On C3 Churchwatch, we monitored the ongoing scandal surrounding C3 Pastor, Nick Dimitris. Concerned C3 pastors and leaders also commented on our site, providing background to the nature of the scandal. To access information about the background to the C3 Asheville scandal, check these articles:
C3 Asheville Scandal – C3 Pastor Facing Prison (Part 1)
C3 Asheville Scandal – C3 Pastor “Pleads Guilty In Bank Fraud Case” (Part 2)
C3 Asheville Scandal – Sweetmans Do Nothing Against Fraudulent C3 Pastor? (Part 3)
C3 Asheville Scandal – Four “People… Have Pleaded Guilty” Including “[C3] Minister… Nicholas Dimitris” (Part 4)
C3 Asheville Scandal – C3 ‘Pastor’ Nick Dimitris: The Liar (Part 5)
C3 Asheville Scandal – Massive Financial Judgment Against C3 Asheville Pastor Nick Dimitris (Part 6)
C3 Asheville Scandal – While Dean’s Playing Slick, Nick’s In The Knick (Part 7)
C3 Asheville Scandal – The Wolf & The Ostrich (Part 8)
C3 Asheville Scandal – Dear Barn… (Part 9)
Hiding the C3 Asheville scandal by replacing its oversight?
Back in April 2017, Black Mountain News (BMN) reported on Nick Dimitris’ latest endeavors in the outskirts of Asheville – United Life Academy. What the people in that neighborhood do not realise is that United Church isn’t a church. It’s a part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) cult. This was a cult that started after World War II and excelled when Israel was restored as a nation, known back then as the New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR).
New World, New Order, New Church Governance…
The news quoted from the United Academy website, “The program is designed for “personal revival and total transformation” with hopes “to lead a generation into intimacy with the Father.””
That is NAR cult talk. When people read how United want to “lead a generation into intimacy with the Father,” they need to realise what is being promoted here. This “intimacy” with the Father language is dangerous talk as this theology denies Christ as the God-Man (Kenoticism) and elevates man as little gods. The fact that the program “is designed for “personal revival and total transformation” and is intended to lead a “generation” means that Dimitris holds to the dangerous end-times ‘New Breed’ doctrine. This doctrine claims there will be a generation that will be raised up as gods on this earth to cleanse or transform communities, cities, nations and the world from evil.
United Life Academy is not there in Ridgecrest to make friends or “love their neighbor”. Their intentions are entirely unbiblical:
What is the nature of the New Apostolic Reformation? (Part 1) Lawless & Pragmatic
What is the nature of the New Apostolic Reformation? (Part 2) Vicious & Violent
Just because Dimitris has ‘re-branded’ himself does not mean anything else has changed. Just because he says nice words about befriending the community means nothing if his theology is all about ‘conquering the community’. The NAR language is all there:
“AWAKENING HEARTS TO THE REALITY OF ONE”
United Church and United Life Academy have the typical failure-surviving-thriving prosperity-driven false theology of the NAR cults.
“Jesus came into this world to give us not just life, but life to the maximum! We were not created to just survive this world, but to thrive as we walk in our identity and inheritance as sons and daughters of the living God.”
Source: United Life Academy, http://www.unitedlifeacademy.com/, Accessed 18/07/2017.
It’s this kind of language that should set off alarm bells. In the NAR, a ‘failure’ is of the world, a ‘survivor’ is a theology that emphasises salvation while the ‘thriver’ is the prosperity-purpose-driven NAR cult. Here is an image of NAR cult leader “Apostle” Sammy Rodriguez at C3 Presence Conference promoting this NAR worldview:
Apostle Rodriguez speaking at Pringle’s C3 NAR cult.
So the locals of Ridgecrest have a huge problem – an cult has arrived in their neigborhood. And unless they are made aware of the criminal history of Dimitris and the NAR cult, they are about to be taken advantage of.
Black Mountain News reports,
New neighbor causes concern in a small Ridgecrest neighborhood
A Christian academy that plans to open in Ridgecrest in July is refurbishing two properties, and neighbors are upset about the construction and one of the director’s criminal past.
United Life Academy, slated to open on Dixon Drive on the site of the former Madison Inn and Restaurant, will instruct young singles and married couples on how to live a life that puts Christian principles into action, its website states. Marketed toward men and women 18 to 25, it has signed up six married couples and hopes to accommodate 30 single men and women in the old inn, codirector Nicholas Dimitris said last week.
It plans to use the old Murray Hill Lodge on Florida Avenue for the married couples and has an affiliation with a recently sold 1905 Sears and Roebuck house on the street that may also be used for the academy. Between the three properties, Florida Avenue was abuzz with construction activity on April 18.
“My concern is for the whole character of the neighborhood going from residential to a whole bunch of group homes,” said Wallace, who put his house up for sale last week as a result of the academy’s moving in.
“We are just appalled by what’s going on right now,” Donna Fisher, who sold the house on Florida Avenue, said.
