Are we in the pews allowed to question church leadership? Are we, who financially support the operations of the church owed timely and truthful answers? I’m just asking.

“To the FCCF elders:

I’m writing to express deep concern for recent serious and public accusations made against the FCCF leadership. I read the open letter Kari Benton posted on Facebook, and I read the case study on FCCF entitled, “Is it Enough?” by Titus Benton and Professor Doug Lay. I consider all three of these people to be sincere believers who care about honesty and integrity, so their claims disturb me.

There is a piece of the story missing, which is a full disclosure by the church leadership of the events described in these documents. I am a small cog in a huge financial wheel who helps pay salaries for church staff. As I prayerfully come to a decision on what to do with my support in the future, I carefully consider as much information as possible.

As a deacon and a church member, I respectfully request an opportunity to hear your missing account of this issue in an open, honest format before your membership body. I have already been asked about what’s going on by some of the members to which I minister in Celebrate Recovery. I would like them to receive answers to their questions in public on these damaging accusations that have been made publicly.

Nothing but abject honesty and full disclosure will do. I can support acknowledgement of the deficiency and solid evidence of positive actions to address the issue through amends to the body and training of staff and volunteers on the proper way to handle threats to those in the body. If mismanagement and poor leadership comes out in the truth of these events, I can support dismissal or remedial actions taken against the individual(s) involved.

As a codependent personality who struggles with the effects of abusive relationships, I get the tendency to cope with negative news with silence, hoping the issue will go away. My personal experience shows me that trying to avoid pain by not removing the splinter only leads to festering and infection. That is where FCCF is today.

It is leadership’s role to clean out the infection through open, honest communication with the body of church members that will allow healing to begin. I look forward to participating in a full disclosure meeting of the body, at which your side of the story is told and your positive action plan for the future is revealed.

In His mighty hand,
Joy Taylor” (Taylor, Joy S., A View from the Pews — The Inside Story of a Broken Church, 2022, Lily of the Valley Publishing, Santa Claus IN, pp. 76-77.)

#aviewfromthepews  #forthevictims

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