In this blog post, I am sharing my experience at a church where there was a financial misconduct incident. Rather than reporting it to the local authorities, the financial misconduct or “indiscretion” as it was described was handled internally and with very little transparency. Perhaps the leaders at the time felt like it was the proper way to handle the misconduct at the time. Maybe they would handle things differently now. For a more complete introduction, please read the prior post.
It saddens me to share this information. However, I feel like we have reached a season of time in our society and in the larger Christian community where these concerns might be heard, a fruitful discussion can be had from this incident, and unnecessary suffering can be prevented in another faith setting. On top of this, I have concerns outside of the church. My experience sharing the misconduct with the local police was difficult. It is difficult to confront criminal misconduct in faith settings when it is hard to get law enforcement to listen to concerned citizens.
First, I am going to share the timeline of events from the disclosure of the misconduct until the present time. I will include my experiences at the church and my attempts at reporting the incidents to the local police. Following the timeline of events, I will share some final thoughts.
Announcement of Fund Misappropriation
On September 9, 2012, my family went to church at Clearview Baptist Church in Franklin, TN, like any other Sunday. Unlike a normal Sunday, there was an announcement in the services that the Associate Pastor John Duval was found misusing church funds. From what I recall, it had been going on an unknown period of time. This activity was discovered by another staff person who had noticed a pattern of unauthorized transactions from a “pot of money separate from the general budget” and reported it. The staff began monitoring the transactions as they continued, and John was confronted. He offered a confession to the church and resigned. There was a confidentiality agreement both for him and Clearview’s former Senior Pastor Mark Marshall. From what I understand, the church would be continuing to pay John his salary for a period of time and would be paying for his counseling. There was an evening meeting for those seeking more information.
I was sitting in the service a little shocked about what I was hearing. I was pretty confused about the disclosure as it was very unclear the scope and extent of the misconduct. I thought back to the Wednesday night before the disclosure. I remember Mark Marshall announcing that a Financial Peace class was offered that semester and “some people really need it”. I wondered if he was thinking about John Duval with that remark. Also, Mark preached on the parable of the unmerciful servant that evening.
During the evening meeting, there was a short Q &A. Attorneys Nick Tidwell and Allison Bussell were up front along with Mark Marshall and ordained lay leaders Micah Carter and Jed Coppenger. In this meeting, Mark shared that there was a two-way confidentiality agreement. So, there was information he could not share about John and there was also information that could not be shared about him. Mark was adamant during the meeting that “this cannot get out into the media”. I was really bothered by his statement and with the confidentiality agreement. For one, we felt there was an ongoing lack of transparency (a lot of changes in the church with little input or explanation). Secondly, though we knew what John had misused church funds as he had confessed, we wondered why there were two sides to the confidentiality agreement. What was the information that John had about Mark? Thirdly, it was the end of a giving campaign in which members were asked to give one week’s salary in order to pay down debt. The campaign started a year prior with the encouragement to take one year saving and then collectively bring in the money on September 16, 2012. I wondered if and how the information would be transferred to those who missed that Sunday service in which John resigned (I don’t think it ever was officially). The end of the giving campaign was the next week.
During the meeting there was a lot of emphasis on showing grace toward John. Mark Marshall shared that the church was going to take care of him. I think there were a lot of people concerned since John was a very active pastor and pretty involved in the life of the church and members. I remember asking questions about protocol and asked, “Aren’t we supposed to have processes in place and oversight of finances as a preventative to this kind of misconduct or to stop it from becoming an ongoing problem?” I didn’t get a response from anyone who was up front.
I also remember saying, “There is something wrong here.” I suggested that perhaps it would be worth an outside group coming in to provide feedback. I felt like the leaders up front had quizzical looks on their face.
The other thing that stood out to me is that one of the attorneys, Nick Tidwell, had a really uncomfortable look on his face. After that meeting, I never saw him or his family around the church. When I asked about his family, I learned he changed churches.
