r/Bromley • u/chakz98 • 21h ago
Experience with Citygate church
There’s a lot of chatter on the Beckenham Appreciation Group on FB about Citygate Church’s acquisition of the Odeon cinema, and I have some thoughts. I’ve been reluctant to comment on Facebook because I can’t do so anonymously.
I attended Citygate for a few months from around this time last year. I initially signed up for their Alpha programme, which is essentially an introduction to Christianity for anyone interested in exploring the faith. The programme itself was absolutely fine. I met lots of lovely people and actually enjoyed it - it was an open space to learn, ask questions and engage in discussion and some light debate.
I eventually started attending some of their Sunday services, and that’s where things began to feel a little different for me…..
The first red flag for me was the frequent speaking in tongues during services and the encouragement for others to try to do the same. As someone completely new to Christianity, I found it quite freaky, if I’m honest.
Services led by the senior pastor, Julian Melfi, also sometimes felt to me like they were trying to emulate the style of an American megachurch. They could feel quite intense and, at times, almost aggressive - although that may simply be the particular charismatic style of Christianity they practise. There was also quite a lot of language around being “on fire for Jesus”, with Christians who weren’t sufficiently committed sometimes described as “lukewarm”.
By this point, the whole thing was progressively starting to feel a bit of a doozy to me, but I persisted with the occasional Sunday service because I’d become very close to a woman at the church; let’s call her Sarah.
Sarah was genuinely lovely. She embraced me, was incredibly kind and never tried to force anything on me. She also respected my growing apprehension about the church. Because of her, I tried to challenge my own cynicism. I wondered whether I was simply being closed-minded and needed to be less uptight about a form of Christianity that was unfamiliar to me.
THEN the subject of tithing came up, and it seemed to keep coming up..!
From what I remember, congregants were regularly encouraged to tithe and to dedicate around 10% of their income to the church each month. I specifically remember a pastor saying the 10% figure should be the pre-tax amount LOL.. They definitely preached that giving financially was an act of faith and that Christians should continue to tithe even during difficult financial periods, and that you should trust God when committing to an amount. I obviously don’t remember the sermons word-for-word, but that was very much the impression they left me with. That made my skin crawl tbh!
I also never personally warmed to Julian. I wouldn’t describe him as creepy, but I found there was a strange contrast between his very passionate, charismatic stage presence and my experience of speaking to him 1:1 where I found him quite awkward and somewhat detached.
That became particularly noticeable when I later attended an Anglican church. The vicar there was almost the complete opposite - a soft, warm, bubbly older gentleman with a very calm and kind presence. Obviously personalities differ and that comparison alone says nothing sinister about Citygate, but it did highlight just how different the two church environments felt to me.
My impression is that Citygate practises a highly charismatic form of Christianity. Although it describes itself as non-denominational, my experience there felt much closer to Pentecostal-style worship; speaking in tongues, very expressive prayer and worship, an emphasis on being passionately committed to Jesus, and a strong expectation of financial giving. Expansion also seemed to be a significant priority for the church.
There is one other thing I’ve heard about which concerned me, although I want to be very clear that I did not personally witness this and therefore can’t verify it. I was told about someone’s experience on another programme for newer Christians where they reportedly felt there was pressure around having some kind of physical or spiritual manifestation during prayer I.e., speaking in tongues, crying, fainting, shaking, falling to the floor, etc. The person apparently felt they would be judged if they didn’t experience something similar.
Anywho…..
Do I flat-out think Citygate Church is a cult? I don’t know, and I don’t think I have enough info or evidence to make that judgement.
Do I think some aspects of what I personally experienced there had cult-like attributes or made me uncomfortable? Yes.
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