F4F | Tavner Smith DISQUALIFIED

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseboro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, there's a story

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I've been sitting on, and sitting on since before Christmas because that's when it broke.

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It broke in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it regards Tabner Smith. Tabner is a fellow that we've covered here on this channel.

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I would look back through the archives of Fighting for the Faith and Tabner Smith of Venue Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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Well, allegations are surfacing that there's all kinds of abuse, misuse of money, and marital infidelity on maybe more than one count.

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All of that being said, we're going to take a look at the allegations, and I'm going to make this note that what's happening with Tabner is typical.

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Typical regarding the so -called vision -casting leaders and the model created and pioneered by men like Rick Warren, Peter Drucker.

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You think of Bill Hybels and Willow Creek and Bob Buford of Leadership Network. These are men who set out to radically change the pastoral office and the way church is structured, not merely what church does.

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You've heard of seeker -sensitive churches or purpose -driven churches or churches that call themselves attractional.

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Well, their model is anything but biblical, and it attracts guys who are sociopathic, narcissistic abusers.

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And some of the most spectacular moral failings that we've seen over the past decade, including

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Mark Driscoll, Perry Noble, Pete Wilson, and others, these are men who it literally takes an act of God to get rid of them because the structure that they've set these so -called churches up, these entertainment venues up, there's no members, there's no church council, nobody has a vote, there's zero accountability, and all of that's on purpose.

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And so, what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at the allegations and we're going to take a look at some biblical texts as it relates to this as well.

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And, you know, what is really the problem here? The problem here is the way these megachurches are set up.

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They're not set up properly. There is no accountability. And the men who are on stage, they are living rock star celebrity lifestyles.

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And when they go off the rails, there ain't no way to bring them back on the rails and hold them accountable or get rid of them and bring somebody else in to serve because they're not there to serve.

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They're there to rule and to reign. So, all of that being said, let's go ahead and we're going to whirl up the desktop and let me pull up my web browser and we're going to take a look at the article that came out before Christmas, published by the

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Christian Post, the Christian Post, and then we're going to take a look at some of the allegations that are being made regarding Tavener Smith.

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And here's the issue, based on what Venue Church is doing for the past couple of weeks, yeah,

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I tend to believe that the allegations are true. So, all that being said, let's take a look at the article itself.

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And they reported before Christmas that at least eight employees of Venue Church, a fast -growing congregation based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, they've reportedly quit their jobs over alleged misconduct by Pastor Tavener Smith, who is allegedly shown kissing a woman who is not his wife in a video that recently surfaced online.

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And you can easily find this video. It's also embedded in this particular article.

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So, last Friday afternoon, staff and volunteers confronted Smith about the video recorded in North Georgia, the

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Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. Now, a little bit of a note, the date for that would have been not the

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Friday immediately before Christmas, but the Friday before, you know, it's like a week and a day before Christmas.

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So, his staff sat him down. Eight members of his staff confronted him with the video evidence that he was, in the video, he's clearly kissing a woman who ain't his wife, you know, and they confronted him.

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And guess what? Tavener Smith has zero accountability. Nobody can hold him accountable, none.

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And this is set up this way on purpose. And so, he's not going to do the right thing.

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You know, he's not going to submit to any investigation. He's not going to own up to what's going on here.

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So, because they could get nowhere with him, they quit.

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Each and every one of the members of the staff of Venue Church who quit, those are people who had the evidence, confronted

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Tavener Smith with the evidence, and because he wouldn't do the right thing and repent and own his sin, according to the allegations and the evidence that they presented, they left.

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They voted with their feet. And that's the thing. Now, a little bit of a note,

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I'm a pastor, but our pastor, as a pastor, I am accountable to the

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American Association of Lutheran Churches. I have accountability over me. There's a clergy commission, and if anybody were to file charges against me, there would be an investigation, and there rightly should be.

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And the idea then is, is in order to establish an allegation, a charge, there has to be evidence and there has to be witnesses.

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If there are none of that, then, you know, then, you know, those charges will go nowhere because pastors do have a tendency to be slandered as well.

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But in the case of Tavener Smith, who is he accountable to? Who's going to conduct this investigation, you know, or anything like that?

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And I would also note that at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor, our church members, they're voting members.

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And so first line of accountability when it comes to Pastor Roseborough is the members of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church and our church council.

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And if I were teaching anything that were contrary to Scripture, if I was teaching false doctrine, you better believe that the members of my church would be all up in my face.

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And if I were alleged to be sleeping with somebody or multiple persons and having an affair, oh, they'd be all up in my face too.

