“Talking to Reva about misery was insufferable. ‘Look on the bright side’ was what she wanted everyone to do.” ― My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
ARC
Since I am presenting this at TWW, might one guess this is to serve the abuse victims? Nope-because when Chris Hodegs is involved, you can be sure this has something to do with his designated pastors that serve the broader ARC community. If you are not familiar with the ARC, it’s time to get reading. For you SBC types, this crowd outplants the SBC. Of course, the NAMB has become the place to serve tired and worn-out pastors, IMO. Since the ARC removed (or hid) some information after my original post, here is a link to the infamous Prayer Force Manual, the most requested item in my emails.
What isn’t Chris Hodges saying about his Chop-Chop Lodge?
Hodges introduces his new Lodge. (Please go to the Instagram link since it is not allowing me to embed it at TWW.) What a beautiful place. The lovely dining facility, soaring ceiling, excellent bedrooms, and fire pit are all for pastors to share and encourage one another. One commenter found this inspiring.
It sounds like it might be a nice retreat house. It’s not. Here is a link to The Lodge at Grants Hill. See if you can figure it out from this description.
Highlands hosts pastors from all over the world for roundtables and events designed to strengthen the Church. The Lodge will provide a place of rest and renewal for these pastors and their spouses during their stay. We are praying this space will provide a getaway of peace for so many that devote their lives to the call that God has given them.
The ARC has a history of sexual indiscretions on the part of its pastors.
The saga of Michan Carter: restored, unrestored, and restored.
The ARC has a history of restoring “fallen pastors” to their pastor position. I wrote Church of Highlands and Michan Carter: Playing Games With the Restoration of Fallen Pastors two years ago. #churchtoo.
Church of the Highlands finally had to kick out one of their restorees: Michan Carter.
Is restoree a word? It should be.
I wonder if the #Churchtoo is getting a bit too hot to handle for the ARC. AL.com posted: Church of the Highlands cuts ties with minister accused of sex abuse.
As allegations of sexual abuse against a former pastor took hold on social media, the Church of the Highlands has cut ties with the accused minister they had agreed to help rehabilitate.
Micahn Carter, former pastor of Together Church in Yakima, Washington, had stepped down in April 2019 from Together Church for undisclosed reasons. Carter joined the staff of the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham later in 2019.
Please note the bolded comment: he stepped down from his original church for undisclosed reasons. This is how the ARC overseer crowd operates. When Hodges stepped in to whisk off Rizzo he asked the church members of his former church to “trust” those incredibly gifted overseers. I bet they’re glad that I’m not in one of those churches. So, it appears that the members of Together Church decided to trust the ARC once again. However, this one came back to bite the ARC/Church of the HIghlands in the nose. They deserved it.
Here is the statement that the Church of the Highlands released.
In 2019, Micahn Carter’s Pastoral Overseers from Washington state asked Church of the Highlands to assist them in directing a ministerial restoration process for him,” the statement said. “Highlands agreed to do so, and since then we have been working with Micahn and his family. Recently, Highlands received correspondence raising new allegations about events that occurred over two years ago in Washington state. When we shared this information with the Carters, they resigned from their positions on staff to work through these issues themselves. Highlands is no longer involved in the restoration process.”
Notice the bolded part of the statement. It appears that the Carters knew what happened since they resigned right away. However, rape is not an issue! Rape is a crime and the Church of the Highlands are masters of downplaying icky things…
It gets worse. Julie Roys presented Church of the Highlands Quietly Advances Controversial Pastoral Retreat Center.
The most referred-to example is Micahn Carter. Carter relocated to preach at Highlands as part of his restoration process after being accused of rape by a staff member at Together Church in Washington State. After the lawsuit escalated, Carter resigned, and Highlands severed ties and affirmed they were “no longer involved in the restoration process.” However, Carter preached with accolades last July at an ARC church in Orange County, California.
At this point, any sane person would declare codswallop on the entire ARC process. Wait, you might say, this is just one little example. There are many more. Julie Roys and I have documented this bizarre restoration process at ARC churches for years. Here are a few more to read.
