LOVE IN ACTION OR LOVE INACTION?

The Wirral Christian Centre is an Elim church based in Birkenhead. It has been run for its entire history by The Revd. Paul Epton who likes to refer to himself as an "International Evangelist, Church Planter, Teacher, Author and Senior Minister" who has "reached millions of people around the world." These rather lofty claims could be overlooked if the truth about Paul Epton and the Wirral Christian Centre were less worrisome.

The Wirral Christian Centre has been in operation under the leadership of Pastor Paul Epton for more than 30 years. In the past Pastor Epton has claimed to have received a "vision from God" promising a five thousand seater church with numerous community outreach and social programs. A later vision had Pastor Epton overseeing house groups more than twice the size of the promised five thousand seater church. Neither vision ever came to fruition and today as he nears retirement the Wirral Christian centre never manages to fill its church seating capacity of less than 500.

WHY DID GOD NOT FULFILL HIS VISION?

Pastor Epton himself once said "Do not be ambitious which will lead to a Godless pursuit of power and position, but do be open to the call of God in your life and He will open the door to His gift and call in you. He will close the door to vain ambition."

An obvious question one might ask then is why did Pastor Epton's visions from God never come to pass? Were they indeed visions from God or simply the vain ambitions of a power hungry man whose ability to effectively carry out his role as pastor was stifled by the tumorous growth of ego?

WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?

Many MANY people have attended and left the Wirral Christian Centre over the years. As a church it has seen more than its fair share of controversies. The sheer number of such incidents are enough to raise alarm, but individuals have always tended to choose not to aggressively proceed with complaints, especially given the fact that Elim themselves are unwilling to get involved in individual church issues and have even described themselves as "powerless" to intervene.

Because of this the leadership of the Wirral Christian Centre have been able to continue unchallenged, repeating the same pattern of behaviour, and some might say abuse, year after year, controversy after controversy.

INTEGRITY, QUALITY, AND AUTHORITY

In his 1988 book 'Love In Action' Rev. Paul Epton wrote, "We are going to build a Christian community of such integrity, such quality, such authority, that society will have to take notice of it." Twenty years after those words were written the Wirral Christian Centre still remains largely unnoticed.