Your money at Fellowship is... leaving, on a jet plane...
Earlier this month, we spray painted all over the Wall the alarming tale of yet another megachurch pastor who can’t get enough of his private jet.
In fact, Ed Young enjoys the jet so much, he takes it to locals so novel for “evangelism” that he requires two floaties, suntan lotion and a rubber ducky. Case in point, the follow up story Dallas TV station WFAA-TV did on Ed Young that depicts a man who would rather get a lovely stamp on his passport than you know, do something for Jesus.
Ed Young — the pastor at Fellowship Church in Grapevine [Texas] — may soon have to answer for the numerous trips by the leased church jet to resort locations. It’s luxury air travel that costs tens of thousands of dollars per trip.
Tens of thousands?! Unless that dude is coming back to his church with countless tales of missiological exploits, something tells me folk tithe ain’t going to the building fund.And evidently, he’s feeling the heat from the first go-round:
While Young is not legally or professionally obligated to disclose anything to his congregants, he did respond to our report about his travel three days after our initial story aired in February. “This year I am flying commercially like a mad dog to places all over the world,” Young said. “I have also chartered planes.“
“THIS YEAR”... as opposed to last year when he took his family to every island in the Bahamas via a church-paid-for jet?! I wonder how many of the church members get to ride that thing, seeing how they paid for it and everything.
Sorry? No one? Hrm.Yet, somehow, that jet is getting some mileage in the name of God:
Using dates, times and destinations dating back to March 2007 when the jet was acquired, we plotted the trips on a monthly calendar. The record shows the jet was used on 416 days in less than three years.
Among those trips were some well known missionary locations and evangelism hot beds, such as:
In addition to the trips to Miami, the church jet took Young on a five-day trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where — in addition to visiting a few area churches — fishing was on the menu for him and his attorney, Dennis Brewer.
We asked the church for a list of its ministries. None was located in Cabo San Lucas. Add to that six trips by the church jet to the Bahamas, one to Anguilla, one to Belize, and one to England. Again, when asked for a list of foreign ministries, none of those countries was mentioned.
I missed the DVD series that discussed and regaled about the lost souls Ed Young went fishing… er, sorry? Wrong kind of fishing? Well, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
You know, in a day of necessary transparency, there are still a gaggle of ne’er-do-well preachers that is ostensibly in the dark. Their finances, their duties, their ministry needs – each are cloaked in “privacy” and the “Lord’s bidding.” I understand if you have some discretionary cash, and I’m not mad at you.
Write your books. Sell your software. Copyright your conferences. But do not sheer your sheep!
In a day when money is more of a commodity than anything, the last thing any good-intending Christ followers needs is for some fool to come around and treat their tithes and offerings like a free lotto ticket.
Of course, Young has an answer for that one:
‘When I do anything personally, whether it be on a commercial aircraft or a charter aircraft, I always, always, always pay for it,” Young said. “I have teams of accountants watching every single penny.”
Their watching your pennies… but who is watching them? And sure he pays for it… with whose money? Until those questions are answered, there will always be a lack of sincerity when it comes to “fellowship” with this cat.
Unless, of course he is outside a pool in the Tropics.
The Writing on the Wall 
Here is an excerpt from FBC Jax Watchdog, which analyses a video from the Ed Young video blog May 14, 2007. To view the entire editorial you can go here:
ttp://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2010/02/youngs-franchise-player-view-of-himself.html
In the Watchdog’s discussion of Ed Young he says the following…
“He talks about how taxing it is to have to speak to large audiences each week, how tough it is to lead an army of people that “you can’t fire or dock their pay” (his volunteers), and then he offers this disturbing analysis:
“…and then the whole financial thing as well. We’re responsible every year, we’re the main one that raises money. You know I call the pastor the ‘franchise player’ because we’re the ones who are responsible before God for raising money. Every year – we’ve been going here for about 17 years – and every year I’ve stared a lot of money in the face and I know at the end of the day its up to me to raise that money. Whether its in the early days thousands and it moved to hundreds of thousands and now its many many millions of dollars, and that’s a taxing thing…”
“Franchise player”…for those of you not familiar with this term, it is used in sports to speak of the one player on a professional sports team that will be the highest paid player, with the longest contract typically, around which the rest of the team is built. He is the one that the owners believe will bring the fans in, that will sell tickets and bring in new fans and raise overall team revenue. Others on the team are brought in to support and complement this star. He is considered the most talented and demands a mammoth salary, and gets all the accolades and celebrity status and endorsements – often he is considered the “face” of the organization.
