Many more than even Vonda Dyer knew. And to do that, we must avoid falling into the trap of our Christian beliefs being pitted against culture in the public sphere of debate. You know, when you have somebody like Bryan Loritts, who when hes talking about why when he was at a former church, he didnt disclose to the church that they had a sexual predator among them for six months. He currently leads a multi-faceted media ministry called Telling the Truth which he shares with his parents Stuart and Jill Briscoe. He has been married to Jill for more than 59 years and has three children and 13 grandchildren. And this is a huge problem in the Evangelical Church in the southern baptist church, I mean, just absolutely massive problem where so often the predators covered up instead of brought to justice. For the next 90 minutes, Pete Briscoe enraptured us with his presentation of The Bema.. It is. WebBriscoe says that he wants Bent Tree to be a place where people can agree to disagree over this issue. There was another documented case where he had oral sex with his assistant back in the 90s at WC. When the when the mans lying on the side of the road, naked and bleeding, theyre the priests who cross the street. I think its Pat Baranowskis story that ran in the New York Times that actually caused that. And that was how Bill deformed his accountability structure. Yeah, I think youre gonna be waiting a while. Manipulative theatrics. You know, people like Dee Parsons, Julie Anne Smith, Julia Dahl, and people who I knew would not stop talking about it and would not stop talking about it for months. Mike is a dear friend and Im sad this day has come. (etc. Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Is that correct? I hope someday I can overcome this cynicism because I need Church as it should be. Tell us what you learned through you know, bringing this person to light, confronting him and dealing with the entire situation that we can learn from as a church. I think youre absolutely right about that. WebHi friend, I'm Pete Briscoe. Theyre not holding anybody accountable then. And today Im excited to be speaking with Mitch Little. Growing up in a ministry family, Pete watched and learned from his parents and witnessed the reach and power of Telling the Truth 's media outreach. Jill and Stuart came to the States from England. I He said, Pete, you should have one lawyer on your board but not more than one. And I believe that there is some really sound wisdom in that. https://world.wng.org/sites/default/files/issues/pdf/world_sep012018.pdf, Also, Id encourage you to read the website below. Yeah, right. It is also the church in which Pete Briscoe, my former wonderful pastor, grew up in. Absolutely horrible. I dont think that theres anything at a mega church that innoculates it from being good. To us, he was Stu, Dad and Poppa and we already miss him achingly." I appreciate you so much and look forward to visiting with you again soon. We needed to go to the hills and fight as guerillas, you know, what is guerrilla warfare? Jesus said, I call you My friend. With that purpose in mind, they launched theTelling the Truth ministry. That nonprofit corporation and its bank accounts, thats not what the biblical church is. And so when these things happen, they cant just stay silent. I wonder, I wonder what effect that might have had on them. Judson is located just 36 miles outside Chicago on a beautiful 90 acre campus. I understand that the desire to have elders dealing with what Ill call Echelon or tier level, theological topics: What does the church think about, you know, for example, racial reconciliation? Let me give you some examples. I know about the deleted emails. It is a collection of people. Pete has offered to If you want to know what grooming looks like in the context of church, every elder at a church of any size should read this book. Hes also the chairman of the elder board and his own church, Bent Tree Fellowship. Then, I did what all good Christian college students did at that time I acquired a boot-leg copy of the drama and listened to it several times on my own. They have a responsibility to the larger church to speak. And if youd like to find me online, just go to JulieRoys.com. Petes teaching and emphasis on the sufficiency of Christ leaves an indelible mark on so many of our souls. Friends are important! Pete reminds us that our goal is not to win arguments, but to win people. Get new articles and breaking news delivered to your inbox. WebPete Briscoe is a podcaster and evangelical pastor. It started as a simple tape duplication ministry in a home basement, using a reel-to-reel tape recorder linked to a dozen smaller recorders to duplicate the Briscoes' teaching. And gratitude is where we must go in this time, as Kurt Baxter reminded us on Sunday. What eventually broke the culture of secrecy and protection? The other woman that Mitch represented will remain confidential but both these cases enabled Mitch to peek behind the curtain at Willow Creek and view upclose some of the dysfunctions that led to that scandal. Pete reminds us that our goal is not to win arguments, but to win people. Frankly I find church to be excruciatingly lonely. So, while I