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And the American Association of Lutheran Churches would not be taking those allegations lightly.

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They would spring into action immediately in order to address that. And how do I know that?

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Because I know of other pastors who've had allegations like that lodged against them, and the

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AALC doesn't turn a blind eye to that type of stuff at all. So, all of that being said here, the only recourse that the folks there at Venue Church had, eight members of their staff, the only recourse they had was to quit.

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Because everything has been organized so that the only flow of accountability is that people are accountable to Tavner Smith, Tavner Smith is accountable to no one.

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Now, let me jump off of this right here. I'm going to go to a social media post by Colt Chandler Helton, and he came forward on December 19th after the publication of the article in the

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Chattanooga Free Times or whatever the name of that newspaper is. And he's worked on staff at Venue Church and his allegations are serious, really serious.

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So, here's what Colt Chandler Helton writes. He says, a post about Venue Church, I've worked for or with over 12 churches from North Point to Hillsong.

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Oh yeah, by the way, remember Carl Lentz? How long did he go being immoral and an abuser and a manipulator of money and all this kind of stuff?

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He went years before finally Brian Houston had to reign him in. Yeah. Okay.

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So, I was hired by Venue Church in its early days to set up systems and structures and model anything an adult would experience on a

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Sunday morning. In hindsight, I taught the Iranians how to make nuclear weapons. He thinks that Tavner Smith is an enemy of God.

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I gave a man who had very bad intentions the ability to make a megachurch.

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My issues and why I left. One, there were zero elders or accountability.

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That's on purpose. These churches are organized in this way, on purpose.

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They are taught to organize their churches in this way. So, there is zero accountability.

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The lead pastor had 100 % absolute control and his decision was divine.

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Now, that's misspelled. It should be D -I -V. But anyway, this is how they're taught.

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And I would note that one of the resources, if you would like to do more research on this subject, in the archives of the podcast of Fighting for the

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Faith, we'll put a link to this down in the description. I did a special episode called

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The Cult -Like Hostile Takeover Tactics of the Purpose -Driven Church Transitioning Seminar.

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And it's a two -hour long podcast. It's pretty extensive with soundbites from Dan Sutherland teaching pastors how to transition their churches from having a traditional model where there's actual accountability for pastors to being a purpose -driven, seeker -driven church where the only accountability is that people are accountable to the pastor and to his vision, but pastors don't have any accountability.

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That's all taught on purpose. And so, we'll put a link to this down below in the description. And hopefully, you can find this to be helpful.

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But coming back then, what Mr. Helton here is describing is exactly how these seeker -driven churches and attractional churches are organized.

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And I would note that Tavner Smith has paid a large sum of money to be the understudy of Stephen Furtick, okay?

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So, the way that they do church at Elevation and the way everything's organized there, that's the same way things are set up at Venue.

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And listen, no accountability for the pastor. And every decision he makes, you have to support it because he's the man of God.

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Note number two, Mr. Helton writes, it says, Wow, okay?

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And then physical abuse. I witnessed the worship pastor slam his wife against a wall in the green room prior to going on stage.

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And on many times, verbal talk to her like a dog and scream, submit to me, woman.

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Mental abuse. I witnessed on many times if someone saw or said anything about the money accountability or abuse, they were ran off.

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And listen to this. They were ran off at the church and the church was made to triangulate against the said person and attack them by calling their jobs, their friends, et cetera, and making false statements in person or on social media.

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So, anybody who spoke out against them, they were slandered for the purpose of making them lose their jobs.

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I mean, I seem to recall there's a commandment that says, thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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So, we're talking about demonizing anybody who would speak any kind of sense regarding accountability, either pastorally or financially, right?

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I've witnessed on many times the lead pastor have, quote, alone time with females on the worship team and congregation.

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And by the way, the video that is embedded in the Christian Post, that was apparently taken and shot in Georgia and Tabner was having a private retreat with one of the female members of the worship team.

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That's the woman that he was video kissing, right? So, Helton here says that pastor had a lot of alone time with female members of the congregation and worship team.

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Theology would change on a weekly basis. And I would note here that I've been speaking out against Tabner Smith for years and pointing out that this man can't rightly handle a biblical text to save his life.

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And that alone showed that he was never qualified to be a pastor. We'll talk about scripturally, what are the qualifications of a pastor and what should they be doing here?

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And so, he knows that theology would change on a weekly basis and quickly turned into a prosperity gospel.

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Yeah, and Tabner, he preaches the, you need to give money in order to get money from God.

