MorningStar Ministries president Rick Joyner said that “evidence is mounting” that the South Carolina prophetic ministry’s former president Chris Reed engaged in physical sexual misconduct in a statement to the ministry’s congregation Sunday.
“There’s a lot of evidence and it’s mounting that, yes, there was physical stuff that happened,” Joyner said. “Evidence is mounting, and I don’t know where it’s going to lead, but we’re not going to cover up anything.”
Joyner also admitted Sunday that he allowed Reed to be acting president of MorningStar during a “restoration” process for Reed’s 2021 misconduct with an adult student.
Also, on Saturday, Justin Perry, a former MorningStar pastor and leader, said in a public statement that Reed became acting Morningstar president just a couple months after Morningstar’s board learned of Reed’s misconduct. Perry said that’s why he resigned from Morningstar in 2022, after 20 years of involvement with the ministry. Perry added that the board also decided not to inform the public about Reed’s misconduct.
Joyner made national headlines in 2021 for prophesying a civil war in the United States because the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
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A few months later Reed used prophecy to pursue an inappropriate relationship with Kathryn, a student of the ministry, The Roys Report (TRR) reported last week. Kathryn also told TRR that Reed sent her “vulgar” sexual texts, kissed her, and also touched her genitals.
Kathryn said she reported all but the sexual touch to MorningStar leaders in 2022. At that same time, Joyner, who founded MorningStar, was training Reed to replace him as the ministry’s president.
Joyner said Sunday that he was “fooled,” “lied to,” and “betrayed” by Reed in 2022 about the nature of the relationship Reed had with Kathryn.
Joyner told TRR last week that he and some MorningStar board members saw Reed’s sexually explicit texts to Kathryn. But Joyner said last week that both Reed and Kathryn had told leaders the only physical contact Reed had with Kathryn was when Kathryn “kissed him on the cheek.” As a result, the board chose to put Reed through a restoration process before becoming president, Joyner said.
“I didn’t discern these things,” Joyner said Sunday. “I did ask the Lord to make manifest the truth in this or any deception of whatever and I trusted the Lord to do it. . . Then I forgot to say, ‘Do it now.’ And He happened to wait until now.”
Joyner said Sunday that in the last few days, he’s been investigating the allegations of physical sexual misconduct against Reed. Joyner added that he believes Reed’s alleged physical contact with Kathryn would have “disqualified” Reed as a leader.
“I would’ve never turned this ministry over to them if I’d known what I know right now,” Joyner said. “I feel like things were done that should’ve disqualified Chris from being made the leader of this ministry.”
Reed did not respond to TRR’s request for comment about Joyner’s and Perry’s statements.
New timeline of Reed’s presidency revealed
Perry said in his public statement Saturday that Kathryn and her mom told Perry and MorningStar Director and Pastor Tom Hardiman in February 2022 about the “inappropriate relationship” Reed had with her.
“Tom and I were devastated,” Perry said. “I was physically ill. . . . It was definitely one of, if not the most, disturbing moment (sic) of my life. I was heartbroken not only for Kathryn. . . . I was also thinking about the potential impact on the rest of the students.”
Perry said he and Hardiman immediately told Joyner, who said they shouldn’t “sweep anything under the rug” but rather should pray to see what God wanted them to do. A week later, Joyner, Hardiman, and Perry decided to bring the matter to the board for the board to decide what to do. The board came up with a restoration plan that wouldn’t be made public, Perry said.
“From what I understand, the discussion was had that this relationship had ended months before, and there was ownership on the part of Chris, and there seemed to be genuine repentance,” Perry said. “So that was why the decision was made—rather than to go to the public immediately, to deal with it behind the scenes.”
Joyner praised the MorningStar board’s thoroughness in his statement Sunday. But Joyner told TRR last week that the board only interviewed Reed and his wife, Missy, but not Kathryn.
“We’ve got one of the strongest boards of any organization I know of, of people who are on a world-class level in many fields,” Joyner stated Sunday. “They’ve seen almost everything. . . . They’re not going to shove anything under the rug. They’re not going to not examine everything.”
Perry, who was involved in Reed’s “restoration plan” said on Saturday that the ministry allowed Reed to become acting president only a couple months after learning of Reed’s misconduct. The arrangement made it difficult for Perry and Hardiman to hold their new boss accountable, Perry said, so that’s why Perry resigned.
“We were now—Tom and I—under Chris’s leadership and that made it very difficult to address the things that were a concern to me moving forward,” Perry said. “I knew it was going to be time for my family and I to leave.”
Perry didn’t respond to multiple attempts by TRR for further comment on what his concerns were about the restoration and whether Perry knew of the alleged physical aspect of Reed’s misconduct. Perry also said in his statement Saturday that TRR had not contacted him for comment in TRR’s previous reporting that mentioned Perry’s role. However, last Wednesday, TRR had attempted to contact him through Facebook messenger, and the message appeared to be seen. TRR also called his current employer and left a message for Perry with a female employee.
