Whatever Happened to Former Apostle P.J. Smyth?

For readers unfamiliar with PJ Smyth scandal I will begin with several articles that will help bring you up to speed.

We last heard of P.J. Smyth in June 2021. Advance Movement announced they  were conducting an investigation of Smyth and he had voluntarily stepped down from his role as pastor at Monument Church in Gaithersburg, MD and his apostleship in Advance Movement.

The investigation was carried out by Wade Mullen, a man I highly respect.  Mullen’s report was made public in December 2021.

The report referred to in the above article from the JulieRoys.com website has been deleted from the Advance Movement website, but I have saved a copy on SCRIBD.  It’s a lengthy read and it would be easier for you to read it on the Scribd site, accessed by clicking the tab below.

2021-12-09 Assessment of Ad… by Todd Wilhelm

The end result of the study was PJ Smyth was removed from ministry with hopes that he would undergo “a formal process of restoration” which Advance Movement leadership hoped would see him restored to the ministry.

So PJ Smyth has basically been off the grid for the past 18 months. From time to time I would check to see if he had reappeared – I expected him to be restored to ministry in 6-12 months because that is what seems to always occur, no matter how grievous the sins of the celebrity preacher.

Today I once again checked to see if Smyth had reappeared and my search was rewarded. To my amazement Smyth had sold his home in Gaithersburg, MD in March 2022 for around $700K and in April 2022 paid cash for a home in San Antonio, TX priced around $350K.

I obviously have no idea what has transpired in the Smyth’s life the past 18 months – whether he has attempted to travel the restoration path to ministry or decided to move on and find a new career.

As I was taught in my Sovereign Grace days, I like to believe the best about others, so when I discovered Smyth has started a new career in the Medical Health industry I truly thought “good for him.” I, along with many others have always said, yes, there is forgiveness for pastors who have committed grievous sins, but that doesn’t mean they should be restored to ministry.  Smyth is only the second pastor I have written about that has moved on to a different career. If this has come about from true repentance and humility I say “kudos to you, PJ Smyth.”

Below is what I have found on PJ Smyth and his new career.

Comments

Whatever Happened to Former Apostle P.J. Smyth? — 44 Comments

  1. “I, along with many others have always said, yes, there is forgiveness for pastors who have committed grievous sins, but that doesn’t mean they should be restored to ministry. Smyth is only the second pastor I have written about that has moved on to a different career. If this has come about from true repentance and humility I say “kudos to you, PJ Smyth.” (Todd Wilhelm)

    Indeed! This is how all bad-boy pastor stories should end. Forgive them if they repent? Certainly! Restore them to ministry? NO!

    “If this has come about from true repentance and humility”, Mr. Smyth would be among the few who did the right thing. Most of the mega-fallen get “restored” within a few months and back in the face of the gullible, to work their magic again on the church following a standing ovation.

  2. P.J.Smyth, son of Jack the Whipper.
    Strap in for One Wild Ride.

    P.S. How much did “Advance Partner Churches” pay for that oh-so-clever logo?

  3. Max:
    Forgive them if they repent?Certainly!Restore them to ministry? NO!

    Shampoo, rinse, repeat…….with and endless supply of shampoo. No, that kind of dirty never washes off.

    From what I have found by googling, the business Smyth works at is legit.
    For his sake, for the sake of his family, and, last but not least, for the sake of the Church, I hope Smyth has found his true calling and will be an effective role model for teaching by example.

  4. Smyth claims to be an Apostle huh?
    Mahaney claims to be one too right?
    How do these guys lay claim to such exalted titles?
    Somebody help me out here, I’m baffled and befuddled.

  5. Muff Potter: Smyth claims to be an Apostle huh?
    Mahaney claims to be one too right?
    How do these guys lay claim to such exalted titles?

    GAWD Anointed Them, of course.

    “If you come across a preacher who has titled himself “Prophet” or “Apostle”, RUN!”
    — my writing partner (the burned-out country preacher)

  6. Muff Potter: Smyth claims to be an Apostle huh?
    Mahaney claims to be one too right?

    Identifying illegitimate church authority tip number 1: steer clear of self-proclaimed “Apostles”!

    An “Apostle” would obviously trump all other church leaders. Who would ever dare to question an Apostle?! Of course, that’s why they use that title, to gain power over others.

  7. Headless Unicorn Guy: Smyth claims to be an Apostle huh?
    Mahaney claims to be one too right?

    Apostles (special messengers sent by God) don’t end up losing their ministries based on allegations of covering up child abuse.

  8. Smyth is fortunate to have found another career path. Unfortunately, most disgraced pastors have no training other than seminary. Of course they return to preach elsewhere, it’s all that they know.
    Back in the dark ages I dated several Presbyterian seminarians. They were required to work for 12-18 months before ordination, followed by some other certification (which I can’t remember). One was a telephone lineman. Another managed a restaurant. A third worked in some sort of sales position.
    Remember,Paul was a tentmaker. I’m seeing younger pastors getting side gigs because their churches are too small to support full-time clergy. the newest buzz word is “bivocational ministry.” Gee, what a concept….