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Yeah, he's kind of money grubbing in that sense. And then seven, when I went to report the physical abuse.

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So, note that Helton actually thought that when somebody was physically abusing another person, and that wasn't

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Tabner, it was a member of the worship team. When somebody was physically abusing somebody in the congregation or on the worship team, that this needed to be addressed, that that somehow disqualifies them.

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But listen to what happened. When I went to report the physical abuse, I was told I was not allowed to speak to the lead pastor unless I was spoken to.

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And this is all part of the leadership model set up by these purpose -driven, seeker -driven, attractional guys, all right?

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Because he was so close to God and his closeness couldn't be put in jeopardy by speaking to commoners.

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Really, really. So, no access to the pastor to share the concerns and to report physical abuse.

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No, he's too close to God. I'm sorry. This is cult behavior, by the way. And then also he noted that he witnessed drug use by the lead pastor's father, so Tabner Smith's father.

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His father was a part of the church staff for a while. He would do cocaine in the church bathroom prior to greeting people on Sunday mornings, and he was later kicked out of the church for homosexuality, and he died from an overdose a year later in Florida.

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And then nine, diversion of church funds for personal projects and for those at the top.

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There can be no more dangerous man and an organization, Pastor Tabner and Venue Church, and he currently has cheated on his wife.

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So, Helton, he doesn't even say this is an allegation, just speaks as a fact. But at the moment, these technically have to be allegations.

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He currently has cheated on his wife with his assistant and lead worship leader, okay?

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And his staff have almost all quit and he refused to step down. This is in part due to no elder system, any leadership, or any leadership to force him out.

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And this is on purpose. These churches are organized so that there is zero accountability with these people.

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Zero. And again, I think back to Mark Driscoll. Mark Driscoll, there were some clauses regarding morality in the way

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Mars Hill was set up, and when those were invoked, and he was informed that there would be an investigation regarding his use of funds for the purpose of making his book, a

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New York Times bestselling book, by Jimmy rigging the system, that he received,

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Driscoll claims that he received a direct revelation from God that he was released from ministry and Mars Hill imploded after that.

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And he was never held accountable, never held accountable for his abuse, his misuse of church funds, or anything like that.

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These people are, you know, the best way I can describe it is that they're like sociopathic narcissists, and they have zero, absolutely zero accountability.

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And here's the thing, because that's the case, and it's been almost two weeks since the story broke, and there's still been no public statement by Tavenner Smith.

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In fact, let me do this. I'm going to make this a little bit smaller.

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Venue Church, right? Venue Church, and we are going to, let's see here.

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I want to go, I think I need to do the Venue Church. The Venue Church, there we go.

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All right. Okay, the two sermons since then, the day after Christmas and the day after New Year's sermons, they're gone.

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They're missing, all right? And what they're doing at Venue Church on their social media, they've taken those sermons off.

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By the way, I saw the sermon that was posted the day after Christmas, and it was, talk about tone -deaf, cringeworthy.

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In that sermon, Pastor Tavenner, and I'm using the word pastor very loosely,

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Tavenner claimed that he was going to be speaking prophetically, and the message that God gave him to give to Venue Church was,

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I'm still here. And in the message, he even had a time of, you know, submit your tithes and your offerings and sending your money and all this kind of stuff.

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And then the day after New Year's, the 2nd of January 2022, it was

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Vision Sunday. That sermon, you can't find it on their social media or on YouTube at all.

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They're just mysteriously missing. In fact, the sermon that was posted the day after Christmas, it was up for just a few hours, and then they pulled it offline.

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And so, this is the post that they posted yesterday. You can't actually see the sermon or watch the sermon, but they're basically engaging in propaganda here, you know, photos from the worship service to make it look like the place is full.

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But if you're paying close attention, that looks like there's maybe two, three aisles with people in them.

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Yeah. And even that photo right there is made to look like they've got a full house, but clearly it's a tight end shot and they don't.

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Maybe two or three aisles with people in them at all. And of course, you know, they're just carrying on like normal, but here's the weird part.

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You can't watch the sermons. They are, they're not available for you to see.

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And Tavner has not at all given any, any response to the allegations being made by his former staff members as covered in the

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Chattanooga newspaper and as well as the Christian Post. And two weeks worth of sermons, they just ain't there.

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They just ain't there. Again, if you want to know what's really going on, the story is in how these secret driven churches organize things and how their accountability structure is set up.

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Again, the podcast to listen to, The Cult -like Hostile Takeover Tactics of the Purpose Driven Church Transitioning Seminar.