The timeline of Reed’s acting presidency apparently contradicts what Reed said in a public statement last week. Reed claimed he became president of MorningStar 15 months after the ministry learned of his misconduct.
“So, that was put on hold for, I think it was 15 months later, when I finally assumed the presidency after this came open,” Reed said.
Joyner also didn’t mention Reed’s acting presidency happening at the same time as Reed’s restoration process last week to TRR when TRR asked for details. Rather, Joyner said then the restoration process needed to happen to determine if Reed could become president.
Joyner explained Sunday that Reed was made acting president as part of the restoration process to see how Reed would “behave.”
“I honestly wanted to see how he’s going to behave when he gets the authority,” Joyner said. “Is he going to do another stupid thing like this?”
Joyner said he’s seen “tremendous results” in other situations when leaders who have fallen are put back in ministry during their restoration phase.
“I’ve seen people put in ministry as part of their restoration process—true ministry, ministry which is sacrifice, taking up your cross, learning to serve others,” Joyner said. “And it really helps them to get through that. And we’ve seen tremendous results in a restoration process by doing that at times.”
Reed resigned suddenly last week with no notice, stating reasons unrelated to his misconduct. Instead, Reed told TRR that he didn’t want to be the face of MorningStar while it defends itself in a lawsuit alleging it mishandled reports of child sexual abuse by a former volunteer.
Joyner, who resumed the presidency last week, said that Reed wasn’t acting as a “shepherd” by resigning suddenly.
“A shepherd lays down their life for the sheep and certainly has regard for—I didn’t feel like there was regard for me, for our board,” Joyner said. “We had entrusted a lot to him, and I don’t think to just quit like that is what we ever need to do with anyone, with no notice.”
Joyner said he thought “something wasn’t right” with the Reed’s sudden resignation and thought something else was “behind this.”
“Now I can say with confidence, there was,” Joyner said.
On Sunday, Joyner also likened the betrayal by human leaders to Jesus’ disciples’ betrayal of Jesus who then became church leaders. So, people should trust the Holy Spirit, not fully trust people, Joyner said. And they shouldn’t condemn leaders who fail, Joyner said.
“We need the Holy Spirit to lead us,” Joyner said. “We’re not going to condemn people. That’s not going to be in our heart. The Lord, when he saw what was wrong with the world, he didn’t condemn it. He laid down his life for it.”
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
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33 Responses
So, let me get this straight… Morningstar’s leaders all knew about Reed spiritually manipulating a woman for sexual purposes a few months after arriving on campus, and Morningstar’s collection of “world class” directors thought they’d give him the presidency as punishment. Wow, what could go wrong? Sigh.
It is baffling to me that Joyner puts people back into leadership as part of their “restoration process”. men (and lets face it, it’s always men) who use their authority in the church to abuse people should never be in a place of authority again. no pastor should get a second chance to abuse people. full stop.
restored to fellowship? yes. restored to authority? never.
I truly believe Joyner is so eager to “restore” these folks and put them right back where they started because he’s hoping for the same easy process whenever whatever his secrets come to light. Because they will- and you KNOW they’re there. There’s no way there’s nothing there.
Not to mention the pastor being “restored” will owe Joyner BIG TIME.
Jen Manlief – I tend towards a different perspective. I don’t think it’s about protecting RJ, I think it’s about promoting the continuation of Morningstar – which helps pay RJ’s salary & benefits.
Dawn, I am sure that’s part of it- but he’s so willing to immediately trust these pastors who he “restores” it just seems like there’s projection there.
Only men abuse their power in the church? Really? If you want female examples I’d be happy to provide you with a few. Might want to re-think that one.
how can women abuse their authority in church when they’re forbidden from authority?
And while I do believe that there are probably a few women who are outliers in this category, all you need to do is peruse this site to see that it’s always men.
So there are no women out there leading Megachurches? Interesting. I could have sworn there were several. And I can think of one, right off the top pf my head, that has directly caused the rift between the two original founding members of the band “Journey.” But you are telling me there are no women anywhere in the church in positions of authority. You must be correct, or you wouldn’t say it. Despite glaring examples to the contrary.
This is not what some want to here, but I always try to speak the truth. The churches that exclude women from being “pastors” over men are a minority of all the churches in the West. The SBC, while very large, makes a minority of total churches along with other, what you might call ultra-conservative, churches. The average church is independent or in a denomination with women pastors, priests (though they should really be called priestess), elders, deacons and the like. But people make false assumptions based on whatever part they got stuck in. I have no problem with women in charge over women, whatever you call them.
