Church group known for founder’s nude rituals opens a restaurant in Illinois

Wauconda, Ill., residents were peacefully chatting online about kittens, Halloween and stink bugs recently when a community Facebook site lit up with talk of a new barbecue restaurant that has ties to nude religious rituals.

Some commenters referred to such practices as “disturbing,” “the bastardization of the Bible” and just weird. Others stuck up for freedom of religion and of consenting adults. The mayor fended off criticism of the village’s handling of the situation, while a church member even said he received a death threat.

The subject of all this drama is the Little Rock Stock Cafe, which was recently opened by the Light of the World Ministries at its Barrington Road building.

Much of the buzz has centered around the fact that Light of the World’s former minister and current board member, Phil Livingston, runs a separate group with his wife called Naked Apostles, whose spiritual practices include naked “prayer counseling,” according to its website. Livingston created the recipes for the new cafe and helped get it started.

Light of the World’s minister, Mike Ericksen, stressed that Naked Apostles operates separately and that its unclothed rituals do not take place at the Wauconda ministries building that also houses the new restaurant.

“We have always known that ‘facing the music’ was inevitable and has to happen for us to move on and finally be a respected part of this community,” Ericksen said in an email, saying the church is aiming to create a family-oriented business.

Livingston, who founded Light of the World after leaving Willow Creek Community Church, has created controversy in the past for his use of nudity to provide what he says is spiritual healing.

In one video posted on the Naked Apostles website, Livingston and his wife Colleen, both unclothed, explain their practice of “light therapy.” While the term more commonly refers to the use of a bright light to treat symptoms of depression, the Livingstons call their version “an intense form of prayer counseling that uses both nudity and laying on of hands.”

“Light Therapy helps to desexualize nudity in a way that helps many people overcome struggles in areas of sexual addiction, false religious moralities, homosexuality, pornography, in addition to many other areas,” the website states.

A 2011 Tribune investigation revealed that Phil Livingston had testified in a custody case involving a follower that he put his fingers in a female follower’s private parts as part of this therapy.

Wauconda police officials and records confirm that authorities investigated Livingston’s practices following assertions made in a civil child custody case in 2011 that he had walked around nude in front of two underage girls. According to Deputy Chief Michael Botterman and police records, investigators interviewed the girls, who denied anything improper, and turned up no other evidence supporting the claims. No other reports have been made to local police involving the Livingstons’ spiritual practices since 2011, police said.

The Livingstons have denied any improper behavior.

Little more was heard publicly about the church until this month, after the barbecue restaurant opened in the same building as the church, next to Wauconda Cemetery and just down the street from the police station. The restaurant space was extensively remodeled in the style of a country store, and offers a full menu, with the motto, “Great BBQ makes fast friends.”

Soon after it opened, it became the talk of many local social media commenters, with many speculating about the business, some swearing not to patronize it and others criticizing village leaders for allowing it.

Mayor Lincoln Knight took to Facebook to explain that the village does not require a business license to open a restaurant, and authorities have no power to forbid it.

“It’s the intent of the Village to strike a fair balance between regulating business to help protect the public and affording businesses the opportunity to find success in Wauconda,” he wrote.

Village Administrator Kevin Timony said the restaurant fit the zoning for the area and met requirements for a building permit.

Likewise, the Lake County Health Department inspected the business before and after its opening, and found it met all requirements, Director Pam Smith said. The business took years to open, she said, because the owners invested a lot of time and money in renovating the site with the right commercial equipment.

Ericksen, who was associate minister under Livingston and is now minister, said he is trying to run a welcoming, family-oriented business. The cafe, he said, is intended to provide a social gathering place that is not a bar and to offer good “down home” smoked barbecue. Eventually, he said, the aim is to use the profits to help provide meals for the less fortunate.

He emphasized that the naked religious rituals are completely separate from the church and the restaurant.

“Never at any time” were the Naked Apostles’ rituals “part of the practices of Light of the World Ministries!” Ericksen wrote in an email.

He conceded that the Naked Apostles’ rituals are radical and controversial but, like Livingston, maintained they are nonsexual, comparing them to massage therapy and other religious practices involving the laying on of hands for healing.

Still, some locals remain skeptical. Wauconda resident and American Legion member Greg Caudill was one of several residents on Facebook to pledge they would never eat at the barbecue joint.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” Caudill said. “It’s not the right fit for this town. It makes Wauconda look scummy, like a laughingstock.”

Others defended adult church members’ right to worship as they wish, and welcomed any new business to the area. Some were disappointed to see the controversy stirred up bad blood in an otherwise normally placid lake town.

One church member said he received a death threat on the online forum for defending the church. Administrators’ independent forum, Wauconda for Wauconda, said on the site they had also seen such threats, blocked several people, shut down comments on the thread about the church and had been threatened themselves, which they reported to police.

The dust-up on the site “has not been a good experience for us and closing off a subject was a difficult decision for us,” an administrator wrote on the site. “We appreciate those people who were able to discuss this circumstance in a civil manner and apologize for limiting you.”

Business at the restaurant started well, Phil Livingston said, but fell off after the flood of criticism.

“The Mayor, the city administration, and police department have all extended that grace, giving the cafe a fair chance at being an asset of Wauconda,” he wrote in an email. “It is our hope that the people of Wauconda will follow suit. And if given the chance, both the church and the cafe will do everything to prove themselves a wholesome and valued part of Wauconda.”