- Part 1: Dino Rizzo and Pastors/Leaders of the ARC Get Sued Over Allegations of Sexual Abuse and Coverup
- Another ARC Church, Another Pastor “Affair”; How to Look for Red Flags in a Church: Grace Fellowship, Toronto.
- Megachurch Pastor Named in Lawsuit for Allegedly Failing to Protect Intern Against Sexual Abuse
- THERE DOES SEEM TO BE MORE TO THE RESIGNATION OF DINO RIZZO
I still remember writing about how Chris Hodges arrived at the Healing Place, where Dino Rizzo was in trouble for allegedly putting up his paramour in a local apartment. Suddenly, Dino and his wife were whisked off, allegedly to Hawaii, to recuperate and then brought to Hodges’ Church of the Highlands, where he remains to this day, preaching away. We wrote about this here, but the documents have “disappeared.”
And now, on top of this history, Chris Hodges will help these pastors recover!
Today, Anna Claire Vollaers of Al.com posted Church of the Highlands opens a $4.5 million ‘pastoral recovery’ center. What is it?
It’s an outgrowth of Hodges’ long-term involvement in pastoral restoration, a broad, catch-all term used in evangelical Christian circles to describe a program of faith-based counseling and support typically used by churches to help a pastor work through an issue that triggered removal from leadership.
Yikes- how many restorations are Hodges and friends involved with?
Hodges told the crowd at a church leadership event in 2021 that he and Highlands Associate Pastor Dino Rizzo were “in the middle of about 20 pastoral, moral failures or restorations right now.”
The article recalls some of the “failings” of pastors. Look what Hodges called Rizzo’s failure.” An inappropriate friendship.”
In 2012, Rizzo was asked to leave the popular Baton Rouge church he pastored and had founded. Hodges brought Rizzo to Birmingham, telling his congregation that Rizzo had been involved in “a brief but inappropriate friendship” at his previous church with a woman who was not his wife. Hodges said he and leaders at Rizzo’s Baton Rouge church created a “restoration” plan for Rizzo.
Hodges told industry publication Ministry Today that it was the first time he’d ever attempted pastoral restoration.
Even Hodge’s son has had a temporary failure and is preaching away today.
Hodges’ son Michael has also been through a pastoral restoration process. Michael Hodges was removed from his position as campus pastor at one of Highlands’ satellite campuses in 2017 for what his father said was a “moral failing.” At the time, Baton Rouge pastor Larry Stockstill said Chris Hodges asked him to “take charge of the process of bringing discipline and long-term restoration to Michael,” according to Stockstill. Michael Hodges returned to public ministry two years later.
Some people are concerned, and they should be.
some critics and former staff and congregants have raised questions about the Lodge and the church’s pastoral restoration efforts. They’ve asked for more clarity about who the program serves and how those pastors might interact with staff and church members.
Vollers quoted me accurately, saying:
What worries me,” said Dee Parsons, who writes about church issues on her website and who has followed Highlands’ pastoral restoration efforts since visiting the church a few times with family, “is that I’m not sure they understand that a pastor who has had an affair with a church member, it’s not an affair, in my opinion. It’s clerical abuse.
Here’s the deal. When I see unusual beliefs like those expressed in that Prayer Force Manual, it causes me to wonder if they have other beliefs that I might find uncomfortable or even dangerous. Pastors who have sexual relationships with any church member do not have affairs. They are guilty of clergy abuse. Many states are passing laws that call this a crime. This is a crime, just like it is for certified counselors or psychiatrists with client relations.
Make no mistake about it, Church of the Highland attendees. I believe this Lodge is to help Hodges continue his work in restoring pastors who have fallen due to sexual relations, and that may include rape as described in the Michan Carter situation. I believe that Hodges is pastorcentric, which means he believes that pastors take precedence over members. How do I know? It’s relatively easy.
