Q - Larry Crain, the church's attorney, claimed in the Tennessean on 05/12 that he was "suprised" by the motion brought before the church on May 11 (read here), yet Carlos Cobos says on his latest blog entry that Larry Crain "provided legal counsel in this matter" (read here) and he suspected that "something might happen". Jerry Sutton's latest letter to the church states that he knew that a motion was going to be presented (read here). Jerry Sutton also claims that an announced vote was not held in order to prevent a "near riot" like happened on May 4. The church videos all events. Where is the video showing this "near riot" by the plaintiffs and their supporters? Could it be that there wasn't a "near riot" - just people who wanted to show their support to the accused? Was Larry Crain "suprised" or was he consulted beforehand? Which is it? Why did they have to pull this underhanded and illegal stunt to get their way after a vote by the congregation failed to accomplish their goal? This isn't the first time that we have caught them in a lie. Isn't it obvious that there is a lack of integrity in the leadership of our church?
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
UPDATED 04/16/08
Q - Why did Jerry Sutton not tell the truth about the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of his long time Administrative Assistant Kathy Lyon only 3 weeks after writing her a letter that talked about what a wonderful job that she always did for him? This was not a "Letter of Recommendation" as Jerry proclaimed later. View Jerry's affidavit here. See additional information about this subject here. See below for a copy of the plane ticket receipt for travel between Nashville and Austin, TX for Kathy to attend the Pastor's Administrative Assistant Conference at the end of April of 2004, less than one month before Jerry fired her. Jerry claimed in a meeting on 02/18/2008 attended by certain plaintiffs, staff, and deacons that Kathy never traveled for the church when he was questioned about the Kathy Lyon incident.
Staff and Deacons who were in that meeting on 02/18/2008 - we implore you to think back to the conversation concerning Kathy Lyon during that meeting. Remember the Senior Pastor's words concerning Kathy Lyon when he stated "KATHY WAS JUST A SECRETARY. SHE NEVER TRAVELED FOR THE CHURCH". Also remember his statement where he said that he gave her the letter of praise 3 weeks after she was terminated. Please open your eyes and your hearts to the truth about this matter. Think about it - If the Senior Pastor would twist the truth about this incident, what else has he twisted the truth about? Remember this conversation, what was said, and what scripture says that you must do according to James 4:17 - "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."
See a copy of Kathy's plane ticket to Austin, TX in April 2004 here (92 KB)
See a copy of Kathy's plane ticket to Dallas, TX in April 2003 here (72 KB)
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - We find it extremely hypocritical that the Senior Pastor will allow staff members to give out personal information on church members to non staff members for the purpose of harassment. After all, wasn't this what the Senior Pastor and staff accused the plaintiffs of attempting to do when they filed the lawsuit asking to see membership information? That accusation was not true but what obviously is true is that the staff of TRBC has done that exact thing based on an email that we received where a non staff member apparently obtained personal information on another member from the church database for the sole purpose of harassing that individual. Is this common operating practice among the staff of TRBC? What disciplinary action will be taken against staff members who provide personal information on members from the church database for the purpose of harassment?
See the harassing emails here.
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
UPDATE TO ORIGINAL QUESTION BELOW: On January 25, 2008, the church's lawyer, Larry Crain, stated in a Tennessean article that the meal at the Palm was a "counseling session" and thus "protected under clergy-penitent privilege" and he further vowed that "It would take an order from the Supreme Court to turn over those expenses" when the plaintiffs asked to see the actual receipts and questioned who was being entertained at The Palm. This was so laughable that Gail Kerr from the Tennessean devoted an entire column to asking how in the world that a "counseling session" could be held at such a place.
Crain later reportedly stated that he was "misquoted" concerning this meal at The Palm. (see the original article here)
Later, Bobby Reed told several of the plaintiffs that this meal at The Palm was when Jerry Sutton and his wife Fern took a man with the SBC and his wife out to eat.
Now, during the WSMV story, we hear that this meal at The Palm was Jerry Sutton with "three out of town guests".
(See this portion of the WSMV video here)
There are now THREE DIFFERENT STORIES that have been told about this expense. Which one should we believe? Will a new story come out next week? What is the REAL TRUTH about this expense? Why isn't there just ONE STORY which is just THE TRUTH?
ORIGINAL QUESTION
Q - Jerry Sutton and his attorney claim that the expensive meal at The Palm was for a "counseling session". Anyone who has ever been to The Palm knows that this is not a place where it would be feasible to perform counseling. The Pastor appears to not be totally truthful with this reason for eating at The Palm. Why? Furthermore, line item #8 of his affidavit states "The only time I use my church credit card to pay for lunch is when I have a working lunch with staff, deacon leadership, committee leader, or some prospect." No mention is made of "counseling lunches" or "counseling dinners". What else is conflicting in his affidavit?
