Acts 29 & Bullying in the Church—Revisited

Guest Bios Show Transcript Ten months ago, Acts 29 fired its CEO Steve Timmis for bullying and misuse of power. But has the organization changed? And has Acts 29 taken any responsibility for ignoring whistleblowers for years? In this episode of The Roys Report, Julie interviews two whistleblowers who brought Timmis’ alleged abuse to light. One is Casey Smith—a former Acts 29 employee, who reported Timmis’ alleged abuse to Acts 29 President Matt Chandler in 2015, and then was fired. Casey has since had significant conversations with Chandler and new Acts 29 Executive Director Brian Howard. And Casey shares highlights of those conversations in this podcast. Julie’s other guest is Stephen McAlpine. Stephen is an Australian author and pastor who worked at Steve Timmis’ church, The Crowded House (TCH), and blew the whistle on Timmis’ alleged abuse. In the past 10 months, TCH has commissioned an independent investigation into Timmis’ leadership. And McAlpine shares details of that investigation and his thoughts on Acts 29’s actions since the alleged abuse became public. This Weeks Guests Casey Smith Casey serves as the network’s Communications Director. He is a native Midwesterner and holds an MDiv from Southern Seminary. He also works as the worship pastor of Trinity Community Church, a Sojourn Network church in Columbia, Missouri. Prior to joining Sojourn Network, he managed banking centers for Bank of America and worked with the Acts 29 Network in the US and England. He has been married to Jess since 2007, and has four kids (Soren, Solomon, Scarlett, and Simone). Stephen McAlpine Stephen McAlpine is a blogger and ex-journalist who writes on issues of theology, culture and the church. He is a pastor at Providence Church in Perth, Australia, and also works at a national level for City Bible Forum, developing and presenting evangelistic material for a project called Third Space. He is married to Jill and loves running in his spare time. Show Transcript SPEAKERS JULIE ROYS, CASEY SMITH, STEPHEN MCALPINE JULIE ROYS  00:04 Ten months ago, Acts 29 fired its CEO Steve Timmis for bullying and misuse of power. But has the organization changed and has Acts 29 taken any responsibility for ignoring whistleblowers for years? Welcome to The Roys Report, a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church. I’m Julie Roys. And as many of you may remember, in February of this year, a huge story broke concerning the church planting network Acts 29. At first Acts 29 president, Matt Chandler announced that CEO Steve Timmis was simply taking a sabbatical to rest and recover. Then, after an article published with first hand accounts documenting a pattern of abuse by Timmis, Chandler changed his tune. It was then that he revealed that Timmis had been removed due to accusations of abuse Acts 29 had received two weeks earlier. The problem is that Acts 29 had actually received reports of abuse in 2015 by its entire US staff. But instead of removing Timmis at that time, Chandler and the board fired the entire Acts 29 staff and moved operations to England where Timmis is from. But again, 10 months has transpired since then, and there have been some major developments. In this podcast you’ll hear from Casey Smith, one of the five US staff who was fired in 2015. Casey has had significant discussions with Matt Chandler and Acts 29 leaders in the past 10 months, and he’ll reveal the good and the not so good aspects of those conversations. Also joining me is Stephen McAlpine. Stephen is an Australian author and pastor who worked at Steve Timiis’ church, The Crowded House. And Stephen was one of the whistleblowers who spoke to me and other Christian media about Timmis’ abuse in February. And in the past 10 months, there’s been a