Out the ECC Board of Trustees - No Transparency, No Justice

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

You may read and post, but some features are restricted to registered members. Please consider registering to gain full access! Registration is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

[Rebel in a Good Way]

In this case I would disagree that elders are necessarily mature grown-ups.  In an abusive system all it takes is obedience and loyalty to rise in the ranks and get positions, not necessarily maturity. I am not speaking about the 2 known and 3 anonymous (obviously) BOT members specifically, just that I wouldn't assume they are mature.

Just giving an example to showcase how strange it is that ECC hides it's elders from anyone. I see GTAs point that now might be a scary time to reveal names, but elders are mature grown ups who've been around the block a few times. We can deal with crap-mail and yucky calls. It's part of the job to help lead through these times, leading also means helping the immature who might throw sticks and stones along the way.

[LisaFeist]

The thing is, is this real, the intent would not be to harass a board member whatsoever. If a person did that, I most definitely would not stand behind it. People are asking questions. And questions are ok. Also, how could they be  unnecessarily influenced? By that statement, It sounds like anything outside of the narrative of ECC is unnecessary? That doesn’t sound very open or transparent.

[Digital Lynch Mob]

Also, how could they be  unnecessarily influenced? By that statement, It sounds like anything outside of the narrative of ECC is unnecessary? That doesn’t sound very open or transparent.

That's ridiculous. They will receive the full report from the investigation. That is the only narrative.

[Huldah]

I have always known all the board members. They have never been "secret". Recently, due to the issues at hand, they decided they shouldn't be bothered, harassed and unnessarily influenced.

This is unclear. (For that matter, GTA's answer was unclear, but I decided to drop it rather than hound her for clarification.)

You can't take public knowledge and suddenly decide that it's secret. So what I'm reading is, you knew who was on the BOT at one time, but then they replaced the BOT members and kept the new board secret. Is that correct? I thought I had read something to that effect a couple of months ago, but I don't have time today to wade through hundreds of posts to find the source.

So I have two questions:

1) Do you, ITR, know who is on the board at this time?
2) Is this information freely available to any church member who asks for it?

Disclaimer. Personally, I don't care who's on the board. As GTA rightly pointed out, I probably wouldn't recognize the names if I heard them. However, I do care whether a Christian church handles serious accusations in a blameless, transparent way. A secret BOT hinders the ability of the church and public to trust the results of the investigation.

[DarthVader]

Also, how could they be  unnecessarily influenced? By that statement, It sounds like anything outside of the narrative of ECC is unnecessary? That doesn’t sound very open or transparent.

That's ridiculous. They will receive the full report from the investigation. That is the only narrative.

I think a better way to frame Lisa's point is "the insiders who are defending MD and the other pastors accused of a coverup are free to influence the BOT all they want, because you can be darn sure they know who is on the Board, but we don't want others with different points of view to influence them" - heck, the pastor's picked all these folks, for all we know, the pastors (including those accused of the coverup) are getting weekly updates from the BOT members they picked and the BOT members are regularly seeking their pastor's input on how to handle what they are learning in the investigation.  It would be interesting to be put in the position of being judge and jury to a good friend...there's a reason why that doesn't happen in the secular world (which is saddly much better on stuff like this than the church) - HINT - it's called conflict of interest.

[Digital Lynch Mob]

The identity of the board members has always been public i.e. listed on Evergreen's website until this issue arose. The explanation given to me was that they didn't want the board members to be harassed or targeted by either side.

I'm not sure that was the best decision, but I can understand the logic behind it.

[Huldah]

The identity of the board members has always been public i.e. listed on Evergreen's website until this issue arose. The explanation given to me was that they didn't want the board members to be harassed or targeted by either side.

I'm not sure that was the best decision, but I can understand the logic behind it.

That's interesting, DLM, but it doesn't answer either of my questions. So I repeat these questions directly to you:

1) Do you, DLM, know who is on the board at this time?
2) Is this information freely available to any church member who asks for it?

[UffDa]

Is it possible that Nick Wenner, a long time ECC member, BOT member, and attorney drafted or filed the NDA?

[Digital Lynch Mob]

That's interesting, DLM, but it doesn't answer either of my questions. So I repeat these questions directly to you:

1) Do you, DLM, know who is on the board at this time?
2) Is this information freely available to any church member who asks for it?

I only know the names that have already been mentioned here. And to be honest, I didn't ask for the other names so I don't know.

[Huldah]

Thank you for your reply, DLM.