"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
May 12 WKRN Report (Watch how he counts the votes in the video)
See WSMV Video By Clicking On The Photo Above (Note: Large File - Please be Patient)
Correspondence from Church Leadership
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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.
Jerry Sutton Letter to TRBC Members - 04/23/08 (31 KB)
This is a letter that is going out to all TRBC members stating that a vote will be held to remove the plaintiffs from the church on 05/04/08 at 12:15 pm. There will be a discussion session on 05/01/08 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm. Please make sure that you attend this discussion meeting and the business meeting on 05/04/08 in order to vote.
Deacon's Letter to Congregation - 04/13/08 (37 KB)
This letter was presented on 04/13/08
by the Deacon's and it basically tells the plaintiffs to stop challenging Jerry Sutton and submit completely or the church will "take action". Much scripture is referenced that the authors of this document say the plaintiffs are violating. However, no scripture is referenced that the PASTOR or the STAFF is violating. Examples will be forthcoming.
Jerry Sutton's Letter of Praise to Kathy Lyon - 04/28/04 (21 KB)
Just 3 weeks before her dismissal for "poor performance", Jerry Sutton wrote a glowing letter praising his Administrative Assistant, Kathy Lyons, for her wonderful work. This letter was read to the entire Pastor's Administrative Assistant Conference held at First Baptist of Austin, TX which Kathy was attending and which was paid for by TRBC (Jerry denies she was ever at a conference). Yet 3 weeks later, she was terminated by Jerry for "poor performance" according to his affidavit. In the letter above, Jerry starts out by saying "I hope that you are enjoying your conference in Texas." before heaping praise on Ms. Lyon. Jerry, when questioned about this discrepancy, claimed that this letter was just a letter of recommendation hand delivered by him to her 3 WEEKS AFTER SHE WAS TERMINATED. She was terminated in May. This letter is dated April 28. You be the judge on who is telling the truth here.
Click here (14 KB) for additional history on this very important issue where Jerry Sutton's
affidavit and what he told over 35 people at a meeting do not match.
Demand for Apology - 01/08/08 (82 KB)
We find it interesting that this letter cites the group has violated the church by-laws yet the church by-laws have been constantly violated and ignored by the Senior Pastor and the rest of the staff. Also, if the Senior Pastor feels that the plaintiffs have sinned against him personally (otherwise, why would he demand an apology be issued to him?), then why did HE not come and meet with each member of the group instead of sending deacons to do it? This is a clear violation of the very scripture that he references in the letter:
Matthew 18:15-17:"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Does he feel that to do this is beneath him?
During the Press Conference of 10/26/07 (also on the TRBC web site), the Senior Pastor made a comment on how you "...gauge the health of the church...". (See the Video Here)
His comments were talking about how 48 new members have joined the church recently and he was implying that showed the church was healthy and growing. Nothing could be further from the truth. What he didn't mention was how the church continues to lose members overall. Average attendance has dropped approximately 540 overall over the last 10 years. A healthy church should have grown attendance (and by association - membership) by at least that amount over 10 years. We are going in the wrong direction here folks!
If we are adding all of these members every year as Jerry implies, why are more and more people each year NOT ATTENDING THE SERVICES? We have over 7,000 people on the roll according to the Senior Pastor yet we average only 1500 in service each week. Something is wrong with that picture. See the real facts here using the church's own data, not ours.
Request for LOFJ Budget Additions - 10/16/07 (48 KB)
Request by Jerry Sutton to Jerry Highfill to include The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ - the supplier of the attorney used by the church in the recent lawsuit) and The Family Research Council (FRC) in the 2007-2008 Love Offering for Jesus (LOFJ) budget.
We do not believe these were
added to the LOFJ budget possibly because of the scrutiny the finances of our church were undergoing the past six months or so. Ask yourself several questions. Are these two ministries missions oriented? Why does Jerry Sutton think we should support the ACLJ and FRC with LOFJ monies? Was this meant to be a form of payback in any manner to these two organizations? Would you want money you contribute to LOFJ be given to support either of these two organizations? IS IT TIME FOR A CHANGE?
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