Reflecting on a Broken System

my response to the public Guidepost report published by Vineyard USA

I’ve read over the Guidepost report on the leadership of Michael and Brenda Gatlin, dated October 10, 2024. I’d like to offer some observations and pose some thoughtful questions and hopefully engage with the material in a way that is constructive and helpful at this time in which we find ourselves in the Vineyard.

First, this was a really difficult read. I can’t imagine having a team of people go through my emails and interview everyone I work with looking for critical feedback. I’m self-aware enough to know that I both irritate and disappoint people I work with and that I’m close to. It’s not excusing anyone’s bad behavior to recognize that the nature of the Church creates all kinds of opportunities for us to be judged and be judgy and for us to be hurt and for us to hurt others.

Of course, we also recognize that the story we’re in tells us that there’s a greater measure of accountability from God and our relationships with others when we say, “Yes” to the vocational call to pastor and teach. It’s appropriate for us to be held to account to a greater degree than others in the Church.

Second, some may read this and wonder why I am posting this or even suggest that I shouldn’t make this all public. The truth is that VUSA has bravely made this public by posting the Guidepost report on their website for all of us to read and/or download. And I, for one, applaud them for it. I’m posting this because I believe this public information deserves a conversation in as much as it affects all of us in VUSA – morally and materially. I’m posting this because real people have been, are and will be affected by the contents of this report that all of us in VUSA ought to make ourselves aware of. The victims in this story deserve no less from us.

This report was also a hard read because of some of the content of the responses quoted as well as summarized from VUSA leaders. I was disappointed but not terribly surprised by familiar appeals to the red herrings of “structure” and “autonomy” as the real root of our problems. It was also hard to read because of the stories of human suffering, pain, fear and powerlessness of good men and women with hearts to serve the Church who felt abused and abandoned by those who were tasked with looking after their souls. It was especially hard to read because behind all the spiritual abuse is the very real and very criminal sexual abuse that took place that the abusive leadership environment empowered.

The focus of the report excludes criminal allegations against the Gatlins. The focus is on claims of spiritual abuse, leadership misconduct, toxic leadership, bullying behavior, manipulation, control, boundary violations and duplicity. It also seeks to answer, “who knew, and when did they know?” about these claims, accusations and misconduct. The paper offers us receipts and makes it clear that Phil Strout knew, Jay Pathak knew, other Vineyard USA leadership knew and until the criminal investigation made it impossible to ignore, the Gatlins harmful, toxic leadership was ignored – or only addressed as a professional issue to work on, not a character issue requiring censure or removal. On the contrary, during the period of time in which allegations were known by VUSA, both of the Gatlins received promotions and prominence and power within the VUSA national organization.

For context, on November 11, 2020, I received an email from Phil Strout with an attached letter chastising me for social media posts I made that were perceived to be critical of the ReOrg process initiated by VUSA. (Some of my posts were meant to be critical. Others referenced actions taken by the US Congress in the news at that time but were mistakenly taken to be a jab at the ReOrg and some were just meant as light-hearted fun about the title of Super Regional Leader that even my own SRL has indicated he’s not crazy about.) If the Guidepost report is accurate, I received an email reportedly sent by our National Director to cease and desist my tomfoolery on social media while he ignored information he received about the Gatlins systemic spiritual abuse and did not ask the Gatlins to cease or desist. This seems like an imbalance of priorities to me.

I think it’s hard to find fault with Duluth Vineyard staff who remained silent about abuse they suffered or harm that was done to them by the Gatlins when they saw, on the National level, so much promotion and prominence of the Gatlins. Michael was made the director of Multiply Vineyard with a sizeable portion of our national budget, Brenda as an AL, then an RL and finally, in the ReOrg, she was made one of three, paid Super Regional Leaders. Add to that, despite the awareness of allegations against Michael back in 2014 and the comments made about him in a Leadership 360 in 2021 – and an awareness of problems experienced by staff in the Multiply Vineyard national office, Michael was made a Trustee for VUSA, arguably the most powerful and responsible position in our movement. In January 2021, Michael appeared in videos explaining the ReOrg process for VUSA with Phil Strout, Jay Pathak, Josh Williams, Sharon MacCarter, and Caleb Maskell. When you are a victim and see the person who has abused you elevated and platformed, what do you learn? What does this communicate to you? It does not encourage whistleblowing or speaking up about ongoing abuse.

