Megachurch Pastor Acted Like a Diva! New Report Details Insane Staff Demands
“The Weemses…leadership is inconsistent and unbiblical (and) marked by rampant spiritual and emotional abuse, including manipulation, a profound sense of self-importance and selfishness, superiority and entitlement, overbearing and unreasonable demands on employees’ time, a lack of accountability or humility, and demands of absolute loyalty….Spiritually, the Weemses have acted with arrogance, pride, deception, manipulation, selfishness, dishonesty, greed, entitlement, conceit, and unrepentance. In short, the antithesis of biblical leadership as described in scripture. REPORT OF INVESTIGATION to CELEBRATION CHURCH OF JACKSONVILLE, INC. April 24, 2022
Last week, pastor Stovall Weems resigned from the Jacksonville megachurch he founded nearly 25 years ago, leaving his position of Senior Pastor, CEO, and chair and member of the board of trustees, the result of an ongoing lawsuit with the 12,000-member multisite Celebration church that he’s been embroiled in and publicly feuding with. The church suspended Weems over what they viewed as financial irregularities, claiming he’s been misusing over a million dollars.
Yesterday, the church released a report that was prepared by the law firm Nelson Mullins, which specializes in these sorts of internal investigations. According to the report, attorneys poured through thousands of pages of documents and interviewed nearly two dozen former and current senior leadership members, pastors, advisors, staff and other consultants. We won’t cover the financial stuff here, but wanted to report on other matters. One is that almost every single witness described Weems as a “narcissist.”
Many witnesses explained that the first rule to survive at the Church was “We don’t say no to Pastor.” In this way, he was able to impose his will on others to force their compliance with his demands. “
The report continues:
The Weemses’ demands blurred the line between employees’ personal and professional lives to such an extent there was no apparent difference between them. Total responsibility to serve the Weemses in all ways at all times was required to appease them. Witnesses described many examples of overbearing demands.
One witness reported that she had to beg for one hour per day in which she was not required to immediately respond to text messages.
Another reported that Weems instructed an employee to drive to a liquor store late at night and deliver a bottle of bourbon to his house because he did not want to be seen purchasing liquor.
Another recounted that an employee was instructed to purchase a car for Weems and deliver it to his house. After the employee delivered the car as demanded, Weems told him to find his own ride home.
Many witnesses described intense personal anguish and pain caused by working for the Weemses
They report that he could come up with big ideas, and then call anyone who brought up issues with the plan “dream killers.” He was described by multiple witnesses as overbearing and condescending.
The Weems also like to live large, using church money to charter private flights to exotic locations, bringing along several personal assistants to tend to their every need and acting like divas. They had three mansions and each location kept a full house staff to maintain the location, with the report explaining:
In 2018, Weems says he had a personal encounter with Jesus that impacted him greatly. “He (allegedly) had seen Jesus on the stage and been transported to the Last Supper the night before Jesus’ crucifixion. Weems claims that he was physically with Jesus Christ and that Jesus spoke with him, directing his attention to the future and what Christ wanted for the Weemses to accomplish on Earth.”
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You know at some point you have to look at the people sitting in the seats and blame them. Churches sat on their hands and allowed the “seeker sensitive and 40 days of purpose crap” to invade the church. I know of another church where the people disagreed with the pastor strongly, but still sat there and did nothing.
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Exactly, Susan! I was going to say the same thing. Yes, the “pastors” are culpable, but they wouldn’t even be in the position they are in were it not for the gullible people funneling them money.
So this was going on for how many years? Mega churches are a mega fail.