Female leaders are at all times to please the pastor: James Macdonald P/5

                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will begin to share the story of Lina's abuse by James Macdonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA. (He has since been fired).

Lina: "I attended Harvest Bible Chapel for 8 years and served as the Women's Ministry Director. A year or so before leaving Harvest I had written a blog post on holiness in which I had referenced the growing fad of tattoos in our culture. I hadn't realised that James had gotten a tattoo that week. My blog had indirectly underminded James. As a result I was asked to meet with the elders, pull the blog piece and write a new one that James would first approve. James ended up sending me a copy of the newly approved blog post and out of fear, I complied. I didn't want to be rebellious against authority. I also managed to write an apology to James for the pain I had caused him. I regret staying at Harvast after that meeting with the elders. I should have left that week, but I was too afraid to cause damage to Jesus and His Kingdom and the women I was leading at that time."

Lina: "By the time I left I had discovered something dark about myself. I was a woman ruled by fear. I didn't want to upset James."

Lina: "There is no question in my mind that what I did see and experience increasingly at Harvest was a culture that functioned and was sustained by fear and the desire to please James at any cost."

P.S. I will comtinue the story of Lina's abuse at Harvest Bible Chapel in my next post.

Read Part Six HERE

Pastors are allowed to lie: James Macdonald P/4

                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will share the story of Jill Monaco's abuse by James Macdonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA. (He has since been fired).

Jill was the Executive Assistant to Kewn Shaw at Harvest Bible Chapel from 2005 - 2008. She was, furthermore, part of the worship team. She has suffered abuse at least on three occasions as follows:

1. A married pastor was inappropriate with her.

2. An elder pulled out her shirt and looked down her back without her permision.

3. A married man and leader at church used an opportunity for a hug to kiss her neck and touched her behind.

Her story is one of the following: spiritual and emotional abuse, sexual harrassment, fear tactics, control, financial mismanagement etc. She had been groomed to be isolated from other influences outside Harvest. Moreover, she had been gaslighted, gossiped about and people had been instructed not to speak to her.

She has seen first hand how pastor James Macdonald destroyed people who spoke out about him. She knew that he lied about people but she did not want to be a target.

Read Part Five HERE

 

Abused wives do not deserve to be supported: James Macdonald P/3

                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to share the story of Anne Frers' abuse by James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA. (He has since been fired).

 

As suggested by the church, Anne and her husband went into intensive counseling led by the church. However, after the counseling, her marriage was a "thousand times worse" according to Anne because her husband was angry how much she had revealed.

According to Anne, the abuse continued and more than two years later she contacted two leaders by email, once again appealing to them for help. She wrote that due to her husband's view of headship/submission she did not feel "comfortable in the role/position he has in the church." However, nobody from the church ever contacted her in response to that email. Instead, one of the leaders told her husband about her email, which enraged him. This escalated the emotional, physical and spiritual abuse.

Anne eventually checked herself into a hospital where she was diagnosed as an abuse victim. She stayed in the hospital for a month. After she came out of hospital she was told by the leadership of the church to move back in with her husband. However, Anne refused to do so and, consequently, Harvest withdrew all support for her having declared that she has rejected the leadership of the church who attempted to emotionally encourage and assist her. Anne has since divorced her husband. and has left Harvest Bible Chapel.

Read Part Four HERE

 

 

The wife is not allowed to ask questions: James MacDonald P/2

 

                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will begin to share the story of Anne Frers' abuse by James Macdonald, pastor of Harvest Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA. (He has since been fired).

From 2008 -2015 Anne Frers' husband served various pastoral roles for churches connected to Harvest Bible Chapel. For all these years, Frers' husband abused her physically, sexually, emotionally and spiritually. She reached out to Harvest leaders numerous times for help but never got the help she needed.

Anne shared with one of the pastors that she and her husband fought frequently and that her husband would "corner her" and would not allow her to go out, spend money or ask questions. That same pastor saw Frers cower at her husband at one occasion and exclaimed to her husband: "She's terrified of you!"

At another time Anne told a good friend of her that her husband used Scripture against her. According to this friend, there was spiritual and emotional abuse going on. Anne was told, "You can't do this; you can only do that. You can't say this; you can only say that." There was a lot of dominant, overpowering behaviour.

P.S. I will continue Anne Frers' story of abuse by pastor James MacDonald in my next post.