I will add, without going any further, this isn’t the only instance of people with reported and investigated claims of misconduct have been promoted by VUSA into National leadership roles. When victims see things like this happen, it enforces a culture of silence and a feeling of impotence for those brave enough to report. If you keep promoting people who do harm, victims naturally feel fear about speaking up.

It's telling that, according to the Guidepost report, people still wanted their names redacted from their comments and stories of abuse out of fear. With the Gatlins out of positions of power over them, who do they fear retaliation from?

One of the issues that gives this report and its findings some more context is that VUSA, when the Gatlins resigned at Duluth and with VUSA, chose to – with criminal and civil charges still pending – give a generous financial severance package to Michael and Brenda Gatlin. If you’re on staff at Duluth, this sends a strong message, rightly interpreted or not, about with whom VUSA stands. The report itself states, “Even when allegations about Jackson (Gatlin) came to light and following the church discipline of the Gatlins by Duluth, the Gatlins were unquestionably supported by some leaders across the movement. In the early stages of the investigation of Jackson, VUSA continued to support the Gatlins which caused great concern by many at Duluth and elsewhere.”

Separately, but similarly, to contextualize this situation, Alan Scott didn’t start behaving badly when he became the senior pastor of the Anaheim Vineyard. Leaders in the U.K. Vineyard and the U.S. Vineyard knew stories about Alan and how he treated staff and colleagues and congregants. (This has been verified by multiple accounts and interviews since the Scotts absconded with the Anaheim property and crashed the metaphorical bus.) But Alan’s leadership style only became a problem after Alan betrayed trust and broke promises and left the mother Vineyard decimated. This systemic silence in the face of bad behavior when we perceive someone is successful is a greater problem than autonomy or lack of structure.

Contextually, it was also interesting to me that Reagan Waggoner, former senior pastor of the Sugarland Vineyard, posted an article here in 2022 called, The Bed We Make, in which, among other observations, he details his own experience of manipulation, conflict and duplicity with Jay Pathak, then National Director. Reagan details the story, you can read it for yourself, but VUSA responded to his allegation of misconduct against Jay by sending two Trustees to investigate. Tom Campion and Michael Gatlin. Not surprisingly, Michael found no basis for Reagan’s allegations. But reading this material and understanding the timeline and what people were aware of – including Jay’s own admission in the document of an awareness of multiple allegations of misconduct by Michael, Michael was not only made a Trustee of VUSA but was also asked to investigate these allegations against Jay.

In one of the most frustrating passages in the report for me, which I will reprint here, our National Director, Jay Pathak, abdicates responsibility for holding the Gatlins accountable at a crucial moment because of their relationship. He recused himself from the situation. I’ve heard Jay talk in Regional and National meetings about how we are a relational movement but what does that mean if relationship becomes the excuse for letting other people handle accountability for leaders in the movement over which he is National Director. The report reads like this, “Duluth placed the Gatlins under church discipline in May 2023 and they immediately resigned their membership at Duluth. After resigning their membership, the Gatlins relocated to Arvada, Colorado. They then began attending Mile High Vineyard, Arvada campus where a relative was also serving on staff. Pathak is the founding pastor of Mile High Vineyard and told us that he was surprised to see them at Arvada, having not been consulted prior to their arrival at the church. Because of his close relationship with the Gatlins, Pathak decided to recuse himself from decisions relative to the Gatlins attendance at Mile High.” This recusal seems more like an abdication of responsibility to both the Duluth church, our movement and the Gatlins themselves. Shouldn’t relationships cause us to lean in to hard conversations with each other instead of passing that off to others? And if the National Director can’t look after his own chosen leadership, is it reasonable to think he should be involved in the chosen leadership of our local churches?