  9. I lived with someone who attended CLC during PJ’s tenure there. First, it was odd that they had CJ and PJ. Also, they searched the whole world and found someone connected to abuse of minors?!

    As an unrelated comment, I visited an old friend who attended CLC for many more years than I did, and we ended up talking about our experiences in the church. I was a bit shocked, after all these years, how much emotion I still feel and how much those experiences affected me.

  10. Old Timer: Smyth is fortunate to have found another career path. Unfortunately, most disgraced pastors have no training other than seminary.

    Smyth has a Bachelors Degree in Church History from the University of Capetown. I guess 25 years as a pastor counts for something, but I’m not sure that necessarily qualifies you as a Director of the HR department for a medical company. I believe like many jobs, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

  11. Todd: I know it’s public info that can be accessed, but why did you find it relevant to disclose how much he sold his MD home for and how much he paid for a new home in TX? (I’m asking an honest, sincere question here.)

  12. Old Timer: “bivocational ministry”

    There are 47,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Most have membership of less than 200. Many of those have “bivocational” pastors.

  13. Former CLC’er: I was a bit shocked, after all these years, how much emotion I still feel and how much those experiences affected me

    I call it PTCD … Post Traumatic Church Disorder.

  14. Hi Todd, many legitimate schools drop majors if there’s no demand for them. Even now, schools are dropping their music departments, library science, communications and other programs and degrees, so I’m not too surprised. Furthermore, I’ve seen pastors move into social services or HR positions, given their years of dealing with people. That being said, I agree he might have known someone willing to give him a chance. Director of People? “Ensuring a worldclass employee experience”? Say what?

  15. Proffy: Todd: I know it’s public info that can be accessed, but why did you find it relevant to disclose how much he sold his MD home for and how much he paid for a new home in TX?

    Two reasons – It shows his new occupation is a long-term change and also that his salary is likely no longer in line with that of celebrity preachers.

  16. Old timer: Hi Todd, many legitimate schools drop majors if there’s no demand for them. Even now, schools are dropping their music departments, library science, communications and other programs and degrees, so I’m not too surprised. Furthermore, I’ve seen pastors move into social services or HR positions, given their years of dealing with people.

    Thanks, Old timer,
    What you have mentioned is valid. I did some checking around because I thought a director of HR would need to have a Master’s degree. What I found matches what you have said -while a Master’s degree is preferred if an applicant has experience with people that can be sufficient.

    Reference the college degree, I did say maybe things have changed. I could be wrong, but I doubt a major public University in the USA offers a BA with a Church History major. That said, I know South Africa was much more of a “Christian” nation than the USA, so it is possible.

    I still believe Smyth had some connections that helped him get the job, but that happens all the time. I was checking out David Blank’s LinkedIn account (the CEO of Health By Design) and there was a comment by another man from South Africa who had recently been hired, so perhaps there is a South African connection in the company.

  17. Old timer: Director of People?

    Director of People?!! I wouldn’t think that title fit after reading that Mr. Smyth “did not work at building friendships”, “was not warm and kind”, “issued ultimatums to the elders”, “polarized the congregation”, “divided the church and caused harm” … Director of People?!!! … he’s not exactly a people-person.

  18. Max: Director of People?!!! … he’s not exactly a people-person

    But, again, if his repentance is genuine, he would be alright for that job. Genuine repentance has a way of making you more caring and empathetic.

  19. Good for PJ Smyth for finding a job in healthcare. But still giving him the side eye for the type of job he picked. HR Director is still something that places him in a position of power over other people.

    And giving a side eye to the company that hired him, too. You really want someone who (are we still using the word “allegedly,” or did he admit it?) was complicit in covering up sexual abuse potentially handling the same kind of complaints from employees?

    18 months is a decent amount of time to get a foot in the door of a different career. Selling real estate. Bookkeeping. HVAC technician. Ghostwriting for John MacArthur. The possibilities are endless! Why does he pick something that still gives him control over other people?

  20. Wild Honey: Good for PJ Smyth for finding a job in healthcare. But still giving him the side eye for the type of job he picked. HR Director is still something that places him in a position of power over other people.

    Remember Dilbert?
    Catbert: Evil HR Director.

  21. Max: Genuine repentance has a way of making you more caring and empathetic.

    How can you tell if it’s “Genuine”?

    Not only does that bleed over into Definitions and One-Upmanship (“When I Repent, it’s Genuine; when YOU repent, It’s COUNTERFEIT FALSE etc.”), but all these Celebrity MenaGAWD have put so much noise in the channel you can’t recognize any signal that might be in there.

