About
"Love grows from stable relationships, shared experience, loyalty, devotion, trust."
-Richard Wright
How this Site Began...
In the fall of 2021, a couple from Outreach International (OI) relocated to a city in the United States because they felt prompted by God to do so. In the spring of 2022, a woman they befriended began meeting with them in their home, regularly on Sundays. The middle-aged woman had come to faith in Jesus Christ when she was sixteen years old and had attended church services faithfully. But after feeling disillusioned by her last church experience, she found herself looking for something more in the depth and commitment she experienced with fellow Christians. Upon meeting and getting to know the couple from OI, she valued their shared commitment to God as well as the thoughtful and intentional ways they sought to know her.
A few months after they began meeting, in the summer of 2022, the woman discovered an online article about Laura Sullivan and her traumatic experiences with OI. When the woman approached the couple about it, she was met by the following response:
*Does the person’s experience align to your own?
*You can’t judge a group of people based on one disgruntled individual
The woman’s experience was hugely different than what the article had described. She wondered if the group had drastically changed or whether the gatherings in Australia were different than other locations. The Sunday mornings she had spent meeting with the OI couple entailed eating breakfast, studying the Bible, sharing life, singing worship songs and praying together—nothing out of the ordinary.
While not wholly at ease, the woman chose to suspend judgment and continued to form a friendship with the couple.
Over the next three years, many OI members from all over the world came to visit the OI couple in their new city. The woman met many who visited, and together they enjoyed fellowship & meals. She (and her husband, who did not gather with the three of them on Sundays) formed a significant friendship with the couple, even visiting other OI couples when vacationing in other major cities.
When & How Things Changed
After spending significant time together, the couples became well acquainted friends and did many things together—eating meals, watching movies, sharing life hacks & favorite things.
And as time passed, their three-person meetings (rooted in Bible study, singing, prayer and sharing) grew in frequency to include Wednesday evenings. While the OI couple occasionally shared OI prophecies or video sermons with the woman during their gatherings, she was clear that she never aspired to “join” or be a part of OI (she was aware the OI site required a login for members and she knew the OI body communicated through separate WhatsApp groups, none of which she was a part). She merely wanted to grow in God with the couple, namely through their committed friendship.
In the spring of 2025, the woman received a prophecy* from the Lord. While the experience caught her off guard, the clarity in which she heard God’s voice was profound in a way she had only experienced one or two other times in her life. The prophecy was for OI, and it was a clear call to repentance. The words were not unloving nor anti-biblical but an emotional plea from the Lord, including an express concern for some of His people, both current and former members of OI.
She shared the prophecy with the OI couple, who shared it with their OI pastor (in a different country). They all deemed the prophecy as not being from God.
The woman felt at a crossroads. She and the OI couple agreed there were no personal offenses in which to rectify and that no grievances remained outstanding between them. But based on her own conscience, she determined she could no longer gather on Sundays with people who dismissed what was deeply real to her. In sharing her decision to discontinue gathering on Sundays, she requested to maintain their friendship.
That desire and request was met with denial. While they expressed carrying no ill-will, the couple indicated that the relationship— which had been based in Godly fellowship—had changed. They wished the woman and her husband well, and sought to make arrangements to return the woman’s belongings (reading glasses and pair of slippers which she kept at their home).
That physical transaction, chock-full of emotion and nearly devoid of words, was the last interaction the couples shared.
Moving Forward
As the woman began making connections with individuals who were formerly associated with OI, the narratives she heard were consistent and concerning.
After her experience and learning that of others, she felt compelled to create a place where more people could discover the far-reaching impact of OI, a space in which those formerly associated with OI could speak. Their experiences and her own could provide increased context about OI for those exploring it.
I, Renee, am that middle-aged woman and this site was conceived as a result. Working with former members, these pages have been compiled to give a more complete picture about the historical nature of OI. Resources have also been added for any individual who may find them relevant, insightful or useful. Several of them have been recommended by former OI members.
Were there no warning signs?
Reading this, you may question the existence of warning signs and if there were any.
My husband and I could not have predicted that the friendship could—or would—end. The relationship was positive, meaningful, committed and we believed in the earnestness of it. All four of us cherished our time together and valued the heart and manner in which we spent it—whether formally or socially. And our three-person Sunday/Wednesday meetings were Lord-led, Jesus-centered, loving and sincere.
Personally, I felt very cared for in all regards and I was not interrogated, “challenged” or critiqued in our relationship.
If you wonder whether everything was truly “fine,” I would attest how deeply OI colored their lives. Its strong and formative culture was evident. But my observations and perceptions about it weren’t overtly troubling.
And while I had read the online article (which someone else may also read—and respond to by cutting ties), I had formed enough of a relationship with the couple that I wanted to suspend judgment, because I viewed my relationship as being with them and not with OI.
“I wanted to suspend judgment, because I viewed my relationship as being with them and not with OI.”
What were examples of my observations?
-feeling as though they saw their church as particularly special and/or better than others
-feeling as though the OI body was overly involved in one another’s lives
-feeling that even though the body was spread throughout the world, it was unusually insular (as an example, they appeared to intentionally and preferably marry within their community)
These things were prominent enough to be noteworthy, but not hindrances in forming a friendship and growing in God together. Now, after speaking with former OI people, I have come to believe these were merely signs of a much more overt and problematic organizational culture (one I couldn’t see, and thus did not feel personally subject to).
Because of the hurt and problems that OI has caused over time in the lives of others, I, along with other former members of OI feel a sense of responsibility to help prevent further devastation. Having previous publications altogether & alongside testimonials of former OI members, we intend for this site to paint a more complete picture for anyone else exploring OI.
The hope is to prevent future heartache.
For me, this heartache stems from the breakup of a caring, rooted, yet disingenuous friendship. Disingenuous—not because the couple was willfully malicious—but because they were wrongfully indoctrinated to uphold unorthodox practices over the ultimate care of those they were encouraged to seek out and befriend.
Outreach International’s organizational ideals, as contrary as they are to the heart and practices of Jesus, invite nothing less than careful attention, scrutiny and concern.
If you are visiting this site as someone who has discovered a new and budding friendship with someone from OI, please take in all you can from the experiences of others—and take heed. The people of OI speak of love, but carry out illegitimate behaviors in the name of it.
Jesus would neither practice or condone such things.
*for reference, you may read what I shared with the OI couple/leadership here
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5 (1-2a, 8-11)
These comics help depict how our relationship ultimately left me feeling. I had no idea the friendship was conditional.