Read Part Three HERE

 

It is the wife's responsibility to fix her marriage: James MacDonald P/1

 

 

In this post I will share the story of Bonnie Brztowski's abuse by James Macdonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA. (He has since been fired).

For 12 years Bonnie worked as an administrative assistant at Harvest Bible Chapel's Rolling Meadow, IL, Campus. She had a difficult marriage and had started to receive counseling from the church after she and her husband had separated.

Bonnie: "The counseling my husband and I receivd was very one-sided. Rather than focusing on my husband's abusive and manipulative behaviour, the counseling focused on my lack of compassion, the anger I had towards my husband and the "obvious break" in my relationship with God."

Bonnie: "I was told that my separation from my husband was unbiblical and that I needed to live with him again. I was, furthermore told that I was to submit to him as head of the home, trust God and suffer just as Jesus did for me."

Bonnie: "Harvest upheld the belief that I was to submit to my husband regardless of how I felt."

Bonnie: "The general message that Harvest communicated to me was: "You are the strong one. You are the committed Christian. You have the strength to do this, to suffer. It's the woman's responsibility to fix her marriage by her obedience to Christ."

Bonnie: "I felt isolated and unprotected at Harvest. Other women who underwent counseling at Harvest, have said that they felt pressured to remain with abusive husbands and submit to them. Moreover, Harvest leaders ignored the signs of their abuse and failed to hold their abuser accountable."

Read Part Two HERE

It is all about the Driscoll family: Victims of Mark Driscoll P/11

Read Part One HERE

In this post I will share the story of Chad Freese's abuse by Mark Driscoll, pastor ofTrinity Church, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. Chad was in charge of security at Trinity Church before resigning.

Chad: "In one of the security meetings, you, pastor Mark, told the team that you are "the Head Coach" and no decisions are  made without your guidance and ultimate approval. You told the team if they did not like that, they could find another team. You went on to say the church is structured on your family's values and the security team is to support what you and your family believe. How about what God's values are and supporting what the Bible says?"

Chad: "At another meeting, you, pastor Mark, gave an overview of your background as pastor when you said, "I have the fastest growing church in the nation. I have the largest ministry presence in the southwest Unites States. My content reaches more people per month than any other church, and in December alone (2020) I hit over 10 million people around the globe. Every church in the valley is shutting down and I am exploding.It is miraculous how quicly I have grown." It was alarming to me how you talked about yourself. It was all about you. It was all about numbers. It was apparent to me that "It's all about Driscoll."

Chad: "At yet another meeting you, pastor Mark, went over a " Spectum Trust" with the staff, where you rated individuals on a sliding scale of 0-10 based on how much trust you and the church have in them. The higher level of trust, the more access someone gets to your family because you are at level 10. Once again is it all about the Driscolls.

Chad: "I have been told that the church cannot control who people can be friends with, but if people choose to be friends with those the church does not like or has fellowship with then these people can no longer be trusted and cannot volunteer or have fellowship with members of the church. The bottom line is: are you part of Team Driscoll, Trinity? I was surprised to hear that statement because my team is always Team Jesus."

P.S. This is my last post on abuse by pastor Mark Driscoll. In my next post I will begin to share stories of abuse by James MacDonald, (ex-) pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA.

 

I might lose my position at the church: Victims of Mark Driscoll P/10

                        Read Part One HERE
 

In this post I will share the story of Luke Chase who was abused by pastor Mark Driscoll, Trinity Church, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.

Luke: "I worked at Trinity Church as a worship assistant, and acted as interim worship director."

Luke: "While I learned a lot and did have some buffer of protection from worship pastor Dustin Blatnik who was my mentor and I consider to be a friend, my time on staff had its challenges. This problem was amplified once pastor Dustin was let go off and I was discouraged by other pastors from continuing to associate with him."

Luke: "The church leaders dictated who I was allowed to be friends with. There were some employees I was allowed to spend time with outside of work, probably because of their trust rating. Other employees I was told would be fired soon, and that if I were to hang out with them I might also be fired."

Luke: "On several occasions I was pulled into private rooms for disciplinary conversations. The infractions ranged from parking in the wrong lot to not being active with other worker when I had more important tasks to do. My supervisors resorted to cursing and itimidating me."

Luke: "I eventually resigned when it became clear that the abuse I experienced was not an isolated thing that was normal in the workplace, but a pattern of behaviour that goes far beyond what I first knew. I just couldn't continue to work for an organisation that required its employees to live in fear of being fired."

Read Part Eleven HERE