"Tim's" Resignation
Dear Jeff and Vision Baptist Leadership,
I hope that this letter finds you well. All of you have been on my heart and mind lately, and after much prayer and consideration, I wanted to reach out to you about a difficult yet important issue. Please know that I love you and believe that God has used you in a great way to get the Gospel to the world. Thank you for the investment that you have made in my life and ministry over the past fifteen years. Being a part of Vision and the team (formerly known as BCWE) shaped much of my own perspective on missions, and I am truly grateful for the experience.
As you know, I recently resigned as a missionary with Vision Baptist Missions, and I am sure that a few individuals would like to know the primary reasons for my decision. For those of you who may consider me a friend, explaining why I can no longer be associated with VBM in good conscience is the least that I could do for you.
This is not an irrational reaction or something that our family just decided on a whim. We have been concerned about these issues for at least the past three years, and we have fervently prayed about the decision to either stay or leave for a very long time. We believe that the Lord has made it clear that we need to separate and say our goodbyes. From the beginning we were fully aware of what this decision would cost us, and we did not take this step lightly. We have already grieved the loss of relationships because of this decision, knowing full well that most of the people on the team would have to distance themselves from us as they have from those who left in the past.
I struggled for a long time trying to decide if I should even write this letter at all. To spew out a list of complaints and incompatibilities would have been simple, yet selfish, unproductive, and unedifying. I wanted to express my thoughts clearly and above all else in the right spirit for the right reason. My desire and prayer is that you will read this letter as an expression of love by addressing specific problems that could ultimately keep Vision from achieving the admirable goal of evangelizing the world in our generation.
I love the people of Vision, and I do not want to cause any harm or division. However, I believe that many of the concerns that I had when I initially considered separating from the “team” still threaten the integrity of the entire group. Please understand that I am writing this primarily out of concern for my brothers who are oblivious to the danger or who see it and feel stuck in the middle of it. The purpose of this letter is to warn against what I believe to be destructive contagions within the community that will severely hinder the mission (or cause VBM to implode) if not acknowledged and dealt with soon.
The following experiences and observations are my own. I do not expect the leadership of Vision to be perfect, but it is alarming that even though several of these issues have been brought to your attention by others there doesn’t seem to be any real self-reflection. The typical response either excuses the problem or becomes the means by which the one addressing the issues is accused as being the bitter and divisive source of the problem. You were correct in your recent email to the team when you stated, “We must not forget that we are in a spiritual war and if the devil can put us against each other, then he has won...” Please read through this letter with the understanding that my desire is not to divide, but rather to help you see what I believe to be some of the primary causes of the schism that already exists in the Vision team. My desire is for you to achieve your God honoring goal of world evangelism, but you must seriously consider the warnings of those of us who were a part of this group. Otherwise, I believe you will see more and more veterans walk away as the Gospel becomes clearer to them or they quit in frustration from a culture that is becoming more works based and man-centered.
The Anti-Grace Cycle: Preaching Freedom but Practicing Bondage
During the period of time that we all worked together to plant Vision Baptist Church, grace was our primary motivation for world evangelism. The love and acceptance of the Father through Christ sustained us and gave us significance. We were encouraged to rest in our identity in Him, allow that to transform us on the “Be” level and trust that the Lord would produce the fruit. That was the biblical truth that unified and motivated us.
Over the years that principle remains a part of the teaching and is even printed on signs for decoration, but the practice could not be further from the truth. Competition for position and praise is not only accepted but encouraged on the team. Results are in reality what determine the worth of an individual or a ministry at Vision.
How many churches are planted, how many students are recruited, and how much money can be raised determine defacto rank and status at VBM. Hence the Anti-grace cycle has become the standard practice for most staff and missionaries. Results determine worth, and a person has to work hard to sustain those results in order to feel accepted.
The Inner Circle
Acceptance by human leadership or by God Himself is often a line blurred due to the bondage that a legalistic system produces. Working to be accepted by Christ is obviously anti-gospel, yet Vision leadership models exactly that. Using Jesus’ relationship with His disciples as a pretext to create an ever evolving “inner circle” members of the team fight and compete with each other to get in. New email rings are created to keep the less motivated aspiring to be more committed, produce more, and ultimately earn a place in the upper echelon.
