Is Mike Peters Part of The Shepherding Movement?

Derek Prince was one of the Ft. Lauderdale Five, who were the originators of the Shepherding Movement, along with Bob Mumford, Don Basham, Ern Baxter, and Charles Simpson. What do they have to do with Mike Peters of the Indianapolis Mystery Church? Well, when you consider that the Ft. Lauderdale Five put forth the concept that the will of God for the life of the congregation comes solely through your pastor, then the connection becomes more than apparent. The Shepherding Movement decides what clothes you will wear, how you can spend your own money, what house you will buy and where, and how much you are expected to tithe. ALL decisions for your life come from your pastor or his under shepherds who had also be prepared to do whatever he says. They put forth the unbiblical concept that if you leave your pastor you are also leaving God. Peters himself declares that all other church doctrines are wrong leaving one with the impression that only his doctrine is right as that is the only conclusion one could come to and that is his hold on his people. If only he is right why would anyone desire to leave him?

Yet the BIBLICAL pattern of a shepherd declares- “Not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” 1 Peter 5:3. The biblical pattern also says- “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerily” 1 Peter 5:2.

However when the word of God comes soley through men like Peters it sets the groundwork for a spiritual dictator to emerge and he keeps those in subjection to him under that standard.It should also be known that the Senior Shepherds of this movement live like kings compared to the rest of the flock. Yes, Mike Peters is cut from the same cloth as that of the Shepherding Movement. It is either the pastor’s way or the highway! Shepherds like Peters follow the pattern of Diotrephes, “Who loved to have the preeminence” 3 John 9.

“I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words” 3 John 10. In Peters case if you try to leave his church, he strikes out against you with the sins you foolishly once revealed to him so your own words to him come back to haunt you. “Do not imitate what is evil but what is good” 3 John 11, so for all those who follow a Mike Peters type of leader that is cut from the same sheepskin of the Shepherding Movement are those who in truth have not really seen God at all (3 John 11). “My people have been lost sheep, THEIR SHEPHERDS HAVE LED THEM ASTRAY” Jeremiah 50:6.