Leaders of Second Baptist Church of Houston deceptively stripped church members of their voting rights and transferred “nearly dictatorial authority” to the senior pastor, according to a lawsuit filed against the megachurch and several of its leaders.

Jeremiah Counsel, a nonprofit founded by current and former members of the church, filed the suit April 15 in Harris County district court. Second Baptist has 94,000 members across six campuses and an annual budget of $84 million, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Strawn Pickens LLP, a Houston law firm that specializes in contractual disputes.

“What had once been an exemplar of transparency, accountability and genuinely-held Christian conviction for Houston’s faith-based community was thus to be transformed into a business controlled by a small and self-interested group of people motivated largely by their own financial gain,” the lawsuit states.

Defendants in the suit are Senior Pastor Ben Young; his father, former Senior Pastor Ed Young; Associate Pastor Lee H. Maxcy; attorney Dennis Brewer, Jr. and Second Baptist Church Corporation.

Jeremiah Counsel claims that members’ voting rights were removed during a May 31, 2023, meeting purported to be about amending the bylaws to defend the church against “the woke agenda.” Members were not told before or at the meeting that other changes included removing their voting rights, which had been in place since the church was founded nearly 100 years ago.

The church notified members of the meeting at the bottom of an email that a majority of members did not see and casually mentioned it during a Sunday service the day before Memorial Day, according to Jeremiah Counsel.

Only 200 people – less than one quarter of one percent of Second Baptist members – attended the 2023 meeting. Many attendees were church staff members who were told to attend and vote in favor of the amendments, the lawsuit states.

Meeting attendees were not permitted to see or read a copy of the amended bylaws before the vote, according to the lawsuit. The changes passed with only a few dissenting votes.

The new bylaws give the senior pastor “ultimate control” over the church and its $1 billion in assets, according to Jeremiah Counsel. The group claims the pastor can now unilaterally sell or close the church and its school, raise his own salary and appoint the next senior pastor.

Less than a year after the amendments, the bylaw changes allowed then-Senior Pastor Ed Young to appoint his son, Ben Young, as his successor “without any need to be anxious about whether his son would be selected” through the traditional vote process, according to the lawsuit. Ed Young announced the transition plan during services on May 26, 2024.

The next day, Ben Young “ordered his father to vacate his office and cease his involvement in the church” and fired two other employees, the lawsuit states.

Archie Dunham, a member of Second Baptist since 1992 and former chairman of the diaconate, said he is a longtime friend of Ed Young and remains grateful for his leadership and ministry. However, he believes the former senior pastor “made a huge mistake in judgment” by supporting the amendments to the bylaws.

Dunham was among church members pleading with leadership in the last year to revert to the previous version of the bylaws. He said their requests were met with “no progress whatsoever, total denial, secrecy and non-transparency.” He’s supporting Jeremiah Counsel’s efforts to bring change.

Dunham said he’s served on numerous major corporate and nonprofit boards, where there were independent board members to provide transparent oversight. He said Second Baptist’s amended bylaws do not provide any meaningful accountability.

“(Second Baptist’s new bylaws) wouldn’t even be glanced at in the corporate environment,” he said. “If I had done that when I was chairman of the various companies or boards, I’d have been terminated.”

According to John Card, a spokesperson for Second Baptist, the leadership and legal teams are aware of the lawsuit “and will respond appropriately.”

Each local Southern Baptist congregation is autonomous, which means it retains full control over its ministry, leadership and finances. It does not answer to the Southern Baptist Convention on those matters. 

Second Baptist restricts access to bylaws

The new bylaws have been in effect for nearly two years, but church leaders have allegedly made it difficult for Second Baptist members to read them.

According to Jeremiah Counsel, the bylaws may only be viewed by scheduling an appointment with the church business manager. The bylaws may only be read in the church office, and no copies are permitted to be removed.

The new bylaws, which are included as part of the lawsuit, state that the senior pastor is held accountable by a board known as the “ministry leadership team.” The senior pastor appoints all board members and may not be removed from the board, according to an open letter from Jeremiah Counsel to the Second Baptist congregation.

“The church leadership also keeps that information concealed, with no listing on the website or in any other church publication,” a letter from Jeremiah Counsel to the congregation states. “The likely reason for the secrecy is that, as of this writing, the overwhelming majority of the MLT are family members of the Senior Pastor or employees/service providers who are paid by the church.”

According to the lawsuit, in May 2024, Ben Young appointed his brother, Cliff Young; his cousin, Mac Richard; and attorney, Dennis Brewer, Jr., to the ministry leadership team. Brewer is CFO of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, where Ben Young’s other brother, Ed Young Jr., is senior pastor.

It is not clear if the ministry leadership team has additional members or if the three men identified in the lawsuit still serve on it.

Second Baptist members have presented their concerns about the governance change to church leadership in the nearly two years since the meeting, according to Jeremiah Counsel. However, they say Ben Young is unwilling to budge on the issue and has “removed from leadership” those who questioned his authority.

Jeremiah Counsel filed the lawsuit in advance of a two-year statute of limitations that ends May 31. They are asking the court to declare that the bylaws were amended illegally and are void. They are also seeking a full accounting of transactions involving church property and finances since May 31, 2023, financial gains be returned to the church and fees to cover court costs.

Religion as a family business?

The lawsuit states that the bylaw changes transform Second Baptist’s governance to closely match the structure at Fellowship Church.

“Unlike the more traditional approach to worship found at Second Baptist, (Ed Young Jr.’s) ministry practices the ‘megachurch’ or televangelist style of pastoring, which, some contend, sees religion as a business – and a business that ought to afford the pastor and his family a very nice living,” the lawsuit states.

According to the Trinity Foundation, Fellowship Church eliminated member voting rights in 2001 when it restated its articles of incorporation. The articles state that a board of directors, also known as a ministry leadership team, manages and governs the affairs of Fellowship Church.

As reported previously by The Roys Report (TRR), Ed Young Jr. sold a 7,027-square-foot home in Dallas in 2023 that had an estimated worth of almost $4.6 million and moved into an 8,100-square-foot home in Tarrant County worth an estimated $6.2 million.

In 2010, KENS5, a CBS affiliate, reported that Young owned a 10,000-square-foot, $1.5 million estate on Lake Grapevine. The outlet also reported that Young received a $1 million salary and had bought a personal jet he used to travel to the Bahamas.

Filmmaker Nathan Apffel was arrested in October 2024 at Fellowship Church while seeking answers about Ed Young Jr.’s housing allowance and salary for a documentary, “The Religion Business.”

Another prominent Houston-area megachurch, Lakewood Church, reworked its articles of incorporation in 1994 to state “the corporation elects to have no members,” according to Trinity Foundation. And at Florida-based City of Destiny, the bylaws give Pastor Paula White-Cain veto power over the board and states she cannot be removed, according to Trinity Foundation. 

Trinity Foundation President Pete Evans said these types of governance shifts can have a major impact on those who feel they no longer have a voice.

“Church takeovers can have a devastating effect on congregation’s members who feel like they’ve lost a family home,” Evans said. “We’ve interviewed many members of Second Baptist Church Houston and other churches who feel like they’ve had the wool pulled over their eyes and have been betrayed.”

UPDATE: This copy has been updated to clarify that Jeremiah Counsel is seeking that Second Baptist return financial gains to the church.

Ann Marie Shambaugh has reported as a print journalist in multiple states, including currently in Carmel, Indiana.