What was amazing to me was that after being proved so dramatically wrong over the school, without a pause, Alan Vincent launched heart and soul into his next pet project.
Still obsessed with the "Army of 10,000" notion, Alan put into reverse gear everything he had done or said before and started to introduce a concept of "city churches" and "city elders", "area elders" and so forth. All a massive hierarchy with you-know-who at the top.
A couple of months after the school fiasco Pete Byers, the leader of the St Albans church called individual members in to his house and asked them what they thought about this. When my turn came, I referred to what had taken place and said we should take stock - in any case what had happened, I asked, to the Strawberry Plants of just a few years back. He told me that my reactions were similar to those of the others he had spoken to.
Alan started to come to St Albans and preach about how "God was insisting" on the city/area church system and huge hierarchy. By this time I had really lost all faith in him, as had others.
Pete Byers ejected
On Saturday 13th December 1986 I visited Pete Byers at his house. As I was arriving, I was surprised to meet Alan Vincent just leaving. There was some kind of row going on and the body language between the two was frosty to say the least.
I learn from Pete and his wife that he was being thrown out of the church. He had oppossed the notion of the city/area church setup for about a year, but had finally dropped his opposition to it. However that wasn't good enough for Alan Vincent, who wanted his wholehearted support for the project, which in conscience he couldn't give. I was horrified and stunned by this.
The following day, the Sunday, I went to the St Albans church where Alan Vincent explained how and why Pete had left the church. He said that Pete had determined to go, that they had tried to dissuade him, but "deceived of Satan", he had insisted. A single girl, an unmarried mum, who'd known Pete well, suddenly jumped up and said "Isn't he even coming to say goodbye?", and got the reply "we wanted him too but he wouldn't come". Someone else jumped up and publicly accused him of lying and the whole situation got really messy, but we were all sent home.
I'd heard 2 direct lies, seen the law broken, and some very dubious theology presented, so I had no hesitation in going round to one of the other elders and telling him that I was leaving forthwith. He said initially that I should go round to see Alan if I thought he was lying, as he was sure that Alan was telling the truth, but he argued himself completely round in a circle, as he had said that the motivation to go, and refusal to say goodbye, was from Pete to start with, but concluded by saying "If Pete had come, there would have been a scene" (of course there was anyway!). There seemed little point in my taking that up. I did however write to Alan expressing as clearly as I could my reasons for leaving but as with the letter about the school, I received no reply.
As 1987 unfolded, Alan was forced to leave the church. He eventually moved to San Antonio, Texas after handing over the reins, such as they were, to his son-in-law, Gordon Hickson.
The events of 1986 as Alan Vincent sees it now
Some while back I noticed a list of Alan Vincent's sermons on the site belonging to a church in Austria. One of them is entitled Faith III and here is a PDF. On pages 2 to 3 is Alan Vincent's view of how events unfolded. I do not think much of that is true.