After the meeting I talked to Micah Carter twice. First, while inside the building, I mentioned that I thought funds(or I may have asked) were taken from the benevolence fund. John Duval officiated my mom’s funeral, and my dad asked that gifts be directed to the benevolence fund. I shared that John had specifically told me that one of my relatives gave a generous donation. Micah looked surprised but didn’t say anything. Later, on the way out to the car, I ran into him again. I am not sure how, but the preschool minister Connie Hartzell also came up. He mentioned that they were doing an investigation in order to help Connie do her job better. I asked if other people had trouble with her. He said there were others. He asked me to send an email describing our troubles – just not to his LifeWay account but to his personal account.
Given the confidentiality agreement and Micah Carter’s complete silence and this legal agreement between Mark Marshall and John Duval, I figured there wasn’t any point in asking any further questions about John’s misconduct as it was not going to go anywhere. They decided the way things would be handled, and that was that. Despite my discomfort in the way things were handled and the many unknowns as they were concealed, the fact that several church leaders were involved added to the perceived integrity and accountability in the situation. In addition, ClearView had local law enforcement in the church membership.
I worked on an email to send to Micah. My husband and I were regularly involved with the preschool and children’s ministry and had a vested interested in its health and integrity, so I was happy to share my thoughts and experience.
Sep 19, 2012 Email to Micah Carter
New Pastor Search
Shortly after John Duval resigned, Mark Marshall initiated a search to replace his position. Communication from the church reflected a wide search and involvement in the Personnel Committee. However, I was in Bible study with a woman on the Personnel Committee. When I asked her about the progress in the pastor search, her response reflected a lack of involvement.
In addition, my husband emailed Mark Marshall to follow up on this, and he was concerned that there was a difference between what actually happened in the pastor search and how it was presented to the congregation.
So, we called up the church office and scheduled a meeting with Mark Marshall.
December 12, 2012 – Meeting with Mark Marshall
Shortly after John’s resignation, the church began a search for a new Associate Minister. This was a necessary and valuable position for the church as John was definitely the more “hands on” pastor in the church. John went the “extra mile” to provide pastoral assistance to individuals and families – including my extended family – and seemed to have intuitive people skills. The communications sent to the congregation communicated an extensive search by the personnel committee. I happened to be in Bible study with a woman on the committee and asked how things were going. Her answer reflected a lack of involvement in the process. We were concerned and perplexed.
A candidate was announced, and he came to preach in late November 2012. He was a former LifeWay employee who had worked with Mark Marshall in the past. He seemed like a nice guy who fit the job well and was voted in.
We were concerned about how everything transpired in the hiring of this new minister (Mark Satterfield) – in light of our concerns in lack of transparency in decisions. The lack of involvement of an actual Personnel Committee person concerned us. So, we requested a meeting with Mark Marshall. In it, we shared my conversation with this Personnel Committee member and asked about the involvement of the Personnel Committee. I don’t know if he answered our questions directly. Though, he shared some information about when pastors are recruited and hired in the SBC community, it can get a little nasty. Once a senior pastor knows that one of their pastors is a candidate for another job, they might just fire them. Also, he shared that he knew and trusted Mark Satterfield from his days at Lifeway. They would be working side by side, and they needed to be able to work together and get along. He also mentioned that he first had approached another Clearview member and Lifeway employee Brad Waggoner for the vacated position. But, he wasn’t interested in the position.
We also shared our concerns about feeling like changes at the church had been made with little to no explanation. We served regularly and participated in the life of the church but felt “we were just along for the ride”. I don’t remember the exact context, but he also mentioned that there was a “situation that made him want to commit suicide” and something about avoiding a lawsuit (or maybe making some changes to avoid one). He also said that he gets phone calls from places all the time looking for a new Senior Pastor – including a recent call from a church in Mississippi. We thought this was peculiar for him to mention. He had made it clear in the past that he wanted to serve out his working life at Clearview.
During this meeting another church member babysat our kids. I talked to her about the meeting afterward. We shared the reason for our meeting was to get clarification regarding the Personnel Committee – how the woman I knew on the Personnel committee conveyed a lack of involvement in the pastor search process. She said something like it appears that it is just Micah Carter and Mark Marshall making all the decisions. She said that Micah had told them that he felt that Mark had a right to choose his own staff replacement for John Duval, since he would be the one working with him so closely.
