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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
When Church Members Sue Their Pastor: The Second Baptist Crisis Explained
A billion-dollar megachurch faces a lawsuit after members claim their bylaws were secretly changed to eliminate congregational voting rights. This case at Houston's Second Baptist Church offers crucial lessons about transparency, governance, and proper succession planning that apply to churches of all sizes.
• Church members filed a 123-page lawsuit alleging secret bylaw changes that stripped voting rights
• The changes allegedly happened in a barely-announced meeting attended by just 200 people in a church of thousands
• Following the changes, the founding pastor's son was installed without congregational input
• Members claim the new pastor quickly removed key leaders and appointed family members to leadership
• The Jeremiah Council (group of concerned members) tried phone calls, meetings and letters before filing the lawsuit
• The lawsuit seeks restoration of member voting rights, an independent board, and financial transparency
• Churches should ensure bylaws are clear and accessible to prevent similar situations
• Transparency isn't just a courtesy—it's required for trust, especially in churches
• Churches should never be run like family businesses regardless of size
• Proper governance is both structural and spiritual—removing member voices risks breaking the body
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A billion dollar megachurch, a beloved pastor, a son named successor and a group of church members who say this just isn't biblical. This is not a movie plot. I wish it was. It's what's playing out right now at Houston's Second Baptist Church. But this story isn't just about them. It could happen to your church too.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're not a billion-dollar church, but we're going to look at four lessons that we can learn from Second Baptist Church today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I hope you'll stick around. My name is Todd Rhodes. I am the co-founder, one of the co-founders, along with Matt Steen over at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm also your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast each and every weekday right here, wherever you're watching or viewing this, there you go or listening.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about this. Okay, because this is really the lawsuit that nobody wanted At Second Baptist Church. Senior pastor there for years was Ed Young Sr, not to be confused with Ed Young Jr, who's at Fellowship Church in Dallas a great time. But this is a lawsuit, like I said, nobody wanted anybody to file, but it all started with trust, or should I say the loss of trust? Okay, so here's what happened Longtime Second Baptist church members, some of whom had served for decades, recently filed a 123-page lawsuit claiming that the church's bylaws were secretly changed back in 2023. And those changes? They allegedly stripped members of their right to vote on everything from budget and leadership to who becomes their next senior pastor. And within a year, pastor Ed Young retired and his son, ben Young, was installed as the new senior pastor. No congregational vote, no open vetting. One member called it hostile takeover of my church. So here's lesson number one If people don't feel heard, they'll eventually speak up really loudly, and that's exactly what happened here. I'll include a link to a Houston newspaper article that kind of goes through all the details of this if you really want to dig in. But the first lesson is if people don't feel heard, eventually they're going to speak up, and they're going to speak up loudly and in this case, because there's such a large church and so much at stake, they're speaking up loudly and it's getting picked up by the media. Okay, so let's move on to lesson number two.
Speaker 1:Okay, the bylaws in this case, it appears, were buried in the bottom of an email and, according to members, the bylaw vote happened in a barely announced meeting attended by just 200 people. This is a church of tens of thousands, but just 200 people, mostly staff and friends. The youngs made it to that meeting. So essentially, what they're saying is yes, the bylaws were changed. They were pushed very quickly and very much under the radar, and it was. These changes were buried with some other bigger changes that were being made, supposedly to combat the woke culture. According to the newspaper article, the big reason for the meeting supposedly was to deal with that rather than to deal with these changes in the bylaws that would allow a new senior pastor. Members say that they were never shown the proposed bylaws and they didn't realize that they were voting away their own rights. And one member said I didn't even raise my hand but it wouldn't have mattered. There wasn't a record of who voted anyway.
Speaker 1:So lesson number two transparency. Listen to this man. Transparency isn't just a courtesy, it's a requirement for trust. Especially when you're running a church, for crying out loud, especially when power is being redistributed or you're changing something as important as the bylaws, you have to have to be transparent. So that's lesson number two. Okay, let's go on to lesson number three Family finances allegations of control.
