When former Maranatha Campus Ministries board member and Every Nation cofounder Steve Murrell moved from the Philippines to Nashville and took control of Every Nation shortly after Rice Broocks stepped down as president, Maranatha watchers assumed fundamental and positive changes were in the works.

Steve Murrell is a longtime associate of Rice Broocks and a cofounder of Every Nation, but he was not one of the abusive Maranatha board members. Rice Broocks said he was stepping down to concentrate on missions, but Maranatha watchers knew it was no coincidence these two events happened shortly after we exposed Every Nation, previously Morning Star, as Maranatha in disguise.

Our hopes went up further when Rice Broocks announced he was going on sabbatical to study in Israel. Former Maranatha members recognized the term “on sabbatical” as a code word for “outmaneuvered by another board member.”

About this same time, Rice Broock’s longtime associate Phil Bonasso, also a Maranatha board member and Every Nation cofounder, left Los Angeles, where he had been pastor of a major Maranatha / Every Nation church for many years. He went off the radar for a while.

Coinciding with all this, Champions for Christ, which made almost as many headlines as Maranatha, collapsed. Champions for Christ cofounder (with Rice Broocks) and Maranatha board member Greg Ball was ousted from the Champions sports ministry and the Every Nation parent organization.

So we were hailing these headlines as victories in our guerilla warfare campaign to expose Rice Broocks as just a slicker version of Bob Weiner and Every Nation as a community oriented Maranatha instead of a campus oriented Maranatha.

But Rice Broocks returned from Israel after a only few months. Then in short order, he announced he was directing evangelical outreaches in Dallas and Phoenix. Meanwhile, Steve Murrell spent a great deal of the first chapter of his recent book, “WikiChurch,” praising Rice Broocks. And Rice Broocks is still in charge of Bethel World Outreach, Every Nation’s flagship church in Nashville. After laying low for a while, Phil Bonasso returned to California.

The media devoted a lot of attention to Greg Feste, a self proclaimed financial expert, advisor to high profile Champions members, and a close associate of Ball, but failed to expose the Champions-Maranatha-Every Nation connection and failed to explore the implications of Greg Ball’s departure.

Was Steve Murrell in league with Rice Broocks all along and these seemingly significant events were just damage control publicity stunts? Or has Rice Broocks reasserted influence over Steve Murrell?

Whatever the explanation, Rice Broocks now has 5 times as many followers as Bob Weiner at Maranatha’s peak and is starting to franchise again. Why hasn’t he tried to revive Champions for Christ? Probably because he’s been too busy, first with damage control, then with a comeback.

Essentially, nothing has changed. So expect more scandals.

LETTER TO LARRY TOMCZAK ABOUT C.J. MAHANEY OF SOVEREIGN GRACE MINISTRIES

I have fond memories of you and C.J. speaking at Maranatha Campus Ministry conferences. I also recall all of us in Maranatha looking forward to every issue of People of Destiny magazine.

I’ve been reading up on what’s happened to C.J. over the last year or so. I’ve been struck by the similarities between what happened to Bob Weiner and what’s happening to C.J. I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen to C.J. because I watched what happened to Bob. Even after he moves to Louisville, the scenario will continue.

More leaders will confront him and either flee or be expelled. More revelations about his personal life and extended family life will come out. More reporters will investigate him. He will be dogged by the cult accusation literally for the rest of his life. Probably lawsuits.

As his personality cult becomes more incestuous and more depraved, there will be financial scandals, sex scandals, divorce. Cult deprogrammers will be brought in to assist with interventions. Former members will continue to wage guerilla warfare against him on the Internet. This is assuming he doesn’t interrupt the scenario by getting his act together.

I watched the same thing happened to Rice Broocks, who as you know was a protégé of Bob’s. Rice has also been repeating the Bob Wiener scenario. Suicide attempts, psychiatric treatment, media investigations, lawsuits, financial improprieties, sex scandals. Witness the whole Champions for Christ mess.

And for 10 years, former members have been waging guerilla warfare against Rice. Meanwhile, Rick Ross has an extensive archive on Every Nation and Champions.

(It is ironic and alarming that you have joined forces with Rice. You are very, very fortunate that you have not been burned by your association with him, as so many other people have. Seriously, how can you address relationship abuse in C.J.’s denomination and not address relationship abuse in Rice’s denomination?)

But even if C.J. publicly admits to everything he did to you, his problem will not be solved. If the entire Sovereign Grace Ministries leadership team forsakes relationship abuse overnight, C.J. will still have the same problem.

His problem goes much deeper than relationship disputes. His problem is that he has abandoned the Gospel. He no longer practices classic Christianity.

The sovereignty of God, the centrality of Christ, the work of the Cross, the operation of the Spirit, the authority of the Word, the preparation of the Bride, the fulfillment of the Great Commission, the defeat of Satan.

He has traded these fundamentals for demonic and humanistic doctrines and practices. This is the root, his condition and behavior are only the fruit. He hasn’t just made a series a big mistakes, he has fundamentally lost his way spiritually.

Leaders outmaneuvering other leaders. Then often being outmaneuvered themselves by other leaders several years later. And at no point are any of them alarmed by the size of the hit parade. That scenario is so like the one I saw in Maranatha before my very eyes for a dozen years. Then again when Maranatha regrouped as Morning Star and Every Nation. Now I’m reading testimony after testimony of Sovereign Grace Ministries leaders who experienced the same thing. This situation has cult written all over it.

Have any other church planting denominations been accused of operating an abusive cult the way Sovereign Grace Ministries has? Have any other campus ministries been labeled a cult the way Maranatha was? Have any other sports ministries been accused of being a cult on the basis of unethical business-religion relationships the way Champions for Christ has?

Have these other organizations experienced such an exodus of local and national leaders? Have they been outed on blogs and forums by so many former members?

I’m not just talking about portrayal in the media, although there’s been lots of media coverage. Nor am I talking about secular cult watchers, although there’s been plenty of attention from that corner. I’m talking about outside perspective from other evangelicals.

What about the people who have been under your ministry? (And having been in the ministry for 40 years, you’ve had a lot of people under your ministry.) If one of them got on the Internet and shared a horror story about you, would hordes of others chime in? I doubt it.

Brent Detwiler has been the catalyst of recent controversies surrounding C.J. He has distributed 1000 (?) documents, he has blogged 100 times, he has constantly contacted C.J, you, board members, pastors, and most recently an entire congregation.

All the turmoil at Covenant Life Church and all the activity on the Internet have been the result of Brent’s guerilla warfare campaign* - and C.J. knows it. Yet he has never publicly addressed Brent’s activities.

You’ve been in the ministry long enough and you know the scripture well enough, so you’re familiar with Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus on how to deal with people who misbehave. John’s declaration that he would “draw attention to his deeds when I come.” The famous method outlined in Matt 18. Paul confronting Peter. We could delve into Old Testament examples.

Paul specified, “whose mouths must be stopped.” He didn’t say, “whose mouths should be ignored.”

If all this isn’t enough, there is the letter to Thyatira: “And all the churches will know that I am He who searches the hearts and the minds.” All the churches. Jesus exposed and punished the sexual conduct of the Thyatirans literally to the whole Christian world. Judgment on a global platform. .

So the overwhelming scriptural pattern is for shepherds to publicly address the behavior of sinning and misbehaving sheep (or other shepherds), making an example of them, for the sake of protecting the rest of the sheep.

