The organisation was formed in 1982, under director Doug Harris. Their first newsletter, produced in 1984, was four pages long and consisted of a few hundred photocopies. That grew to a
Quarterly sixteen pages sent out to several thousand individuals and churches across the country. These days the newsletter is online. In 1988, they published
Awake! To the Watch Tower by Doug Harris, later cited as a reference by Linda Edwards and Robert Crompton. In 1996 they published
Mormonism A Gold Plated Religion by Michael and Ann Thomas. The first Reachout Convention was held in
New Malden Baptist Church in 1984. After that, it moved to
Kingstanding Elim Church until 1991 when it was held at the Wycliffe Centre at
High Wycombe. Having outgrown that venue, it moved in 1996 to the Pioneer Centre near
Kidderminster. In 2008, it again moved to the more central location of
Hothorpe Hall,
Leicestershire. Since Doug Harris's death in 2013 the trust has moved more towards small groups, visiting churches, and online ministry. The first conference in ten years was held in September 2022 at the
Hayes Conference Centre in
Swanwick, Derbyshire. Having successfully held three conferences they are becoming again a fixture in the Reachout Trust year. From a group of people at the first meeting, the organisation has grown to over a hundred attending a full weekend of seminars. Seminars and workshops cover all the main religions the Reachout Trust considers
cults, including the
LDS Church and
Jehovah's Witnesses, but also other groups such as
Freemasonry, as well as instruction in dealing with the occult and the
New Age. In 2002, David McKay of the group the
Jesus Christians contacted the Reachout Trust through a
pseudonym in order to elicit a response which he could then utilise to manipulate the media. McKay's plan backfired, and the results were documented in an article in
The Guardian. In 2004, the organisation held a three-day conference in order to assist and consult with families affected by cults and the occult. In 2013 Reachout's founder, Doug Harris, died following a short illness. At the invitation of the trustees the leadership of the trust was taken up by Michael Thomas, a former
Mormon and long-time friend and director of the trust, who worked alongside Harris for many years. == References ==