The report bottom lines things: “there was a lack of oversight over the Gatlins. While the Duluth and VUSA board were aware of allegations of misconduct, neither stepped in to question or hold them accountable.” And “It is a failure of a culture which allowed unchecked behavior because of success and relational familiarity, and it is a failure of many who were in position to do something, but ultimately did nothing.” It’s important to remember that as all this was happening, Michael was a Trustee of Vineyard USA and Brenda had been chosen to be one of three SRLs. This wasn’t a matter of a local vineyard pastor behaving badly off the radar of the National office. This was a Trustee and former employee of VUSA and his wife, a current employee of VUSA. The ReOrg isn’t going to help us if we’re promoting people with all these allegations and troubles to National positions of power and backing them with financial support.

It's hard to read this and not connect it all with the current ReOrg we’ve undergone as Vineyard USA churches. I don’t have to bring that up, the report does. Even in the midst of revelations of reported allegations being ignored and left uninvestigated, even while a VUSA pastor was asking VUSA leadership for help to resolve conflict with Michael Gatlin, their pleas were, according to the report, ignored and uninvestigated by Phil Strout. This is not an organizational problem or a structural deficiency, this is malpractice and a systemic problem and all the ReOrging in the world won’t help us when the people with power choose to ignore what they see and hear or worse, are complicit for the sake of other people in power who they like. Still, this report and comments made by current VUSA leadership in the report once again pulls out the same old boogie men to justify new levels of control: autonomy and structure.

Again, for context, it is worth noting that over this same period of these allegations and issues, dating back to – at least – 2014, VUSA has handled other Vineyard pastors and churches differently than they did with the Gatlins. I won’t go down the list at this time, but there are sharp contrasts to the way some senior pastors have been treated by the VUSA system and personnel and the way VUSA dealt with the Gatlins.

Finally, let me encourage you to read this report for yourself. Please.

Let me reiterate the reason I’ve written this reflection on the Guidepost report. This affects all of us. I was told a few years ago by a national VUSA leader, when I asked what representation in national decisions did our 3% contribution get our local church, that all the 3% gets us is the right to call ourselves a Vineyard (a highly questionable claim) but that was all. The implication was that we benefited from being able to identify with a good “brand.” Reports like this don’t take our stock up, they don’t build our reputation. That these things have occurred under both the previous and the new structure should concern us all and be cause for a public conversation among us about finding a healthy way forward together.

The VUSA website that shares the report states, “Vineyard USA is committed to acknowledging our past shortcomings, being transparent when issues arise, building a stronger culture of accountability among pastors and leaders at all levels, and implementing better systems to address concerns regarding leadership conduct when they arise. We are committed to building an environment of trust and integrity and are dedicated to continuous improvement in our practices.” I would like to gently suggest that a first step in a healthy direction would be to get us all together in the same room and have this conversation collectively among VUSA leadership and senior leadership from across the country. Every senior leader and former senior leadership. Let’s talk and pray and be transparent and hear each other rather than silos of small, manageable meetings where dissent can be diffused and diluted. Let’s live up to this lofty vision articulated on the VUSA website.

Because of the ongoing lawsuits in which Vineyard USA is named as a plaintiff, VUSA reports that it will not talk about this anymore. But I would gently suggest we all need to. After all, what is VUSA if not all of us pastors and churches that make up this movement? We didn’t start as a religious organization that started franchising churches, we started as churches that found it expedient to recognize a central office that could coordinate and administrate on our behalf. Right? Honestly, I came here from Canada so maybe I’m getting our story wrong.

Recently, I have been traveling with my wife and in all the plane and train stations we found ourselves in there was a constant refrain in the air, “If you see something, say something.” We don’t need any structures to do that, and as this report attests, such structures can fail us anyway. We need to take our autonomous responsibility and speak up, say something to each other, speak truth to power, use your voice and don’t look the other way – if you’ve seen it, there’s a good chance you’re exactly who God has chosen to bring attention to a problem that, once addressed, could save a soul, could save many souls.

Let’s have a conversation. How can we prophetically imagine a way forward together that rebuilds trust and gives people a voice and creates a sense of safety about open and honest communication among us? Remember, we’re better together and everyone gets to play!