Think about it. Hodges built a restoration lodge for clergy failures, not hurting victims. Does Hodges even believe there were victims? I wonder what happened to some of those victims. Did NDAs cover any agreements? Were they just thoroughly ignored?
I do believe this. Hodges doesn’t seem to care for the victims and will restore any pastor he brings into this ARC ministry. Let me leave you with this from Voller’s post.
Parsons, who has written extensively about clergy abuse on her website, said she thinks more resources should be directed toward the people the pastor has harmed, rather than the pastors themselves.
1. My money is on the victims being ignored.
As I was loading this page, I was listening to a video by a guy named Charles Christopher White aka MoistCr1TiKaL or penguinz0. Charlie is a Florida YouTuber who has 13.3 million followers, including me. In this video, Charlie was commenting on how another YouTuber, EDP445, who was caught in a child predator sting operation a couple of years ago, is trying to make a comeback on YouTube. Again. I thought it would be worth sharing just to show people that your basic secular game playing YouTuber with a huge audience is absolutely against a pedophile trying to come back to YouTube.
There is brief “language” in this video, but I’m posting it here because Charlie is VEHEMENT about how EDP445 CANNOT COME BACK because of his past actions. He just can’t.
https://youtu.be/ur3KM-lGpbk (9 minutes, 48 seconds)
Why is it that a 28 YO guy who is famous for playing video games for hours on Twitch, reviewing movies and doing commentary on topical issues can get it so absolutely right, while church leaders get it so wrong so often? People in the churches who hide and defend this stuff–The World is Not Going To Stand For This.
Another thing to note: Charlie points out that this guy EDP445 has been trying to get back into popularity for the last two years any way he can. It’s kind of how predators weasel their way into churches so they can get around their targets.
Afterburne,
Yeah, my money, too.
Perhaps ARC should take lessons from the SBC on how to cover up abuse better, and lessons from the PCA on how to ignore abuse better.
……. and then there’s the RC.
My, my! “Christianity” isn’t at all Christ-like anymore.
Thanks for writing this article, Dee.
I have a suggestion for Chris Hodges which I believe would serve to make “The Lodge at Grants Hill” guests feel more at ease. My suggestion isn’t an original, I base it on The Whitehouse naming bedrooms after former Presidents.
What if Hodges were to name each of the guest suites after a fallen pastor? For example, one guest suite could be named the Ravi Zacharias suite, another the Bill Hybels suite, another the Johnny Hunt suite. For those pastors that sexually abused young boys they could stay in the Peter Newman suite.
Just a thought!
Todd Wilhelm,
Maybe Hodges doesn’t want to offend anyone. He might run out of suites before he ran out of potential, ahem, honorees!
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
Good point, Nancy!
OTOH, someone’s money, namely donors, is paying for the vacays for pastor predators and their spouses. Some gig.
And right, victims can go fly a kite.
It’s really pretty. Reminds me of a 55+ apartment complex.
“Pastors who have sexual relationships with any church member do not have affairs. They are guilty of clergy abuse. Many states are passing laws that call this a crime. This is a crime, just like it is for certified counselors or psychiatrists with client relations.”
How long does this have to go on before “crime” replaces “moral failure” in the rule book here! Don’t call Pastor, call 911, folks!
Regarding “restoration”, I see no examples in the New Testament of a pastor who failed morally (clergy abuse) being restored to ministry. Such behavior should be permanent disqualification from ministry, IMO. They have betrayed the trust of those they shepherd and forfeited the sacred office of Pastor. Forgive them if they repent? Certainly. Restore them to ministry? Absolutely not! There are other places to serve in the Body of Christ without standing in the pulpit again.
“I believe that Hodges is pastorcentric, which means he believes that pastors take precedence over members. How do I know? It’s relatively easy.
Think about it. Hodges built a restoration lodge for clergy failures, not hurting victims.”
If a ministry is truly Christocentric, it will run to those abused. “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those whose spirits are crushed” (Psalms 34:18). Jesus is not near those who break hearts and crush spirits. Restoration should focus on victims not abusers.
