WHEN THE COFFERS ARE LOW, SUE YOUR CRITICS
EXCERPTS:
Pastor James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel filed a lawsuit this
month against two ex-members and former Moody Radio host Julie Roys,
accusing them of spreading false information about the Chicago-area
megachurch’s financial health and leadership.
The main targets of the church’s defamation complaint are Ryan Mahoney and Scott Bryant, who together run the blog The Elephant’s Debt. The site has culled stories of alleged mismanagement
at Harvest since 2012, including claims of as much as $70 million in
mortgage debt and a lack of accountability from its elder board.
Harvest has addressed some of the criticisms. MacDonald, its founder and senior pastor, apologized in 2014 to a trio of former elders who were disciplined for speaking out about a “culture of fear and intimidation.”
“You don’t see churches suing disgruntled former members often because
they don’t have grounds,” attorney Charles Philbrick, who is
representing Roys, told CT. “When people leave churches, really what
they are voicing are their opinions, and opinions are not actionable per
se.”
$270 THOUSAND EMBEZZLED FROM
JAMES MCDONALD'S HARVEST BIBLE CHURCH
(LESS THAN 1% OF GIVING)
SEE: https://pulpitandpen.org/2018/11/10/270-thousand-embezzled-from-james-mcdonalds-harvest-bible-church-less-than-1-of-giving/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
James McDonald, whose megachurch joined the SBC in 2015, has been busy frivolously suing blogger-journalists
for hurting his image by having the audacity to publish true things.
Harvest Bible Church made McDonald step down from his position as
“president” of the organization in 2017, but retaining him as a
celebrity teacher. As Pulpit & Pen reported at the time, this is after more than 600 thousand dollars allegedly went missing from the coffers.
Harvest Bible Church members were reportedly sent a mass email on
October 23, 2018, alerting them to several controversies. Included in
that letter, aside from notifying them a staff member was credibly
accused of sexual assault and a brief mention of their frivolous
lawsuits, the church explained that 270 thousand dollars was embezzled
from the church. Never fear, however…that’s less than one percent of the church’s overall giving.The church email is as follows…
October 23, 2018
Dear Church Family:
Dear Church Family:
The mission given to us by Jesus Christ is so wonderful, isn’t it? We
get to tell the world the good news that Christ is risen, sins are
forgiven, and joy is available to all who trust Him in everything. Good
News.
Maybe that is why it’s so hard to give
difficult news. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to be transparent
with our congregation in order to keep trust high.
Last week, we discovered evidence that a
non-ministry member of our staff who worked in operations defrauded the
church of an amount of money. If the evidence proves true, this would
lead to a criminal charge being filed, and a preliminary report was
filed today with the Elgin police department. The amount of money in
question appears to be less than 1% of our annual budget and the time
period appears to be less than a year. This person has never led any
public ministry in our church and is on leave pending the completion of
this investigation. We are looking to lay leaders and outside expertise
who will work with our insurance on maximum recovery of funds. A full
report will come to the congregation as soon as the investigation is
complete and the facts are fully known.
I am also sorry to report that a youth
director who served with us a few short months was involuntarily
released last January when illegal and disqualifying behavior came to
light. The three affected families, as well as parents of students on
those campuses, as well as DCFS were notified immediately. Find here
the statement issued to the press and their article here. The June call
they reference was a follow up from Craig Steiner, our Aurora Campus
Pastor. That call seems to have provoked what the initial January
reports did not. All of this is documented.
Please also be in prayer about the
lawsuit filed to protect our church from lies that seek to discredit our
ministry. For example, in the matter mentioned above, we have had to
resist extensive efforts to distort the truth about a matter our church
handled with integrity toward all parties involved. You can read more
about the legal protection we are seeking in the October Elder Update,
including our biblical rationale and how we came to this decision.
You may direct any questions in these matters to our Elders in writing at elders@harvestbiblechapel.org.
You may direct any questions in these matters to our Elders in writing at elders@harvestbiblechapel.org.
We should not be surprised when the enemy is attacking and agitating, “as though something strange were happening to [us]” (1 Peter 4:12).
We are involved in a battle of intense fury, where the enemy is
scheming to knock us down. May we redouble our efforts to keep the Good
News central and our Vertical focus strong.
Please pray and “Be strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-11).
God is good, and we can trust Him.
Pastor James and Pastor Rick
Lead Pastors Trei Tatum, Luke MacDonald, Jeff Donaldson, Mohan Zachariah, and Landon MacDonald
Alleged police report on the embezzlement of funds.
[Editor’s Note: HT Wartburg Watch]