Following the meeting, we were still concerned and confused. My husband also reached out to Micah Carter over email several times to see if he could meet with us or him. Micah replied like he was willing to meet, but he never finished responding to my husband.
One thing we did notice during the time period is that Micah Carter spent a lot of time in meetings with Mark Satterfield. I had the understanding that it had to do with church related business.
Redemption City Church Plant
In Early January 2013, Mark Marshall announced Clearview Baptist Church would be starting and funding a church plant called Redemption City Church with Jedidiah Coppenger as the full-time Senior Pastor.
See video blog below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=3URMkfTeUvE
Later in January, there was a Redemption City Interest Meeting on a Sunday Evening – Mark Marshall introduced Jed Coppenger and the Redemption City church plant. Clearview was providing funds for the plant. Jed was the lead pastor/elder. Other pastor/elders were Brad Waggoner, Micah Carter, and Devin Maddox. The other pastor-elders would maintain their employment outside the church. The church would still be Southern Baptist, but would be elder led vs. congregational. Thinking back to our conversation with Mark Marshall in December 2012, we thought it was strange that he would ask Brad Waggoner to be on staff at Clearview, when he was already going to be a pastor at the church plant that Clearview was financially supporting. In addition, it felt like a precarious time both to be funding a new church venture and to be sending off a group of families, which would divert funding from Clearview to the new church plant. Just the month prior, Mark Marshall had sent a plea for financial gifts.
Winter 2013
I spoke again with the family that babysat our kids during our meeting with Mark Marshall. They were close friends of Micah Carter and his family. We talked with them sometime after the church plant announcement. I mentioned to the wife that based on our conversation with Mark Marshall in December, it didn’t seem like he knew anything about the church plant. Specifically, why would he have mentioned that he had talked to Brad Waggoner about the vacated staff position when he was already going to be a pastor in the new church plant? This individual told me that she and her husband were asked to join the church plant, possibly to be a host home to a small group. When they were asked to consider joining the church plant, they were told to keep the information quiet when they were in the planning stages. She said that she and her husband approached the Children’s minister (Shane Pass) to pray with them about joining the church plant. Shane didn’t know what they were talking about – he was unaware of the church plant at that time. They assumed that Shane would have known about the church plant as he was and still is on staff at Clearview. When I spoke to my husband about this, he suggested that maybe the people planting RCC didn’t trust Mark Marshall or there was another reason they couldn’t tell him in the planning process.
Spring 2013
The church changed their financial reporting year.
Financial Reporting Year Change
My dad passed away in the spring. We decided to leave Clearview at that time as we were concerned with the ongoing lack of transparency.
Staff Turnover
The preschool minister position was eliminated. Connie was no longer on staff.
Jeremy Bussell was hired on as Church Administrator, which is the staff position that takes care of the church accounting. Jeremy Bussell is the husband of Allison Bussell, who is one of the attorneys for the confidentiality agreement.
Summer 2013 – Phone Call from Children’s Minister
We got a phone call from Shane Pass asking where we had been. We talked about the church situation. I had mentioned the past scenario with Connie (allowing a male to teach preschoolers alone) and the Redemption City Church plant. I told him that it seemed like Mark Marshall did not know about the church plant when they were in the planning stages. I told him what I had heard from another church member about approaching him for prayer regarding joining the church plant. I told Shane that these church members had said that that it didn’t appear he knew about the church plant. Shane said that I was correct. I had wondered how Jed and Redemption City got the financial support from Mark Marshall when they planned the church plant without Mark Marshall’s knowledge. Shane said that he approached Mark Marshall to ask about the church plant. Mark Marshall said that when Jed had approached him, he said that he would be taking a bunch of Clearview members with him anyway, so he might as well financially support the church plant. Shane mentioned that he thought that was a pretty arrogant attitude.