The authority and influence of Jesus are waning in the American church, no doubt about it. Anything goes … and does!
I propose the ARC make it obligatory for pastors “restored” by Hodges or Robert Morris¹ to include the text “Restored by the ARC” in their church-website bios, their resumes, the blurbs of their books. Maybe with an appropriately golden “restored”-text. It would be good maketing for the ARC 😉 and would help the rest of us to be forewarned.
A win-win situation.
—
¹ He’ll restore anything, even a mouldy piece of cake someone found at the back of their fridge.
Or take Paige Patterson’s lead and install stained glass windows depicting the bad boys.
This is so weird. They have such publicly known failures, their “restoration” should be public as well. They want to be famous, writing books, speaking at conferences for $1000 a pop, and “ministering” to thousands online, but when they are caught in infidelity, aka adultery, sometimes even pastoral abuse when it is a parishioner, or in most cases rape (think, e.g. Johnny Hunt), it’s all hush-hush, rushing them off to remote restoration resorts.
Or maybe on their Twitter account, they’d have a red check mark (indicating, officially restored by ARC)
without some heavy compen$ation for victims of sex abuse, I fear there will be little or no ‘rehabilitation’ of ‘pastors’ who prey on the innocent
let the courts of law do the rehabilitation of these creeps to the point where they are left with fines and sentences
restitution? the victims are harmed irrevocably in many cases . . . the pain for them cannot be ‘rehabilitated’, no
some funds would help with providing professional care for their pain, yes, but in the end,
no ‘fallen’ pastor can put his head up again without knowing he has crossed boundaries that cannot be smoothed away by the good ‘ole boyz club
putting these perps back in positions of pastoral authority seems a horrific assault on the sensitivities of all who understand the need to protect the innocent from wolves
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
As a long time viewer of Charlie’s videos, a penguinz0/TWW crossover was the last thing I ever expected to see 🙂
Wolves in sheep’s clothing? Nah, the wolves have found it more prosperous to dress in shepherd’s clothing. When detected, don’t allow them back in the sheepfold.
I was at the service when Hodges asked Highlands church members to “trust” those incredibly gifted overseers when he brought in Rizzo. I never went back.
Telling that they spend millions on restoring pastors who commit abuse but nothing on restoration for the victims of those pastors.
THIS !
“… this crowd outplants the SBC …The ARC has a history of sexual indiscretions on the part of its pastors …”
Church-planting or Perp-planting?
Yes.
Ker-ching.
I assume ARC provides seed-money to plant a church, supports charismatic anybody-pastors until they draw a crowd to sustain them, and then gets payback via a percentage of tithes and offerings? If so, it’s to their advantage to restore bad-boys who have a following to continue the revenue stream. But, I’m not sure how the partnership works exactly.
Max,
As the number of churches increase, the number of potential victims increase.
I wonder how many ‘men of God’ I all religions ‘go ye therefore’ for fame, money, and twisted, personal pleasures. Evil.
christiane,
The Arch Diocese of Boston got bankrupted from child sex abuse scandal and smug Protestants almost did jigs.
It’s only a matter of time before the gavel comes down and big Protestantism has to pay up too.
Uhm, rehab for sin is nowhere in the NT. Fruit of repentance as evidence, however, is the mandate, the biblical model.
Zacchaeus reimbursed x4 those he had violated. Luke 19.
Luke 3.8 and Acts 3.8 both require restitution (fruit of repentance, thus evidence) for the repentant: reimburse those you have violated. You can’t recreate a violated childhood or restore innocence to the assaulted but paying for counseling for the offended, NOT the offender, would be a start.
It’s odd that the TheoDudeBros built and run a retreat center for predators (that their sycophant donors paid for) while completely ignoring the plight of the predators’ victims. This has got to be the apex of pastor/leader idolatry. Golden Calf, anyone? Altar for Baal? Demonstrate that you vote for Barabbas while executing Jesus without saying this is so. Thus, it is so.
