In the Annual Southern Baptist Convention of 2021, Willy Rice gave the convention sermon, an honor bestowed upon elites in the Southern Baptist Convention. And predictably he used the pulpit to snipe at ecclesiastical opponents, those who oppose Critical Race Theory. He also simped for Beth Moore, as previously covered on Evangelical Dark Web. The greatest irony in his sermon was the fact that a senior pastor of a multicampus megachurch is preaching against celebrity culture in the church.
In the aftermath of the liberal victory at the convention was Ed Litton’s plagiarism scandal. The incoming president of the Southern Baptist Convention was ripping off the sermons of the outgoing president, JD Greear. And from this scandal came the exposure of Docent Research Group. This article exposes the fact that Willy Rice is a client of Docent Research Group, as part of the Docent Dumps series.
Between our expressed missional intent on exposing Docent Research Group and a reader submitted tip, a lead on Docent employee Grayson Pope was pursued. Grayson Pope is featured in the original Protestia article, revealed to be a ghostwriter for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, a Southern Baptist entity. Grayson Pope’s portfolio reveals that he wrote a study for Cavalry Church. Through a logo match, this was determined to be the same Calvary Church in which Willy Rice pastors. The study itself is rather banal.
What’s clear about Grayson Pope’s role at Docent Research Group is that he specialized in writing curriculum, as opposed to Greg Lamb who wrote sermons. Docent advertises its services to pastors and Docent contractor titles make obvious that larger clients receive more resources. Whereas, North Valley Community Church may have only required one contractor, a larger client such as Cavalry Church likely required more than one. It is unlikely someone who specializes in writing curriculum was the team leader. If anything, Pope was likely brought in for a special assignment given that he does not indicate that he wrote a significant amount of curriculum for Cavalry Church.
It is unlikely that Calvary Church would have only used Docent Research Group to have performed one routine assignment. Moreover, it is unlikely that someone below the senior pastor, Willy Rice, would utilize Docent, without him setting a precedent first.
Docent Research Group is the corporation that has helped fuel the downgrade of the Southern Baptist Convention. Being championed by JD Greear, their lower level clients like FBC Wichita Falls and Redeemer Fellowship KC have demonstrated to be either woke or ardent supporters of Ed Litton. Willy Rice is no exception to this trendline.