If a pastor actually views himself as the “franchise player” of the church, and the one responsible for “raising money” as Ed Young says…it stands to reason that if massive amounts of money ARE “raised” at his church, then he is responsible, he DID something. The pastor-franchise player was the money man, the go-to guy that caused the money to flow from the pockets to the plates. And why if he RAISED the money, then he should be rewarded, right? Who would argue with that? The salesman gets the commission of his sales, the CEO gets a bonus for creating shareholder wealth. And the CEO pastor gets the lavish jet.
What I come away with from this video is that Young, and other like-minded mega church pastors, believe that they are ENTITLED to the huge pay, family on staff – and perhaps even an 8-million dollar jet – because of how stressful their job is and because it is their superior leadership and speaking skills that brought the money in!”
When Ed Young teaches that Jesus Christ is the 2cnd. Person of the Trinity (as he did in 2006), that is all well and good. When he lets Bishop Jakes, who denies and defies the Trinity, preach annually in his church, and does not even tell his church about how Jakes worships a different Christ (to this day), I understand that Young doesn’t really care about the Christ he taught us to believe. When Young says leaders should be open and transparent, I am in complete agreement. When he hides a plane for 3 years, I know he’s being a hypocrite. When Young says he “often returns to the Miami campus to lead sermons” because he’s “personally very active there” (he said this through his public relations firm), I think he should have since he went there 150 times (out of 416 total) in the plane between 2007-2010. When the truth is he only led 2 sermons there from 2007-2009, then I can see he doesn’t care about the FC members in Miami, who know he lied. When Young says he pays back every penny of the planes costs to Fellowship, that sounds ethical and moral. When he refuses to let anyone see the accounting of that, he is insulting and scandalizing the body of Christ in a very public way. When Young says, “(the plane) is something that um, you know, I’ve never been shy about telling people that ask us that all around the country. I tell people that” (04.26.2010 EdYoungblog: “There’s Always a Story Behind the Story” at the 3 minute mark), that would have moderated the news 8 investigation, if true. When his staff and church learn of the plane first from the worldly media, that exemplifies his practice of keeping his church in the dark. When Young suggests he serves Christ, that is exactly what a pastor should do. But when he waves his bible in front of a gold plated grill (Ed Young Jr.’s U.B.U. video at the 0:32 mark; a picture worth a 1000 words), he’s showing the world his inward desire to peddle the gospel for money. Covetousness is idolatry. Jesus said to watch out for false prophets who come to us in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves, and that we would only be able to know them by their fruit Matt. 7:15-23. God, Ed Young’s confessed “audience of One” that he says he is accountable to is permitting the saints to get an accurate understanding of Ed Young’s struggles and deceptions.
I have said that from 2007-2009, Young led 2 sermons from Miami. My wife remembered 2, I remembered 1. But the Miami campus opened, and we both remember seeing Ed on the screen in Grapevine of him preaching at the Miami campus. And we only remember 2 of those. We stopped going to Fellowship in 05/2009.
My statement was very imprecise. I should have explained clearly what I meant. I did not. I completely failed to consider any teaching Mr. Young may have done there during the week, or simply while someone else preached at Grapevine. I mishandled the evidence. And that is sin. I deeply regret that. I publicly apologize to Ed Young, to all members of Fellowship Church, and to the readers of this board. And I will be careful to not make this mistake in the future.
Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever been the first to post.
I try, often even to the point of absurdity, to demonstrate transparency in our ministry. Sure, we’re a small church (in Young’s area), but like you said this is the work and faith of real people, no matter what size church they are a part of. In my experience only good things have resulted in my absurdity.
Stay blessed…john
Thanks for getting in, John.
God will continue to bless his people regardless of where and why they invest in a vision. I only hope that gas remains grounded because of the high gas prices, if anything. then folk can really see what kind of work God is doing there.
Peace and blessings