Speaker 1:Okay, after taking the pulpit, the son, ben Ben Young, allegedly ordered his father out of the office, he fired the headmaster of the church's K-12 school and he removed key leaders, like almost on day one. And then, this is according to I'm an outsider so I don't know exactly what happened. This is according to the newspaper report and, according to the lawsuit, then he allegedly appointed his brother, his cousin and longtime family attorney to lead the ministry team leadership team they call that the MLT that oversees an $84 million annual budget and millions in real estate. So members are asking who's watching the money? Who's guarding the mission here? And here's the lesson no church should be run like a family business, not when the stakes are this high, especially. But this goes for your church as well. You can't run the church like a family business. You can't have cousins and uncles, cousins, nephews, wives making all of the decisions. So that's lesson three.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, lesson four we followed Matthew 18, and then we filed the lawsuit. Okay, that's lesson number four. This wasn't the first step. It was the last resort, according to members. The filing of the lawsuit. Okay, that's lesson number four. This wasn't the first step. It was the last resort, according to members. The filing of the lawsuit. That is okay.
Speaker 1:So, members of the newly formed. They have a name for their kind of group, that's, they call themselves the Jeremiah Council. They say they tried everything first. They tried phone calls, they tried in-person meetings, letters to the church leadership, and they said they got no response. One person said we were ignored, so we took the only step we had left.
Speaker 1:And the lesson here man, church conflict should be handled biblically. But when there's no response, what can you do? In this case, lawsuits. Unfortunately, this lawsuit became the megaphone for the unheard, for those that weren't hearing. Okay, I've got a bonus one for you. Here's what I titled this it's still their church and they want it back. Okay, here's what they're not asking for. They're not asking for Ben Young's resignation. Remarkably, they're not asking for his resignation. But here's what they are asking for. Okay, in this lawsuit they're asking that their member voting rights be restored. They're asking that there be the appointment of an independent board and they're asking that the bylaws and the finances are opened up publicly. One person in the news article said it's God's church and it's our church too. We just want to fix this and move on. So here's the final lesson, here's the bonus.
Speaker 1:Lesson number five Governance isn't just structural. It is structural right, but it's not just structural, it's also spiritual, and when we remove the voice of the body, we risk breaking the body, and that's what's happening here and it's tragic. It's tragic. This story just isn't about pointing fingers one side pointing fingers at the other and the other side pointing fingers back. It's really about paying attention. Every church, your church, even if you're not a billion-dollar church I assume you're going out on a limb here, you're probably not a billion-dollar church but every church, even your church, needs to ask some questions. Are our bylaws clear and accessible? Do our people feel heard and informed? Do we have a real succession plan that's transparent and trusted? And if not, if not, it might be time to take a closer look before somebody else does it for you. Okay, lessons to be learned.
Speaker 1:They're still going through this at Second Baptist in Houston. It's read the article. I'll put it in the link below and read the article. It really chronicles the story of Ed Young's personal prayer partner. This guy's 88 years old, been a part of the church for years. Who's a part of this group. That says, man, we just we don't. We feel like we were duped here and, as leadership, you don't want to dupe your congregation. Okay, so I'm not trying to take sides, I'm just saying that's what they're going through and if you can do anything right now to make things crystal clear so that your church doesn't go through a similar event like this, more power to you, because that's going to pay off whenever things get a little rocky.
Speaker 1:Okay, if your church is in the middle of a staffing or leadership transition, man, I'd love to help. As I said, I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and reach out to me. I would love to hear from you. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom is my email address. I read each and every email, try to get it back to as many as I can, but reach out to me. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Let me know how myself or somebody on my team might be able to help you and your church in anything staffing or ministry health related. All right, thanks so much for joining me and we will be right back here tomorrow on Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We'll be having a great day you.
