someone from the Mission Board would show up unannounced to check on the church. WE DID NOT DO THIS OUT OF SPITE—BUT FELT WE NEEDED TO LET THE MISSION BOARD KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED. IT’S ABOUT TRUTH AND INTEGRITY.

Two other couples also wrote to the mission board. The mission board responded with a very simple message—basically, thank you. They stated that they would check it out and it appeared in the letters that everyone received that they possibly didn’t believe what we were saying. However, we found out later that they did investigate and they pulled all the financial support from Tom Mertz.

 When Tom’s financial support was stopped, he then became violent and very foul mouthed. Tom would call our home and leave cursing messages on our answering machine, day after day for at least a month. Cursing, screaming and calling my husband very foul names. We answered the phone at first, but later refused to listen to him rant and rave so the answering machine picked up the calls.

 Within the last 6 months, there has been a very interesting development. Oasis Community Church closed their doors due to lack of money and attendance. Some of the members went to “The Springs” Church even after knowing what had happened to us. When they approached Tom Mertz about being Purpose Driven he flatly denied it. So they all stayed.

 In one of our free newspapers, The Senior Sampler, Tom is still advertising the church as Purpose Driven. He is now saying that he is one of three “Springs Churches–South Mountain Campuses” and they are in no way Purpose Driven. The other two churches are up north by Salt Lake City. From South Mountain’s website it is clear they are very much Purpose Driven.

My husband didn’t want me telling you this story at first. But later said, okay. It’s been 6 years now since all this happened. We were un-churched for a while, but now we are attending a local Church, which seems okay for now.

 I say for now, because you never know when things will change and another church is taken over by the Warren doctrine. Thank you for listening. We hope this letter will help others who have experienced the Purpose Driven agenda.”

God bless your ministry,
Sandra Van Asch

—Letter submitted to James Sundquist

www.perfectpeaceplan.com