    “What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all.”
    — Opening monologue, HBO’s Chernobyl

  22. Max: A touch of charisma and a gift of gab open up a lot of doors for you.

    Isn’t that the prerequisites for a CON MAN?

  23. Todd Wilhelm: A Bachelors Degree in Church History from the University of Cape Town sounded a bit fishy to me. I checked and it appears there is no such thing.

    https://uct.ac.za/students/study-uct-degrees-diplomas-commerce/commerce-undergraduate

    Maybe there was when Smyth attended, but I am skeptical

    Admittedly I wouldn’t look in the commerce division of the university for a church history degree. The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a respectable and long established institution and has departments in historical studies and in study of religions offering degrees in History and Religious Studies. “Church history” per se seems too narrow for an undergraduate degree though a degree in either religion or historical studies with a concentration in Church history seems possible. There is nothing odd about someone with his family background going there. What does seem odd is a lack of seminary training before starting a church.

  24. Erp: a lack of seminary training before starting a church

    Well done Mullen. Thank you to Todd for file. It is egg on the face of my old senior elder’s mentor, Terry Virgo, who got PJ the Maryland job. (I struggled through a couple of Terry’s books.) New Frontiers and its partners / daughters that I know, contain genuine gifts that go to waste due to studied bungling. My senior elder insisted that church management was NOT to be a subject of our prayers. When even good congregants told me “the nasty people have left”, that was when I left.

    Why would PJ approach Terry to get him a job? NF make great play of their elite “relationships”. They approach church managements to get them to join them and NF in fact told us congregants alarming detail of this.

    Mullen says John S resigned from being anglican to evade answerability, and in any case it is apparently impossible to tell whether someone is anglican or not (or have a definition of anglican) even if appointed by Crown Appointments. This affair is undermining the entire C of E for the foreseeable, according to commentators who are involved. The whole muscular christianity scene including the Ball and Fletcher clans goes under cover of the too esteemed Bromptonism-Alpha-New Wine-Church Society-Vineyard-RZIM machine (into which Bethel and YWAM slot well).

    There are victims of the phenomenon who were too traumatised to pipe up (fair enough), and also eyewitnesses who have made themselves complicit out of misplaced “holy” institutional allure. A thin attempt at defence e.g why some actual anglicans didn’t warn Terry off, has been to insist that mutual acquaintances didn’t have formal reporting channels across the divide among salami slices. The signed letter by PJ on 8-1-94 is blood curdling.

    I am witness to NF’s pure shiftiness and harms stemming from C of E fluidity, in my churches X and Y in succession. Advance and sister / partner associations will never be mentally healthy while they retain their standards, philosophy and identity. Those who consented to be picked on as elders displayed codependency.

    https://newfrontierstogether.org/apostolic-leaders/

  25. Headless Unicorn Guy: How can you tell if it’s “Genuine”?

    “Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance, demonstrating new behavior that proves a change of heart, and a conscious decision to turn away from sin” (Matthew 3:8 AMP)

  26. Headless Unicorn Guy,

    The rest of the quote is “ What can we do then? What else is left to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories? In these stories, it doesn’t matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: “Who is to blame?”

    And the following comment from an ex-JW is particularly apposite.
    “That’s WT in a nutshell….Sooner or later it’s the only reality you’ll recognize. Sooner or later it’s just searching for others to blame, other Churches, Governments, people, anything else besides looking inwardly. That’s a large part of every meeting, it’s not as much about how to better yourself, it’s about how wrong all these other people are, how evil Satan is, how deceptive Governments are, etc…
    At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter that much if you view WT as the “heroes” it only matters to WT that you place blame on everyone else, because then you’ll arrive at “but where else will we go?” That way you’ll stay complacent, you’ll remain blissfully ignorant to their lies.” (https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/gw33md/just_bought_the_hbo_miniseries_chernobyl_and_the/
    And you might find the “genuine” when you stop looking for somebody to blame, thereby cutting out your own noise in the channels.

  27. Max: Headless Unicorn Guy: How can you tell if it’s “Genuine”?

    “Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance, demonstrating new behavior …” (Matthew 3:8 AMP)

    Headless Unicorn Guy: Celebrity

    H.U. Guy, the people that plagued you and me * assured us that Holy Spirit neither indwells us from inbreathing pre Ascension, nor does He impart and bestow unvetoed, post Ascension. They assure us that supplicating is not part of being “christian”.

    * some of my worst, who were a church within a church, were – when convenient – not nasty about outside elements which is why the first half of the HBO quote resonates with me more (but I don’t follow HBO anyway).

    That is how you can tell what is celebrity noise. Being good at critique is a very valuable gift and you and I have to additionally harness this together with where it points and where we can get the good evidence from.

    I curtailed Max’s Amplified Bible citation to focus on new life being fruit of the action Jesus and Holy Spirit took, not legalistically but as gift to us and thereby through us.

