Larry Pile

Lawrence A. ("Larry") Pile is a cult researcher, archivist, and workshop leader at Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and has 5 ½ years experience within "The Blitz Movement" (today known as Great Commission Churches), later writing a book about its history and counseling former members of the group. He has been studying the "cult phenomenon" for more than 30 years.

Background
Larry Pile was born on May 11, 1943 and is from Beachwood, Ohio. He holds a Bachelor's degree in German from Wheaton College, where he graduated in 1965. Pile served three years in West Berlin as a German translator for U.S. Army Security Agency. He was an interpreter of German, French and Russian on a fact-finding and assistance team visiting Christians in Iron Curtain countries in 1971.

Great Commission researcher
Pile was a member of "The Blitz Movement" (later Great Commission International and today known as Great Commission Churches) from 1971 to 1977, rising to the position of deacon before leaving because he felt the group had become too "authoritarian." Following his departure, Larry counseled former members of the group and researched the movement. In 1979 he published Marching To Zion, an account and analysis of the movement, a book he would later revise in 2002 with updated information. Throughout the 1980s Larry was quoted in various newspaper articles about the group. In the mid 1980s, Larry and several others held conferences for former members of Great Commission International to help them "recover from the emotional and psychological damage they'd experienced" while in the movement.

Wellspring counselor
Pile became a "cult counselor" at the world's first accredited cult recovery center, the Wellspring Retreat, in 1988. He acts as workshop developer and leader at Wellspring, as well as acting as the resident cult and fringe group researcher and archivist. He also acts as a consultant for families and friends of alleged "cult victims". He is the editor of Wellspring Journal. Pile is a researcher for legal cases involving groups he refers to as cults as well.

Workshop process
Pile shows videos to Wellspring clients during group workshops to illustrate what it is like to be in a cult, to demonstrate how cults are formed, and to demystify his clients' experiences. Pile also runs a theological workshop where debates over the Bible are deconstructed.

Books

 * co-author, Overcoming the Bondage of Revictimization, 1998, with Paul R. Martin, Steve Martin and Ron Burks.
 * Marching To Zion: A Personal History and Analysis of the "Blitz Movement" aka Great Commission Association of Churches, 1979 (1st Edition), 2006 (2nd Edition)

Articles

 * The Making of a Cult Counselor by Larry Pile
 * Thought Reform in Cults and Abusive Relationships by Larry Pile and Ron Burks
 * Choosing a Church After a Painful Experience
 * The Other Side Of Discipleship
 * 2006 Statement about Great Commission Association of Churches/Great Commission Ministries
 * The Emperor Has No Clothes