The atmosphere is one of competition and frustration. Many insecure missionaries, craving the praise of Vision leadership, struggle to get noticed and stay important. Others live constantly perplexed and have to somehow reconcile the teaching that God loves us unconditionally, but for whatever reason He seems to favor some more than others. Of course that would never be stated so bluntly at Vision because it resembles Vision’s distorted definition of Calvinism too closely, but in practice that is reality.
Lack of Respect for Others: Shame, Guilt, and Fear
“Healthy competition” is not a biblical principle. It is fueled by pride and produces contention. Parroting the rhetoric of their leadership, loyal sycophants don’t hesitate to call pastors and other missionaries losers if they do not fit the Vision mold. If anyone publicly questions the logic or biblical basis for such a conclusion, they are verbally assaulted by someone who outranks them. The typical accusation is that the person who had the audacity to speak up doesn’t “know how to read his Bible” or leadership will resort to some other form of verbal assault declaring that this person is not “fit to lead anybody.” Those who are not as assertive stay quiet and struggle with guilt. Their conscience tells them that this is not how Christians should treat others, but they are not confident enough in their own ability to interpret Scriptures accurately to confront a spiritual and emotional bully. They wonder why they don’t see the argument clearly enough themselves. Either they have to quietly object or convince themselves that their leadership is the best (if not only) source of accurate interpretation.
The underlying disease is a gross lack of respect for other human beings. Fear of public shame controls the group, and as a result trust is broken, even though nobody wants to admit it.
Confidentiality has never been a strength at Vision, but the lack thereof has increased at an alarming rate. I absolutely should not know the details of how a wife of a Vision missionary got caught in adultery! Sharing those humiliating details was not in any way edifying for the team and most definitely not for the devastated husband. I still doubt that he knows that his leadership shamelessly broadcast everything with the entire team in a Marco Polo message.
I’m sure there are many other stories that remained classified, but one single violation of confidentiality is too many for any respectable leader. And the reality is that this is more of a pattern than an exception. Who in their right mind would want to be open with a pastor or board president concerning any of their own struggles after witnessing such an atrocity? It was excused as some sort of leader-training method, but rather it came across as leadership getting praised for their dedication to fixing a problem rather than truly loving and caring for the individuals who were broken.
Again, fear is the primary motivation for the Vision subordinates. A constant dread of becoming the example in next Friday’s class, either directly or passive aggressively, looms over those who are not producing the promised results of Vision’s system. Even more frightening is the prospect that any personal struggle will be broadcast in some way (usually after being removed from the OG email or Marco Polo ring). Of course there’s always plausible deniability if the leadership is confronted.
Another way that this lack of respect and dependence on fear is exemplified is how people are treated when they decide to leave the team. The leadership assumes a victim mentality and then refuse to acknowledge the validity of the stated reasons for leaving. Leadership calls the concerns “accusations” towards them and then feign a love for the person by stating, “I have no intention of hurting him, but sending you his list of disagreements is only painful, not helpful.” By doing this you have already slandered the character of a person who actually had the guts to tell the truth, and you have made it clear that you are not interested in listening. Anybody with any intuition at all will recognize that you are trying to cover up a problem and shut up the former VBM missionary. The leadership is very quick to throw someone under the bus in order to protect their own reputation.
Lust for Praise and Glory
What became obvious to me over the last several years is that loyalty to a personality is accepted as the greatest character trait of any team member. Unfortunately the epicenter of praise is not Christ (even though that would be the claim). If any action makes Vision and consequently the leadership look good, then the one who performed it is praised and pushed to the front. However, as soon as any action or opinion threatens the public image of the leadership, the one who was exalted the day before suddenly becomes the subject of slander or blatant neglect.
Position and prestige are valued over relationships. As leadership continues to slander and degrade any threatening influences (like Piper, Keller, Stanley, MacArthur, the SBC or even nonconformist missionaries), the OG minions mimic the behavior. Naturally the attitude does not remain limited to better known ministries and a subtle struggle for self-promotion ensues with indiscriminate mudslinging. The only time that the action is confronted is if it conflicts with Vision’s agenda or leaks to supporters on the outside threatening the image and income of VBM. As the leadership pushes to be the “biggest and best” missions force in the world, bullying has tragically become commonplace on all levels of the hierarchy.
Love of Money / Fear of Man
All of this has created a hostile and unhealthy team culture, and for a long time I tried to ignore it or excuse it. However, the issues that ultimately caused me to walk away from Vision started to become evident to me during the 2017 mission conference.
