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Posts Tagged ‘fellowship church’

Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas has posted a response on his blog to the recent story by channel 8 raising questions about whether Young is not being transparent enough with his congregation regarding his luxury lifestyle.

One thing that stands out in the response is Ed Young’s assertion that he has not viewed the channel 8 report: “We have not seen the piece that was aired, nor will we give credence to it by watching.”

Now why on earth would anyone think that a person who is the target of an investigative report lends credibility to his accusers by hearing what they had to say about him?

It is a common ploy for those who have done something wrong to avoid hearing the charges others are bringing against them. After all, you don’t have to specifically answer a charge if you can honestly say you haven’t heard the accusation. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to being able to “plead the fifth” with the media other than simply keeping silent. A clever tactic, but just a new twist on the old “that’s so preposterous it doesn’t warrant a response!” routine that miscreants have used for centuries to avoid answering uncomfortable questions.

So, Ed Young says nothing in his post about the 8 million dollar private mystery jet at Alliance Airport. Nothing about claims he has a fabulous 10,000 square foot house on Lake Grapevine, and nothing about the reported million dollar salary.

If all those accusations were totally false, Ed Young would be addressing and refuting each accusation specifically and in detail to clear his name and preserve the reputation of his ministry, for the sake of the church. Instead, there is insinuation that a story presented during sweeps week is automatically suspect.

He says in the blog post that he and his wife have no secrets. He also says “What we do know is that this report was made based on fragments of information gathered out of context and anonymously, and that it disregarded documented information that the Board of Directors for Fellowship Church is privy to and that is known by legal counsel and accounting audits.”

The use of the word “privy” sure sounds secretive to me. “Privy” indicates someone is privileged to know something, and by definition others are excluded from knowing. Maybe we’re all hung up on the definition of the word “secrets”. After all, Bill Clinton taught us that it all depends on what the definition of the word “is” is, so perhaps the term “secrets” should be translated as “insufficient transparency”.

In a terrifically bizarre sentence, Young states: “My life is lived in an aquarium, and I am not ashamed of that fact.”

No, Mr. Young, your life is lived in a beautiful mansion on Lake Grapevine.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a very expensive aquarium inside it.

P.S. Well, here’s Ed Young “Setting things straight and moving on” in his own words, and I will admit that he does directly address many of the things I mentioned above. Now why didn’t he do that in the blog post? It would, of course, be hypocritical of me to go change my words above in light of the video I just discovered, so in fairness I leave you with Ed Young’s much better video rebuttal below, and you can decide for yourself if I’ve been too quick to judge:

Channel Eight news out of the DFW area just ran a report on a private jet leased for use by Pastor Ed Young, Jr. of the mega church, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas and Miami, Florida.

The story (video embedded below) reminds me of Church on the Rock pastor Larry Lea in Rockwall circa 1985. Last I heard he was being investigated regarding lots of fine homes and living a very luxurious lifestyle that his members had no clue about. I especially recall one story about how his little house burned down and the church members all pitched in to buy him another home. Then they found out he owned another residence.

Then it turned out that Primetime had really made some wild accusations and Larry Lea actually had been totally up front about all his money, in a technically legal sense. He’s still out there, post divorce and remarriage, peddling his teachings for a price at Larry Lea Ministries. There are lots of “Larry Lea” instances on that site rather than “Jesus Christs”. He’s got a nice vintage collection he’ll sell you for $40.00.

Larry Lea’s site also has a special page, “Larry Lea the Naked Truth” that details his miraculous exploits throughout planet earth. The “naked truth” about Dr. Larry Lea makes zero mention of Jesus Christ or his divorce. But it does mention how a little blind boy received his sight by attending a Larry Lea event in the Dominican Republic. Funny how that never happens in countries where technologically current and relevant medical diagnosis and records are kept.

It’s all been worth it because of all the converts Church on the Rock brought to Christ, right? Wrong.

I think my ‘crookdar’ first went off when I was sitting in a Fellowship Church sermon and Ed Young started pitching Larry North’s fitness center to the congregation as a great place to go work out. It wasn’t mentioned in passing, it was an all out church endorsement of a for profit fitness center.

Ed Young is no different that the money changers Jesus chased out of the temple a couple thousand years ago.

It’s been several years since we attended Fellowship church, and we didn’t attend for long. I always had an uneasy feeling about Pastor Young, and there just seemed to be a lot more entertainment going on than worship. I even posted a few blog entries about it, and eventually left the Fellowship Church to seek a more sincere place of worship.

Still searching.

I imagine the next public communications to come from Young will be something along the lines of being targeted for persecution, how the media hates the body of Christ, blah, blah, blah, which will be an absolute affront to those across this planet who truly are being persecuted for their Christianity, not simply being exposed for hiding the use of an eight million dollar private luxury jet from their congregates.

There are two major problems in the body of Christ today: Pastors who take financial advantage of their congregation, and congregations who take financial advantage of their pastors.

See my article, Candy Coated Christianity from May 30, 2008.