The report has just been released into abuse at The Crowded House, an evangelical church in Sheffield in the UK. It’s a 98 page report exploring the spiritual abuse allegations that were leveled at the senior pastor Steve Timmis, author of the influential church leadership manual Total Church, and who was at the time the CEO of the global church planting movement Acts 29. The key question the authors attempted to address was to give a ‘comprehensive picture of Steve Timmis’ activities in relationship to the alleged harm caused to individuals, while serving as an elder at The Crowded House.’ A key report finding is that, ‘There is sufficient evidence for the reviewers to conclude that whether intentionally or unintentionally the culture at The Crowded House was one in which some instances of emotional and/or psychological abuse took place as a result of persistent coercive and controlling behaviour in the name of Christian vision and ministry.’ Steve McAlpine was a trainee with The Crowded House in 2007, has written extensively on these matters. He’s a senior pastor, a blogger and evangelist with the City Bible Forum’s Third Space.