So, what happened with the whistleblowers? Did they ride silently into the sunset after the dust settled at FCCF? Did they lose jobs and relationships because they spoke up against wrong? If you see something do you say something? Doesn’t it take a special kind of character and courage to confront and inform? Do the … Read more
It’s been a little over six years since the senior minister resumed preaching at FCCF. Will the pattern previously established for devastating attendance hemorrhaging reemerge? Is it time for FCCF history to repeat? Will the upcoming hearing in the lawsuit against the church and the celebrity pastor bring this about? I’m asking the hard questions. … Read more
I’ve heard from several former FCCF members who were stunned and hurt by the events of 2014-2016. This quote from the book pretty well sums it up. Feel free to comment if you relate. Some of those who left the church never went back to church. Some went through years of counseling and still struggle. … Read more
My last post described the manipulation of the elders. The result was devastating and seemed to me to portend the decline in the church as a whole. When the church shifted to the industrial complex church governance model, six of the thirteen elders resigned. There was no notification of their leaving their positions by church … Read more
Chapter 7 discusses four categories of damaged souls that I saw in analyzing the situation at FCCF: the elders, the church, the whistleblowers and most of all the victims. I found an excellent description of the manipulative personality in Martha Stout’s book, The Sociopath Next Door. Are you doubting your sense of reality? Can you … Read more
Cannot churches learn from this advice? Oh, that they would all be willing to submit to a third-party review of policies and practices as outlined in this article: https://tcpca.org/rice-report. There is hope and healing for the wounded church and for the abused victims. Abuse cannot be shrugged off. “Pastor Jimmy turned this information into a … Read more
Jimmy Hinton turned my head to another way of thinking with his perspective. He wrote about how his father chose victims in the book, The Devil Inside. I thought the grooming activities were the red flags of a pedophile’s technique, but abuse could have already begun by the time those become evident. The church body … Read more
I learn from example. I watch others to see what I can do better than I did before. The trick is to discern between a good example and a bad one. Case #1 is FCCF, and Case #2 is Somerset Church of Christ. Case #1 or Case #2, you decide based on the parable comparison. … Read more
What if the voice of reason had prevailed at FCCF? What if it looked like this one suggested by a former elder? From the book: “What would happen if the elders revealed to the congregation a set of guidelines to be followed for a number of important issues? These issues might include the following list: … Read more
For all that FCCF did wrong in their handling of abuse, I wanted an opposing example of a church that slogged through similar circumstances and did it the right way. I found it in a book written by Pastor Jimmy Hinton, The Devil Inside. I created a parable format to compare and contrast the two … Read more