This is not just an appropriate and effective method, it’s a required one. It is one of the responsibilities of being in the ministry, just like counseling and teaching.

Either Brent is righteous and his words are true or he is a wolf trying to harm the shepherd and the sheep. If the latter, then C.J. needs to expose him - and should have a long time ago. If the former, then C.J. is not qualified for ministry.

He has mentioned Brent and the documents. He made some clarification comments at the pastor’s conference and at the Covenant Life Church members meeting. But only in the context of a personal relationship.

He has never addressed the issue of whether Brent’s behavior is acceptable as a believer. He has never invoked his responsibility as a minister to expose Brent as a danger to Sovereign Grace Ministries members.

(Mickey Connolly’s recent letter to his Crossway congregation is the first time a Sovereign Grace Ministries leader has condemned Brent’s behavior.)

C.J. has been in the ministry for almost as long as you and knows the scripture as well as you. But he has conspicuously avoided this crucial issue.

Like you and C.J., Rice has been in the ministry a long time and is very familiar with scriptural mandates.

Rice knows about Bridget Jacobs and her detailed history of Maranatha. He knows about Ginger, the Filipino sister in Los Angeles who was all over Phil Bonasso’s case for a long time. He knows about Big Tommy, who had a falling out with Rice and Phil. And other posters on the FactNet forum.

Then there’s the former Maranatha elder who uses the Internet name “Tick Tock.” Tick Tock posted embarrassing story after embarrassing story in blog after blog, naming names and displaying almost literary vividness.

Nor has Rice ever said a word about Greg Ball’s departure from Champions for Christ or Phil Bonasso’s departure from the L.A. church he started and pastured for so many years.

(And since you are so closely associated with him, I find it really hard to believe you’re not aware of the enormous, longstanding Internet activity about Rice and his Every Nation associates.)

Simultaneous to Internet activity about Rice by former Every Nation members, former Maranatha members have come forward with countless horror stories about Bob. For the sake of remaining in the ministry, Bob has refused to grant justice, closure, and healing to many of his victims. He knew if he ever revealed what really happened behind closed doors in Maranatha, he would never be allowed in the pulpit again. One wonders how many former Maranatha members have written to him in private appealing to him to publicly come clean.

(Did you really stand up at a Maranatha board meeting, look down at Bob, and say, “This is the most ungodly, oppressive thing I’ve ever seen. When are you going to stop this, Bob? … [no answer] … I said this is the most ungodly, oppressive thing I’ve ever seen. When are you going to stop this, Bob?” ?)

But you get the picture. When certain issues reach critical mass, silence becomes conspicuous. And silence is not a strategy God offers His shepherds. To the contrary, he expects intervention.


*(With a lot of help from the www.SGMSurvivor.com and www.SGMRefuge.com forums.)

"WikiChurch"
by Steve Murrell
excerpt from chapter one
(pay special attention to comments about Rice Broocks)


It was never my intention to become a missionary or a leader. A summer in the Philippines had never occurred to my wife and me until I got a call from my friend Rice Broocks. Deborah and I were newlyweds focused on our little campus ministry at Mississippi State University (MSU), and Rice was recruiting a team of college students for summer outreaches in South Korea and the Philippines.

I had never met a Filipino and didn’t know anything about the Philippines except that it is an island nation on the other side of the world. Rice was pretty excited about taking a team there. He is an extraordinarily persuasive person, especially when it comes to evangelism, campus ministry, and church planting.

It was May 1984, and the departure date was only six weeks away. We would need five thousand dollars for the two-month trip—a fortune to us at the time. I told Rice, “Sounds good, but we don’t have any money. I guess if God provides, then we’ll go with you.” God provided, and we went.

Thinking back on our decision, the reason Deborah and I made that two-month commitment was primarily to help an old friend. I can vaguely remember Rice’s passionate appeal: “Steve, you’ve got to go. We need you and Deborah. I have this huge team, and I need someone to organize and train them.” Anyway, there was not much going on during the summer in the sleepy little college town of Starkville, Mississippi.

Rice had graduated from MSU and was traveling to campuses all over the United States preaching to students. We were still in Starkville because when the leader of our struggling campus fellowship moved to another college, we inherited the position.

The decision to go was not based on any great revelation from God. I do not even recall praying about the request with Deborah. I suppose that somewhere deep inside there was some sense of being led by the Spirit, even if it was simply a divinely inspired perspective that made it seem like the right decision. I am all for being led by the Holy Spirit, but my clearest sense of calling is more like an ancient letter from God framed on the wall rather than the morning Twitter message about what is on His mind at the moment. The last command Jesus gave to His disciples was:

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” — Matthew 28:19–20

Since we have not yet reached the end of the age, I have always assumed that He still wants us to go to the nations and make disciples, and that He is still with us.

The point is that there was no booming voice or even a still, small voice saying, “My son, I have called you to the mission field.” Even though I did not really grow up in church, I have heard people talk about “receiving the call.” It didn’t happen that way for me, at least not at the beginning. I did not got the Philippines because I received a specific calling from God. I just got a phone call from Rice. There was no divine mandate except Jesus’s Great Commission to go and make disciples.

I guess I’ve always believed that God’s calling is a “standing order” to go and make disciples. That mandate for every believer has been impressed on me since the day I surrendered my life to Christ. It was drilled into me first by Ron Musselman, the youth pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, then by Walter Walker, the campus missionary at Mississippi State University. So it was with that same sense of perpetual calling and commission to go and make disciples that I agreed to participate in the two-month summer mission trip to Manila and Seoul. I’ve always believed that God’s calling is a “standing order” to go and make disciples.

Culturally, Deborah and I were a long, long way from Starkville, Mississippi. If we had known the chaos we were getting into, we might have chosen a different summer mission trip—maybe to Jamaica, Europe, or Australia. But what looked like the worst of times turned out to be God’s perfect timing. The Holy Spirit began to work in that situation, and by the time the outreach team left, we had the beginnings of a church with about 165 new Filipino believers. Most were poor students from the provinces; many were political protesters; some were radical leftist student leaders.

For the first two weeks nightly meetings were held at the Girl Scouts Auditorium, but because the auditorium was not available on weekends, we held our Sunday morning worship services at the Admiral Hotel on Roxas Boulevard. It was in the Admiral Hotel function room on our third Sunday that we held our first Communion service in the Philippines. It was by far the most significant Communion service of my life. It would be hard to describe how tangibly we sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit in that meeting. We were all on our knees praying when something extraordinary happened.

Though I am a rather stoic individual who was raised to think that real men do not cry, I have to admit that my eyes were sweating—well, gushing like broken water faucets might be a better description.

Nothing has more potential to complicate your life than a clear calling from God. I have been a believer since I was sixteen years old and a pastor/preacher for thirty years. In all those years I can count only three times when God has spoken to me with undeniable clarity. The first time was a sense that Deborah was to be my wife. Fortunately, she agreed. The third time I “know that I know” God spoke to me was several years later. It had to do with the first church property we bought in Manila.

That morning in Manila’s Admiral Hotel was the second time I know I heard God’s voice. Kneeling by my chair, the Holy Spirit was putting a supernatural compassion in my heart for the Filipino people that was greater than any vision or dream I could have conjured up on my own. It was as if God switched something on inside of me. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “Christ’s love compels us” (2 Cor. 5:14). My involvement in the church that would become Victory–Manila was birthed in that moment, not out of a great vision or some sense of destiny. From the beginning we were motivated or “compelled” by compassion for lost people. Vision gradually grew out of that.

