Steve Huston, the former chairman of Harvest Bible Chapel’s executive committee–and one of the elders who appeared in a video in 2013 excommunicating former elders–has resigned from the elder board. Also tonight, Campus Pastor Greg Bradshaw, head of the Harvest 2020 Team, admitted that “there’s been ungodly behavior as it relates to the spending in our senior pastor’s office.” Bradshaw also admitted “there hasn’t been proper controls or good accountability” over senior pastor’s spending.
Earlier today, I reported accounts by former staff showing that now-fired Harvest founder, James MacDonald, used church money for multiple lavish expenditures like African safaris, vacations in Naples, Florida, and expensive remodeling of his executive office. Tonight, Bradshaw said Harvest would be undergoing an independent financial review by an independent firm, Plante Moran.
In a tearful statement before the congregation tonight in Rolling Meadows, Huston apologized on the part of the board for a “failed system” that gave “too much latitude” and “too much trust”; for requiring only “partial accountability” of MacDonald; and for an “absence of communication” that “spoke too little, too late.” In addition, Huston admitted that the former executive committee, which had sole responsibility for the setting the church budget and executive compensation, “failed to follow the Holy Spirit.”
[pullquote]”Huston apologized on the part of the board for a ‘failed system’ that gave ‘too much latitude’ and ‘too much trust’; for requiring only ‘partial accountability’ of MacDonald; and for an ‘absence of communication’ that ‘spoke too little, too late.'” [/pullquote]Huston also apologized for his “part in defending actions and people that I now know weren’t the complete picture, or even correct.” He added, “In my ignorance, or in my misplaced trust, I perpetuated misinformation and extended the problem.”However, at no point did Huston apologize for excommunicating former Elders Scott Phelps and Barry Slabaugh in 2013, and censuring former Elder Dan Marquardt. On the videotaped excommunication, Huston labeled the former elders’ refusal to accept “elder consensus” a “great sin.” He also says that “publicizing viewpoints rejected by the elder majority for any reason is Satanic to the core.” And he warns “the people of Harvest Bible Chapel” to avoid these former Harvest members at all cost lest you incur great detriment to your own soul.”
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In 2014, MacDonald gave a general apology to these three men. However, I reached out to these men tonight and asked if Huston has ever apologized to them. Marquardt responded, “No, not in any way, shape, or form.” Similarly, Phelps said, “We’re still waiting–five-and-a-half years and counting.” Slabaugh simply said, “Steve has not reached out.”
Huston also offered no apology for the lawsuit the church brought against me and the authors of The Elephant’s Debt and their wives.
Personally, I found Huston’s apology severely lacking. This is a man who was as close to MacDonald as anyone. And as the chairman of the executive committee, he was responsible for the gross misappropriation of funds for MacDonald’s private use. He also lied and supported lies repeatedly. One of the biggest lies was the Elder Update about the dissolution of Harvest Bible Fellowship, which claimed that all HBF monies had been used for “churchplanting purposes.” We now know major amounts of the money went to Harvest executive salaries and a systems upgrade for HBC Elgin.
In light of this fact, I find the following statement by Huston laughable: “I’ve had some friends that have tried to console me, saying that, ‘You weren’t alone,’ ‘You did your best,’ or ‘You just didn’t know.'”
Steve Huston knew. And he didn’t do his best. He lied, covered up MacDonald’s sin of which he was well aware, slandered former elders, and in the past few weeks, obstructed those who tried to report the truth. I’m glad he apologized for some things tonight, but his repentance tonight was shallow at best.
Similarly, I think Harvest’s decision to undergo a financial review falls short. Given the magnitude and scope of the financial improprieties at the church, Harvest should be inviting the authorities, not a private company, to do a thorough investigation.
Below is video of Huston’s statement tonight and a transcript. Also, at the bottom of the page is the 2013 excommunication video in which Huston took part. I’m also posting audio of Huston’s statement and the Harvest 2020 update, which followed.
Video of Steve Huston’s statement:
Transcript of Huston’s Statement:
Good evening. My name is Steve Huston. I’ve had the pleasure of serving as an Elder here for a number of years. The Interim Elder Board has asked me to just kind of share some things from our heart. I don’t have a prepared statement and just kind of have some notes so that I don’t forget to say some of the things that we wanted to say. But if you’ll just give me a moment to share what’s on our heart, in reflection about the season that we’re going through.
