When Accused of Something, Address the Allegations
By Len on Feb 6, 2010 in General
Ed Young Jr. of Fellowship Church is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
I was in seminary when there were rumbles of cool and “God things” happening in Grapevine at a new church plant by Ed Young’s son.? Ed Young Jr. and Fellowship Church have almost always been in the news; whether it was for having tank on stage when doing a spiritual warfare series, when they were growing or even when they changed their name to FellowshipChurch.com in 2001.
Thursday night WFAA in Dallas ran the story Prominent Grapevine pastor linked to luxury. I hope you read the full story and watch the 8 min video.
They claimed:
* Young owns an 8M dollar jet
* his 10K square foot home is registered under a company’s name
* a general lack of accountability
Ed Young Jr. replies with No Secrets
I want to believe the best about Ed Young Jr. because of his track record and I do but that does not mean that observations can’t be made and others can’t learn from this news report and his reply.
Ed Young Jr. is a master communicator but his reply was inadequate.? It was decent and obviously not a press release from his lawyers.? He didn’t deny what was reported. To me the biggest issue in this is not if Ed Young Jr. has a jet or not or how big his house is, it’s that he didn’t address the allegations.
If you own an jet and thinks it’s fine that you have a jet, defend it and let the truth come from you.? If you don’t have a jet, declare it to be a false report and rest on the truth. Personally,? I think it’s ridiculous if a pastor (even a millionaire mega-pastor) has a personal jet. However, I don’t care.? That’s between him and God.
If the home he lives in is registered under a company’s name, address that and explain it.
Accountability is a necessity for everyone and it’s more important for Christian leaders.? My suspicion is that an environment? like Fellowship Church lends itself to greater isolation and the potential to have a relaxed accountability because there is so much trust in the leader.
Where’s the accountability in your life and ministry?
Are you making the best choices to protect your character and the reputation of your character?
If accused of something are you prepared to respond to the allegations and do you have systems or structures in place to protect you?
I hope this turns out to be be a big “Oops!” by the reporter or something that Ed Young learns from and becomes better because it was exposed a potential weakness.
My fear though is that this only the beginning of the story since the Trinity Foundation of Dallas has had Ed Young Jr. on their radar for about three years. They are the Christian watchdogs that? is the equivalent of having 60 Minutes show up your door saying, “Can we ask you a few questions?”
Len — Are you just preparing us for when you raise enough support to have a pirvate jet and a 10000sqft house with golden faucets.
adam | Feb 6, 2010 | Reply
Like I had said before I wish that more mega church pastors would do things like Rick Warren. Why leave any room for doubt or question? Just stay as far away from that edge as possible and no one will want to try and push you over it.
There is too much smoke here for there not to be fire. Avoiding the questions or answering “no comment” is basically saying guilty.
Obviously he feels guilty about having the jet and the house not being in his name or else he would just directly address it. This whole thing just makes me sad.
Todd Porter | Feb 6, 2010 | Reply