Jonathan Wiggins, the controversial lead pastor of a Colorado megachurch, abruptly resigned last week over “moral failure and personal shortcomings,” according to a informe in northern Colorado business journal BizWest.
“Following recent accusations, we, the trustees, have accepted Pastor Jonathan’s resignation effective immediately,” the newspaper quoted Britton Cottrell, a board member at Rez Church in Loveland, as saying during Sunday worship.
“We, along with our advisers, first learned of these accusations on Friday. We met all day yesterday, and we have moved swiftly to address the issue. We are committed to handling this matter with grace, with integrity, and in accordance with biblical values.”
Without going into details, Cottrell said “the accusations we are referring to, that we have accepted the resignation over, are not of an illegal nature. It is a moral nature that we agree is a disqualification.”
Wiggins previously was involved in a demanda judicial over text messages he exchanged with Sethry Connor, an associate pastor at the church. The suit stated that Christine Connor, at the time married to Sethry Connor, “used the texts . . . to convince other people that Wiggins was carrying on an adulterous homosexual relationship with Sethry Connor.”
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El Informe Roys (TRR) has contacted Rez Church for comment. Contact information for Wiggins was not immediately clear. His account on X, formerly Twitter, gave the church’s phone number as a contact.
Rez Church was formerly linked to the scandal-ridden Asociación de Iglesias Relacionadas (ARC), though not listado as a plant from the group. TRR previamente reportado that “Wiggins has claimed that Rez Church was ‘closely affiliated with ARC.’”
Nate McHenry, a former campus pastor at the church’s Resurrection Christian School (RCS), dijo on Facebook, “Today is a sober day for our community. Pastor Jonathan Wiggins has resigned due to moral failure and personal shortcomings. This news is painful – I am sorry for all who have been wounded.”
The lawsuits involving Wiggins’ text messages were not the only legal entanglement the church has found itself in recently.
On August 25, the church sued RCS, claiming “numerous breaches” of the church’s 99-year lease with the school, according to an earlier informe from BizWest.
The complaint cited the school’s “persistent nonpayment of common area maintenance charges, refusal to honor the Church’s established maintenance contracts, performance of unauthorized construction on Church property and deliberate denial of the Church’s facility access.”
Church members established RCS as a separate entity in 1998, the newspaper said, and RCS entered into a lease agreement in 2012. That agreement apparently fell apart, and lawsuits followed. A 2023 suit over lease compliance in which RCS set forth allegations against the church, was settled in 2024.
The dispute flared up again this year, and RCS responded, claiming the church falsified documents to bolster its assertions.
This article has been updated to accurately cite reporting from BizWest.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the Correo de Nueva York and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for el tiempo de washington. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
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19 Responses
The lights shines in the darkness finally!! Praying for all the victims of this tragedy 😢
Finally! After more than 5 years of his gaslighting and manipulation. Praying for everyone and for justice.
I wonder if it will prove to be exactly what Christine Connor said it was, plus additional activity in the same vein.
I’m sure you’re intensions towards Christine are good, but please don’t imply that Christine had anything to do with the rumors that went around as she never spoke nor entertained them. Stating she did is unfortunately what put her in the middle of a lawsuit before. She has no desire to put involve her or her family, she’s been through enough.
I appreciate the clarification. “What was attributed to Ms. Collins in lawsuits described in the news.”
I am sure no one will ever know the truth. The rest of church leadership will still protect Johnathan and themselves.
I think the Church should reply to this question, as it may clear up the charges that were made against Christine Connor and others.
When does this kind of stuff ever end? Also, I’m sick and tired of seeing “pastors” in tee shirts with tattoos all over their arms and bodies. Why can’t this culture dress respectfully in God’s House? Why has the Body of Christ gotten so rotten and sloppy? Sin is at the door always waiting to come in. I suppose that’s why. It does become quite disappointing. I looked in my area recently for a new church. Every church that I viewed online looked like a cookie cutter of the other one. The pastors all present themselves in photos in tee shirts and tatts. Same dark church, same lights on the stage, and the worship team on display like nightclub entertainers. I’m sick of it, and lovesick for Jesus’ return!