I would just say first and foremost that you need to know that we as Elders believe that if we had a chance to do it all over again, we would just do it way different. We want to just kind of share some things that we’ve learned, things where we feel that we have let you down, where we have failed in our leadership. Just know that when we say these things, we are speaking from heavy, grieving, broken, repentant hearts.
A few areas where we feel like where we have failed the church. First one would be really a failed system. You’ve probably heard the phrase “Elder-governed, staff-led”. And really what that basically means is that rather than the Elders sitting at a table and making daily decisions and operational decisions and who [sic] gets spent where, who gets hired, things like that. he church is too big. It’s not reasonable for people who are volunteers who work other jobs to show up and make those decisions in the right kinds of context. So what we do is we created a policy. Says, you know, staff has boundaries. They can do whatever they want, as long as they stay within the boundaries. Unfortunately, it’s a failed system in the sense that the boundaries were too broad. Too much latitude, too much trust given. And I think we’re feeling the consequences of decisions that were made without enough oversight. Also allowed–sorry, just trying to get everything out. The other part of our failed system was an expanded Board. On paper it looked good. Thirty men. Greater accountability, but the reality was just the opposite. It had too many people. It was too hard to get decisions done. And as a result, we resulted with a Board inside of a Board and broken trust and [unclear].
Another area that we have learned that we failed in would be the area of accountability. That was our job. Especially the Executive Committee, but also as Elders, was to hold the Senior Staff accountable, the Senior Pastor accountable. And what we did is we operated under a model of accountability defined as giving an account after the fact. I’ll report back to you what we’ve done, but without relying on too much. It was on a pretense that people would do the right thing. That kind accountability is really just partial accountability. It’s not full accountability. Full accountability is saying “I want to share with you, this is where we going, this is what we’re going to do. Here’s the plan. Speak into those kind of things. Help us make some course directions. But when it’s always in arrears, it’s often too late. And that builds itself up until finally we had what we went through. And everything got held of until the very end, where we did bring full accountability, first under the EC, then by the Elder Board, terminating Pastor James MacDonald.
The other area where we have really failed–I just want to look you in the eye and to say as Elders, we have really failed strongly in this area. And that’s in the area of communication. It’s a phrase that I’ve heard many times in the past six weeks. In the absence of communication, you burn trust as fuel. I just couldn’t think of anything that’s more truthful than that. We spoke up too little. We were often too late. And very much too vague. And that left you wondering what we were thinking, where things were going. And one of the lessons I’ve learned from seasons past is that you should tell your story or someone else will. And I would say that that’s what we have suffered from. And so I sincerely apologize on behalf of the full Elders for that. It’s a daunting task, but we didn’t–we failed to prioritize it for the importance that it was. We just ask for your forgiveness for that.
Another area of failure was [pause and deep breath] following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Too many times we had to make hard decisions. Fast decisions. Decisions that, frankly, were preloaded, I think, for some specific outcomes. I know sometimes as a member of the EC we would talk about some things and I would say, “We did that.” We felt we had weighed out all the options and said, “You know, here’s what we should probably put in front of the Elders.” And so, as a member of the EC, I just want to confess that to you. We weren’t really trying to coerce folks or outcomes. We thought we were being efficient, but we realize now we really limited the ability of those extra men to provide their insight and their knowledge and their expertise.
In addition to that–just again, having limited options–hurry and make a decision. You gotta do it this way or I’ll quit, or the staff the quit. And some of our most desperate most actions, these were the conditions that we operated on. That’s a failure of leadership. So I confess that to you, on behalf of our Elder Board. In this we actually sinned. Because, in reflection about what we’ve been through, each and every one of us can say: “You know what? We think we felt something in our heart about the decision that we made.” But we were afraid. We put the fear of the outcome over the fear of the Lord. And that’s sin. And so we repent that in front of you.
So for these reasons, and others I’m sure, you all know that we have, as an Elder Board, resigned. A few of us are lingering around, just to make sure that we can begin the process of transitioning new men onto the board, assisting with Harvest 2020, with whatever tasks that they decide that they need from us. And pretty soon Harvest 2020 will have a more clear update exactly about how we are in the process of doing that. But basically our goal is to have every man who is on the Interim Elder Board to be rotated off by May 31st, if not sooner.
