Reachout Trust is a British

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

organisation. Its stated aims are to "examine in the light of the Christian

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

the beliefs and practices of people within the

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

new age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

and all not upholding to biblical truth." Reachout Trust addresses many different groups including

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...

, the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by ...

, and

Christadelphians The Christadelphians () are a Restorationism, restorationist and Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Biblical unitarianism, (Biblical Unitarian) Christian denomination. The name means 'brothers and sisters in Christ',"The Christadelphians, or breth ...

as well as the occult and New Age. Reachout Trust also produce information about other groups and religions and writes about various influential Christian figures (such as tele-evangelists and authors) and various groups within non-evangelical Christianity, such as

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Reachout Trust communicates the perceived dangers of those groups' beliefs and/or practices to the

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

Christian community and presents the Christian

from an evangelical perspective to members of those groups. Reachout also teaches the Christian Church about biblical warnings concerning error and how to engage with those holding to ideas the Bible identifies as errors. The organisation is based in Swansea, South Wales, UK. Reachout Trust produces articles on their website, and on a blog, publish books and booklets, have a YouTube channel, as well as having a presence on social media. They also visit interested churches and groups.

History

The organisation was formed in 1982, under director Doug Harris. Their first newsletter, produced in 1984, was four pages long and consisted of a few hundred photocopies. That grew to a ''Quarterly'' sixteen pages sent out to several thousand individuals and churches across the country. These days the newsletter is online. In 1988, they published ''Awake! To the Watch Tower'' by Doug Harris, later cited as a reference by Linda Edwards and Robert Crompton. In 1996 they published ''Mormonism A Gold Plated Religion'' by Michael and Ann Thomas. The first Reachout Convention was held in

New Malden New Malden is a suburban area in southwest London, England. It is within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, and is from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston upon Thames, Kingston, Norb ...

Baptist Church in 1984. After that, it moved to

Kingstanding Kingstanding is an area in north Birmingham, England. It gives its name to a ward in the Erdington council constituency. Kingstanding ward includes the areas; Perry Common, Witton Lakes. The other part of Kingstanding falls under the Oscott ...

Elim Church until 1991 when it was held at the Wycliffe Centre at

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

. Having outgrown that venue, it moved in 1996 to the Pioneer Centre near

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

. In 2008, it again moved to the more central location of Hothorpe Hall,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. Since Doug Harris's death in 2013 the trust has moved more towards small groups, visiting churches, and online ministry. The first conference in ten years was held in September 2022 a
The Hayes Conference Centre
Warwick, Derbyshire. Having successfully held three conferences they are becoming again a fixture in the Reachout Trust year. From a group of people at the first meeting, the organisation has grown to over a hundred attending a full weekend of seminars. Seminars and workshops cover all the main religions the Reachout Trust considers

s, including the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded during ...

and

, but also other groups such as

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, as well as instruction in dealing with the occult and the

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

. In 2002, David McKay of the group the Jesus Christians contacted the Reachout Trust through a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

in order to elicit a response which he could then utilise to manipulate the media. McKay's plan backfired, and the results were documented in an article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Also in 2002, a member of the organisation commented on the potential influence of the film ''

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. It is the second novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry ...

'' on young children, stating that it may influence children to explore the

. In 2004, the organisation held a three-day conference in order to assist and consult with families affected by cults and the occult. In 2013 Reachout's founder, Doug Harris, died following a short illness. At the invitation of the trustees the leadership of the trust was taken up by Michael Thomas, a former

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

and long-time friend and director of the trust, who worked alongside Doug Harris for many years.

References

External links

;Official links
Official Reachout Trust homepageArchives of the Reachout Trust homepage
as performed regularly by the

UK Web Archiving Consortium The UK Web Archive is a consortium of the six UK legal deposit libraries which aims to collect all UK websites at least once each year. , its website is unavailable because of a cyberattack on the British Library in October 2023. History In 2 ...

;Other
Reachout Trust - SHIELDS
a response to Reachout Trust's work by the Scholarly & Historical Information Exchange for Latter-Day Saints

History

References

External links

See also