I feel the board and trustees need swapped out at Rez, they have been negligent in their duties the last 5-7 years.
Some are no doubt waiting for a headline that reads, “Person exposed for impersonating as a Pastor”
And this seems to be a significant part of the problem within many aspects of US church life & culture which requires significant due diligence & ongoing accountability that may lead to a cultural and spiritual shift.
That being, having more & more genuine Pastors rather than opportunist and mercenaries who are in character pretending to be something & someone they are not. Hence, in the vein of a Frank Abagnale type who fools most of the people most of the time for self gain. Which, ‘being fooled’ is a bigger problem than certain individuals role playing.
Think critically if you struggle to think spiritually 🤔
Is the church using the band’s name? If so that’s cheesy and something a fan boy would do.
Seriously, how do these people get into these positions of authority and power.
It is the White Evangelical mega church system that both attracts and protects these people.
It could be well argued Mark it is because such people don’t receive a genuine calling from God to undertake selfless humble Christian service. But rather, are influenced and encouraged by US entrepreneurial capitalism culture that provides opportunities to open poorly regulated “shops” so that that certain people can sell themselves and gain money, status & control over others. 🤔
It is likely that many or most of these types are not actually saved and are not Christian at all (never been born again)
Question: Does Jonathan Wiggins still sit on the board of The Pastors Collective, where he would have continued access to other pastors currently/formerly engaged in like sin, or otherwise harmed by it?
https://www.pastorscollective.com/
I see that ARC leaders scrubbed his biography, book/resources, and spotlight guest article at the official ARC website, since sometime after August 4th, 2025 (Last Month), when it was lasted cached.
Wiggins Biography:
https://www.arcchurches.com/author/jonathan-wiggins/
Wiggins Book:
https://www.arcchurches.com/equip/walking-with-lions/
Wiggins Guest Article:
https://www.arcchurches.com/?p=2260
Greg Surratt personally covered for Jonathan Wiggins at the Rez.Church campus for weeks, while he was busy suing former staff, congregants, and a missionary grandmother.
Surratt gave full endorsement to Wiggins, while calling the defendants liars from the Rez.Church pulpit. Victims were never contacted by him, and no statement has been made since. It appears Greg Surratt is simply sweeping his Wiggins problems under the rug.
Classic example of a pastor having too much control and influence over church operations and the board of trustees, and how none of the elders/trustees want to hold their pastor accountable because if they do, the church will lose congregants and then sequentially lose money. Thus, the dispute with RCS over rent because the church wants more income! This happens over and over again in churches that are run like nonprofit money machines.
Statement from the Rez.Church Trustees, September 28th, 2025: “Jonathan engaged in inappropriate behavior with a former staff member including physical contact and messaging.”
Christine Connor was a scapegoat, and had nothing to do with rumors about Jonathan Wiggins and Sethry Connor’s inappropriate relationship years ago. None of the six sued, were a part of Jonathan’s narrative or started such things.
It was Jonathan’s own book, that drew attention and curiosity. The wicked flee when no one pursues.
From the Walking with Lions, sample version.
“I remember telling my friend (and part of our group of lions) Sethry Connor something about myself that I’d never told anyone else. As soon as I told him, I realized I was more exposed than I’d ever been. I quickly blurted out, “I’m not sure we can be friends after this!” I wondered if he’d shake his head in disgust, laugh, or find the nearest door. Thankfully, he didn’t do any of those things. He listened, asked some great questions, listened even more, and encouraged me. And he shared some things with me that he’d never told anyone. I wondered if I’d have a “vulnerability hangover” the next day. Would I feel ashamed and exposed? Had I given Sethry ammunition to shoot me down when I wasn’t expecting an attack? Would I suffer from “confessor’s remorse”? Would either or both of us avoid eye contact and try to act like we’d never had the conversation? (Do these questions sound like I was paranoid? No, I’m just being honest about what I was afraid might happen.)”
When will spiritual “leaders” take actual accountability over theur SIN? A vague “moral failing personal nature” blah blah is NOT cutting it. Name it. Don’t minimize it. No more of this half accountability never saying what they actually did. Was it adjltery? Adultery plus homosexual relationship? Spritital abuse? Spit. It. Out.