So that’s the part that the Elders have asked me to share on their collective behalf.
But now I want to speak for me. [Long pause] And I do this with the permission of the Elders. I am in full agreement with our Elders and the fact that we’ve been hearing and seeing very clearly– And by the way, I’m just going to read this because otherwise I won’t have it right. Hearing and seeing very clearly that change is needed–not just in word but also in deed. As I just said, the process for replacing the Elders is well underway. However, I am convinced that more visible change is necessary. And I’m pleased to say that I can see that we’ve got staff stepping up into leadership roles that have been vacated. There’s a process in place. There’s accountability starting to form. A change in culture. I see it. Because I can, I feel like it’s the right thing to say that, as of my moment walking off the platform, I’m no longer on the Board. I will have no further involvement in the leadership [voice breaking a little with emotion] or governance of this church. Because it’s the right thing to do. And I will just be available to answer questions that the leadership may have.
In addition to the comments that I shared with you before, I just want to add that I apologize for my part in defending actions and people that I now know weren’t the complete picture, or even correct. In my ignorance, or in my misplaced trust, I perpetuated misinformation and extended the problem. And I just repent before this church. Just please forgive me.
I’ve had some friends that have tried to console me, saying that, “You weren’t alone,” “You did your best,” or “You just didn’t know.” But like other former or present leaders who have shared their own expressions of regret and repentance, I just want to say on my part and the leadership failures of the church. I have sinned and I ask for forgiveness from the Lord and from you.
As I go, I just want to say I love this church. It’s the only the church that my family, my kids know. I truly, truly believe it’s beginning to take the steps in the right direction for a more healthy culture, more transparency, better financial oversight–fixing all these cultural problems that we’ve lived with, so that we can be the forgiving, loving, and nurturing church that I know we can be. That God calls us to be. I have hope that God will continue to do His work in this place.
So I just want to leave you with God’s Word, taken from Lamentations. Chapter 3:21 through 24. And this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
Thank you.
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69 Responses
Fear not “Stevie,” when the lawsuits eventually start flying, the Elder Board Chairman will not be exempt from them. You will be in good company, singing like a canary, but ignorance of the law, is still no excuse. The damage done to hundreds, if not thousands of former members for gross spiritual cruelty, and severe emotional harm and pain will not be erased by either your tears, nor apologies, nor a big “mea culpa”. You have made your bed with Jimmy Mac, now sleep it!
Hi Julie.
Show that excommunication head-bobbing video over…and over…and over…and over…and over…and…
The three elders mentioned above are the keys to getting Harvest right. They were trespassed against. The present elders should resign, and ask for their forgiveness on behalf of Harvest. They should then ask the former elders to take control of the board as a starting point. The Harvest 2020 thing is jumping ahead, and a way for the professionals to protect their interests. Craig Bradshaw said he was representing the campus pastors on the Harvest 2020. Well all these men were JMac’s close associates. One even went on a safari. The only way this process can be trusted is to start over with the elder who stood by the truth. Harvest must try to prevail on them to help right the ship.
Phelps, Marquardt, and Slabaugh should all be the first new elders
the new elder board!
Again I am not seeing any repentance with these people. They only come forward and ask forgiveness after they have been outed. The deceit and sin at HBC is so rampant that I doubt it will ever be purged. Unless or until all of old guard is gone and out of the church.
GBR I wholeheartedly agree.
Their arrogance and lack of repentance is appalling. I’m waiting to see what God will do. And He will.
This is is nauseating ? when are these elders all going to just shut up and step down?? they literally remind me of the “Stepford elders ! So rehearsed so not genuine so half baked. this man is a coward and should be on his knees crying and begging for forgiveness what an atrocity Not that anyone would believe him even if he did cry at this point. He could’ve said This in two minutes. Just a lot of nothing disgusting
Greg Bradshaw, Mo Zachariah and Jeff Donaldson must go.
They are all crying fake tears now only because they got caught. They went along with all of this for years.