    God apportions the good in your direction (among others) whenever I stammer Glory Be’s. When we totally throw off the meaning-stripping paradigm of the mutually self-proclaimed and “universally acclaimed”, but instead use OUR degrees of OUR inference (as God has constructed human beings to do), we can start to hope.

  28. Headless Unicorn Guy: How can you tell if it’s “Genuine”?

    Just to add, fundamentalists and dominionists and the myriad respectable ones who pretend, use shifting goal posts. And given that all knowledge is personal, they deny you as individual human being. (Setting the world a sacred example.) Their denial of all meaning secular and sacred, lies behind this. Real Gospel doesn’t do those things at all.

  29. Max: Identifying illegitimate church authority tip number 1:steer clear of self-proclaimed “Apostles”!

    An “Apostle” would obviously trump all other church leaders.Who would ever dare to question an Apostle?!Of course, that’s why they use that title, to gain power over others.

    Same with “Acts 29”. Note it is Acts of the Apostles for the full name (not Acts of the Church). Those who call their church Acts 29 are obviously claiming the title for themselves.

  30. Michael in UK: new life being fruit of the action Jesus and Holy Spirit took, not legalistically but as gift to us and thereby through us

    AMEN!!

    “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6)

  31. Dave: Those who call their church Acts 29 are obviously claiming the title for themselves.

    Indeed, they are adding to Scripture and twisting the rest of it by declaring “We are Acts 29 people! We alone hold truth.” Arrogance in motion.

  32. My observation from my old Vineyard days (1980’s) is you don’t call yourself an apostle, but you call another leader one and then they reciprocate. Seems much more humble that way.

  33. David: My observation from my old Vineyard days (1980’s) is you don’t call yourself an apostle, but you call another leader one and then they reciprocate. Seems much more humble that way.

    Sounds like what some evangelicals do with their doctorates from the paper mills!

  34. Michael in UK,

    We’ve had similar experiences it seems to you with NF. The turnover in their churches is enormous and near us there is a cluster of people all hurt badly some trying to keep the faith others left have left it.

    Briefest of brief comments at the time in PJ from newfrontiers and now continuing as if nothing happened. At the same time Stephen van Ehym who i think is Terry’s son in law stepped down for bullying with even less said. NF churches chew up and hurt so many people but still talk so arrogantly.

  35. David: Seems much more humble that way.

    As HUMBLE as The HUMBLE One Himself, Head Apostle Chuckles Mahaney.

  36. David,

    “you don’t call yourself an apostle, but you call another leader one and then they reciprocate.”
    +++++++++++++++

    hmmm….i see a business opportunity….”ReciprocalApostle”… i’d be the broker, bringing parties together…

    christian capitalism at its finest.

  37. elastigirl,

    Maybe apostle reciprocity speed dating? Rent a hotel event room, charge for entry, arrange chairs in pairs and ring a chime every five minutes. Easy money.
    Generally the ones called apostle are able to work a room and get people to fall over. Read Counterfeit Revival by Hank Hanagraff, it is very insightful and rather sobering on how people are manipulated.

  38. Michael in UK: church management was NOT to be a subject of our prayers. When even good congregants told me “the nasty people have left”, that was when I left.

    To summarise fairly, I guessed that the problems that preceded this (in church X) were typical church problems (serious enough in their place); it was the way this got turned into a strange kind of inappropriate crisis, and even good congregants wouldn’t tell me what they thought it was about, but preferred to have things not sensibly dealt with. If it was left to anyone below elder level it would be a truly lovely church on many grounds. When (if ever) I develop some force of personality I’ll go back and advise them gently! When one is at an average “ebb” in life one isn’t necessarily articulate or bold enough. I know more than them, I’m older than most, am single, and have got no credentials.

    (I had in fact started with them as, to my delight, they were the nearest church to where I had just moved to.)

    Church Y was overloaded with excitement which frazzled the nerves of some senior and junior attenders alike; I saw the signs and left before their (smaller) bust-up. I’d less soon rejoin it however as they are so respectable in their own eyes; again with some lovely people just a little bit ignorant and passive (I don’t include the “amplifying pastor” among the lovely ones).

    At both X and Y the assumption seemed to be that Christianity had been founded in 1995!

    David: get people to fall over

    Reeling, writhing and fainting in coils (in various denominations)! Throw in the woman who marches out brandishing crutches whom no-one had met before or has heard from since. We end up not knowing whether it is getting us anywhere.

  39. Michael in UK,

    “At both X and Y the assumption seemed to be that Christianity had been founded in 1995!”
    +++++++++++++++++++

    yes, i observe that as an evangelical distinctive that is problematic.

    it’s tethered to itself, as if *poof* it just appeared… with the arrogance to save the whole world including the rest of christendom from itself.