You might think that such a certain sense of God’s calling would answer many questions and clarify lots of details. That was not the case with us. Nothing has more potential to complicate your life than a clear calling from God. Before that Sunday morning, the plan was one month in Manila, one month in South Korea, and back to normal life in Mississippi. Now I knew that God wanted me to stay in the Philippines, but what did that mean—another month, a year, or the rest of my life?

I thought long and hard about how to present this to my wife. To the extent that my missionary career was accidental and my leadership reluctant, Deborah’s was far more. She grew up in an Assemblies of God church and had prayed to marry a pastor, but now it looked as if that pastor was about to become a cross-cultural missionary. Living in Asia was not part of her plan. In time, as she gave her life to serve and disciple Filipino students, she became as convinced as I was that we were supposed to be in the Philippines.

As the day of the American team’s departure drew near, there was a growing concern about what to do with our fledgling student church. Rice and I had challenged the sixty-five American summer missionaries to reproduce themselves by discipling a Filipino new believer to fill their places. Unfortunately, there was no time for a lengthy training school. Because we saw ourselves as temporary missionaries, we had to quickly train Filipinos in basic ministry skills. In just a matter of weeks the Filipino converts would be the ones to pray with others to receive Christ, explain water baptism, pray for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and take them through basic spiritual foundations. We all felt the urgency to equip, empower, and get out of the way. This forced the team and the new Filipino believers to look to and trust in the Holy Spirit.

Because I scored close to zero for spiritual gifts related to evangelism, we began working as hard as we could to do what we could. For me, that meant discipling and teaching foundations to young Filipinos who had so decisively accepted Christmas Savior and Lord. Everything we did in that extra month in Manila was motivated by the concept I had heard over and over at the Mississippi State University campus ministry: work yourself out of a job. Years later someone commented on the scores of young leaders who continually emerge from Victory–Manila. They were wondering aloud why American churches by comparison produce so few. Deborah’s responses truck right at the heart of the matter. “From the very beginning,” she said, “it was never about creating a position or a ministry for ourselves. We were always leading with the idea of leaving.”

The second four weeks went by quickly. Then we flew to Seoul, South Korea, to meet up with the American team for the long flight home. Within two weeks of our return we were in Dallas, Texas, at a staff meeting with the leaders of the ministry with which we were associated. The question of leadership for the new church in the Philippines was on the agenda for discussion. Deborah and I stood in front of about one hundred twenty leaders to give a report about the young church, and we were subsequently grilled about what we felt the Lord had spoken to us. It was one of our first such staff meetings, and we did not give the answers that some wanted to hear. I learned later that the closed-door discussions went something like this: “Who is Steve Murrell, what has he done, and what makes us think he can be trusted to build a significant church in Manila?” Apparently those concerns were too great for the senior ministry leaders to overlook. I couldn’t help but wonder what was the meaning of that Admiral Hotel moment, that overwhelming sense of God’s love for the Filipino people, and the undeniable calling to stay in Manila if we were not to be allowed to return to the Philippines. As I said earlier, a clear sense of God’s calling does not necessarily make things simple. Through the years I’ve learned that God rarely speaks so loudly that everyone around you hears it too. We definitely felt God wanted us to return to help establish the church in Manila. However, because the leaders of our ministry did not approve of our plan, there was nothing for Deborah and me to do but to trust our future to the Lord. We headed back to Starkville thinking the decision was made and the conversation was over. Not that the leadership issue in the Philippines was settled; in the brief time since our departure, the leadership need had become even more obvious.

The discussion about our involvement was indeed over as far as we were concerned. Apparently I was not old enough, experienced enough, or anointed enough to be trusted with such an important assignment. The X factor, however, was my friend Rice Broocks. He was a part of that ongoing conversation among the senior leaders, and he believed I was the man for the job. Over and against the collective wisdom of that meeting, Rice had great faith in Deborah and me. Better said, he trusted in the power and grace of God to enable us. There is nothing like having someone in your corner with that kind of confidence. But that is quintessential Rice Broocks. He usually believes in people much more than they believe in themselves.

A couple of weeks after the Dallas staff meeting, I got another call from Rice. Apparently his faith in us had overcome everyone else’s doubts. As soon as we hung up the phone, we were again packing our bags, this time for a six-month stint in Manila to help develop the leadership team, a team made up of new believers.

I have never forgotten what it was like to have someone believe in me, especially when others did not. You might say that I have never gotten over it.

CONSPICUOUS SILENCE:

Washington Redskins and Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell has an awful lot of explaining to do. Never mind Skin Patrol's "Investigating the Mark Brunell Inigma." Brunell has something a lot more serious to explain.

Brunell introduced other athletes - and only he knows how many - to the notorious agent Greg Feste, who burned those athletes big. Brunell also was willingly the most prominent and outspoken member of the high profile, aggressive, and controversial Champions for Christ sports ministry. He defended Feste and Champions for Christ many times to the press.

He did the same for Greg Ball, cofounder of Champions for Christ and once America's #1 locker room evangelist. Ball has gone from a legend among the athletes he converted and discipled to a hasbeen and an outcast, completely off the radar. Since Ball and Feste's departure, which coincided with and had everything to do with the Wranglers investment scandal, DEAFENING SILENCE from Brunell.

Same with Darrell Green, former Redskins cornerback superstar and terse talking board member of Champions for Christ. Ball was his hero forever, since all the way back when Ball and Green were in Maranatha Campus Ministries. No word from Green on the guy he was so tight with for so long and defended so fiercely.

Brunell and two of his Jacksonville Jaguars buddies were deep in bed with Feste financially. After they helped him start a church in Jacksonville, Ball put Tony Boselli and Bryan Schwartz into full time ministry with Brunell's denomination and moved both of them to Austin. This means they both have the inside story on Ball and Feste's departure and the disappearance of $17,000,000(?) during the Wranglers venture. The cat has their tongue too. Hmm.

Oh and Brett Fuller, chaplain of the Washington Redskins (wonder how he got that position) and chairman of Green's foundation, he's a major board member of the parent denomination, Every Nation, and the current president of Champions for Christ. He was also a major board member of Maranatha, which reinvented itself as Morning Star and then changed its name to Every Nation when former members outed it on the FactNet.org and RickRoss.com message boards. Fuller's resume includes major leadership positions in 3 cults. This didn't stop someone from recommending him for a seat on Bush's advisory committee on historically black colleges. Doesn't anybody in the White House know how to use Google?

Brunell and Green have lent their names to Fuller's call for a slave memorial on the capital mall. Fuller got considerable support on Capital Hill, including Trent Lott. Fuller is privy to everything that happened to Feste and Ball, so he's got a lot of explaining to do too.

Rice Broocks is cofounder of Champions for Christ and cofounder of Every Nation, and was a major Maranatha board member. Broocks has a lot of explaining to do too: embezzlement, money laundering, and coverup in the Champions-Wranglers scandal have reached Jim Bakker proportions. (You have a hard time with the words embezzlement, money laundering, and coverup? I don't have a degree in accounting and I don't have a degree in law, but that's what it looks like to me.) Deprogammings, shocking testimony from ex members, bad press, attention from cult watchers, resignations, firings, churches pulling out of the denomination. Does any of this remind Broocks of Maranatha? At least Maranatha didn't have lawsuits and sex scandals.