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So coming back then to the Christian Post article, so we're going to keep, so two former employees, four volunteers or members of previously connected to the church told the newspaper that the eight employees quit after confronting the pastor about rumored affair with a church employee.

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Venue Church did not immediately respond when contacted by the Christian Post on Thursday morning, but a spokesman for the church told the

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Free Times that no comment will be made until after the severance process for the staff was finalized. No comment, no comment will be made until we work out their severance packages, which

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I'm sure are going to include NDAs, non -disclosure agreements. We'll give you a three month salary as long as you don't say anything.

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It's going to be interesting. Now, the Christian Post then notes that court records show that the pastor and his wife,

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Danielle Smith, who had three kids, they began divorce proceedings in May, according to the

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Times Free Press. And before the report, several individuals who said they are former members or employees of the church publicly made significant allegations of pastoral abuse and misconduct against Smith and his leadership team, including what they suggest is a pattern, pattern of marital infidelity.

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Former Venue Church employee Colt Chandler Hedelin, we already read his allegations here.

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And so, his allegations made it into the Christian Post article, but you get the idea. So, what's the problem here?

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What the problem is, is that all of these megachurches that follow the seeker -driven leadership model, there is no accountability for these vision -casting leaders, none.

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These men aren't actually pastors. And Tabner Smith was never qualified to be a pastor.

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And this is where we have to just sober -mindedly say, listen, this whole experiment with megachurches and creating these vision -casting leaders, all this kind of stuff, it's nothing short of a rebellion against the very thing that Christ has established in his church.

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So, let's talk about how does leadership work in the church that Christ established?

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What does the Holy Spirit will regarding the men who are to serve, not rule, serve in Christ's church?

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So, we're going to start here in a strange place, but I want you to consider the implications. In the

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Gospel of Matthew chapter 20, we begin in verse 17, and listen to how this all goes down, because it's kind of crazy if you think about it.

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Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. He took 12 disciples aside, and on the way, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the

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Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death, deliver him over to the

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Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.

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So, they're going to Jerusalem, and what's the purpose? Jesus is going to die for your sins, for my sins.

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He's going to suffer in our place. God is going to lay on him the iniquity of us all, and the chastisement that brings us peace will be upon him.

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Christ isn't going to set up his kingdom in Jerusalem. He's going to bleed and die for the citizens of his kingdom, for their sins, so they can be forgiven, pardoned, and reconciled to God, and here's the thing.

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The disciples, you know what they were thinking about? Power, prestige, influence.

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They didn't even listen to what Jesus was saying. They were starting to work out who was going to have which cabinet positions in Jesus' administration, but that's not what

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Christ came to do. So, the mother, we'll read, the sons of Zebedee, man, they had their mom do their dirty work for them.

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So, the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something, and he said to her, what do you want?

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She said to him, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your kingdom.

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One's to be the prime minister, the other the grand vizier. This is crazy, right?

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Didn't they hear what Jesus said? He's going to Jerusalem to die, right? So, say to these sons of mine, one is to sit on his right hand, the other on your left in your kingdom.

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Jesus answered, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup I'm able, that I'm to drink?

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And they said to him, we are able. He said, all right, you will drink my cup, but to sit on my right hand and my left, it's not mine to grant, but it is for those whom it has been prepared by my father.

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And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But watch what Jesus does next.

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Says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles, they lorded over them and the great ones, they exercise authority over them.

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It shall not be so among you. In other words, in Christ's church, ain't nobody the leader except for Christ.

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And pastors and teachers and evangelists and people in the church, they're not there to rule and to lord their power over other people.

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No, listen to what he says. Whoever would be, whoever among you would be great, he must become your servant.

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And whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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So, Jesus rules out here, popes and vision casting leaders and unaccountable men of God who cannot be bothered with commoners and stuff like this.

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You get the idea. Christ came to serve. And the people that serve in the church are just that.

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They are servants and slaves. That's what a pastor is. He's a servant.

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He's a slave. He's not there to rule. He's not there to give edicts. He's not there to cast vision, not at all.

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And not only that, there are moral requirements to be a pastor in Christ's church. And there are also doctrinal and standards regarding teaching and what it means to teach in Christ's church.

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So, we'll take a look at a couple of passages along these lines. 1 Timothy chapter three states this.

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Now, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, those are your pastors.

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He desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

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And I would note that at this point, Taberner Smith is not that. He has not addressed these allegations and the fact that he has eight members of his staff who voted with their feet because there was no other thing that they could do and left and went to the press to tell people these allegations are true, that they're standing by their allegations by leaving and going public with it.