Do the righteous actually support these ministries? Can the righteous be that blind, deaf and dumb? Probably not.
That about sums it up. And the crowd keeps throwing their time, talents, and money at them, to keep the circus rolling, the band playing, the party going. All on the fast track to the Other Place.
Is God calling to build an Ark? Just wondering how this all plays out and ends.
Key.
Building brands. Running franchises. Money rolling in. The Experiential “church”:
-social clubs
-youth engagement
-casino quality entertainment
-Hollywood-level star celebrity leaders
-children’s activities
-business networking opportunities
-award-winning performers
-professional music productions
-cutting edge technology
-TED talk speakers
-media savvy
-coffeeshop included
-recovery groups galore.
Hence, the place to be and TO BE SEEN. Church 2.0. How exciting. Fabulous. Game on. We’re in. Everything that money can buy and crowds will applaud and adore.
A brief but inappropriate FRIENDSHIP? Is that what they’re calling it nowadays? Good grief.
So well said. Thank you.
“Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Step Right Up To The Greatest Show On Earth!”
Christianity Lite where the Great God Entertainment sits on the throne. You don’t have to look far across the American landscape to find one or more such churches in your vicinity. You’ll find celebrity preachers … but no Jesus.
Max,
https://julieroys.com/podcast/former-arc-pastor-exposes-unbiblical-movement/
I think you’ve got the gist Max. Not much incentive for an organization like this to give a big-name speaker (I won’t call them pastors) the boot when they harm people.
From the article:
“Jeff (former ARC pastor Jeff Thompson) says he was enamored with ARC’s model of “launching large” — of starting a church with a big capital investment, top-notch worship team, and professional marketing. But when that effort flopped, Jeff began to question the biblical basis of ARC’s methods.
He says the movement glorifies success as measured in attendance and budgets — but it minimizes sin, especially among its pastors.”
You won’t find that last sentence as the model for doing church in the New Testament first century. But, it sure the heck works in the 21st century!
Print this and stick it on your refrigerator, folks. Ava is speaking truth.
But that’s because we’re anthropocene!
Catholic Gate-Crasher,
My pleasure. Thank YOU for your encouragement. Luke 19 and the two 3.8s, Luke and Acts, are my go-tos regarding repentance. But I’ve never heard this preached on, the 3 texts with the obvious conclusion.
In the words of the prophets Emerson Lake & Palmer:
“WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS
TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS!
WE’RE SO GLAD YOU COULD ATTEND!
COME INSIDE! COME INSIDE!”
https://youtu.be/GBYRiK7sOAo?t=310
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPt8zNLw0dU
(two URLs because the piece of music in question starts 5:10 into the first and continues thru the second)
“WE THANK THEE, LOOOOOOOOOORD, THAT *WE* ARE NOTHING LIKE THOSE FILTHY ROMISH PAPIST PRIESTS OVER THERE…”
More Easy Marks.
More Prey for the eating.
“The law can never make you free, for look who makes the laws.
Sure sharks make rules that sweep those little fish into their jaws,
and god will never make you free, for look who speaks for god.
The shepherd fleeceth every lamb he guideth with his rod.”
— Leslie Fish, “No High Ground”
They call it “The Jesus Racket” for a reason.
The Heresy of Clericalism:
ONLY CLERGY COUNTS IN THE SIGHT OF GAWD.
ALL THE REST OF US LAITY CAN GO TO HELL.
500 years ago, wasn’t this a big beef of something called The Reformation?
“NO POPERY!”, remember?
Because the 28 YO guy on YouTube is In The Flesh(TM) and the church leaders are In The Spirit(TM).
P.S. Muslin? Did you get those two Furry Macahuitl-and-Nahualli Word docs I sent you?
But it was ‘brief’! Or maybe ’20 yrs ago’…
From TWW’s main marquee:
Do you trust these “fallen pastors?”
Not any farther than I can throw a Huey helicopter with one arm.
