# A Look atShiny Happy People and What the Church Can Learn - Lighthouse Trails Research Project ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article2.74d541386bbf.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Lighthouse Trails Editors]] - Full Title: A Look atShiny Happy People and What the Church Can Learn - Lighthouse Trails Research Project - Category: #articles - URL: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/a-look-atshiny-happy-people-and-what-the-church-can-learn/ ## Highlights - There is a cost, very often a high cost, exacted by false teachers in the lives of their followers. Lives can be crushed. Often people are badly damaged spiritually and almost always emotionally devastated by authoritarian leaders in whom they have put their faith. Pastors and elders are charged with guarding and protecting the flock from predators that creep in from outside the church, or perhaps worse, arise from within (Acts 20:28-30), but too often, the wolf sneaks past the guard without being seen for the danger they are. The late Dr. Walter Martin used to say, “cults are the unpaid bills of the church.” ([View Highlight](https://instapaper.com/read/1612378185/22588152))