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why were there over 86 corrections to the General Ledger in the last Fiscal Year totaling $1,020,487? This is an excessive amount of corrections in a single year on a $4,000,000 budget according to our experts with many years of experience in financial matters such as these. |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - From additional records that we have seen about the wedding reception, the reception cost (which Jerry Sutton claimed the church agreed to pay 1/2 of) appears to be a total of $5,243 . Yet we are puzzled as to why the total cost of the wedding appears in the books to be $8,983.95. Why did the church pay for this additional amount and who approved it? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the church not release the 2005-2006 Budget & Finance Committee minutes to us with the other minutes from this committee several months ago? We have mysteriously or miraculously, or a combination of both, received these minutes. We have seven months of these minutes of which we are are going to show select pages with comments from various members of the committee and our current Treasurer and Business Administrator. Our new Business Administrator had served previously on the B&F Committee and as Treasurer. After reviewing these documents, we believe you will understand why the staff did not want us to have access to these documents. Our purpose is not to embarass anyone but to have transparency in the finances of our church. All we are asking for is truth and accountability. See more details on this story and view these newly discovered documents here. |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why does Jerry Sutton continue to refer to the TRBC audit for the year ended June 30, 2007 as a "squeaky clean" audit? Read the story here concerning the real truth about this audit and see the actual correspondence between the auditors, our church staff, and committee members. You can decide for yourself if this is truly a "squeaky clean" audit. |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why is the Senior Pastor attending "megachurch" conferences at Destin, FL when our church does not meet the definition of a "megachurch" (which is an average weekend attendance of 2,000 people)?
Read the story here (158 KB) |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - We have a balloon note coming due in 2009 for over $3 million dollars. What plan does the Senior Pastor have in place to satisfy this debt since the church obviously will not have the funds to pay the note at that time? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the church feel the need to suspend Roberts Rules of Order (a clear violation of bylaws and the rules for corporate meetings/debate) and not allow any discussion on the ouster of Frank Harris, including giving Frank the opportunity to defend himself?
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the Senior Pastor feel that he needed to further sway the vote to oust Frank Harris by telling the 11:01 service that Frank didn’t like that service immediately before the vote to remove him from the church?
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A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Where has the financial situation of the church caused the Senior Pastor to make cuts in his church related spending over the last two years? Please provide specific examples. |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - What is the Senior Pastor’s explanation for the decline in average attendance of 540 people from 1997-2007 (this number is from church supplied data)? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Scott H. has stated that he didn’t know for sure if the B&F Committee voted on the wedding reception funding or not. Could the Senior Pastor explain who exactly told him the amount that the church would pay along with what that percentage would be? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the Senior Pastor not pay his supposed agreed to portion of the wedding expenses until July 2007 - SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE WEDDING? It appears from the records that several other wedding expenses were paid by the church not related to the reception. Who approved those expenses? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the Senior Pastor not go himself and meet with each member of the lawsuit face to face as directed in Matthew 18:15-17 but instead sent deacons in his place? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why did the Senior Pastor state in his comments after the affirmation vote that “less than 4% of the total church membership” desired his removal when he knows that there are no where near 7,000 “real” members on the roll? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Using the supposed 7,000 member figure, why then didn’t the Senior Pastor instead state that only 16% of the total membership voted to retain him (1101/7000)? He had no problem using the more advantageous number when it suited his purpose. |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Jerry Sutton has claimed that he "never has signed church checks". However, we have copies of many checks with his signature on them. Why did he feel compelled to lie about this? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - With the church in the financial situation that it is in, why are we paying over $45,000 per year for musicians? In most churches, any orchestra, band, and/or choir are made up of members of the church who provide their talents as a service to the church and their fellow members at no charge. Why do we feel that we have to pay for this, especially in our current financial condition? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Jerry Sutton has claimed that he "doesn't know what people give" yet he contacted several of the "top givers" in the church who are in our group and stated that he was contacting them because they were "top givers". Now, how would he know these people were "top givers" if he doesn't know what people gave as he claims? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Concerning the explanation given about the Joseph A. Bank suit purchases for interns (one of which was his future son-in-law), Jerry Sutton claimed that he "didn't want the interns to know that he was purchasing the suits for them" so he put it on the church credit card. Now, what kind of signal does it send to those young men that the church will purchase them expensive suits? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - There was a request on 10/16/07 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.
See it here (48 KB)
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? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Did you know that 27 staff members received Christmas Bonuses in 2007? Why did some staff members receive $100 and others $200 each? Who set the criteria for the amounts given to each person? This cost the church $3,900 which is a great expense at this time of financial hardship. Most businesses who are in financial trouble do not award employees with bonuses. Who authorized these bonuses? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - In 2006, the Passion Play cost $8,513.82 to implement. This included musicians, posters and Information Cards. Who authorized this expense and why are musicians being paid? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why do we fund ministers and families $500 per year for dental expenses when everyone in the real world pays a dental insurance premium? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
Q - Why does the Senior Pastor refuse to disclose the salaries of the church staff including his own total compensation package? Don't the people paying his salary have a right to know this information? |
A - No response from the Senior Pastor as of this date. |
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IS IT TIME FOR A CHANGE? |
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