In December, Dimitris and his wife Emily Dimitris received a conditional use permit that would allow them to build a rooming house on the premises of the old inn. Their application states that the quarters would provide “affordable lodging for ministry interns.” The owner would be – and is – New Day Holdings LLC, whose address on the corresponding deed is the same as the church Dimitris pastors in Asheville. New Day Holdings bought the old inn from First Citizen’s Bank.
New Day Holdings recently bought a third property in the neighborhood – 21 Florida Ave., Fisher’s former house. The house on the property is now owned by two members of United Church, Terry and Elaine Dalton, who plan to host academy faculty and guests at the house, Terry Dalton said. The lot belongs to New Day Holdings, Dimitris said.
United Life Academy (unitedlifeacademy.com) is currently setting up its curriculum and inviting teachers, codirector David Fredriksz said in a joint interview with Dimitris at United Church last week. Fredriksz, who said he has started three Christian discipleship schools in Spain, the Netherlands and East Africa, will attend to the academy’s day-to-day operations, he said. Nicholas and Emily Dimitris will serve as codirectors, mentors and ministry leaders, Nicholas “Nick” Dimitris said.
Studies at the academy won’t lead to credits at colleges and universities, the website states. The academy doesn’t offer scholarships but will help students raise money. Jobs and time away from the academy during the first six months “will be limited,” the website states.
Fredriksz called the academy’s approach to training an “in your face” experience.
“We are going to be blunt with them,” he said of prospective students. The millennial generation craves authenticity, he said. “They’re sick and tired of ‘fake.’ They’re sick and tired of religion,” Fredriksz said. “They need to discovery who they are.”
Mentors will guide them through the process of discovering their purpose as humans “and showing (them) that life is more than about themselves,” Fredriksz said. They’ll learn how they can serve others. Much of the instruction will happen during communal meals, he said. Dalton, a Swannanoa Valley native, said he plans to host that type gathering for the academy at the house he bought across from the former inn.
“Being able to relax with a meal is one of the best ways to connect over anything,” he said last week.
“We hope (students) will go out from here a ‘missional’ people,” Dimitris said, using a term that describes living the thoughts and actions of a person whose mission is to engage others in the gospel. Students will learn to live lives that show others what it’s like to “serve your neighbor, to love the Lord,” he said.
Some neighbors are as concerned about Dimitris’ past as they are about the oak trees cut from the property, the demolition that stripped the inn to concrete block and the hollowing out of the old Murray Hill Inn.
Nicholas Dimitris, a minister and then-real estate investor, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Nov. 27, 2013 to a year in prison after pleading guilty to taking part in a plan to prop up Seven Falls, a failing luxury development in Henderson County.
Seven Falls in Henderson County was planned for 900 homes and an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course on 1,400 acres. The development soured with the economy in 2008-09. During the federal trial of developer Keith Vinson, prosecutors alleged conspirators created a scheme whereby “straw borrowers” would borrow money for lots in the development in hopes of preventing the development’s foreclosure.
Dimitris was one such “straw borrower,” according to a 2012 story in The Asheville Citizen-Times.
The failure of Seven Falls, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009, played a role in the closing of Bank of Asheville and Pisgah Community Bank. Vinson was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after being convicted in October 2013 of conspiracy, bank and wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Several other people served time or were placed on probation.
Dimitris’ history troubles Wallace and Fisher, and the sale of Fisher’s house didn’t help. She said she thought she was selling to the Daltons, but the check for the earnest money was written by New Day Holdings. Dimitris said New Day Holdings bought the lot, and the Daltons bought the house.
Wallace, who lives on Florida Avenue, put his house up for sale because of uncertainly about the academy and Dimitris.
“I had a vague idea I would sell some day,” Wallace said. “When all this went down, that sort of forced my hand and made me make a decision.”
Amy Nasta, who lives beside the academy, is disheartened by what she said has been its lack of interaction with neighbors.
“Having not introduced themselves or explained to the existing neighbors what to expect, this group has not set the stage for either a trusting or a neighborly relationship,” she said in an email. “I attended the (conditional use permit) hearing in December 2016. The scenario that was presented then is completely different from what is being represented on their website. I am concerned for my once tranquil and safe neighborhood.”
Dimitris called the Seven Falls experience “one incredibly tough season” for him, one that court records and news accounts don’t begin to explain. During a nearly hour-long interview, he and Fredriksz repeatedly said the experience could be explained only over the course of a long meal.
Dimitris said he “understands” why neighbors would be concerned, given his past. But he’s willing to meet with them, as he said he has tried to do in the past.
“We love our neighbors,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the neighbors.” He said he hopes to have supper with them.
Source: Black Mountain News, http://www.blackmountainnews.com/story/news/2017/04/26/new-neighbor-causes-concern-small-ridgecrest-neighborhood/100717450/, Published 26/04/2017. (Accessed 17/07/2017.)
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Categories: C3 Church, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)