Arise Church

Former churchgoers allege Brent Cameron, pastor and brother of the church's founder John Cameron, was notorious for getting naked in front of interns, labelling ...

What's worse is that other pastors knew about it, encouraged it and would frequently ask Brent to retell the stories." "Look beyond the hype - one of the sad things here is that they work so hard to create an image and that's not our game, we are not in the marketing game, we are in the pastoral game, we are in the care of people." "We do not condone any form of bullying or abuse and are pleased that an independent investigation is being undertaken, with the opportunity for all parties to be heard through the process." "We are monitoring the situation and will actively review the appropriateness of airing Arise TV, reserving any final decision until the outcome of the independent investigation is known." He says one pastor in particular alienated a number of interns with behaviour similar to that of the Camerons. "Large churches are a completely different organisation to your small, suburban neighbourhood church; in many ways they are forced to go into a more corporate way of operating and that is not a good thing." Alan Vink has spent 40 years as a Christian leader and says he was devastated to hear of the revelations. "Somehow he needs to be removed from being a pastor because people are still going to come to him for help and he's going to be screwing with their head." He says due to the culture of silence, he was unable to speak out. "If you tried to contact them outside of church, it was very hard to talk to them, my husband would joke and say I bet if we gave them some money they would talk to us and he did and sure enough, he talked to us." "I would later find out that the emotional toll of these events drove him to severe mental health challenges and complete disbelief in God." Former churchgoers allege Brent Cameron, pastor and brother of the church's founder John Cameron, was notorious for getting naked in front of interns, labelling them with derogatory nicknames, and boasting to his colleagues about his behaviour.