Back in May, I tried to count Soul61's spend on each of the Mike Pilavachi interns. And in doing so, I noticed something strange: all the interns I came across were male. That bothered me, as I've heard before that Soul Survivor are supportive of women leaders, a position that is controversial in some UK churches.
As I investigated, things took a strange turn; a picture began to emerge. It's taken 7 months and hundreds of hours, and now I'm ready to share it, in this final Soul Survivor post.
You may remember that according to Soul61:
"Interns are generally those that Mike Pilavachi meets (through his role as Executive Director for Soul Survivor or as Pastor of Soul Survivor Watford Church), whom he feels demonstrate strong leadership potential."
(Source: Total exemption full accounts made up to 31 August 2017, Soul61 Companies House filings, page 3)
I have news: the evidence suggests that this isn't true.
Or that the word 'generally' is having its meaning rather stretched.
Or that Pilavachi has some serious tunnel-vision when it comes to leadership potential.
I've found 10 of the 25 Mike Pilavachi interns from the 2010s. Obviously that's not comprehensive. However one would expect to see some variety in that sort of sample, right? It's 40% of all the interns from the period.
Here are my findings:
First off, these 10 interns are all male.
That's a problem.
More than half the UK population are female. We see examples in the bible of a number of female leaders. And Soul Survivor Watford is part of the Church of England, where women hold significant leadership roles.
Soul Survivor say they value female leaders. They ran seminars about female leadership at the festival. And they allow women to join The Leadership Course, charging them £3,000, £5,000 or £7,000 to do so (the cost changed over the decade).
So why didn't I find any female interns?
Maybe I got unlucky in those I identified.
Secondly, these 10 interns all look white, like me.
That's a problem.
Jesus wasn't white, like most of the people in the Bible. One of the earliest converts to Christianity was Ethiopian. Like many organisations Soul Survivor Watford pledged public support to racial justice during the George Floyd protests of 2020.
White folks, like me, have gained in the past from some racial bias in the UK. Soul Survivor would add to that inequality if they were providing free leadership training disproportionately to white men.
Maybe I got unlucky in those I identified. Or maybe some of these men were biracial, which can be hard to identify visually.
Soul Survivor Watford, and Soul Survivor Ministries, have done admirable work on justice over the years. For example, they made social action a key thread of their events. But if this free training opportunity was inaccessible to women, or inaccessible to people of colour, that would be unjust.
This also raises the question: was their selection of interns illegal?
I ask because at least £350,000 of charitable funds was spent on this programme in the 2010s. And UK law has important things to say about discrimination based on gender and race. There's an exception that applies to charities, but I can't see that it applies to this context.
There's more.
Thirdly, 7 interns are sons of Christian leaders.
Say what?
Of these 10 interns, 7 are sons of Christian leaders.
Wow. I didn't see that coming.
Of the remainder, 2 interns have parents without a church leadership connection. I have been unable to identify the parents of one of the 10 interns I found.
If we look at the Bible, we see that a fisherman can make a good leader. We see a tentmaker can make a good leader. But Soul61 seems to have decided that your father's job determines your leadership potential.
What about the biblical passages about all of us having gifts? What about the talented leaders whose parents aren't Christians? What about the gifted young adults who don't know their father?
This doesn't mean that the interns chosen lacked gifts or talent. But it does pose the question - were more talented people disregarded for the development opportunity because they weren't sons of Christian leaders?
To rub salt in the wound, some of these interns were brothers of other interns of Mike Pilavachi.
This seems a long way from the objective use of charity funds. Did the people who donated to 'young leaders' realise that these funds were being spent on only certain types of young leaders?
Maybe the 15 interns I couldn't identify are mostly women, contain a fair amount of people from a BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) background, and no sons of church leaders. Maybe.
Why might Pilavachi have favoured children of other Christian leaders? It's hard, often impossible, to evidence someone's motive. Here are some ideas:
One theory: these internships, with their extensive global travel, were used as rewards for friends. Who wouldn't want their kids to get a chance to travel for free around the world? That would clearly be wrong. Remember that charity funds paid for this, not Pilavachi's money or the profits of a business.
Another theory: these internships were used to curry favour with people who might be valuable in the future.
These were influential Christian leaders: leaders of large churches, or leaders of many churches, or leaders of Christian charities. At the time their sons were interns, the organisations they led had incomes between £1,400,000 and £3,000,000. They were each large enough to employ the equivalent 16-20 full-time staff.
I also notice that the church leaders are from a range of church movements: Anglican, New Frontiers and Vineyard. You'll have noticed from earlier posts that Pilavachi had a rare ability to gain speaking engagements from churches of all denominations. Maybe that connects with this?
Favouring people with family connections would be quite a departure from the actions of Jesus. Didn't he elevate outcasts and outsiders? Some authors of scripture share similar viewpoints:
'My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?'
(Source: James 2:1-4, NIV Bible)
There's no evidence the interns or leaders concerned knew about this bias. However, in those cases where two siblings were interns, wouldn't that make things obvious to the parents concerned?
Fundamentally, though, this was the responsibility of the person running the programme (Mike Pilavachi), the leader of Soul61 (Andy Croft) and the other trustees of Soul61 in the period:
- Ali Martin
- David Saunderson
- Liz Biddulph
(We should note that conflicts of interest may have hindered these people in holding Pilavachi accountable)
Now, it could be that both of these theories were in play at different times. Or both might be false. As I said, it's very hard to evidence a motive.
I appreciate that interns-for-influence may seem far-fetched. But I can also see the concept cropping up before 2010 in the previous generation of interns.
For example, in 2004 Mike Pilavachi selected an intern whose father was the head of a theological college in the Anglican Church. Five years on the father had been promoted to the role of bishop. It can't hurt your ministry to be on good terms with another bishop, can it? Perhaps Pilavachi learned from that experience.
The intern concerned? That was Andy Croft, leader of Soul61.
The final post
I've finished my Soul Survivor posts. I've covered all the significant discoveries, and fulfilled my aim: supporting victims of Pilavachi's actions.
This was all an accident, born of disgust with the Christian world's tendency to look the other way when things go wrong. I have no training, or business plan, or message to spread.
It's cost a lot. That toll is small compared to the spiritual abuse that has occurred at Soul Survivor. Nevertheless, I need to recognise it and take some time to rebalance in 2024.
Thanks and praise go to the others who also spoke up. You know who you are. And especially to those who were victims. Is there anyone braver than a survivor who takes a stand?
What is the evidence for this?
As with my previous post, I can evidence what I've said, but I can't share that information without identifying the interns. And the stories that have appeared in the media say that at least one of these interns is a victim. With that in mind, I won’t be identifying these interns either publicly or privately.
I've made an exception in the case of Andy Croft, because Soul Survivor Watford disclosed this on their website many years ago, and he again disclosed this himself in a recent statement.
If you have doubts I can evidence what I've said, look at my posts – you’ll see I’m careful to have sources for any factual statements I make.
