It is sobering to reflect that the day you stepped out with some tracts and a handful of friends you started something that would grow to national proportions. Reachout Trust began in 1982 as a local outreach to Jehovah's Witnesses. From a single initiative, by a handful of people, at a Witness convention in Twickenham the Trust has grown to become a nation wide ministry to those in the cults, the occult and the New Age movement. Over the years we have taken on responsibilities, met needs, and developed in ways that were never envisaged in those early days. No one sat down and said, "why don’t we see if we can achieve this?" The ministry can truly be said to have evolved until today we are one of the foremost Christian groups in our field.

The first newsletter was produced in 1984, was four pages long and photocopied, and had a run of a few hundred. Today's newsletter is sixteen pages and growing and goes out to several thousand individuals and churches across the country. It is our main organ of communication and seeks to keep people informed and equipped for what they face on their doorstep or high street.

The first Reachout convention was held in New Malden Baptist Church in 1984. After that it moved to Kingstanding Elim Church until 1991 when we held it at the Wycliffe Centre at High Wycombe. Having outgrown that venue we moved in 1996 to the Pioneer Centre near Wolverhampton. From a handful of 'interested' people at that first meeting we have grown to over a hundred attending a full weekend of seminars every November. Seminars and workshops cover all the main cults including, of course, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, but also other groups such as the Children of God, Freemasonry, Moonies etc. We also provide instruction in dealing with the occult and the New Age and have included counselling workshops and teaching on deliverance.

A landmark in the growth of Reachout was the introduction, in 1988, of the Action Pack. This has been a special blessing over the years and has contributed significantly to meeting our financial needs. Especially gratifying has been the fact that it gives us the opportunity to give something practical to those who give to us. This partnership scheme means that the giver is entitled to receive regularly free or discounted Reachout resources from books to videos to regular publications.

Ours is a ministry of discernment and apologetics and our primary role is 'truth-telling'. However, we have developed beyond simply publishing and distributing information. One area in which we have been particularly successful and effective is in recruiting people, many from cult backgrounds themselves, to represent Reachout 'on the ground', to be Reachout in their location.

Our system of having Area Directors is unique in this ministry in the UK and is a major contributory factor in our growth and success. These people who represent Reachout in their locality are a help to the local church and a first point of contact for those seeking the help Reachout provides. Through their different talents and experiences Area Directors are able to provide training for the local church, specialised insights into the world of the cults, and sympathetic support for those seeking freedom and truth.

Where possible our Area Directors are encouraged to work closely together in their regions under a regional leader who co-ordinates their efforts and is responsible for training etc. Praying together, sharing problems and ideas, and encouraging one another builds strength, encourages commitment and makes Reachout a real local resource.

Reachout continues to evolve and we face new challenges almost daily. Managing and training a growing number of people, and maintaining and enhancing the reputation of Reachout in an increasingly demanding ministry, means finding new, more efficient ways forward. In these challenging times we seek to define more clearly what we do and how we do it. To help in this work a 'ministry team' is being developed to look at all aspects of the ministry, from literature to training to how we should respond to developments in the constantly changing world of the cults.

Whilst recognised as a threat cults are still looked on by many as uncommon. Anti-cult ministry is traditionally looked upon as a specialist work and organisations such as Reachout Trust are looked upon as a kind of "vice squad" of the Christian world. However, this type of ministry, which seeks to uphold biblical truth, has a long and noble history. It is not a specialist work done in the back streets of Satan's slums but has always been at the very centre of what the church is about, saving souls and championing the true Christian message.

From the beginning the church has had to combat error. Paul combated the cult of Gnosticism in his day (Colossians 2: 8,18,19) as did the apostle John (1 John). Church leaders frequently fought against the doctrines of salvation by works and by faith in religious systems and secret initiation. In the first few centuries of church history the work of firming up and of clearly defining the faith once delivered happened largely in response to the threat of error both from outside and inside the church. Classic examples include:

EBIONISM - A second century form of Unitarianism, that denied the deity of Christ, taught law keeping, and often practised circumcision. This was a Judaistic heresy that sought to go back to the law and preserve monotheism by denying the trinity. Men and women are naturally drawn to a religious system that promises salvation by good works. A mixture of grace and works is a primary characteristic of the cults.