But Paul does make a very clear statement about authority over men. Many want to ignore that for reasons of strong cultural bias, but I do not ignore anything in the scripture for there is a reason everything is there. My savior says so much. In my own experience, I have had many male pastors over me, and only two women in the past. Until recently, none of the men were abusive towards me personally, but the two lady pastors and a laywomen have clearly been very abusive. So I have had 100% bad experience with women. There was a pastor who tried to gaslight me more recently, but that was a response to me calling out his sin of sticking my brother into a position of authority when he is a self-confessed and convicted child molester. Now maybe these women in power do not abuse the women like they do men, but I certainly think I have experience abuse by women trying to get even against all men. The battle of the sexes with abusing the opposite sex is not just something men do.
That sounded so absurd that I had to Google it. Are you suggesting Paula White’s 3rd marriage to someone in a band from the 80s is on par with male pastors who literally use their power and authority to rape people in their congregation?
I agree that Paula White is power hungry and misusing her authority, but I haven’t seen evidence that she’s abusing the people she leads. Can you show me any?
I fully endorse holding pastors accountable for misconduct, and all that that entails. That said, how on earth did you find it appropriate to contact a witness’ employer to leave a message?
I don’t think that was appropriate- he’s not a perpetrator…
As an accuser of right and wrong, you should hold yourself to a higher standard than that.
Chris Reed is telling the truth. The others are lying to cover themselves. This all happened BEFORE Chris Reed even came on board to MorningStar Ministries. They are using Chris Reed as a scapegoat so people will look at Chris instead of them.
“I didn’t discern these things,” Joyner said Sunday. “I did ask the Lord to make manifest the truth in this or any deception of whatever and I trusted the Lord to do it. . . Then I forgot to say, ‘Do it now.’ And He happened to wait until now.”
I don’t know which god you were praying to there Rick.
I pray your church members have the correct discernment to know the real God of the bible who has perfect discernment and timing, and knows each individual’s needs even before they pray.
He forgot to say, “Do it now,” so God didn’t answer right away? So he didn’t say the magic words and God left a sexual predator in place? Did I mention how much I despise the NAR?
“Joyner explained Sunday that Reed was made acting president as part of the restoration process to see how Reed would “behave.”
‘I honestly wanted to see how he’s going to behave when he gets the authority,” Joyner said. “Is he going to do another stupid thing like this?'”
Referring to predatory sexual abuse as mere stupidity shows that Joyner himself does not have the heart of a shepherd. What kind of shepherd would put a wolf who already killed once back in the flock and wait to see whether the wolf killed another sheep?
“’I didn’t discern these things,’ Joyner said . . . ‘I would’ve never turned this ministry over to them if I’d known what I know right now,’ Joyner said.”
And they didn’t see this coming. The highly vaunted gift of prophetic insight doesn’t seem to have done a lot of good among these folks, at least not in this particular instance.
Numbers 32:23 says “your SIN will find you out” both sides have sinned. Stop following these NAR movement self proclaimed prophets and ministries and follow Christ Jesus alone with simple child like faith is all you need.
“I did ask the Lord to make manifest the truth in this or any deception of whatever and I trusted the Lord to do it. . . Then I forgot to say, ‘Do it now.’ And He happened to wait until now.”
So Joyner is blaming the Lord for not following up with him in a timely manner. Sounds like Adam – “It was the woman YOU gave me…”
Are you also not troubled that Joyner was peddling lies about 2020 election being stolen. In reality, Biden won. Trump lost. What about the prophesy about the civil war? Disqualifying all around, no?
Joyner’s greatest sin, that I am currently aware of, is his claim that “God told him to restore Todd Bentley” to ministry. It is reported that Bentley is bisexual and would use funds that were donated to play a game of “who wants to be a prostitute today” offering both men and women who were “interns” cash in exchange for one time prostitute services. Now according to King Jesus Christ, the unpardonable sin is to take things that the Holy Spirit actually does and credit those things to the Devil. But what is the status of doing the reverse? To take things that the Devil actually does, like attempt to restore his worst sexual predators to positions of fame and power, and to give the credit for Satan’s work to God’s Holy Spirit? This is what Joyner has done and has never repented as far as I am aware. This is truly sacrileges speech. And if he has done this then whom is surprised that he would choose a predator to be his replacement or that he did not protect children in his children ministry from another predator? Joyner has been walking on thin ice for some time now.
But this is a common problem with these famous “prophets.” Putting words in God’s mouth is to break the 3rd commandment. And this offense of false prophecy was a capital offense in Israel according to God’s law. God does not like it when anyone places words in his mouth that He never said. And we are told to judge prophecy and prophets by their fruit. Forget what they say if their actions are evil. In this case both the words and actions are very evil.
Wow Ralph Jesperson, when I read these words in your comment it hit me like a sledgehammer:
“…the unpardonable sin is to take things that the Holy Spirit actually does and credit those things to the Devil.”