It would do the church well to return to the ancient paths.
penguinz0 showed up on my YouTube feed this morning. A rant about the latest TikTok Challenge/do-it-yourself Reality Show: “Boat Jumping”, when you jump off a speedboat going at full throttle and everybody uploads it to TikTok for Social Media Fame. Along with “Blackout Challenge”, where you literally strangle yourself until you black out – again, upload for the Views. And a “Hot Coil Challenge” where you turn your electric stovetop to full and lay your arm across the red-hot coils. Like eating Tide Pods, It’s On SOCIAL MEDIA, where anyone can be their one Reality Show CELEBRITY – LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!
Incidentally about penguinz0’s language, I view cusswords as words that convey extreme emotions, what used to be called “passionate”.
Christians have been given the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5) … not the “ministry of restoration.” Abusive pastor restoration has nothing to do with reconciling things for their victims. There are no examples in the New Testament of pastors who fail morally being restored to the pulpit. But Scripture has a lot to say about repentance, the fruit of repentance, and reconciliation in the Body of Christ. Church leaders are to minister to the abused, not send abusers to nice retreats.
MAX, with ‘shepherds’ like these guyz, the wolves come off looking less evil, as those ‘shepherds’ USED their so-called ‘authority’ to hide behind and sought out victims who were unsuspecting and who were trusting . . . the evil is incomparable.
These ‘shepherds’ belong in jail, not in some Good Ole Boyz Retreat.
This time, the Good Ole Boyz come off looking as bad as the perps, if not worse.
I fear for innocent people who fall into their trap . . . the use of ‘authority’ to prey and the mis-use of trust is criminal. What happened in the Catholic Church was a huge warning people ignored, thinking ‘not on our watch’, but pride cannot (or will not) see its own fallen perps in its own tribe.
“Ancient Paths”?
“Reconciiation” (i.e. the actual name for Confession)?
You’re sounding more ROMISH by the comment, Max.
(But then when “NO POPERY!” leads to shtick like the subject of this thread…)
Oh, and they’re not “wolves”.
They’re feral junkyard dogs.
Wolves have more Class than that.
The thing is this:
would you put a murderer of an innocent back in among the victim pool?
Isn’t that what these perps are? Murderers of innocence? Destroyers of people’s lives? Do these #$$ho1″z not take from innocent people that which offends God Himself? Even to the point of this biblical verse:
‘But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.’
(from the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 18:6)
sounds more to me like the Good Book gives the Boyz Club another direction to take RATHER THAN setting the perps back into power over the innocent . . . but then again, their ‘gospel’ (I was once told by an SBC pastor) is not the same as the four Holy Gospels of Our Lord. I didn’t understand when I was told this, but I think I can see more of what he meant now, sadly.
When I hear about people going to a lodge for self-improvement, I’m thinking Rocky’s russian winter camp in Rocky IV. So what kind of training montage would we see coming out of *this* lodge, to show the progress that a “fallen pastor” had made over 6 months?
Making Long Prayers Quoting SCRIPTURE for Justification.
Tribal behavior defends its own … dudebros protect dudebros … until the potato becomes too hot to handle … until their own skin is at stake … then it becomes “I’ve never heard of that guy.”
A local (Madison, AL) and former ARC-associated pastor, David Pursifull, seems to have missed out on the restoration available through the lodge. He resigned from his ARC-planted church (Building Church) in 2017 after (allegedly) becoming involved with someone not his wife. He was also involved with an ARC-connected mission organization, The Surge Project. He’s hard to find on the interwebz, but he doesn’t seem to be connected to church leadership any more, he’s disappeared from The Surge Project website (though he’s still in an old group photo on the staff page), and his Instagram shows a lot of photos of him with someone not his (ex?) wife. What did he do to fall so far from the graces of the ARC that he (apparently) couldn’t be restored?
Perhaps he realized that there are no examples in the New Testament of pastors failing morally being restored to ministry … that his transgression permanently disqualified him from the sacred office of pastor. So he moved on.
