"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32
"Am I the only one who sees the irony of what has happened here tonight? We have one group of sinners trying to kick another group of sinners out of the very place where we are trying to invite all sinners to attend.”
Comment overhead at 05/01 meeting at TRBC
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Note that on 04/01/08, we received the following correspondence from Jeff Jones, Media Director at TRBC: "In regards to your website content, I have noticed that you are using clipsfrom a press conference held at TRBC that was posted on the church website.This media was made available to church members and website visitors forpersonal viewing, and cannot be reproduced in any form without writtenconsent from the TRBC Media department.I ask you to please remove theseclips from your website and refrain from any further use.Failure to do sowill be considered a violation of copyrighted material."
Our position is that the use of these clips is allowed under the "Fair Use" statute of the US Copyright Act. Therefore, we will continue to display these clips on this site. One has to ask why TRBC is trying to suppress this information now when the staff wasted no time in holding this news conference after the Judge dismissed the majority of the lawsuit and they then proudly displayed it on the TRBC web site. We use these clips to point out inconsistancies in the Senior Pastor's statements that night and what actually is taking place in the church. Perhaps that is now why they want to suppress them.
We have either mysteriously or miraculously, or perhaps through a combination of both, received the minutes from the Budget & Finance Committee for July 2005 through June 2006 (at least seven months of these minutes). These should have been given to us under the court order several months ago but for some reason were left out. We are placing quite a few pages on this site for you to review. Unfortunately, there still have been no records found outlining the details on who approved the wedding expenses for the Senior Pastor's daughter (how much was to be paid by each party, who approved the arrangement, etc...)
During the Press Conference of 10/26/07 (also on the TRBC web site), the Senior Pastor stated that the lawsuit allegations were "...groundless and baseless... " yet we see from the B&F Committee minutes that this committee has no real power and that many bylaws are not being followed.
(See the Video Here)
Also see below the Senior Pastor's comments on the importance of the Budget & Finance Committee.
Budget & Finance Committee Minutes - June 2007(22 KB)
This is a breakout of the B&F Committee minutes from June 2007 (included in the Theresa Robinson affidavit). In this B&F Committee meeting, it was stated that "minutes could not be found where the B&F Committee ever "voted" on the % to be paid by the Pastor vs. the Church". There is no evidence that vote was ever taken. Furthermore, several violations of the by-laws were mentioned in this meeting. The Senior Pastor has stated on numerous occasions that the by-laws have always been followed in all areas. We are starting to see proof here that isn't a true statement.
During the Press Conference of 10/26/07 (also on the TRBC web site), the Senior Pastor stated "Our intention is to help inform her (the Judge) on how our church functions.....The Budget & Finance Committee is the watchdog... ".
(See the Video Here)
Now we all agree that the B&F Committee SHOULD be the watchdog over the church's finances. However, we have shown evidence that supports our claim that this committee is not functioning as Jerry claims. The entire process as it relates to our finances is DYSFUNCTIONAL. The Theresa Robinson affidavit claims that B&F Committee members are hand picked by Jerry Sutton and the staff and not by the congregation. Dennis Shipp was trying to get to the bottom of the financial issues and asked many tough questions while on the committee until he was asked to leave when the lawsuit was filed. If there is such a lack of disregard for a committee that Jerry Sutton himself claims is the "watchdog" of the church's finances, don't you think that this should raise a big red flag as to actually WHO IS in charge of watching the finances at Two Rivers?
Budget & Finance Committee Minutes - August 2007 (34 KB)
This is a breakout of the B&F Committee minutes from 08/22/07 (included in the Theresa Robinson affidavit). This is an interesting set of B&F minutes for several reasons. Note that Scott H. notes here that he didn't know if the B&F Committee voted on the wedding expenses or not and he didn't know who approved it. Also, at this meeting, it was determined that no one knew who currently approved the Pastor's expenses.
TRBC Press Release - 082007 (24 KB)
This press release is straight off of the TRBC web site. In it, they state that "The decision to cover a portion of the expense for a church-wide wedding reception was approved by the Budget and Finance Ministry Team, also elected by the church membership". However, even Scott H. admitted in the B&F Committee Minutes - August 2007 that that he "didn't know" if this expense had been voted on or not by the B&F Committee. If the Executive Pastor, 2nd in Command, doesn't know something this basic, doesn't this show that management at the church is lacking?
During the Press Conference of 10/26/07 (also on the TRBC web site), the Senior Pastor stated "The church agreed to pay for half the food for the church reception and we paid for everything else which was quite a larger sum".
(See the Video Here)
Just WHO in the church agreed to pay for this? They claim that the B&F Committee approved this expense but the meeting minutes, along with the Executive Pastor, do not support this claim. Starting to see a pattern here? This goes to the heart of our problem with the Senior Pastor and the staff in general - they do what they want to do WITHOUT the approval of the church body. Even the committees do not approve what needs to be approved as is required according to the by-laws of the church.
Article in the Tennessean - 09/17/07 (53 KB)
In this article, Sutton's attorney states that all expenditures for the reception "were approved by church committees". However, even Scott H. admitted in the B&F meeting minutes from 08/22/07 that he "didn't know" if this expense had been voted on or not by the B&F Committee. Again, the statements have been made by the media that an approval vote was taken but even the Executive Pastor "doesn't know for sure" if it was actually taken. Who approved this expense then? The B&F Committee minutes from 08/2006 -08/2007 sure don't show that a vote was ever taken on this issue.
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