My Visit to Christopher Warren's House

During the last couple of months, I had the great opportunity to spend a few weeks at Christopher Warren's house in Glava Sweden at his own invitation.

In all, it was a very pleasant, interesting and enlightening experience. I did not know what to expect, even though I have been investigating NCCG for the last 1.5 years almost and I had spoken to Chris - as he is best known in his household - and knew a little about his family's way of life.

I was picked up at Oslo airport. After a few hours' drive, at a turn to a corner one of the people in the car exclaimed 'and here is the compound!' and everybody began laughing. When I came in the house, the whole family greeted me with smiles and the children all gave me presents to welcome me. After having supper, I found myself surrounded by the children most of the time, none of whom seemed to be the least scared of a new person, who would show me their toys, what they had built and would tell me little stories of things that had happened and jokes. And their parents never rebuked them for it. In short, it did not take long time for me to feel welcomed.

Among other things, I got a chance to observe this family's daily activities. The children are being homeschooled, which began in the mornings after breakfast. There is usually little persuasion needed there and they actually understand the importance of it so they do not resist or fret about it. One morning actually, the two oldest ones woke up around 6am and did nearly all the day's work so they would have free time that morning.

The sisters were usually busy with things around the house, especially after the heating was installed. I watched couches and beds being moved downstairs, clothes and other material being moved upstairs, all for the sake of better organisation and of course for the place to look nice. There sure was a lot of work to be done and I distinctly remember one of the sisters saying with a smile and a determined voice, 'I want this room to be perfect'. However, there was no pressure and people were actually glad to do that sort of work.

Christopher Warren spent a lot of time at his office working and teaching some of the older children. He arranged meeting times and presided over them.

The meetings themselves were a completely new experience to me. They all began with a short prayer by one of the people present and then there was singing (which took me some time to catch up on, I must admit). After that there was reading of the first books of the Bible. As children attend these evening meetings also, there was a story read to them from a children's book right after the Bible study. In conclusion, there was again singing and prayer again. Except during prayer, anyone was welcome to interupt at any point and ask a question or make a remark. Many times, Christopher Warren himself would stop his narration and ask us what we thought of this part of the law or that incident recorded in the Bible and I found that even I, who had never participated before and I am not baptised or a member of this family could actually say my opinion or answer a question. Moreover, this gave new light to things that most people would find slightly boring, like the ceremonial law in the Torah: I found, to my surprise, many things lining up which I had never observed before.

Many times were there laughs during meetings and some other times the atmosphere was sober when the persecution these people are facing daily was building up.

Sabbath meetings followed about the same pattern, but there was a sermon in the place of the Bible study. Christopher Warren would read his sermon to us, which was previously posted in the groups. In the meantime, the children were away with one of the sisters to their own little meeting as the sermon would be too long for them to sit through.

For some weeks, for instance, in the children's book of evening meetings, we were reading about candles and how believers - even children - can become candles for Christ and they can 'light' other people by witnessing to them. And then, at the end of a Sabbath meeting, the children returned with hats on, on top of which a flame made of paper was attached and sang for us 'Yah'shua bids us shine'.

Not all the times were full of laughs and singing, but even in the sober times, I never saw the members of this family becoming angry, bitter or resentful, even when anger, bitterness and resentfulness was all they met with. Their rebuke was never against the person but against the wrong action or behaviour and that too was left for the receiving party to decide what to do with. There was no force or persuassion or frustration over a person's stubborness. Lying, deceiving, acting with ulterior motives are things no one likes, but few people dare confront others with this complaint. I also witnessed immediate forgiveness when one apologised, even after betrayal and acts of pure selfishness and I saw warmth even for those who would not repent or delayed doing the right thing.

While I was visiting, there were the first posts of Derek leaving NCCG and turning against it. It is always painful to be betrayed and the effect of his betrayal obviously came much more heavily on Christopher Warren's family than it came on me. However, there was no hatred, no fury, no lust for revenge, no anger and no anxiety to justify theirselves. And this reaction is what is usually expected from most people who face persecusion. Instead, Derek was in Christopher's prayers in every evening meeting.

As it happens many times, when the accusers really have nothing to stand on, things start getting funny. Titles such as 'cult', 'mystical manipulation', 'compound', 'brainwashing' actually gave us opportunity for lots of laughs and jokes throughout my visit. When I met these people, all of whom are quite peaceful and always up for laughing, even under great stress, I could never really so much as imagine calling them a dangerous cult! As far as I know, cults don't make people happy, they don't make children warm and brave with strangers and they don't create the atmosphere of joy that I met in C.C. Warren's home.

Finally, what impressed me most of all was the way that the children were treated. I do believe that you can tell a lot about a family by looking at their young ones. I have often seen parents being a little embarrassed when their children show up while they are having guests and, equally often, I have watched the parents sending them off to play in another room and carry on the conversation. This didn't occur once while I was visiting Christopher's house. Except through meetings or important discussions, children were almost 'welcome to interupt' and show something they made, or complain about something or ask for help, and at least one person would give them the attention they asked for, whatever it was. And yet they are not spoiled. These little ones in Hillringsberg were unafraid and yet quite obedient, they were full of fun and jokes and yet they never insulted each other, from the youngest to the eldest. I never saw one of them being punished for something. I am sure they have done things which deserve correction like all children have, but while I was there, I saw correction but never punishment.

All in all, a great and interesting visit of a way of life I had never seen before.

December 2nd, 2006