Time will tell if this apology is true repentance….I was at the meeting tonight and I’m still astonished at the fact that Steve Huston and Greg Bradshaw act as if all this is something new to them, like they just found out about Jamacs Shady dealings a couple of weeks ago….. l had a meeting with Steve Huston in 2017 to voice my concerns, I opened my Bible to show Steve Huston where I believed Jmac was out of line he never once opened his Bible to show me where I was wrong and believe me I wanted to be proven wrong, all he did was make excuses for Jmac…this Debacle has been going on for years and the XLT and Fred Adam’s were part of it………and I believe most of the Elders and most of the pastors knew about it too, and therefore are complicit and Disqualified from leadership…..The Feds should do an audit on Harvest, not some outside group hired by The leaders at Harvest they have no credibility and I mean absolutely none…and that’s there fault not anybody elses.
I couldn’t agree more the healing can’t start until the cancer is removed ie Jeff,Rick and so on then with God’s help Harvest might survive if it is God’s will. I was a member for 13 years and until recently I did not realize James and Kathy were thieves and the elders were enablers at best and coconsperoters at worst. I am fearful for the McDonald s God will not be mocked.
A lot of excuses and rationalizing why things are falling apart.
But the problem is not insufficient communication, or an unwieldly elder board that was rushed or fearful! These are normal challenges that any church can face with integrity. Maintaining that these challenges were/are HBC’s primary issues is ridiculous and a diversion. The real problem with Harvest Bible Chapel and the legacy of James MacDonald is one of institutional corruption, greed and depravity. My opinion.
I am wondering why Fred Adams has been so hidden in all this. He is the only one who can decipher the books that show the unethical and immoral spending. The outside firm should be knocking on his door.
As a financial professional I can tell you that the ECFA and the church auditors look at the books to ensure they are in conformance with accounting principles. while they may do cursory reviews of transactions their charge is just to make sure it looks right. That is why, if you read their “opinion” it states that the financial statements present fairly the position of the church.
I would be the first to say I doubt you will find illegal spending (although I could be wrong). However, I am sure there will be a lot of questionable, unethical items that could generate tax fraud reviews related to personal income.
As more comes out I am sure more leaders will be “compelled” to resign as the façade falls away and their actions are seen in the light of day. It is just another picture of their hubris that it takes the publication of something for the right action to be done instead of standing in front of the church and confessing their sin.
Song of Joy, I agree with you. ..The Honchos at Harvest have to make excuses and rationalize, they’re in so deep that if these guys ever come clean and disclose everything they will most likely end up doing the perp walk in an orange jump suit.
If the leadership confessed to ungodly spending, they should pay back HBC four times what they stole like Zacchaeus, plus 10 times what they stole from God. A financial audit and review should reveal that any funds misappropriated for personal use by any staff be returned to HBC. A lien on their property and/ or usage of a collection agency should help reduce the $42 million debt. Start with JMac and all staff, if needed criminal charges should be brought against them as well. He would look great in an orange jumpsuit with his black HD video.
Good communication from a biblical standpoint begins with honesty. Which is why Harvest leaders have been poor communicators. If you know people who were in the “know” at Harvest I’d strongly recommend they seek legal representation….
I have worked with forensic accountants for two decades. HBC has never had a real forensic accounting done. It is serious and takes no prisoners. It is time.
I won’t name names, but I understand there is a personal relationship with at least one higher up at a big 4. No matter. They can even use the same firm. Just have to get a statement of work with a different service line.
And I really hope this gentleman, Huston, is being honest. I don’t know him, so I can’t say.
But watching this as someone who hasn’t met him, my BS detector was ringing. I very much apologize if I am wrong.
RD you are not wrong, your BS detector is working just fine…..Huston is one of THE MOST slippery Weasels you ever could meet….I apologize to all Weasels comparing Steve Huston to Weasels is an insult to Weasels.
“Its been a pleasure, but uh, now that more people know the truth I’m um sorry … about all that stuff.”
About his optimism that Harvest is beginning to “fix all these cultural problems we’ve lived with”. Like as though he was a victim too. That is disingenuous brand promotion at best, at worst a slap in the face to all who gave sacrificially so James could spend $20,000 on posh Naples vacations.