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Tabner is not above reproach. He's not qualified, never was ever qualified.

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And you'll see that more in a minute here. So, it must be the husband of one wife. This deals with sexual morality.

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Pastor is to be chased. Be the husband of one wife. And the idea here is that if he's shacking up with multiple women, he disqualified, right?

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He must be sober minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, and able to teach.

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And we'll talk about more about this in Titus. He should not be a drunkard, nor violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

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He must manage his household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

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And I would note here, there's a big question mark now hanging over Tabner because people who've left the church are saying, they're alleging that there is a pattern of infidelity.

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And we know for a fact from the public record that divorce proceedings began regarding Tabner and his wife back in May.

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And the question is now, why? Why are there divorce proceedings?

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Did she cheat on him? Well, that would be a horse of a different color. Or is the reason why she's filed for divorce or the divorce proceedings began because of infidelity on his part.

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So, this has to be sorted out, but who's going to sort it out? Tabner has it all set up so that nobody can hold him accountable.

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Nobody. And that's the problem. This is contrary to scripture. Contrary. Okay.

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He must not be a recent convert or may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

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Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders. And I would argue, Tabner Smith is not well thought of at this point by outsiders because there's reason to believe the allegations may be true in relation to his infidelity and abuses and financial lack of accountability and mismanagement of church funds and other things.

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And he still hasn't addressed publicly any of the allegations. Not a single one.

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That's also a huge red flag. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil.

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And then let's see here. I'm going to go to Titus, similar text.

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This is also a pastoral epistle. And Paul writes to Titus and he says, this is why

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I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town. These are going to be your pastors as I directed you.

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If anyone is above reproach, husband of one wife, his children are believers, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

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An overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

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But he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

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And at this point, the people who worked closest with Tavner are saying that ain't that.

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He ain't that. He's the opposite of that. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine or rebuke those who contradict it.

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And I would note that since Tavner Smith has shown up with regularity on Fighting for the Faith, the podcast, as well as the

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YouTube channel, I can definitively say he does not know how to rightly teach God's word and to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine.

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He is a Bible twister extraordinaire. And a former member of his staff said that his theology morphed and changed week by week.

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Uh -huh. And then Paul goes on to say, there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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They must be silenced since they're upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

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One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

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So, this testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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So, Tabner Smith doesn't teach what's in accord with sound doctrine. He's a Bible twister, a horrible one, egregious one.

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And we've documented that for years. He never met the qualification necessary for a pastor to teach.

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But here's the thing, in the seeker -driven and attractional evangelical churches, they don't think that doctrine is anything that matters at all.

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In fact, you point these doctrinal discrepancies out, and they fall on deaf ears.

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But the reality is that doctrinal discrepancies and immorality oftentimes run together.

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That is a very frequent thing. And now the other chickens have come to roost, and here's the issue.

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Tabner has established it in such a way, ain't nobody capable of holding him accountable. So, what do you do?

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Well, I would note that anybody who sends a penny, a single cent to Tabner Smith or to Venue Church at this point is sinning.

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God does not want them to do that. And instead, what they should do is hold all of their money in reserve and say, we are not going to give a single cent until there is an independent investigation into the allegations, and that Pastor Tabner must submit himself to this independent, these investigators and whatever their recommendations are.

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These allegations need to be investigated, and there needs to be people who can come forward to substantiate the allegations.

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And until Tabner addresses them and has them addressed, and his name is cleared by an independent third party, that he gets zero support, zero.

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And in situations like this, I'll tell you, it's usually standard procedure when pastors have real accountability.

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If there are this level of allegation, this egregious of a breaking of God's law and the moral behavior is so far outside of the realm of what is acceptable for a pastor, oftentimes, it is absolutely necessary that a pastor be sat down or suspended pending the investigation.

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So, until Tabner submits to any of that, and he won't, then nobody should be supporting him and everybody should be reminding the other people who are attending there that God does not will that men who are immoral, money -grubbing, unaccountable, untrained, that they be teaching in Christ's church.

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Christ is the Lord of the church, not me, not Tabner Smith, not Stephen Furtick, not

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Rick Warren. Christ is. And Christ, through his word, has made it clear what the standards are for men who are pastors in his church.

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And clearly at this point, Tabner Smith does not, nor has he ever, held the qualifications necessary to be a pastor in Christ's church.

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So, he needs to step down and submit to an independent investigation into these allegations and then submit to the recommendations afterwards.

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And if he won't, and if he doesn't, and he won't address these things, then you need to mark him as a wolf because that's exactly what he is.

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So, hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.