Broocks is also a board member and major stockholder of InPop, the record label launched by popular Christian rock band Newsboys. Brunell and Boselli are also board members of IPop and Brunell infused the label from his extremely high salary. Newsboys promotes the Purple Book, a Bible study written by Broocks. The label's president and the band's lead singer are members of Bethel, the denomination's flagship church in Nashville. The Newsboys website has been purged of ties to Broocks. They are like so many other famous people Broocks, Ball, and Feste have wooed: they don't realize they are in bed with the devil until the negative publicity starts.

Brunell and Green have yet to learn their lesson. Hard to imagine no one has told Brunell about the Maranatha roots of his denomination and sports ministry. Green was in Maranatha was it was investigated by Christianity Today, when it made the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education, when a committee of cult watchers issued a report about it. While Green was in Maranatha, it was accused left and right in the national and local media of being a cult. Like Broocks, Ball, and Fuller, he's been through all this before. He's a hard core old timer, so he might not learn his lesson any time soon.



HOBNOBBING WITH THE PRESIDENT:

Green is not only an old timer, he's an insider. A lot of people in Washington wish they could hobnob with President Bush the way he has. Green was the first topic in one of Bush's speeches, presumably with Green in the audience. "The most compassionate thing Darrell Green has done is to retire. Particularly if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan." Green was pictured sitting in front of the First Couple on the White House lawn. Green is Chairman of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. Green's White House connection got him a speaking engagement at the prestigious National Press Club in Washington DC. At his retirement, Green was given a football signed by Bush. Green and Bush were pictured together when the President presented Challenger Little League players with a baseball autographed by Green. Green was one of only 137 people invited to Bush's first White House dinner.

Green's youth center has received visits from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Education Secretary Rod Paige. Thompson used his visit to announce the Compassion Capital Fund. Green is pictured on the White House website sitting next to Secretary Paige. Secretary Paige also attended a luncheon honoring Green. The Education Department's website says, "Darrell Green and Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women to rally the Education team at the Department of Education's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Green attended a State of the Union Address as a guest of Senator Frist. Green was invited to a congressional Republican retreat. Green was one of the speakers at a Republican Party planning committee meeting. When Senator Rick Santorum held a press conference to oppose a gay marriage bill, he enlisted Green. Green was the lead witness when Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton held hearings on young black men. Virginia Governor Gilmore donated 20 computers and called on Green to expand his youth centers into Virginia. Meanwhile Green's name has been thrown around by Republicans for the Virginia state senate race.

According to Broocks, in his book, "Every Nation in Our Generation," even Nelson Mandela asked Green to start youth centers in South Africa. Presidents, senators, congressmen, cabinet secretaries, governors. Is this guy popular or what?

Well, he's not popular with everybody. Youth Today did a lengthy investigation into Green's center and the Washington Post printed an editorial by the author of the report. They discovered that Green's center received $3,000,000 of Bush's faith based initiatives money, although it serves only 38 children. Green's center is in a poor part of Washington, DC; an area where social services have been cut, including an after school program that served 3000 children. In 2007, Green received a $50,000 Freddie Mac grant. Wonder how many youth centers there are in Washington, DC?



HEROES AND HYPOCRITES:

www.ProLife.com and www.SexLoveAndChoices.com quote Green's views on sex. AC Green is basketball's Iron Man. He's also the vice president of Champions and a long time disciple of Ball. When AC Green launched Athletes for Abstinence, he recruited Darrell Green for a video entitled, "It's Not Worth It." When Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's Surgeon General, testified before a congressional committee about teenage pregnancy, guess who else testified? That's right, Darrell Green representing Athletes for Abstinence. When 10,000 teenagers turned out for a Project Reality rally in Chicago, guess what Green considered. That's right, hosting a Project Reality rally in Washington, DC.

A California pro life organization posted Tony Fetchel's testimony on their website. Who is Tony Fetchel? Well, he was an assistant pastor with Green's denomination - until he was caught in bed with the pastor's daughter. An assistant pastor preaching abstinence at a pro life conference while having a longstanding affair with the pastor's daughter!

The pastor was Phil Bonasso, cofounder of Green's denomination. Bonasso was also the denomination's financial officer. Bonasso has a lot of explaining to do, too. Namely what he did with so much money before he was run out of Los Angeles. Guess who AC Green's pastor was while AC Green played for the Lakers. That's right, Bonasso.

Another leader of Green's denomination, Paul Daniel, had two affairs, one before he merged his denomination with Green's and one after. Did Broocks cover up the first affair to ensure a successful merger? Former members who have been investigating and monitoring the denomination think so.

There are probably more Ted Haggard types in Green's denomination. Darrell Green and AC Green probably practice what they preach. But they need to preach it to the religious hypocrites they're associated with, not to horny teenagers they've never met.

Sure, Darrell Green, AC Green, and Mark Brunell are role models. The type of role models conservative politicians and high school principles want to be on stage with and be pictured with. But what type of role models are Greg Ball, Greg Feste, Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, Brett Fuller, Tony Fetchel, and Paul Daniel? And how much damage do these athletes do when they hail corrupt ministers as role models?

Most wealthy people hire cooks, maids, nannies, tailors, chauffers, gardeners, repairmen, movers. People like Rice Broocks, Greg Ball, and Phil Bonasso have an army of laymen who consider service to a them as proxy service to God. Ministers using church members as defacto servants. Sound like a cult?

They pay themselves huge salaries and live in mansions while low level staffers volunteer or raise their own support, receive salaries of less than $30,000, and live together dorm style. They draw multiple salaries as board members of several organizations. They take up offerings in the name of building projects and missions, but the buildings never get built and the financial support never reaches the mission field. They take over churches, fire the pastor and his staff, and raid the treasury. These guys belong in a prison, not in a mansion.

"God told me to take up an offering to buy my wife a Mercedes." Seriously Phil Bonasso, did you really say this.



CONCLUSION:

During the first Champions for Christ scandal, a lot of people said, "There are major problems with these guys Feste and Ball, as well as this whole sports-religion-money thing." Ball and Feste dismissed all this with, "It's not about money. It's about saving souls. It's about mentoring athletes into real men."

Don Beck, a sports psychology columnist for the Dallas Morning News, was among the critics. Several other columnists chimed in. So did countless fans at countless coffeshops.

Well, the critics have been overwhelmingly vindicated. But the famous athletes, we're still waiting to hear from them.

RICE BROOCKS, NEWSBOYS, INPOP, AND MARK BRUNELL

Voices From Above
Brunell’s records aren’t all from football.

Washington City Paper/October 5, 2006
By Dave McKenna

Most of the local jocks who have tried to break into the record business in recent years have flopped. Allen Iverson and Chris Webber both got nowhere pushing gangsta rap. Brandon Lloyd’s attempt to fashion a hip-hop career while he was with the San Francisco 49ers alienated management and helped punch his ticket to D.C., but he still hasn’t found a label to release his rhymes.

Amid all the failures, there’s one area athlete who went in another direction when he joined the biz and has been moving units ever since.

Would you believe…Mark Brunell?