have strong feelings about this, as you can imagine being a lawyer, but at all points, legal advice has to be subservient to Scripture. If anything has a whiff of impropriety, we would jump on it immediately. They made a lot of friends a lot of money over the years selling books, promoting programs, platforming them at conferences, platforming them at the Global Leadership Summit. The small tape recording process drew the attention of many people who were eager for a copy of the teaching they heard at church to share with friends and neighbors. Not so much at Willow till after, because I was so wrapped up in the Harvest stuff at that time and the Moody stuff that I didnt really have the capability or the bandwidth to do much reporting about Willow. They had these Global Leadership Summits. And to do that, we must avoid falling into the trap of our Christian beliefs being pitted against culture in the public sphere of debate. So I want you to think about this while you know Bill Hybels is being accused of doing awful things by a dozen women. That way, youll never miss an episode. Its all a Business and Power tool and stage for Virtue Signaling. Because we represent their interests. Those are the good guys. And the people in this story are complex characters. Or what is the church think about Calvinism? something along those lines. WebHi friend, I'm Pete Briscoe. He even cites a conversation with Darrell Bock, a member who disagrees with the elders but who also says it is not an issue worth dividing over. None at all. Im good friends with Vonda Dyer, who worked at Willow and was one of the women who bravely came forward with her story about her interactions with Bill Hybels. The church is nondenominational and has woman pastors and elders. I think ultimately, we are still kind of under the inertia of a culture that was fomented by Pete Briscoe, which was a culture of goodness, a culture of grace and its still carrying forward under that momentum. Heres to better days and better church health. Well, to answer your question, very bad. Theyre involved in their own issue right now. And in the few times Ive spoken with him, I found his insights to be profound. Like if you go back and you actually read his books line-on-line, there are some things in there in those books where you go, For a pastor, that should be unacceptable. But he was attenuating his church culture and culture at large to him in his behavior. Great question. Pete Briscoe @petebriscoe 12 Dec 2021. So if you think of Willow as being a living thing, we are willing to put other things to death on the altar of preserving that organism. The radio program began to attract listeners and supporters, enabling the ministry to expand its broadcasting to a growing number of stations throughout the United States and abroad. Yeah, that is super dangerous. So glad to see you feature Mitch Little. These are people that are in your country club. I havent seen a lot of true owning, true repenting, true confessing. Its M-I-L-G-R-A-M the Milgram experiment, but basically American researchers were trying to figure out after World War II, why so many in German society were willing to go along with the Nazis or go along with their leadership, do incalculably horrible things to people. So, Mitch, how is it that a lawyer from Texas ended up representing victims of sexual harassment at a mega church in Chicago? It took me a long time to agree that he had done the things of which he had been accused. Stuart and Jill Briscoe have always had a passion for teaching God's Word and speaking Truth into people's hearts and moving them toward God. John and Nancy Ortberg had been at Willow Creek as pastors. So Im very much looking forward to our time together today. You formed a nonprofit corporation. Well, I tried other churches and its more of the same. WebSince that time he has ministered on every continent, written more than 40 books, pastored a church for 30 years, and founded a media ministry called Telling the Truth which now broadcasts daily worldwide. It involves a level of compartmentalization that is truly stunning. Gifted with wisdom, discernment, and a bit of English humor, the Briscoe's bring God's Word to life. A man who "dedicated his life to sharing Gods Word with the world" has died at the age of 91. Its a calling of God. For the next 90 minutes, Pete Briscoe enraptured us with his presentation of The Bema. I was blown away. For that we are forever grateful. Pete Briscoe, our pastor at our church came out in support of the Dyers, which was bold, and it was brave. Heres my belief, Julie, I think the church at large, the big leaders in evangelicalism, we can name names if we want to, and Im sure that people have names on their mind when theyre hearing this, Why were they silent? The church is nondenominational and has woman pastors and elders. Please know you are not alone. May you and your family be richly bleSSed!!! They made a lot of friends. To view their entire showroom online. Thats one of the things that attracted me to it is that he would admit something that he had failed, like, I remember one Wednesday night at a midweek service, and he got up and he said how that day he had seen somebody who