In an earlier post titled “The Church at Rock Hill” found here.. https://religiouscultsinfo.com/2010/06/the-church-at-rock-hill/  we began reviewing the movement started by William Sowders. It was a brief review and only served as an introduction. The post included a couple of links for information on Sowders and a summary of a testimony from a former member of one church in this group in California. I listed aspects of that testimony that contained similarities to ones I had seen in my years in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). The movement was brought to my attention through the free service from Google® called Google Alerts®.

    This was my introduction to a movement begun in around 1914 and at its peak had about “75,000 believers in 300 congregations in 31 states.” (Source here– http://www.dmgac.org/about/leaders/ a church within group)  The leader, William Sowders died in 1952. Recently, a book written by a survivor of this group, Shari Howerton, came to my attention- again through Google Alerts®. “Breaking the Chains” Overcoming the Spiritual Abuse of a False Gospel (Copyright © 2009 by Shari Howerton, ISBN- 978-0-9713499-4-0) –The author was born to a family in a church in that movement. She stayed in that group under the pastor, Cornelius Mears, for 43 years. Near the beginning of the book, she provides more background that helps understand the impact of the doctrines and practices on the lives of its members.

    As I have been reading this book, I have seen several things to note. First there are some differences in the leadership of the church Howerton was a part of and WOFF. The leader(s) in the Sowder movement were men and at WOFF, the leader is a woman- Jane Whaley. There are some similarities on many levels between to the two groups. We will mention one likeness here and we will note more of both, in future of posts.  

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