In the fall of 2004, during his lousy first season with the Skins, Brunell was part of a group that included former Jacksonville teammate Tony Boselli that invested in InPop Records. Before Brunell’s money came in, the Nashville-area label, known for releasing lite Christian rock, was thought to be in as much trouble as the QB’s career.

Both have since been revived.

“[InPop’s] image is definitely solid, known for well-produced quality music in the pop vein,” says Doug Van Pelt, editor of HM, an Austin, Texas–based magazine that caters mainly to a Christian-music-listening clientele. “They’re big with the soccer moms. InPop and anything with the distribution that the label has—everything goes to at least 1,200 Christian bookstores across the country—is pulling in some pretty big bucks.”

Brunell’s stable of talent includes several righteous rockers who are or were at one time on the fringe of the mainstream music scene, acts such as Newsboys, Mat Kearney, Petra, and Superchick.

Just as Iverson and Webber tried to use their rhymes to hype the thug-lifers they’d become (or, in Webber’s case, wanted to become) through serial brushes with the law, InPop’s output seems aimed to do nothing but enhance Brunell’s hard-earned image as perhaps the godliest man still in a sports uniform.

(Quick test! One set of lyrics is from Iverson’s unreleased 2002 recording “40 Bars,” and the other comes from a disc by InPop’s heaviest hitters, Newsboys: (A) “Come to me with faggot tendencies/You’ll be sleeping where the maggots be/Everybody stay fly get money kill and fuck bitches/I’m hitting anything in plain view for my riches”; (B) “Good news for the modern man, yes it is/Eternity in the heart of every man/Confirmed just who I am/Here I stand/The forever man.” Guess which is which! No Googling!)

InPop is only the most audible of Brunell’s off-field commercial projects. In the noncommercial vein, he’s long been a frontman for Every Nation, an evangelical organization based in the Nashville area. Other celebrity proselytizers for the ministry include Boselli and former Redskins Tim Johnson and Darrell Green.

Cracking the connections between Brunell’s side ventures and his church is easier than Monday’s crossword puzzle.

For example, Newsboys’ go-to slogan, featured on the front page of the band’s Web site, is “every tribe, every tongue, every nation.” Newsboys’ last major tour was called the “Have You Done the Purple Book?” campaign. At the shows, attendees were given copies of the “Purple Book,” also known as Biblical Foundations for Building Strong Disciples, which is the handbook that those in the Every Nation flock are tasked with memorizing.

Brunell provides the primary back-cover blurb on the hardcover and paperback versions of the book: “The Purple Book has been instrumental in my growth as a believer, an effective tool in helping me build the life that God has intended for me.” The book was co-authored by Every Nation founder Rice Broocks, who is also a partner of Brunell’s and Boselli’s in InPop Records.

Brunell is also the public face of a group called Champions for Christ, whose catchphrase is “Every Person. Every Team. Every Sport. Every Nation.”

Along with that slogan, the Champions for Christ Web site’s front page has a big photo of Brunell, along with a plea from the Skins QB to come to the group’s annual conference, where, he says, “professional and college athletes from around the world will come together for a time of worship, teaching, and camaraderie.”

Messages left at InPop’s offices were not returned, and, through the Redskins media office, Brunell declined a request for an interview about InPop and how his business interests relate to his church, saying he likes to stick to football matters during in-season interviews.

The more the lefty’s right-minded image rubs off, the better for Every Nation—its rather quiet expansion has not come without controversy.

“Brunell, he’s one of their stars, and Every Nation is a cash cow,” says Rick Ross, a New Jersey resident and self-appointed watchdog of religious institutions. “There’s absolutely no transparency in the finances of this church, nothing like what you’d get with any other established church,” citing the ministry’s reluctance to submit to an independent audit.

Every Nation’s fiscal strategies aren’t the only things that have caused some unwanted light to be shined on Brunell and his partners. In 1998, Champions for Christ was said to be steering NFL players to an agent tied to the group—Brunell’s then-marketing representative, Greg Feste, was accused of putting the fear of God into Chicago Bears running back Curtis Enis to get him to switch agents. (Brunell partnered with Feste to found the Austin Wranglers, an arena football team.)

In May 2005, a federal lawsuit was filed in Nashville against Bethel World Outreach Center—an Every Nation church in Brentwood, Tenn., that is Broocks’ home base and where Johnson serves as chief pastor—after a student and church recruit at local Hillsboro High School attempted to kill herself. News reports at the time said the girl was distraught over orders to recruit fellow students for Every Nation and an edict from church leaders not to tell her parents about speaking in tongues during the afternoon meetings, which were held on the grounds of the public school.

And in January, Judy Peters, a former Fairfax County schoolteacher now living in the Pittsburgh area, brought Ross in for an intervention in hopes of deprogramming a daughter who had turned on her kin after being recruited by Every Nation on the Boston University campus.

“Every Nation controlled her entire life, and they were so abusive and coercive,” says Peters. “Everybody who was not a part of their church was dead to her. They brought her to Nashville and put her in a two-bedroom apartment with five girls for what they called ‘training.’ [In Boston] they had her working more than 80 hours a week for the church, most of it fundraising, and for that she was being paid $550 a month. So we had an intervention, just like she was an alcoholic that needed treatment.”

According to Peters, who says she comes from a family of devout Catholics, after the intervention her daughter agreed to leave the church and to stay for two weeks in the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, an Ohio facility that, according to its promotional material, treats “people who have been victims of psychological, emotional or spiritual abuse from religious cults, toxic relationships or other manipulative groups.” Peters says Ross hammered home the lack of transparency in Every Nation’s finances and how that differed from more mainstream religious entities.

“I try not to use the word ‘cult,’ but that’s what it was,” says Peters, who asked that the name of her daughter—who is back living at home but still seeing a psychologist because of the church episode—not be used for this story. “They told her who to trust, who not to believe, who she could hang out with, what she could read—she had to memorize the Purple Book—and what music she could listen to.”

And what music was that?

“She listened to Mat Kearney and the Newsboys,” says Peters.

Channel 5 News in Nashville:


"Thursday, two families filed a lawsuit against their daughters' public high school because of religion. The girls claimed a school club put their lives in danger. It's a lawsuit that may stir up new controversy over the role of religion in public schools. Jane Doe: "They encouraged me to be saved and take victory over my life, accept the holy spirit and speak in tongues." You'd expect something like that in a church, but that actually happened at Hillsboro High School as part of a school-sanctioned religious club that, parents now, say crossed the line. Mrs. Doe: “My daughter could have died.” The Victory Club, as it was known, was sponsored by the Bethel World Outreach Center, a fundamentalist Christian church based in Brentwood. Jane Doe: “What really drew me in was the feeling of being loved.” At Hillsboro, church leaders regularly gave free pizza and sodas to students who met during lunchtime for some prayer and a little preaching. David Lyons, attorney: “It's a religious pep rally on school grounds during the school day sanctioned by school administrators.” Bethel church member, Meghan Therrell, who is the music teacher at Hillsboro, served as the Victory Club's faculty advisor. Parents said she was the one who convinced students to then join the church itself. Mrs. Doe: “That's not right.” Jane Doe: “I wanted to hear God's voice.” This Hillsboro student said, after she was baptized into the church, she was then pressured into speaking in tongues. Tim Johnson, Bethel World Outreach Senior Pastor: “Speaking in tongue is a way to communicate with God.” Johnson said it's a crucial part of their faith. Jane Doe: “They said I'd be closer to God and that my relationship and walk with God would be stronger.” And after the 17-year-old finally did speak in tongues she insists she was repeatedly warned by church members, including her teacher Meghan Therrell, not to tell her parents about it. They feared her parents wouldn't understand and would force her to quit the church. Jane Doe: “The way they said it was we would be persecuted for our religion…by my own parents.” Bethel's Youth Minister, Shino Prater, said that's just not true. Shino Prater: “We don't have that type of control over people. That's not, we don't do that.” But the girl's mother claims that when she confronted Therrell about it, she didn't deny it. Mrs. Doe: “That's not acceptable and it's especially not acceptable to be done by a teacher.” Second Mother: “They brainwashed them.” The second mother said the church turned her daughter into “a religious freak.” Second Mother: “It hurts a lot because my daughter wasn't like that.” She said her daughter, an honors student at Hillsboro, became so consumed by trying to recruit and save others at the school that she had a total breakdown. Second Mother: “If you don't do this, don't do that, you're not serving God and if you don't serve God, you're going to be punished. You're going to go to hell. And that was her worry all the time.” According to a lawsuit just filed against the school and church, the girl has now spent weeks in psychiatric hospitals and has been diagnosed as suffering from something called religious indoctrination. Jane Doe said it almost drove her over the edge too. “I wanted to commit suicide and actually tried.” David Lyons: “It's astounding that this would happen in one of the best high schools that we have in Nashville in the year 2005. Lyons said there's enough blame to go around, but Bethel Church leaders said while they're sympathetic they're not responsible. Tim Johnson: “I just can't accept that and will not accept that.” The Bethel Church said they have 70 Victory Clubs around the country—13 of them in Nashville-area high schools—and they've never had any sort of problem like this before. NewsChannel 5 tried to speak with Therrell, the teacher and faculty advisor of the Victory Club, but she did not return our calls. NewsChannel 5 took a look at the Metro school system’s religion and public education policy. It states "schools may not endorse specific religious practices." But it also states "schools may not forbid students acting on their own from expressing their own religious views."

RICE BROOCKS AND LARRY TOMCZAK JOIN FORCES

Charisma magazine


A group of charismatic pastors has teamed up to launch a church-planting movement whose goal is to expand God's kingdom through evangelism and prayer.

The International Center for Evangelism, Church-Planting and Prayer (ICE-CAP) launched last summer in Nashville, Tenn., as an extension of Every Nation, an international network comprising more than 400 churches in 50 countries.

The organization was formed in response to declining U.S. church attendance, specifically among young adults, said ICE-CAP founder Rice Broocks, pastor of Bethel World Outreach Center in Nashville.

"You have this growing concern that the rate of people becoming Christians in America is not even keeping up with the population growth" said Broocks, who with pastors Steve Murrell and Phil Bonasso co-founded Every Nation in 1994 under the name Morning Star International. "I see a lot of church planting around the world but, when we come back to America, churches, according to statistics, are closing more than opening.

He noted that The Barna Group released a study last year showing church attendance declining, most prevalently among 16- to 29-year-olds. The report revealed that this age group tended to be "more skeptical of, and resistant to, Christianity" than the same demographic a decade earlier.

Broocks also noted the "4 percent theory" put forward by Ron Luce, founder of Texas-based Teen Mania Ministries and a proponent of the view that only 4 percent of today's children will become "Bible-believing" adults. In comparison, Broocks said, 65 percent of the World War II generation, 35 percent of the baby boomer generation and 17 percent of the current millennial generation are considered "Bible-believing."

"Think about all the things that took place under the watch of the baby boomer generation—abortion, prayer taken out of schools," Broocks said. "Think about what America's going to be like when this '4 percent generation' takes over. If we don't do something within the next five years, what is America going to look like?"

Hoping to play a part in changing those statistics, Broocks teamed up with author and pastor Larry Tomczak, who once headed People of Destiny International. Renamed Sovereign Grace Ministries in 2003, it's a pioneering church-planting movement that has established more than 60 churches in the U.S. and abroad.

Broocks also brought on board Dale Evrist, author and pastor of New Song Christian Fellowship in Brentwood, Tenn.

The team united to form ICE-CAP with a goal to contribute to world evangelism, beginning at home. "We've all planted a lot of churches, but the key for us is not about my church or Dale's church succeeding," Broocks said. "A key phrase for us is that 'it's going to take the whole church to reach the whole world.'"

It also takes leaders, stressed ICE-CAP director Tomczak. "A strong percentage of people in churches are not sharing their faith and have never led anybody to Christ," Tomczak said. "A lot of people are apologetic, fearful; they don't know how to present the gospel."

With that in mind, ICE-CAP launched its Leadership Training Institute in October. More than 80 students converged in its first semester to learn about leadership through evangelism and prayer. Currently, the institute is wrapping up its second semester.

The group is also connecting with religious leaders nationwide to help develop strategies for church planting. But without evangelism rooted in relationship, little will change, Tomczak said. "Things have become too institutional, mechanical," he explained. "We've got to get back to the relational aspect, and that's critical in reaching this next generation. There's been a real disconnect there."

Tomczak said ICE-CAP is following a simple, foolproof model. "Our model for evangelism is Jesus," he said. "We've got to get out into the marketplace, into the highways and byways, and do like Jesus did—love people, engage people, befriend people, find ways to serve people."

VICTORY CLUBS CULT SUED IN NASHVILLE
Parents Say Bethel World Outreach Center Uses Schools to Recruit


Nashville Tennessean
by Lee Ann O'Neal
May 14th, 2005


A Hillsboro High School parent says a teacher recruited her daughter into the Brentwood-area Bethel World Outreach Center, where a church staff member told the teen that her relationship with God was strong enough that she no longer needed to take anti-depressive medication. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the mother and other plaintiffs alleges that the teacher and members of the 3,000-member congregation use the Metro public high schools to ''actively solicit teenage members to their youth ministry … with the consent of public school administrators.'' Metro schools, the teacher named in the complaint, Meghan Therrell, and the Metro Legal Department all had no comment yesterday. Hillsboro High principal Robert Lawson, who is also named as a defendant, could not be reached.

Bethel spokesman Michael Swain issued this prepared statement and declined to answer follow-up questions: ''Bethel World Outreach Center has a long-standing ministry to the greater Nashville area, with well-respected programs focusing on the inner city and youth. Victory Clubs, an initiative of Bethel, are high school clubs with voluntary participation that are helping hundreds of young people develop good character. We are deeply concerned for the well-being of both students and families. While we are saddened by these allegations, we stand by our record of integrity and our commitment to the well-being of our community's youth.''

The mother, Jill Gustafson, whose 17-year-old daughter is a freshman at Hillsboro, said her daughter had a history of mental illness when in January 2004 she transferred to the school from Overton. Her daughter had started hanging out with a ''gothic'' teen crowd and had attempted to take her own life. After the transfer, she was introduced to Therrell, who befriended her and began taking her to church events at Bethel.

Gustafson described her own religious outlook: ''I am not Presbyterian, Baptist or anything. I believe that my children should choose what church they should belong to. I don't have to have an organized place to speak to my God. I don't need an organized place.'' But she said she told her children, ''If you need an organized place, you just tell me.'' That's why she accepted her daughter's association with Bethel. ''At that point, I was just in the attitude that I was happy my child was looking at religion, which was much better than 'gothic' killing yourself,'' Gustafson said.

