One fall night in September 2023, Emma Misco arrived at her church in upstate New York to discover an unpleasant surprise.

At first, no one appeared to be there. Thrive City Church had officially launched in Syracuse as part of the Association of Related Churches (ARC) just 20 months before. Misco, then 34, had recently returned to Syracuse after serving on the mission field and was overseeing small groups.

Before setting up for a meeting, she headed for the bathroom, which ran through the office of the pastor, Ben Tubbs, then 36.

His office was locked as usual, but she noticed a sign on his door stating the office was available. She knocked, heard no answer, then unlocked and opened the door.

To her shock, Tubbs was there. Seated and wearing headphones at an open laptop, he hurriedly stood up. But his pants were down, and he had one hand on his genitals. She said he started walking toward her, fully exposed.

She fled.

A few minutes later, Tubbs joined her in the sanctuary where she waited for her group to arrive. He engaged her in small talk. When he turned to leave, Misco said Tubbs murmured something like, “We’re good?”

“Fine,” was all she could say.

What she saw was only the beginning of Thrive City’s problems. Tubbs had also allowed two registered sex offenders to work as Thrive City leaders without telling his overseers or congregation. Both incidents were discussed in secret recordings of meetings in 2024 and 2025 and provided to The Roys Report (TRR).

The ARC story

Tubbs’ issues represent the latest in a string of scandals at churches associated with ARC, one of the largest church growth networks in North America with some 1,160 churches planted.

Others include allegations of bullying by a pastor of one of America’s fastest growing churches; multiple allegations of infidelity against an ARC lead team member; numerous ARC pastors resigning amid allegations of sexual assault, harassment, or adulterous affairs; and allegations of bullying by former ARC Pastor Andy Wood—Rick Warren’s successor at Saddleback Church.

ARC teaches its church planters to “launch large” by investing thousands of dollars in slick marketing, professional worship, and quality childcare.

And these scandals are cutting into ARC’s success, according to the recordings. Will Hampton—pastor of ARC’s Two Rivers Church in Binghamton, New York, and a former Thrive City interim pastor—admitted in a secretly recorded meeting with Misco that scandals have slowed ARC’s growth. Only 50 churches—half as many as normal—launched last year, he said.

Hampton disclosed his misgivings about ARC’s quick growth model that “exposes the cracks” in pastors’ character while providing no real accountability.

“The pastor becomes king,” he noted.

Security cameras

Misco didn’t immediately report the encounter in Tubbs’ office. She thought people wouldn’t believe her.

The following week, Tubbs required her small group to meet in his office. This made her feel “icky.”  On Dec. 1, Tubbs texted her a photo of her from one of the many church security cameras. Now it felt like a “threat.”

“It was like he was saying, ‘I’m watching you,’” she said.  After all, if he got alerts when a camera activated, had he seen her enter the church that September night, yet continued anyway?

In mid-December 2023, Misco said Tubbs and Thrive Connections Pastor Alicia Jones met with Misco to criticize her small group leadership. In January 2024, Tubbs demoted Misco to a “leadership role” in building maintenance.

“I just could tell that he was trying to get me as far away from this as possible with less influence,” she said.

Discouraged, she left Thrive City to attend a house church. Last July, she told her new leaders at her house church about the masturbation incident. They believed Tubbs should be held accountable.

‘Let’s not live in a spirit of gossip’

As is standard in ARC churches, none of Thrive City’s overseers attended Thrive City, and some lived out of state.

But overseer Jordan Carter pastored locally at Syracuse’s Abundant Life Church. It wasn’t until last July 30 — 10 months after the incident — that Misco, along with her new leaders, got to confront Tubbs in person.

In the recorded meeting, Tubbs confessed to masturbating in the church office. He said he wasn’t sure what she saw, and didn’t know how to handle it, so he said nothing. He apologized to Misco.

“I do want to own up to many different things that I handled incorrectly or poorly in this,” he said.

Carter, who was facilitating, praised Tubbs in the meeting for his “integrity.”

But Misco saw things differently. Sometime before, Tubbs had given her a copy of Thrive City’s honor code. It states leaders must abstain from sexual immorality (defining it as “sexual activity outside of marriage” and pornography.)

In Misco’s mind, Tubbs was guilty of breaking that standard, and worse, doing so in a work and worship environment. She asked if Thrive City planned to follow its bylaws that dictate the overseers are responsible to deal with “pastoral misconduct.”

Carter said he’d talk to Tubbs first, then decide whether to tell other overseers. Meanwhile, “Let’s not live in a spirit of gossip,” he added. “We’ve settled it. . . . Not outside of me and the overseers I choose to bring into this— . . . this doesn’t need to go anywhere else.”

On Aug. 4,  Tubbs preached about the Apostle Paul’s redeemed life, encouraging his congregation to give people second, third, and fourth chances after failure.