The first red flag was raised during the group missionary meeting that Pastor Gardner held with all of us prior to the first service. As he explained the itinerary for the week and made clear his expectations for each of us, he blatantly told us to not preach Bible when we spoke because Vision members got enough of that from him all year long. We were told to get people excited by telling stories that will motivate everybody to give more money than they had ever given before.
Later on Vision members (some alluded to more specifically than others) were criticized for not caring enough about missions. A wealthier individual was portrayed as an annoying hindrance to the big audacious goals of the leadership, and then I heard that all of the members were out of the will of God because they were not missionaries. It was a bizarre week of contradiction from what was preached publicly and what was said privately. Ultimately, the attitude was that we as missionaries had the responsibility to manipulate people to either become missionaries or give more money to Vision and stay out of the way.
I wrestled with making sense of what I heard and experienced that week for a few months. Then I read a puzzling email sent to the VBM ring demanding that a missionary identify himself for some heinous action. Evidently somebody told Steve Morgan that Vision is KJV preferred, and the leadership was livid because of it. Of course nobody admitted to it, but it caused me to wonder why this was such a terrible thing since Vision has always been so adamant about not being KJV only.
Along with a couple of other concerns on my mind, I sent a Marco Polo message to pastor Gardner asking about Vision’s official position. The response was, “I live in the world I live in... I deal with the people I deal with. The new people - the ‘Josh Teises’ - don’t support missions.” Other vague statements were made about Vision not being King James only but only using the King James. The bottom line was that we don’t have a conviction about this issue, but we will pretend that we do so that we can continue to get money from KJV only churches. At the same time, the wording is obscure enough for plausible deniability for the more educated supporters who don’t want to identify with Ruckmanites.
The anti-Calvinism position is similar. “Free Grace” (Hyles influenced) churches are more likely to support uneducated missionaries who are performance based in theology. Never mind the lingering root of bitterness within VMB leadership due to an offense committed by a former Calvinist (now atheist), it is more financially convenient in the IFB world to reject all Reformed doctrine. This plays into the strategy to discredit any other ministries that are better known and/or more productive in sending missionaries to unreached areas of the world. If they can be labeled “Reformed Heretics” then Vision maintains their influence in a world that still admires man-centered ministry.
The bottom line is that where Vision’s money is there will your convictions be also. However, in order to maintain support from legalistic churches, you will have to continue to cater to their convictions rather than live by your own. In the end both missionaries and support will be lost. In addition to my personal concerns with VBM, I cannot with conviction claim that the mission’s model at Vision is the best paradigm for world evangelism. Regardless of my opinion,
I do not fit the mold of a VBM church planter, and for me to stay on the team will only cause more confusion and problems for everybody.
You are welcome to give whatever reason you want for my resignation, but let it be honest. Usually generalities such as philosophical differences, or a change in ministry focus are sufficient. However, do not tell people that I left because Vision is too strong on the KJV or isn’t Calvinistic enough. If either subject comes up, please have integrity and say that I believe Vision is too pragmatic about their stand on the KJV and anti-Calvinism. I cannot pretend to have a conviction about something simply to get money from people.
I want you to know that I do not plan on seeking out anyone at Vision Baptist Missions or the Church to make an issue of anything that I have mentioned here. However, I also will not lie about any of this if I am asked directly. What I have written to you is my observation and interpretation of recent Vision culture that I can no longer be a part of.
Once again, the purpose of this letter is not to accuse or condemn but rather to state clearly the problems that I genuinely believe exist and need to be addressed for the sake of Vision’s future and for the sake of my friends who remain in the system. I hope and pray that this is received well and not simply dismissed as a rant from some bitter enemy. I am a concerned friend who you once considered a teammate for 15 years.
As I mentioned before, leaving Vision was not an easy decision but consequently the best one for our family and ministry. I am not hurt, and I do not need any apology for you “not measuring up” or “failing" in some way. I simply ask you to do some prayerful self-examination concerning all of this. If we are truly Christians who live out the Gospel, there can be a renewed Vision and spirit for what lies ahead as you train men to take the Gospel to the World, and build a training Center with a strong and healthy foundation. May the Lord continue to bless you as you make Him known in the world. Sincerely, "Tim"