Mark Marshall Resigns
There were several other staff transitions throughout the year. In spring 2014, Mark Marshall resigned. He secured two interim pastors to preach after his departure. The first was Thom Rainer followed by Eric Geiger. Eric Geiger eventually became Clearview’s next Senior Pastor, though he was part-time and retained his employment at LifeWay.
Mark Marshall Resignation Interim Pastors
More Information About John Duval
In May 2014, we hired someone to do some work at our house. I received a referral for this business from someone outside of ClearView. However, when the owner came to our house, she mentioned that she recognized us. We figured out that it was from ClearView. We also came to learn that we both knew John Duval. She told us about his new line of work. He was working in the field of mediation. She also told us that what he did was “no big deal”. He was only using the church fund as a personal line of credit.
I was a little perplexed by this. I don’t consider using church funds as a line of credit “no big deal”.
I am going to stop here and make a comment before continuing the timeline. I consider this a consequence of pastors minimizing sin and crimes. Breaking the law and breaking God’s commandments is not “no big deal”. But, when misconduct is whitewashed and leaders who are supposed to be held to a higher standard are not, it communicates from the top down that sin and crimes are not a big deal.
Hearing Issues Around the Community – 2015
Since leaving ClearView, we would still see people around the community. As we had recently left and other people were leaving as well, the topic of church attendance would come up. I would regularly hear about leadership concerns and questions and confusion about staff transitions. One thing that was troubling for me to hear was the lack of transparency in the way the preschool minister’s transition was handled.
I have run into Clearview members around town over the last several years. One thing I have noticed is that people have sounded confused and disgruntled with the preschool minister Connie Hartzell’s and Mark Marshall’s departures.
I also heard around town that most of the initial staff who left Clearview to plant Redemption City with Jed had left. Many of the lay families that helped start RCC with Jed had left, too.
There were other conversations that triggered a lot of memories regarding Clearview. I thought more and more about the situation, especially related to the vagueness of the description in John Duval’s “resignation” and the two-way confidentiality agreement. I thought maybe Mark Marshall was hiding things. I recalled a few conversations from the past fall where people were upset with how Connie was fired. I asked a few people if they knew anything about how Connie didn’t follow protocol such as two adults in a room in the preschool department. They didn’t know this.
I also thought a little bit more about the strange circumstances surrounding the church plant. When my husband and I had realized back in early 2013 that Mark Marshall probably didn’t know anything about the church plant while it was forming yet still financed it, it confused us. But, in light of the fact that Jed knew all of the information that Mark was trying to hide in the confidentiality agreement, it makes me wonder whether this had anything to do with the ability to gain financial support.
We also ran into Shane in 2015 at a park. I remember my husband talked to him for a while. Shane seemed confused about why Mark Marshall left the church – he made a lot of changes and did not stick around to see them through. He said they had been busy as there had been a thorough turnover in staff.
Spring/Summer 2016 – Contacted Shane Pass and Jeremy Bussell
I had a number of conversations and emailed both of them. I was concerned about the lack of protocol in the past and the lack of true resolution of concerns. In both departments, they explained that they had implemented best practices strategies and various checks and balances.
I called up the church and spoke to Shane about some of my concerns related what I had been hearing from people around town. I asked him about the preschool department. He explained that Connie and her practices were no longer part of Clearview. He said that Connie left Clearview in the manner in which she did because she refused to meet “demands”. He said that she left her keys at the church and walked out one day. Shane also told me that Clearview was still liable for what happened. I don’t know what he meant by this. I didn’t know if Shane meant to say that they were still in the statute of limitations. Or, did the two pastors make confidentiality agreements where the church would have to pay if it were breached?
Shane also explained that Mark Marshall handled Connie’s departure the way he did in order to maintain her future employ-ability.
During the time that I had conversations with Jeremy Bussell, he “acted” surprised when I told him that John Duval’s friend had told me that what John did was no big deal, he was using the funds as a line of credit. He said, “That sounds like stealing!” The reason I put quotes around acted is that his surprise seemed faked.
Jeremy stated that they purposely kept their distance (or something to that affect) from the events of 2012. I told him that I knew that Allison, his wife, was an attorney for the confidentiality agreement. Of course he would know about the information I was asking about.