Reminds me of a news story on this morning’s drive-time:
“The Wagner Group Does Not Exist. The Wagner Group Never Existed.”
– V.V.Putin, Autocrat of all Russia
(Now if The Algorithm would just stop sending “Putin and NUCLEAR WAR” videos into my feed…)
“WE THANK THEE, LOOOOOOOOOORD, THAT WE ARE NOTHING LIKE THOSE FILTHY ROMISH PAPIST PRIESTS OVER THERE…”
And during my time in-country I DID encounter those who pronounced “Lord” with caps lock and multiple “o”s.
It seems to me that leaders in organizations like ARC, Acts 29, etc… don’t view regular congregants as members of the Church. Instead, they only view leaders as the Church. I believe these leaders view God primarily as having an dominant/submissive relationship with them and they work out this narcissistic theology in their congregations by attempting to dominate others. Since most congregants also view their relationship with God primarily through a dominant/submissive lens, they don’t realize the error.
I think love necessitates that leaders guilty of clergy sexual abuse be removed from any position of authority so that congregants are no longer in danger from them. A lodge?! What about a community college or an online university where an abuser who isn’t going to jail can learn a trade or vocation other than pastoring? Couple that with therapy. Over all, help law enforcement prosecute criminal acts. That, I believe, is love for the abuser.
Hodges isn’t into love. He’s into restoring the status quo of a dominant/submissive view of relationships, one in which the the dominant are free to dominant without any thought of meaningful consequences, just like his god. In Hodges’ mind, congregants are the supply for the “real” church – a supply of money, admiration, bodies, etc… for the leaders to devour.
Chris Hodges is no denying that this is a lodge for fallen pastors. Looks like some folks may have complained.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/megachurch-dismisses-claim-its-running-retreat-for-fallen-pastors.html
Unfortunately, we believe that he indicated this in 2022.
https://ministrywatch.com/church-of-the-highlands-quietly-advances-controversial-pastoral-retreat-center/
And now he is denying that this lodge is for all of the fallen pastors he has known and loved. Slick!
Awesome comment.
dee,
Katelyn Beaty articulates my sentiments about this:
“A pastor who has abused their power over people doesn’t need a wellness retreat.
My concern is that this “pastoral recovery” center will be a place where unhealthy leaders cycle in and out, to check off a box in order to return to public ministry.”
https://twitter.com/KatelynBeaty/status/1678468152651399168
Oh yeah. It’s all about the church planter, not ‘the’ Church.
Priority One: no more opportunity for evil, and, thus safety for the church community.
Nurses, doctors, teachers all lose their license to practice when they abuse the trust, power, and authority of their office.
Logic. A community is only as safe as its most vile monster predator.
False logic: place a predator among the vulnerable and innocent so that the predator is reformed by the innocent good people. It never works. The predator just claims more victims with his new opportunities.
1 Corinthians 5: Evict the community predator.
In John Piper’s church, for example, they had this backwards. They shunned the Domestic Violence victim wife and mother but embraced the violent husband, according to accounts published online.
The Heresy of Clericalism:
Only Clergy matter in the sight of God.
All the rest of us can go to hell.
Wasn’t that one of the Reformation’s beefs against Romish Popery?
Biblical Manhood and Uppity Womanhood.
“Get Them Fallen Pastors Back in the ARC”
“Keep them dawwgies movin’, Rawhide!”
Cobber,
I’ve known David for some time, and even visited Building Church in Huntsville some time after he founded it. A mutual friend of ours that worked with David said that the issue was that he got too close to his assistant at the church. They hadn’t had sexual contact yet, but a church elder saw the relationship and had ARC intervene (back when it seems they were preventative).
The restoration bit was David’s choice though. After his removal from his church, he moved back to Baton Rouge while his wife, I believe stayed in Alabama. Last I heard they separated and he started a family with a woman he met in Louisiana.
I’m not sure I believe there was “no sexual contact in this situation. That’s what they all say. Pete Wilson comes to mind. Yet, in the end, they all divorce and marry again rather quickly.