# 2026-08 Skillet's John and Korey Cooper on NAR and Church Abuse A two-and-a-half-hour interview in which John and Korey Cooper of the band Skillet describe leaving the charismatic apostolic network they belonged to for thirty years. Korey has been in it since birth; her father founded the Kenosha, Wisconsin congregation and remains an elder; the network's apostle is her sister's husband and was John's best friend. This is the strongest first-person source the wiki holds on **the covering doctrine as lived**, and it is unusual in one specific way: John Cooper publicly defended apostolic churches to Alisa Childers in 2021 — "nobody believes this… they're just church planters" — and is now the case study for what he denied. ## The break The Coopers date it to announcing a move to Nashville. According to their account they were told they "might not be safe" outside the apostle's covering, were characterized as bitter, extreme, and demonically influenced, and watched friends receive "prophetic word" instructing them to cut the Coopers off. John says roughly 40% of the congregation has since left and upwards of a hundred people claim spiritual abuse. A third-party firm the apostle himself hired reported six months before the interview a "longstanding pattern of abuse," recommended he step down permanently, and has been met with silence. (Source: Readwise/Articles/Skillet's John and Korey Cooper Break Their Silence About NAR & Church Abuse.md) ## The doctrine at the center The Coopers describe a network teaching that the apostle is the **foundation** and **root** of members' lives: God's blessing flows through him as fruit through a root, leaving him removes it, and members are to "devote themselves to the apostle's teaching," with Acts 2:42 read as a command about him rather than about the apostles' doctrine. Two internal documents are described. A paper written for elders only, leaked about five weeks before the interview, reportedly argues that Paul's "least of the apostles" line proves Paul was not on the level of the Twelve, and therefore not greater than a modern apostle. A 2020 church paper on "the functional authority of scripture" reportedly opens by saying the Bible never claims to be authoritative — only that we should obey it — and routes interpretation through apostles. A Roger Aubrey framework inserted into the apostle's paper states that "the only orthodox hermeneutic in a church is the apostolic hermeneutic." That last sentence is the whole of [[Apostolic Authority]] compressed into eleven words, and it should be quoted in that page. It closes the loop the wiki has documented from several directions: if only the apostle's hermeneutic is orthodox, no member can produce a reading that counts as an objection. > [!contradiction] > The move on Paul inverts the ordinary apologetic. Elsewhere NAR-adjacent teaching claims continuity with the New Testament apostles to license the modern office. Here the argument works by **demoting a canonical apostle** to protect a living one. The wiki holds both moves from the same movement; they cannot both be principled. ## The exit playbook The three participants assemble the pattern from overlapping experiences, and it is close to a reproduction of [[DARVO]] in ecclesial vocabulary: 1. A spiritual cause is assigned to the critic — critical spirit, root of bitterness, "something of the enemy." 2. Questions are met with equivocation and word-swapping: "apostle just means church planter." 3. A false narrative circulates without anyone making a phone call. 4. A bully-pulpit sermon everyone in the room can decode. 5. Departures go unmentioned. 6. The leader pre-frames criticism as satanic attack. 7. Mockery replaces answers. Compare the *Spiritual Grooming* checklist in [[readwise-branham-message-exit-cluster-2026-08]]. The two lists were assembled independently, by people from different movements, and they overlap at points 1, 3, 5, and 6. ## The lineage John Cooper gives Latter Rain → 1970s British restorationism (Arthur Wallis, Bryn Jones) → the shepherding movement (the Fort Lauderdale Five, Derek Prince) → Watchman Nee's *Spiritual Authority* → [[C. Peter Wagner]]'s label → [[Che Ahn]] out of Vineyard after Toronto. The wiki has each of these links from separate sources; this is the first time one witness states the whole chain from inside. Note also that the Evangelical Covenant Church episode in this cycle's Collins batch reaches the shepherding movement by a different route, through Ern Baxter and Branham. Two independent testimonies converging on Fort Lauderdale is worth more than either alone. ## The detail that does the most work John's father-in-law — an elder in the church, Korey's father — was shown a clip of the apostle calling the Coopers' claims demonic. His only reply was: "Be careful, John." That is the covering doctrine functioning correctly from the inside. The warning is not a defense of the apostle's argument; it is a warning about proximity to consequence. ## Open questions - The third-party firm's report is described but not published. If it surfaces, it is a primary document of a kind this wiki has almost none of. - Roger Aubrey's framework is cited secondhand. The wiki should not treat the quoted line as verbatim Aubrey until a primary text is in hand. - The network and its apostle are not named in the captured note. Do not supply a name from inference. ## Source caution First-person testimony from parties in an active dispute, delivered on a podcast, with several central documents described rather than shown. The 40% departure figure and the "upwards of 100 people" claim are the Coopers' estimates. The band's public profile makes this a high-visibility account, which cuts both ways: it is checkable, and it is also the kind of account that attracts pressure to overstate. Treat the doctrinal descriptions as reported and the numbers as unverified.