was, you know, he could tell that they were upset and in need, and he just walked right by the person and totally blew them off. I mean, I Timothy 5:20 says that we should publicly expose elders who are sinning so that others may take warning. And so I do think its a healthy thing when youre afraid of doing wrong, because it will be brought up and you will be held accountable. Pete served as the senior pastor at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas for nearly 30 years, and he now ministers to pastors and organizational executives through personalized, professional coaching. So, thanks for taking the time and you know, anybody whos willing to take a few minutes out of their vacation for a podcast, I just really appreciate it. And so when you see behaviors that look like grooming, you know, John Calvin, Im not a Calvinist. And Willow just, they got killed because they wouldnt respond and say the truth. Board members selected in such a way are unlikely to honor their fiduciary duty ahead of their desire to please the board chairman or senior pastor. Hes also a strong believer and advocate for abuse victims. Like so many of you, I love Pete. Yet, Scripture and to how to teach it became new and deep and exciting every week as I listened to Pete in the short three years I have been at Bent Tree. The church is literally a collection of people. Posted by Jonathan Deatherage on Apr 02, 2019. It is simply to feed ourselves. Subscribe Sign up for my daily email devotionals and to stay in touch! I know for a fact that his article was circulated among the staff at Willow, and they crossed the Rubicon of credulity. I mean, its an accurate criticism of people within the church. And so I hope your listeners understand what I mean, when I say this, thats how good God is that he can use people who are even morally bankrupt, to bring people to himself. And the thing that is astonishing to me, you used the issue of emotional vulnerability is that, you know, a lot of times our strengths are our weaknesses. And they were no friends of ours during the Harvest investigation either. We were talking a little bit about the elder board. And its designed to be acretive, right that they gain strength over time. But it just has not really looked like true repentance in so many ways. Today were talking with Pete Briscoe, who served as the senior pastor for nearly three decades at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, Texas, and now consults with and coaches pastors. And so when I looked at that in the context of James MacDonald going, you know what, thats the type of accountability that man needed and was denied. The priests who cross the street, right? I appreciate your feedback. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about in you mentioned this in earlier discussion we had about the identity of elders and how so often, and I dont think its just elders, I think its a lot of the senior pastor leadership and staff that their identity tends to become enmeshed with the success or failure of the organization theyre a part of. And yet here we see a church thats ostensibly about serving God, and its about proclaiming the gospel and yet this is happening within the church. Now, I coach pastors and business leaders in communications and self-care. (See page 54 and following) I think the load needs to be shared. And yet youre still in a megachurch, multi-site church. For the next 90 minutes, Pete Briscoe enraptured us with his presentation of The Bema.. Jill and Stuart came to the States from England. Pete Briscoe, Stuart and Jills youngest son, was a key contributor to the ministrysteaching team from 2003 to 2021. The thing that is so terrifying is that someone who has been a senior pastor in an organization like that is not beyond it. I was blown away. He, Becky and their kids have been part of the fabric of BT for so long, it is At that age, I had never had someone in spiritual authority lie or manipulate me. And when I came into the representation, that was a new term to me, Id never heard anything like it. What Ive told people is, If you are not ready to blow yourself or the organization up in five seconds flat, you need to find a different hobby.. You have your identity rooted in something other than Christ, the centrality of Christ. Pete is the son of Jill and Stuart Briscoe. To us, he was Stu, Dad and Poppa and we already miss him achingly." But this certainly raises red flags. About Stuart and Jill Briscoe They were almost sacred and benevolent and unable to do wrong. At one point, the elder board at Willow became what people call a policy governance board. They show up, they sell books. That is not a matter of policy. Thats a bad default state. Thats not to say there arent authentic people there. Growing up in a ministry family, Pete watched and learned from his parents and witnessed the reach and power of Telling the Truth's media outreach. I cant vouch for all the information because I havent researched it myself. Why did so many look the other way for so long? He currently leads a multi-faceted media ministry called Telling the Truth ministry church as it should be the church! 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