In April 2004, she and her daughter had an argument when her daughter said she had made another suicide attempt and stopped taking her depression medication. Gustafson never visited Bethel, she said, because she was homebound by her multiple sclerosis. She has relied largely on her daughter's account to establish the allegations in the lawsuit, she said.

While her daughter has recovered and has returned to school, Gustafson said she felt the lawsuit was necessary to ''shut down'' the church's operation in the schools.
Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, had not reviewed the Gustafson's suit but said in general on church-school separation: ''The law is this, that outside groups may use school facilities for various programs related to youth in non-school hours, and (if) the school allows some community groups to use the school for youth activities, then they probably can't disallow a religious group that has youth activities.'' Also, ''a teacher, in her own time, of course, can participate in that community activity, because it's not a school activity. It's separate. However the teacher may not, on her contract time while she's acting as teacher, she may not promote a religious activity in any way,'' said Haynes,

[159.54.227.69]

PHIL BONASSO: WE'RE CHANGING THE SYSTEM.


I picked the phone up on the second ring. “Hello?” “B-R-O-T-H-E-R … TICKIE!...ohhhh it is so goooood to hear you s-p-e-a-k” said a familiar baritone voice. It was the unmistakable sound of Phil Bonasso’s voice rumbling through the telephone handset. I did not say anything. I had not spoken to a “MCMer” in over twelve months. “Tikie, b-r-o-t-h-e-r”, he rolled the “r” in an almost “Spanish like” way, “are you there???…is that you…?” What in the world was Phil calling me for? Well, time to find out, I guessed. “Yeah Phil, it’s me…it’s Tikie here…” “Hey Bro…just calling to tell you I miss you…Karen and I have been thinking of you and p-r-a-y-i-n-g for you brother. How A-R-E you doing?” I clipped my words “Fine, Phil, I am fine.” “Look Bro, I know that things have been hard, and some unfair things have been said about you Tikie. I don’t believe any of the stuff I heard. I know your heart….” he paused….” And I know God’s anointing on you Tikie. I truly do. GLORY!” I stiffened, all of his Maranatha Campus Ministries jargon was grating on me, but I determined that I was going to be unfailingly polite, and besides, Maranatha Campus Ministries was still tugging at me, believe it or not. I had gone into a black hole with regards to news of my old friends and as far as I knew Bob Weiner and the Pope were getting married next week. Maybe Phil could give me some news about what was up with everyone. And it was actually good to hear his voice. It was comforting in an odd sort of way.

“Thanks Phil, it was no big deal actually”, I lied, “I just needed to get out of MCM… to get away. There were things I saw , that were just not right and I could no longer support what I saw being done.” The memories that I worked daily to keep out of my head were now back, invading my brain and constricting my breathing. It was funny I would go days without thinking about Maranatha Campus Ministries, then I would see a Bible, or cut on a Christian radio station by mistake, or see something that triggered them memories. Good or bad memories, it did not matter, they all seem to hurt my head and paralyze me and bring tears to my eyes. That was why I liked work…it helped me block out all of that stuff, especially the memories. “Of course Tikie, of course,” he purred into the phone. “there are some things that ARE bad, that we are working to… well, to change and clear up. I am leading this effort…” his voice dropped to a whisper, “from the inside Tikie…from the inside.” “Great Phil, that is great” my voice dead panned. ”I know you are hurt Tikie- sure I do. I feel it. I hurt with you Tikie- but I think about you Tikie- I think about what God will do here on earth. Could do…through you.” “Guess what Tikie?” “What Phil?” “Jesus has appeared to me three straight nights in a dream…really…it is getting where I am afraid to go to sleep, really I am.” “Uh huh” I grunted. “And do you know what he said to me Tikie? Can you guess?” Sweat started beading on my forehead. “What Phil, what did Jesus say to you?” “He told me to call you Tikie. To get on the phone and call you. I have resisted it Tikie, because I KNOW you are hurting…but the L-O-R-D told me to call you.”

I was really sweating now. This stuff still had an affect on me and it surprised me that I was reacting to it. “Tikie, you know God has his hand on you. You KNOW he does. And the reasons you left, I KNOW about, I know WHY. You saw the bad stuff, I heard about Nick and all that and I know you were burnt out, and I know that Bob had, well, beaten you up. Bob can be unthinking, we all know that. But Tikie, B-R-O-T-H-E-R- we are doing a different thing out here on the West Coast. We are building something new…” He continued, “Something that will do away with the BAD things and KEEP the good things. The GOOD things that we both saw and loved when we got into MCM and the work of His Kingdom.” “Look Phil, thanks but no thanks, I am through with MCM.” “So am I Tikie, so am I. I mean, God is changing MCM, we are doing things differently like I said.” Phil continued “A few of us have been talking, the good guys. Greg, Phil, Jim, Rice and others. You know Roger [my former frat brother], you love him, you guys are buds. Roger is my right hand guy, he is. It is all sweetness here Tikie, no condemnation, we don’t allow those hard core guys to meddle with us. No Nick out here…. NO Joe Smith, I told him STAY AWAY. And you know when I say things I stand by them…you know that Tikie! You DO know that!” I kept listening. ”And Greg, he was out here last month, he and Helen, well we were talking about you… we ALL were…the fact that none of us reached out to you…well shame on us is what I say. Shame on us! Shame on me!…Shame on everyone!…we should all repent and I am repenting now…it was a b-a-d thing, it was, but we will make it right, we can, you know Tikie, you and me, we can make it right B-R-O-T-H-E-R!” “Phil, thanks for the apology and it is great talking to you.” This was starting to scare the hell out of me and my hand holding the telephone was shaking. I was getting off this call. Quickly. “Hold on Tikie hold on for a minute my friend. LISTEN TO ME and see if you bear witness, to that small still voice, no pressure on you…none W-H-A-T-S-O-E-V-E-R.”

“ Look - you come out here, I’ll front the airline ticket, no obligation. None. You move in with me and Karen- we have a nice place with a pool. You will love it. We will study the word, just me and you…no Bob, No Joe. No Nick. I don’t like that guy. It is sunny out here Tik. Southern California. Beautiful. I have this place on auto pilot Tik. I do. God does ALL the work. And we will get into the WORD and God will start his work in both of us…just me and you …and Jesus… we can do anything with Him…we can build it our way…the way God intended it. We will learn from each other we will. None of this MCM junk…Tik…you can just preach the word, no counseling, no discipling…Roger and me…we are doing a different thing here with Jesus and we are going to change all of MCM. God is going to do it through us!” Well I listened to this stuff for about ten minutes. And it almost gave me flashbacks… and there was a small part of me that was saying “hmmm… just preaching…just the word… just me and Phil, hmmm.” But I sissy slapped that thought down after about ten seconds. “No thanks Phil. I do want you to know that it was nice of you to call and please tell Karen and Roger hello for me.” “Don’t say no Tikie…pray about it first. Okay, you pray about it and call me back, promise?” “Okay Phil, thanks again for calling.”

