Summit Church Responds to JD Greear Documentary: ‘The story being told misrepresents the events’

Directional Elder Letter to The Summit Church

Dear Summit Family,

As some of you may have seen, our pastor and our church are the subject of a recent documentary series about our attempted church merger with Faith Baptist Church in Knightdale. We received no advance notification about this documentary, nor were we consulted about the issues discussed within it. We saw it for the first time when the episodes were shared with the public. 

The story being told misrepresents the events as well as our intentions in this process. The Summit sought to pursue this path with the utmost integrity at every step.  As your directional elders, our responsibility is to provide leadership and accountability for our church, and over the last few weeks, we have made ourselves available to answer any questions. We have not spoken publicly about this yet, however, as we believed that it would be wise to refrain from responding in any public way until all parts were released.  

In 2023, we launched a mobile campus at Knightdale High School because several of our members lived in the Knightdale area and had a desire to better reach people in that area. Shortly after our launch there, the leadership of Faith Baptist Church (FBC) in Knightdale approached us and asked if we would be open to discussing the potential of them joining our Knightdale campus, due to a decline in attendance and financial stability. At their request, over the next several months, our church leadership (including both staff and directional elders) worked with FBC’s leadership as we explored the viability of this proposal, which functionally meant the members of FBC dissolving their church, joining our Knightdale campus, and giving the church’s property to The Summit Church as the permanent location for our Knightdale Campus.

Each party formed feasibility teams that were tasked with discerning the practical and spiritual wisdom of this decision. During this process, both Summit Church and FBC consulted their own legal counsel and worked through their respective congregational approval processes. Throughout the process, we took steps to confirm compatibility, answer any questions, and build connections between the two congregations. These were enjoyable and were largely well-received. As this process unfolded, each side sensed that the Lord was in this venture.

In January of 2024, the leadership of Faith Baptist expressed a clear desire to move forward with the process, and on February 19th, 2024, our Directional Elders elected to pursue it as well.  As we mentioned, this would mean FBC dissolving their church by congregational vote and its members joining The Summit Church, something both sides were very aware of. 

FBC leadership called for a congregational vote, and on March 3rd, 2024, FBC voted 97–55 in favor of dissolving their church and giving their property to The Summit Church, more than meeting the required 51% threshold required by the FBC constitution. The FBC bylaws provided clear guidelines on who should be considered an active member, and FBC leaders worked with their church’s legal counsel to ensure those guidelines were met prior to the member vote. However, some individuals in the church filed legal action in state court to try to stop FBC from proceeding with the vote.

It is important to note that this lawsuit was brought against Faith Baptist Church by some of its members and other interested parties, not against The Summit Church, because The Summit Church was not a party to that legal proceeding. FBC leadership was unanimous in their belief they had acted in strict accordance with their bylaws and the state guidelines of NC. A state court judge issued a preliminary injunction, however, which temporarily halted the dissolution proceedings until the lawsuit was resolved. During this time, FBC was quickly running out of money and requested assistance from Summit to help them meet their financial obligations. On May 2nd, 2024 we approved a grant of $170,000 to help FBC pay accrued and anticipated operating costs, salaries, and severance. This included ensuring that Faith Baptist Preschool would remain open through the scheduled end of the school year in May 2024. Faith Baptist Church leadership told us that if The Summit Church had not given the grant, they would have no choice but to close all operations, including the preschool, immediately. Around the same time, FBC’s leadership made the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy, and The Summit Church reiterated our willingness to purchase the property if given the opportunity, as well as to satisfy the financial claims that were part of FBC’s bankruptcy proceedings.

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the group that filed the state lawsuit requested from The Summit Church documents between our church and FBC leadership. We voluntarily produced those documents with the agreement that these documents would not be disclosed on the internet, because we had concerns about statements being lifted out of context and misrepresented in public. We had seen charges and character assaults made against our leadership on the internet related to this case that had nothing to do with the facts in question regarding the property. At first they agreed, but later in the bankruptcy proceeding, that group (which had expanded to include non-FBC members) sought additional internal documents from Summit leaders and to depose some of our leaders. As we processed these requests, we grew concerned that these actions were no longer solely about disputing the legitimacy of the vote, but potentially part of a larger smear campaign involving our church and our pastor.   

During this process, it also became clear to our directional elders, staff leadership, and FBC leaders that these legal procedures could continue for years. Even though we had nothing to hide, and it was clear that dissolving and uniting with The Summit Church was the desire of the majority of FBC members as expressed by congregational vote, we determined that continuing with extensive legal battles was not  a wise use of our time or money. The point for us had never been acquiring property, but reaching people in Knightdale, and by this point, the property had become a distraction to that mission. We were also mindful of the Apostle Paul’s admonition that sometimes it is better to suffer wrong than to put on a spectacle before the world. We had not entered Knightdale looking for property. When Faith Baptist Church approached us with the idea of joining with us, we had been eager to consider it. But now that the property was an obstacle to the mission of reaching people, we believed it was the will of the Holy Spirit to pursue a permanent campus elsewhere, and so we walked away.  

In December of 2024, all parties to the bankruptcy lawsuit (which now included The Summit Church as an ‘interested non-party’), negotiated a settlement that permitted the group who filed the state lawsuit to keep the property and the building. Many of the FBC members have become part of our Summit family and they worship and serve at our Knightdale campus. We are grateful they are a part of our family and movement. The essence of a church, of course, is the people, not the property, and we now recognize it was indeed the Holy Spirit’s plan to unite these believers to our church, even though the property did not come with them. What God put into the heart of Faith Baptist leadership and its congregational majority did indeed happen.

We believe it is important to be open with you as a church. Despite the claims being promoted in this video series, our church never sought to take anything from Faith Baptist Church. We simply responded to a request from FBC leadership to prayerfully consider uniting with them. Prior to their reaching out, Pastor J.D. had never even heard of Faith Baptist and had no relationship with Pastor Jason Little. When together we believed that moving forward would help us fulfill Christ’s mission, we moved forward at their invitation, in accordance with the expressed will of the congregation as outlined in their bylaws. We did not, and do not, believe it would have been right to walk away from these brothers and sisters in their struggle after we had agreed to their request for help. However, there came a point at which we, together with the leadership of FBC, decided that the road to maintaining possession of the property would cost more than we were willing to spend, so the decision was made to pursue a settlement, effectively ending all litigation. 

We want to be clear that the Summit Directional Elder board (which contains a mixture of staff and lay elders) was heavily involved throughout the process, making all major decisions along the way, and, when necessary, according to our bylaws, even calling for a congregational vote of Summit Church members. The narrative being told that our pastor or pastoral team used manipulation, dishonesty, bullying tactics, or engaged in conspiracy is simply untrue, and we are deeply grieved by it. Our pastor and leadership team have nothing to hide–as the elders of The Summit Church, we looked over their shoulder at every step. 

Our mission at The Summit Church is to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit as we seek to make disciples in RDU and around the world. For us and Faith Baptist’s leadership, this has always been about Christ’s mission of impacting the community of Knightdale with the gospel. Our mission has never been about acquiring property, but about reaching the people in Knightdale. When acquiring the Faith Baptist property became a distraction to that mission, we walked away from it. By God’s grace, we continue to see that community impacted by the gospel, and look forward to many more lives being changed by our presence in that community.

The Summit Church Directional Elders