Grace Church Exposed - Mt. Pleasant, MI Young Church, Twelve17 Coffee Roasters, 1217 S. Mission, Mount Pleasant

Protect, Expose, Heal - "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."

About

The purpose of this site is to provide a place where those who have been negatively affected by their experiences with Grace Church and its leadership can find support and information to help them work through what has happened or is currently happening to them. Also, we hope this site can help to warn people about what can happen if one is not alert to methods used by controlling and manipulative church leaders. Further, this site has now become an avenue for the accountability that Grace Church leaders have lacked.Read More…

7&4 Traverse City News

A news report from 7&4 News out of Traverse City. The article with additional info can be found here.

WXYZ 7 Action News Detroit

Here are two videos from the investigative report done by 7 Action News reporter Heather Catallo.

Going Public

While we have touched on this in other places, we thought it would be good to lay out some of the reasons why we believe it is biblical to make our stories and our call for repentance public at this time.

We should start by saying that many individuals have repeatedly addressed these issues with BF and many other leaders in person and in writing on multiple occasions.

Some people are reluctant to discuss these issues because they believe the way we are going about it is a violation of Matthew 18, and therefore it fundamentally invalidates or discredits what we are saying. This stems from a misunderstanding of the primary application of Matthew 18 as well as an oversimplification of this situation. Unfortunately, this is a passage and a tactic that leadership at Grace Church has often used to its advantage. Read More…

Gal5Gal’s Story

When I think about my time at TYC/GC, I have so many mixed feelings, but one thing always comes to mind;  It is the place where I made the 3 best, most important, defining, God-directed decisions of my life…

  1. To put my faith in Christ.
  2. To marry my spouse.
  3. To LEAVE.

Read More…

2015 Email #1 from Elder123

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…

2012 Email #2 from RB

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…

2009 Email #1 from StaffML

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…

Midmichiganlady’s Story

I started attending GC in the fall of my freshman year at CMU with friends. I wanted to find a church to connect with for support and encouragement throughout my college years. I jumped in with both feet and began serving constantly during the Spring of my freshman year. I have always struggled with fear of man and this was magnified during my time at GC. I strived to do everything my leaders asked me to do, often at the expense of my sleep, my studies, family and friend relationships, and emotional well-being. I felt an enormous weight of burden and stress but couldn’t get out from under it. Read More…

Glaring Inconsistencies

We would just like to take a few moments to draw your attention to some of the most obvious and concerning inconsistencies between what Grace Church has said and what they have done since the Morning Sun articles have been released. The first post they put on their website after the initial Morning Sun article, contained an email which BF had sent to the reporter after his interview but before the article had been published. Read More…

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