Could your definition of the unpardonable sin apply to the situation where a church leader has just received a report of abuse from a whistle-blower & then immediately claims that it’s just the work of the devil trying to destroy God’s work?
Absolutely. One of the Holy Spirit’s jobs is to convict of sin, according to our scriptures. When the Holy Spirit is doing that, instead of, for example, healing someone and you blame it on the Devil, there is not really much difference there. No doubt the Holy Spirit tried to convict the Pharisees about their sin too. But look at what they said about Jesus. In that way the answer to your question is in what the Pharisees said about Jesus in our scriptures. Joyner does blame shift on God many times instead of admit his own very obvious error.
Joyner has been a proven false prophet since the Kansas City Prophet days. He didn’t just restore Bentley, he and a bunch of other NAR hacks prophesied that Bentley’s ministry would go Big Time. They were correct. It went Big Time Scandal. Joyner certainly did lots of covering up when his KCP pal Mike Bickle got outed for multiple moral failings. He never did call out Bickle. Joyner is right about one other thing. He does not have discernment. He’s never had it.
Let’s just take away all the religious drivel from these responses. I’ll break it down for you. Morningstar is a criminal enterprise that promotes sexual assault. Mr. Reed should be in prison for what he did. Mr. Joyner as well for his coverup.
I once spoke to Jim Bakker when he was out of prison. He said to me, “Those of us with strong personalities in business and ministries also have strong sex drives.” Likely true as well as self-serving.
In case this isn’t obvious to anyone, the charismatic world is even worse than the non-charismatic mega-churches when it comes to both the amount of pastoral misconduct and the subsequent mishandling of misconduct. Most of this is connected to the charismatic understanding of prophecy, and the inevitability of its abuse and misuse. Their belief system creates conditions in which abuse is just waiting to happen.
“You shall know them by their fruit”… bad trees emerge from poisonous roots and cannot bear good fruit. Joyner and the Kansas City “Profits” (deliberate miss spell) have never represented the Gospel and rather Pharisee 101 taught as if from God things they had made up to suit themselves (with plenty of help from team darkness no doubt). No one should be surprised by any of this and no one in their right mind should continue to sit under it… the Real Jesus remains himself, run to him. Jer51 v 45“Come out of her, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the fierce anger of the Lord. 46Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. 47For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
Rev18v Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “’Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
God has made it plain, why perish when he has said what to do.
Chris Reed is innocent and the people who are truly guilty of allowing this to happen are trying to use Chris Reed as a scapegoat so you will blame Chris Reed and not look at them. It’s a smokescreen. It’s a Red Herring. They are trying to cover their own bottoms but truth and Justice will prevail . Watch Chris Reed’s video posted today on YouTube and he has proof of truth! They are also trying to prevent Chris Reed from establishing his own ministry by buying up his name for a domain name on the internet. The name at .com and .org were purchased and directed deliberately to access this article trying to make people believe Chris Reed is guilty. Go to Chris Reed’s YouTube channel to learn the TRUTH and go to his website chrisreedministries.net to support him. Chris is telling the TRUTH and the leadership team at MorningStar are trying to throw him under the bus and point the finger at Chris Reed while they are the ones who are guilty. They should have protected the children and never allowed Erickson Lee around these kids. And they should have never let his dad to be head of security!!! That’s called nepotism!!!
Numbers 32:23 Your SIN will find you out! Both sides sinned and both will suffer the consequences whether it’s sabotage or whatever. Read your bible stay away from these people in the NAR movement and live by faith alone in Christ. End of Lesson!!!
Where are the broken hearts for the Name of Jesus? Where are the broken hearts for His Testimony? Ministry Shministry. These organizations are so full of themselves and seemingly devoid of the reverential fear and honor for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is baffling. It is disastrous.
Also when ‘God told me…’ overrides what the Scriptures advise, you can know you’re way off. I don’t care who you are. Get a clue.
Y’all! Look up Chris Reeds new response on YouTube! He has proof he’s been set up by the ministry. Do not believe everything you see and read, seek the truth and the truth will be revealed!
I think personally that all this is going on, because of lies that were intended to be kept under the radar concerning sexual abuse upon children. I know what Chris Reed did was wrong, and he and the woman, seems like the church wants people to believe that Chris was the only one in this situation, this woman was a consenting adult. I think that Rick Joyner has tried for too long to keep these child abuse allegations hidden from the public, but if he truly follows God, he should know all sin will surface. I hate that now two men that I have watched and thought they were sincere in their beliefs have now turned on each other and betrayed each other and Rick knows what he has done and so does Chris. They need to remember that God alone is judge and not mere men and that this world has enough backstabbing and bullying.
As of today on YT, Reed denies again that it was sexual? Does he even know Kathryn gave a written testimony clarifying that he made it sexual? Somebody please define things and make it clear to him.