“What’s so much healthier, although a little more difficult, is to look for the good,” the pastor said.

A bombshell announcement

Ignoring Carter’s admonition to keep quiet, Misco spilled all to Mary Schnur, a fellow Thrive City member. Schnur is in the process of becoming a consultant for churches to help them respond to scandals in healthier ways.

Schnur told TRR she confronted Tubbs that week. Schnur said Tubbs told her that pornography was also an issue, but he and Carter decided his pornography usage wasn’t frequent enough to be an addiction. Not completely trusting Tubbs to be completely honest, she confronted Carter about not immediately involving other overseers. Carter told her he planned to talk with them that week.

On Aug. 10, Thrive City inexplicably cancelled its Sunday, Aug. 11 service. On Aug. 12, Thrive City overseers Brandon Samuel, pastor of Richmond, Virginia’s The Chapel,(an ARC church), and Cyrus Thornton, pastor of Syracuse’s Second Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, led a congregational meeting. A secret recording was provided to TRR.

Without Tubbs present, the overseers told the congregation about the masturbation incident, then dropped another bombshell. They had discovered Tubbs had appointed married couple Phillip and Alicia Jones as leaders at Thrive City, without notifying the church they were past sex offenders.

What’s more, Tubbs put them in charge of Thrive City’s background checks.

The Joneses’ story: In 2014 when Phillip  lived near New Haven, Connecticut, he faced three charges of first-degree sexual assault, the Hartford Courant reported. The Connecticut sex offender registry states Jones was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy when Jones was 28.

Alicia faced her own charges in 2014 when she was Alicia P. Hall, according to PennLive. When she was a 26-year-old teacher near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 17-year-old male student in a school for children with emotional problems.

According to the New York sex offender registry, both Phil and Alicia Jones are Level 1 registered sex offenders. She is listed under both Hall, her maiden name, and Jones. TRR reached out to both, but neither responded.

Samuel told the congregation at the August 12 meeting that overseers wanted Tubbs to take an initial six weeks off, get counseling, then go through a two-year process to be restored to ministry. Tubbs declined to go through a restoration process and resigned, Samuel told congregants. The Joneses resigned as well.

A couple weeks later, the overseers appointed as Thrive City’s interim pastor ARC Pastor Will Hampton of the aforementioned Two Rivers Church. On Aug. 25, Hampton preached at Thrive City, saying he wanted to “honor” Tubbs.

“(T)he best is yet to come,” Hampton said. “I want to declare that over Pastor Ben. And I want to declare that over this church.” On LinkedIn, Tubbs still calls himself a “pastor” who is “committed to creating spaces where people can grow spiritually.”

On Sept. 10, Jordan Carter, told the congregation that ARC was involved in handling Tubbs’ situation, but said Tubbs is a “good man” who made a mistake.

Unresolved concerns

Thrive City didn’t publicize a practical plan to fix things, such as training or policies, said former member Esther Gabriel. Disappointed, she left a month after Tubbs and the Joneses resigned. However, Hampton told TRR that he formed a security team, re-ran background checks, and required multiple adults in kids’ areas.

Meanwhile, Misco said several church members criticized her for reporting a beloved pastor. In November, she forwarded Hampton a church member’s text accusing Misco of “running ur (sic) mouth.”

In December, Thrive City hired Pastor Josh Jansen, formerly family pastor at The Father’s House in Rochester, New York.

Hampton texted Misco to say he wanted to make a statement to the church to address victim blaming and “cement a new culture” for the new pastor. Hampton asked to meet with her about it.  

Misco requested that Jansen also attend, and Hampton agreed to arrange it. But at the last minute, Hampton said Jansen couldn’t attend the Jan. 17 meeting because his kids were sick. When Misco called Jansen and introduced herself, she said Jansen responded, “Who?”

Then Jansen told her he didn’t see a purpose in attending. TRR asked Jansen for comment on this interaction, but he declined.  

Hampton told TRR Tubbs hadn’t followed the church’s bylaws to enlist local trustees for financial oversight. Hampton said he recommended Jansen appoint trustees, train staff in safeguarding, and redo policies to strengthen accountability.

He also recommended that Jansen make a statement to affirm care for victims, but didn’t believe Jansen had done so.

Jansen wouldn’t provide TRR with safeguarding changes he’s made or names of current overseers or trustees but told TRR he believes Thrive City’s existing systems worked in Tubbs’ case.

“Now we’re focused on pastoring the community that is here, that wants to be here, and we’re doing that in a safe way,” he said.

And so Misco is left in the dark about what real changes — if any — the church has made. She’s warning people away from her former church.

“Transparency, within and outside of the church, is a fundamental part of creating safeguards, especially when trust has already been broken,” she said. “Silence doesn’t build trust. It doesn’t signal change. It protects systems, not people.”

This article has been updated to clarify details communicated at the Aug. 12 meeting.

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.