As Christians, there are some lines we do not cross, such as bringing up past sins to throw in the faces of believers to hurt them and their ministry. Evangelical Dark Web was made aware that Eli McGowan would release a hit piece attacking Joel Webbon over a 2012 pre-ministry sin that had been adjudicated at the time. And in a Friday news dump, Eli McGowan decided to publish his findings.
When Robert Morris was exposed as a child molester, Robert Morris confessed to it for the first time. He went through his entire ministry concealing the details of what it was he did, and everyone involved failed to report the incident to the police despite no statute of limitations. Joel Webbon who also began his faith journey in charismatic circles was far more honest about what he did. This is why there was a letter concerning the issue that, after all these years, McGowan was able to get a hold of.
Joel Webbon prior to getting married fornicated with a girl in a small group. He tells the story in a public statement:
As a younger man, both in high school and in college, I sinned in the area of sexual immorality. These past sins have been confessed, but the Lord was still sanctifying me in this area. I had still not conquered the sin of lust. Sadly, I also failed in this area during my first few years in Southern California.
After college, I moved to San Diego with a few of my closest friends in the hopes of planting a church with the Association of Vineyard Churches. We began holding weekly meetings in a small music venue in the fall of 2011. We were in our early to mid 20’s, and brimming with immaturity. I was not qualified to plant a church, both in regards to my doctrine and my character (this has been my consistent public testimony for several years now). During these first few years in San Diego, we led a glorified Bible-study on Sunday evenings. The participants consisted of young singles, mostly college students and some military. Most of the individuals who attended our Sunday evening meetings would go to an established church on Sunday mornings and then attend our meetings in the evenings, merely as supplemental.
It is important to note that I was not an ordained minister during this time. The Vineyard did not ordain me, and our rag-tag community had no other ordained elders, no deacons, and even no church membership.
Now, to be clear, if you had asked us during this time if what we were leading was a “church” and whether or not I was a “pastor,” my friends and I would have all said yes. This was during the height of the church-planting obsession in American Evangelicalism. Tragically, there was an abundance of Christian organizations that would not hesitate to call any young man with a little charisma, who happened to be leading a Bible-study in his parents’ garage, a “church-planter.” And so, in our youthful zeal, heavily clouded by immaturity and ignorance, we fell for this deception-hook, line, and sinker. I did not learn about proper ecclesiology, valid ordination of church officers, and proper biblical church membership until later. Therefore, both functionally and in accordance with true biblical standards, our “ministry” was little more than a young adults/singles program.In short: it was not a church, and I was not a pastor. It wasn’t until later that I subjected myself to an assessment/training process with the Acts 29 Network, which lasted almost a year. And it wasn’t until after my process of assessment and training was complete, that we officially planted an Acts 29 church in San Diego, California. Shortly after this, I was married to my wife. Up until this point, I was an unmarried, single man who shouldn’t have been leading anything, not even an unofficial ministry for young single adults. But again, I was young, sinful, and stupid.
Now, during our glorified singles ministry days, I dated a young woman who was attending our Sunday evening meetings, and we were sexually immoral. To put it plainly, we fornicated. Again, I was not ordained or married at the time (this took place approximately 12 & 2 years ago). After a few months of dating, we both felt convicted of our sin and decided to call off the relationship and confess our sin (we were not caught, we confessed). I confessed to my three closest friends who had moved out to California with me from college, as well as the representative appointed to me by the Association of Vineyard Churches (as I was originally working towards planting a Vineyard church at that time). My three friends were my roommates, and the only real accountability I had at the time (in addition to the Vineyard rep mentioned above). All of these men (including the Vineyard rep) agreed that it was right to end the relationship, and they worked to hold me accountable for mortifying the sin of lust. However, there was one significant failure. They did not ask me to step down. They insisted that I pursue sexual purity from that moment on, but they allowed me to continue leading our Sunday evening meetings.
Therefore, it is important to note that there were two sins, not merely one, which were committed in these early years in San Diego. The first sin was my sexual immorality, and the second sin was not stepping down from all forms of leadership after the first sin occurred.
Our pathetic “church-planting” attempt in those early years was a joke. I was a joke. Nothing was legitimate by any real, biblical standard. Regardless, the whole thing should have immediately stopped. Regardless of any counsel I received at the time, I should have shut it down. When people ask me today what I would have done differently, without any equivocation, this is what I tell them:
“I should have canceled the Sunday evening meetings, immediately joined a solid biblical church, and faithfully served there (without being in any leadership role) for multiple years, before ever considering the possibility of attempting to church plant in the future.”Now the reason why these two sins are likely to become publicly known is because they have always been incredibly easy to discover. Why? Because they weren’t secret sins, but by the grace of God, they were thoroughly confessed sins. Over the years, I confessed both of these previous failures to likely around a couple hundred people. I informed every man who ever served as an elder in the church in San Diego of my past sins, and they knew of these sins prior to being appointed as elders. In addition to all the elders, I shared my past failures with many of the church members who I developed close relationship with over the years.
However, it is true that I did not confess my fornication with this particular woman in my Acts 29 church planting assessment. I confessed the sins which I was asked about (the primary focus was on those which I was currently struggling with at the time of my assessment), rather than particular sins which I had committed prior to my assessment.
On that note, every board member of Right Response Ministries knows about my past failures. The eldership of Covenant Bible Church knows. The deacons of Covenant Bible Church know. The members of Covenant Bible Church know. My wife, of course, knew prior to both our engagement and marriage. And, as previously mentioned, many other friends of ours are fully aware, and have been for years.
By God’s grace, I’ve been walking in sexual purity for over 12 years. God has been exceedingly faithful.
In summary, I am a very great sinner. In fact, those who oppose my ministry probably don’t even know the half of it. But fortunately, Jesus is an even greater Savior. He not only forgives, but in his unparalleled kindness and mercy, he restores and redeems beyond what any of us can imagine.
Joel Webbon asserts that his elders, deacons, and Right Response board members all attest to the truthfulness of his statement, which was prepared in advance because Webbon knew McGowan’s “report” was coming.
Some key details here should not be overlooked: Webbon confessed his sins on his own volition without first getting caught. It’s not ideal how it was handled at the time, but he nonetheless submitted to the counsel of the elders in oversight of him.
Joel Webbon has been forthright about his past moral failings with his church and ministries he partners with. For instance, Gabe Wrench, the Waterboy of Moscow, posted a statement corroborating Webbon.
When [Joel Webbon] asked me to be on Right Response’s board several years ago, Joel told me everything about what happened in 2012. He did not hide anything. Twitter discernment bloggers always take information that has some truth to it and twist it into a wild misrepresentation of what actually happened. Exodus 23:1.
When adjudicated sins of the past are thrown in people’s faces to undermine their faith and ministry, this is the work of Satan. Christians should rejoice at both repentance and sanctification and not use past sins as strong or weak hooks against ministry rivals.
One Response
At least he wasn’t killing Christians like Saul. He did it before he was married, and more than a decade ago, and many of his enemies honor a man whose last known noteworthy act, before getting shot, was hitting his mistress for objecting to his other adulterous affairs.