MONTANISM - A charismatic heresy that, like the Mormons, taught continuing revelation which carried equal weight with scripture, practised a form of blood atonement which assigned sin-atoning power to martyrdom, and encouraged a spiritual elitism, claiming to be a new breed of super-Christians (the only true church).

ARIANISM - a Fourth century heresy that, like Jehovah's Witnesses, taught that Jesus was a created being, different in essence from the Father, and therefore not God.

We are living in a post-christian era in which the seeker is faced with a smorgasbord of new ideas and spiritual concepts. It is also an era in which people are not so confident in the answers offered by science. People are spiritually thirsty and willing to consider any remedy that is different from the same old formula. Our society is much like the one into which the early church was born. It is international, pluralistic, where all sorts of alternative spiritual realities are made available to the seeker.

With the advent of the New Age movement and the rise of home-made religion, spiritual deception is no longer something that happens to someone else somewhere else. Our neighbours, our friends and work colleagues are looking to luck, fortune tellers, Mystic Meg, crystals, tarots, totems, the god within, the new age to come. Many are, like most Christians, regretting the growth of liberalism and the onslaught of uncertainty, the overwhelming cynicism and growing despair that this world offers. They are looking for certainty and assurance, hope and comfort and they are finding them in the dogmatism of a conservative Mormonism, or in the doom laden message of Jehovah's Witnesses that confirms their fears and offers escape. It is the role of the Christian church to be a light bearer in the darkness and confusion. It is the calling of the Christian to "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

Church history is replete with stories of those who contended for the faith. Our spiritual forebears fought hard for eternal truths cherished by today's believers. Tomorrows believers will inherit what we contend for today.

We are sometimes referred to as a para-church organisation. As an organisation, of course, that is what we are. Reachout is not a church, but neither are we separate from, or in addition to the Christian community. We are Christians first and foremost who see our role in the body as that of watchmen. The way we fulfil that role is in organisations like Reachout, just as those called to mission form missionary societies.

People who escape the cults need a new spiritual home. God's provision for all new Christians is the church. Members of Reachout Trust are members of the local church and Reachout always seeks to work closely with local church leaders. From the beginning it has been very important to have a network of church contacts across the country. As people have come to Reachout for help we have in turn sought to 'plant' them in an appropriate fellowship. Reachout is often simply a first point of contact leading to more appropriate ministry within the church and even professional help in a counselling setting.

With the advent of a new Millennium we are aware of numerous groups and movements seeking to identify themselves with this landmark event. The popular perception of cults is as a small but potentially dangerous feature of the spiritual landscape. In many instances this kind of thinking is out of date and much too small. They are no longer obscure groups, or "tinpot operations". Many of them are now large and substantial, and extremely wealthy compared with their, often humble, beginnings. It is clear that they expect to enter the next millennium with greater strength and influence. We must match their growth and development and learn to combat the modern cult in a modern way.

There is an urgent need for Christians to be equipped to meet the challenges of the modern world. People are needed to act as comforters to the hurt and wounded, bringers of fresh hope to the disillusioned, friends to the betrayed and truth-tellers to the deceived. Churches need to act as communities of refuge where there is shelter and safety for the vulnerable, life and hope for the lost, and sound teaching and gentle discipling for the many who need correcting and direction.

Reachout Trust seeks to provide that equipping through a training programme designed to teach individuals and churches. Through seminars and workshops we bring to the Christian community specialist knowledge, gained from first-hand experience, that will arm Christians for the battle for truth that rages in our society. By means of newsletters, fact sheets, books, audio and video- tapes we share our knowledge and understanding and keep the church informed of up-to-the-minute developments in the ministry.

Today the Reachout office works every day to co-ordinate the efforts of our representatives across the country, to put those in need in touch with those in ministry. Literature leaves the office daily to meet a growing demand for information. In 1997 we saw over 71,000 people reached by Reachout in seminars, exhibitions, requests or visits to the office, appearances on the media and visits to the Reachout web site.

We are, then, those who in Christian love, often having experienced ourselves life in a cult, wish to come alongside, advise, pray with and otherwise help cult members and their families and friends. Just as people who have lost loved ones through disease may feel impelled to set up a medical trust to further the work of research and treatment, so we are those who work to help those trapped in spiritually abusive systems. As far as our experience and knowledge takes us, as God leads, we help and minister.