[ This was the now notorious Phil Bonasso assuring a former Maranatha Campus Ministries elder that he, Rice Broocks, Greg Ball, and others were going to change Maranatha. They didn’t change Maranatha because they didn’t change themselves. And when they started Morning Star/Every Nation, it was Maranatha all over again. ]

The Truth About Greg Ball

This is about Greg Ball, former board member, traveling evangelist, and elder for Maranatha Campus Ministries; board member and pastor for Morning Star International; co-founder and president of Champions for Christ.

Maranatha Campus Ministries was repeatedly accused of being a cult. It was difficult to get to the bottom of the problem with Maranatha because cult-like activity occurred behind closed doors and over the phone. This was deliberate. Another reason is that the worst offenders have not repented. And the victims probably never let on about all they knew. So the full story never came out.

Of all Maranatha leaders, Greg Ball was the worst of the worst. I have had extensive, upclose dealings with Greg; both in being subjected to and recovering from his oppressive, debilitating tactics. I watched the demons dancing in his eyes. I am one of the few people who knows who the real Greg Ball is, and one of the few people who ever came close to confronting and exposing him.

Many times I have become so awed at Greg - how he has perfected these tactics to the point of flawless, how smooth and fast and keen he is, how he is without conscience, how he is completely given over to what he is doing - that I have lost sight of the ugliness of what he is doing, and the severity of the results.

He has a public image of being ultra cool, super likable, hyper together, ultra relevant. He was Maranatha’s most respected board members and one of its most widely traveled and most influential ministers.

But his public image and his private life are about as drastically different as they could be. He is one of the most obscene, demon infested people I have ever met.

Phoney. Condescending. Patronizing. Jerk. Selfishly ambitious. Hate filled. Cynical. Judgmental. Childish. Unruly. Belligerent. Intimidating. Rabid. Rebellious. Insecure. Aloof. Vicious. Scathing. Hypocritical. Wicked. Depraved.

He and several other particularly sick Maranatha elders frequently displayed outright animalistic behavior.

This is difficult for many people to believe. He is a dynamic speaker. People ooh and aah over his sermons. Countless athletes have testified that they were radically altered, for the better and without regret, as a result of an encounter with Greg (or his longtime friend, close associate, and equally charismatic evangelist, Rice Broocks, the other co-founder of Champions for Christ).

He has been so successful because of his intense efforts to control people and to escape discovery. This is so important. It is why former Maranatha leaders have gotten away with so much for so long and at such expense to so many other people. It is also why it is so exceptionally difficult for people to recognize, resist, and recover from the effects of dealing with these people and why it is so exceptionally difficult to successfully challenge them.

The Maranatha lingo for this was 'witchcraft'. The cult watchers call it mind control. But the term mind control is not adequate since it does not convey the hideousness of its effects.

Greg was instrumental in the Austin eldership locking itself into deception, protecting themselves and one another from scrutiny and criticism; granting immunity to themselves and projecting ill will onto others.

He went to extraordinary lengths to keep people at bay, accompanied by a highly sophisticated system of explanations, delays, and recriminations.

Much attention was given in the pulpit to the issue of people questioning the eldership in any way. With such rhetoric as "outsiders looking in," "spectators rather than participants," "if you think the elders need to know something, God is probably already speaking it to us," "wolves attack the stragglers of the herd," "Absalom spirit," and the elders’ favorite, "critical spirit," Greg was sending a not so subtle message.

There was always one more level of integrity you had to achieve before you were considered qualified to approach him. There was always one more procedural objection. You always had something to prove. You were always under suspicion.

If some one tells him something he doesn’t want to hear, it’s quite a sight to watch him unravel. He flinches his face and darts his eyes. He glares. He turns his head and purses his lips. He crawls out of his skin. He has an outburst. He rants and raves. He snits. He spits venom. He reviles.

His wickedness is matched only by his sincerity. He is automatically righteous in his own eyes, not discredited by anything. He does not view his actions as a reflection on himself.

Nauseatingly diligent with other people’s need for deliverance, pathetically oblivious to his own. No matter how appalling his own behavior, "really" he’s supposed to reproach you.

He casually dismissed concerns about himself, offering the most embarrassingly stupid reasons for doing so.

Greg was supposed to have gotten delivered from his love of violence left over from his kick boxing days. Either he didn’t get delivered or it made a disturbing comeback. And this explains why he does things with such incredible force and intensity:

The Bible stories he told during his sermons were stories of violence, told demonstrably. Of a fat king having a sword plunged through his belly, of Israelites who had deserted to the Philistines ripping their armor off when Jonathan turned the tide.

One of the elders went with him to see the movie “The Untouchables.” When Sean Connery as Elliot Ness said, "I’m sworn to get Al Capone," Greg was about to jump out of his chair.

In his sermons, he also quoted from violent movies. Outlaw Jose Wales: "I’ve got lead in my bullets and I’ve got lead in my words." Rambo: "I’m coming after you." Rocky 4: "We’re fighters. There’ll always be some one to fight."

At a men’s conference, talking about David’s mighty men, he said, "Men, do you have faces like lions faces?!" No, but he did. Addressing the church on the subject of dominion, he whopped the pulpit and said, "Men that means to dominate!"

Here is a man whose primary ministry [ Champions for Christ ] consists of telling modern day gladiators that real manhood isn’t demolishing their opponent on the other side of the field, when he himself obviously associates manhood with fierceness and aggressiveness.

In addition to the above, Greg’s tactics include, and excuse the lingo: confessing deformities, extracting confessions, having people get on their knees (ostensibly to repent before God, but actually to humiliate themselves before Greg), telling them that they are listening to the devil, talking about them in the pulpit; there’s something wrong with you because you think there’s something wrong with him; compelling sounding arguments, ostensible explanations, textbook answers, and classic comebacks; hypocritical accountability (others have to maintain maximum emotional control, he can let it all hang out, etc); assuring you that once you are delivered, you will realize that he wasn’t doing anything wrong; telling you that you have a root of this and a curse of that.

With these and a seemingly endless array of other tactics, Greg can do an enormous amount of harm in a very short time. Harm that one will pay a high price to undo.

It is difficult to exaggerate Greg’s condition and easy to underestimate his behavior. He has engaged in longstanding, deliberate misrepresentation of himself and others. I am talking hard core evil. I am talking about calculated wickedness.

He should be viewed and treated as a cultist extraordinaire, the ultimate challenge. Such is his intent and ability to deceive and defraud.




[ Greg Ball is long gone. This is reposted to make the point that, like Bob Weiner, Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, and others, he refused to pay attention on his own and refused to entreated by others. And he eventually crashed. When Rice Broocks cofounded Morning Star, later changed to Every Nation, he insisted it was not Maranatha under a different name and insisted he learned the lessons of Maranatha’s mistakes. But the Victory Campus Ministries lawsuit and the Rick Ross intervention in the Peters case were 15 years after Maranatha disbanded. Clearly Broocks had changed nothing in his new denomination. An ad hoc committee investigated Maranatha in the mid 80s and Maranatha disbanded in the late 80s. Between those 2 events, Broocks said from the pulpit, “They just didn’t understand what Maranatha was doing.” Nor has Broocks said a word about the departure of his longtime associates Phil Bonasso and Greg Ball. Nor has Steve Murrell compelled Broocks to make a public full disclosure. Nor has Greg Ball ever renounced his cult tactics, admitted the financial ethical problems involved in his relationship with athletes, or explained his departure from Champions and Every Nation. Nor has Bob Weiner ever come clean about what really happened behind closed doors in Maranatha. ]

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