Jeremy Bussell also told me that he and his wife, Allison, believe in prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law.
I had asked if my donations and those of my family’s were used in keeping with the intention of the fund. He told me that funds were converted to credit cards and more than the allowed annual amount was given to one person.
When I told him my experiences related to conversation with the ClearView member and Shane Pass pertaining to Redemption City, he sounded genuinely surprised. Jeremy Bussell said that Clearview provided $200,000 seed money for the church plant. I believe the money would have been transferred later in the year. I don’t know if it was one lump sum or contributed over a period of time. At the time of the announcement, Mark Marshall made it sound like it was a committee decision. I asked Jeremy Bussell if there was a neutral person who was part of that decision to fund this new church other than Jed and Mark. Jeremy Bussell didn’t answer my question regarding any potential misrepresentation, so he didn’t confirm there was an actual misrepresentation. Also, I don’t know if a misrepresentation would be criminal financial misconduct. Interestingly, before I had those conversations with him, Clearview’s website had a history section where it listed previous pastors and church plants, which included Redemption City. They don’t have that information on the website any longer as far as I can tell.
August 12, 2016
https://web.archive.org/web/20160812203405/http://www.clearview.org:80/about
https://web.archive.org/web/20160812193954/http://www.clearview.org:80/our-history
December 31, 2016
https://web.archive.org/web/20161231075757/http://www.clearview.org/about
Attempted Reports to Franklin Police Department
In June 2016, I attempted to make a report to the Franklin Police Department regarding John Duval’s financial misconduct. I had spent some time contacting ClearView, and I had confirmed my personal donation to the fund. In addition, I started archiving all of my emails pertaining to ClearView related to finances, staff transitions, and the church plant. During my search of emails, I found one in which John Duval shared that he had oversight of the Benevolence fund. When I first called the department, the woman on the phone asked why the pastor wasn’t making a report. I eventually went into the department and spoke to Officer Cary Bradbury. He listened to my concerns. However, he told me that I needed to come into the department at the time of the notice in order for them to investigate the situation.
I was confused by this visit and my interaction with the officer. I thought about it some more and wrote a letter to the Franklin Police Department Chief Faulkner. Note that at the time of this letter, I was not sure whether pastors at ClearView made a report to Franklin Police Department or not. I was not completely clear as to how things were handled.
Following the emails, I had additional conversations with Sergeant Morgan. He explained to me that when someone gives money to a church, then it becomes the property of the church. So, when someone embezzles money from the church or burglarizes the church, they are stealing from the church, not from the person who gave the money. He told me that he would make some phone calls if I gave him a list of names. So, I sent additional emails with names he could contact. Also, I provided him with information about any possible illegal or unethical activity that I knew of.
Sometime after I sent in all of my information, I emailed to follow up with Sergeant Morgan. He never responded to my inquiry. (I also went into the department earlier this year to see my report, and there was not one at the record desk.)
Shortly after I sent in all my information to the Franklin Police Department, I learned that the Senior Pastor Eric Geiger resigned.
Clearview eventually did hire a Senior Pastor in accordance with their constitution and by laws.
Mark Satterfield resigned and took a position at another church working with Mark Marshall.
Final Thoughts
Simply put, I believe misconduct in faith settings needs to be handled with truth and transparency. Best practices prevention protocol should be instituted for the various kinds of misconduct that occur in faith settings. Even with good protocol, incidents can happen. A response protocol needs to be made ahead of time. This information should be communicated with church members. Church members entrust their leaders with their children and financial resources and leaders have a duty to share this information. Members and visitors should know what to expect in various cases of misconduct.
In the situation at ClearView led by Mark Marshall, the misconduct was not handled with transparency. Both he and John Duval utilized sophisticated legal maneuvers to conceal the full scope of the misconduct. Not only this, but a group of members collaborated with them and provided support in keeping the information secret. Based on the course of events, it appears that sensitive information was being passed through channels of legally protected communications(clergy to clergy, clergy to attorney, attorney to spouse, etc.). I think this may be part of why Mark Marshall put so much effort into hiring people he personally knew from the past and trusted. In order to enact this plan, it appeared that Mark Marshall had to constantly promote facades as to what was happening, when the reality was much different.
