7 reminders for youthworkers following the Mike Pilavachi investigation

Make no mistake Mike Pilavachi was the best-known youth leader in the UK for several decades.

Many looked up to him, were inspired by him and arranged their youthwork programme around getting the group to hear him and his team at the Soul Survivor youth Festival held in the summer.

They looked to see youngsters come to faith and built up, and then nurturing them in the Autumn hoping the fumes from the summer rocket fuel would keep them going.

On 6 September 2023 the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team (NST) reported that their investigation into Canon Rev Mike Pilavachi had concluded and the allegations were “substantiated”.

The wording includes “abuse of power” and “spiritual abuse”. The NST said there had been a “systematic pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour”.

It stated in its conclusion that Pilavachi had used spiritual authority “to control people and that his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths and massaging of young male interns”.

Soul Survivor had ceased its summer festivals in summer 2019, having been running since 1989 and at their height saw some 30,000 attend. It is estimated that 24,000 young people professed faith through those activities. Soul Survivor Watford was a local church that developed alongside the Festival and still exists, albeit now under different leadership. They also had Soul 61, a gap year for young people connected to the ministry.

It’s no surprise that this news has shocked the youthwork community with many individuals and connected youth charities and ministries expressing their sadness at the events, their support for the victims and the expression of the need that ‘this kind of thing must never happen again’.