This is the first email from one of the church elders to the pastor along with the rest of the elders and deacons and their wives. For multiple reasons we have removed all names from the email. Hopefully you can can still follow it.

From: XXXXX
Date: October 28, 2015
To: XXXXXX
Subject: Re: Life and work

Dear XXXXX, Elders/Deacons and Wives;

I am sorry to inform you that my family and I will be leaving Grace Church, as of today.  We are leaving for reasons of neither sin nor shame in us, but because of erosion of trust, over years of time and most immediate as a result of the method and content of our recent meetings. Read More…

This is a second email which RB sent to the same group of people after a response to his first email was sent from BF to everyone on the list but him.

Date: Fri, June 29, 2012

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am growing in my understanding that the Lord may be calling me, too, to help bring clarity and instruction to the Body of Christ in this moment.  Please read my words as words arising from a heart of love and deep concern for all of you, including the Grace Church leadership.  Whether or not these words are directed by the Spirit, time will tell I suppose, though the inner wrestling and anguish of heart I’ve felt as I’ve composed them feel a lot to me like what Jeremiah talks about…”a fire shut up in my bones.”  I acknowledge that my tone is strong and direct, but I feel that I cannot, at this moment, sacrifice clarity and precision out of a fear of offending or being labelled, whether explicitly or subtly, “ungraceful”.  I am responding here to B’s response to my email that included an invitation to you all to meet with the elders last Sunday. Read More…

This email was sent by a former staff member who was at the church from 1998-2009 and worked on staff most of those years.

From: ML | To: BF | Date: Mon, Apr 6, 2009

Hey there. In our last meeting I mentioned that God has been clarifying some of the growing tensions and personal concerns that influenced by decision to step out of my staff and leadership roles. When I resigned I think these things just combined into one large, somewhat nebulous tension that I couldn’t fully explain but nevertheless knew to be real, significant, and something I didn’t feel I could adequately process in my staff position. Here they are (in condensed fashion)…

• Lack of consistent God-centered, Christ-centered, cross-centered, gospel-saturated teaching.
• Lack of a clear means by which the body can support and hold its leaders accountable which has resulted in what I believe to be an unhealthy concentration of pressure and power upon one person – BF.
• Lack of respect for an individual’s direct responsibility before God for the decisions they make regarding highly personal issues and situations nowhere specifically or clearly addressed by Scripture – combined with an expectation that when opinions differ on these things, God wants the person to do what a select handful of other people think they should do. I find it disrespectful, hurtful, manipulative, and an unbiblical abuse of authority.
• Lack of intentional consistent theological training for the church’s leaders.
• An over extension of staff’s time and energy that makes it all but practically impossible to consistently love and shepherd people in personal and direct ways instead of managing them and using them to accomplish something.

Read More…