At this point, I am left wondering, where did these pastors get their ideas? Is this a typical practice in SBC churches? The utilization of confidentiality agreements to conceal misconduct, whether it is criminal or not, is dangerous. Pastors could conceal anything such as the dangerous practices within the preschool department or worse.
Clearview is an SBC church. Theologically, do the SBC leaders believe that criminal financial misconduct committed by a pastor should be handled “in house”? Does SBC leadership consider it sinful and perhaps unforgiving to report criminal financial misconduct to civil authorities and pursue prosecution of crimes? Clearview is not some outlying SBC church. There are high level Lifeway leadership at the church. When former Sr Pastor Mark Marshall had to take a medical leave, Ed Stetzer took over for him preaching. When Mark Marshall resigned, Thom Rainer was the first interim preacher. Eric Geiger (a Lifeway VP) was the interim following Thom Rainer. Eric Geiger eventually became the Sr Pastor while retaining his Lifeway position.
Also, it appears that at least one attorney (and I suspect both) for the confidentiality agreement and Jeremy Bussell believed in prosecuting criminal misconduct to the fullest extent of the law. So, why did they prop up the scheme by participating in it?
What does it take in Williamson County, Tennessee, for police to take complaints of potential criminal misconduct seriously? I had to keep on pressing the issue with the FPD. Based on when I went into the department to follow up on it earlier this year, the woman at the records desk said that my complaint exceeded the statute of limitations. Well, I do not believe it did the first time I attempted to bring the issue to the departments attention. Also, once I did finally bring my attention to the FPD chief and got a call back about the issue, why is there no record of my report?
I hope this experience has been helpful to read. My hope is that community and church leaders can come together to raise awareness of these issues and institute best practices protocol.
There’s intense political pressure for police and prosecutors not to get involved in misconduct within churches. Churches play dirty if you back them into a corner and someone who runs for political office doesn’t want to be branded as the person who has a vendetta against God.
How would a person ever know if their own church is being disreputable and burying misconduct? You’d have to get lucky and catch a glimpse behind the curtain. I definitely seen my share of abusive pastors.
I agree with your point about the political pressure, especially in the “buckle of the Bible belt”. We love our churches, but we should love them enough to have transparent processes when it comes to misconduct.
One of the reasons that I am sharing my stories is that it might help people see patterns in behaviors that would clue them into whether things are being buried.
So much confusion. So incredibly disappointing and disillusioning that pastors conduct themselves like this. Church conducted in this manner is a toxic poison for everyone. We are better off avoiding it altogether.
Mark Marshall clearly has things to hide. On May 30, 2015, The Tennessean.com published an article about Mark Marshall joining The Glade Church. The article has this at the end:
“Marshall comes from First Baptist Church in Conyers, Ga. He’s pastored churches in Tennessee and Texas and worked 10 years with Lifeway.”
Not one word about Clearview Baptist Church.
Christian pastors are not above the law of the land or the law of what is true, right, and honest. It’s time for Mark Marshall to come clean.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/wilson/2015/05/30/glade-takes-different-approach-changing-pastors/28171653/
I am surprised that I never saw that Tennessean article!
for SBC professionals who are always talking about “the plain reading of the text” when it is to their advantage, please answer this question: “Does ‘an overseer must be above reproach’ mean something or does it not?”
I think the above reproach question is good. I think part of the response has do with a pastor’s theology of response to criminal misconduct in the Christian environment. Rather than bring allegations of misconduct to the civil authorities, there is an inclination to deal with them “in house”. That may include some sort of spiritual restoration process. That is why I am curious about the SBC and other Christian groups opinions on the proper way to deal with allegations of criminal misconduct. Then, you have the “hands off” position of the authorities who give the freedom to congregations to handle things internally, as far as I can tell. Overall, that leaves any Christian environment even more vulnerable to criminal misconduct, because a potential offender will know that they will receive grace.