Perhaps in time Mr Huston will not just “feel sorry” but truly repent as evidenced by personally meeting with those he has wronged, publicly correcting his statement that other elders actions were satanic, and telling the specific truth about how he looked the other way when James dropped tens of thousands of dollars of tithe money on personal indulgences. Or, how he looked directly at it because he was getting some of the scrap that fell off that table.
It is tiring hearing these apologies. They knew what was going on and they enjoyed many of the benefits from being close to a celebrity pastor. Steve knew and enjoyed the ride. Now after the pastor is caught, everyone is sorry. James surrounded himself with people that were easy to manipulate. If you couldn’t be manipulated, you are thrown out by these very elders that are sorry now. Meanwhile, many of the great people that attend are trying to bring Jesus to their friends and acquaintances and this widespread behavior of pastors and elders damages the very kingdom work that we are all trying to do. I saw it first hand and had my share of yelling at me spurts by the pastor, I could do nothing to change it, so we knew we had to take our money and leave long ago. All those faithful tithing people’s money now wasted, and all people get is an apology once finally caught. There is hope after Harvest. So many great churches and ministries to apply your life too. Not perfect, but good…have faith, there is hope after Harvest!
What a generic, non-specific apology. Lots of words, meandering, hard to follow. As Julie said, shallow at best.
Why isn’t anyone talking about Rick Donald or removing him? On leave for a month is crazy??? It is IMPOSSIBLE for him to be blinded for so MANY year but he was willing to trade Biblical truth for his salary and perks. He is still defending James by trying to not have the letters published. Get rid of ALL the others pastors and staff that chose their notoriety and salaries over Godly convictions. Let’s see action!!! Are the new board just less recognized puppets? Where is an legitimate audit of the church and each pastor? Get the Feds involved as they should be. What kind of testimony is this for our God?
Maybe by now the Congregation is waking up. Hopefully reading Julie & TED to get the truth. Cause it sure isn’t coming from Harvest. Me as a former Harvest member, I feel like I was played – like I was conned. Giving $$$ of my salary to fund the lavish lifestyles of JMac, Donaldson, and the rest. Still no apology from Huston for the excommunication. These guys are all cut from the same cloth.
Misapplication of scripture (one example is a comment on one blog post mentioning a lady on disability who felt compelled to give 10 percent of her income even though she could not afford a mattress so that her teen-aged son did not have to sleep on the floor), ridiculously nasty name calling (like calling those who disagree with a bunch of hand picked elders “Satanic”), and other spiritual manipulation tactics are beyond disgusting. One can easily imagine Jesus Christ becoming very angry as He did with those turning the temple into a money making activity.
We are baffled … why in the world would this man think that providing his endorsement/approval of whatever new leadership process is underway will somehow encourage the congregation to view it positively …we would think that his approval would/should be more likely to scuttle whatever changes are being proposed.
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Romans 3:10-12
My wife and I have been attending Harvest for 30 years and we were in a small group with James and Kathy for 2 years. This saddens our hearts and we are praying for the congregation and our son and his wife who also attend this church. We folllow the Lord Jesus Chrst and no man. We are hoping for a whole new change in the elder board and for true repentance.
Miguel
Julie
Thanks for your continued exposure of all this.
I will say that Steve Huston resigning is a good first step but as you point out his statement is quite lacking. Hopefully Huston given some time eyes will open and see the error of his ways a lot more clearly but I wouldn’t bet on it. All the board members need to resign.
Maybe the only answer here is for HBC and associated churches to implode under all the debt and lacking in integrity the leadership has shown? This is especially true with all the warnings they are ignoring.
If anything Steve Huston and the other leaders that enabled James MacDonald are just as bad or maybe worse than James MacDonald. It is easy for a person like James MacDonald to be self deceived about himself. It was a God appointed duty for Huston and other leaders to keep MacDonald in check and these men miserably failed and even tried to suppress others who were pointing out these issue.
All of what here at HBC may be a lesson that hopefully future churches can learn from. One thought comes to mind is that bylaws of many secular groups require that at least some of the board members come from outside of the group. When you draw people from within a group it is a lot easier to get “group think.” Maybe if there was some check/balance with an outside board that might have helped though no check/balance can overcome a group of people that aren’t seeking God and wanting to do what God wants though they make think they are.