A number of open secrets surrounding the elder's handling of the Bryan situation in 2024-2025 have been concealed from you. As a Head of Household, you are entitled to this information. Due diligence was performed to verify the claims made on this website.
- Patrick Wilson attempted to meet with elders before filing the police report As you might know, Patrick Wilson filed the police report against Josiah Bryan. What you probably _don't know_ is Patrick Wilson made several attempts to speak with the elders before he filed that police report. There are a number of text/email messages sent between the elders and Patrick Wilson where it becomes evident the elders knew Patrick was digging into the Bryan family's affairs, and had discovered disturbing information. Depite multiple requests by Patrick, the elders denied him a sit down meeting. Instead, the elders told Patrick to talk with Stuart directly since it was Stuart's kids – according to their reasoning. Patrick began to take matters into his own hands, and the church would be led by the nose into the situation once the police report was filed. _The Trinity elders had a prime opportunity to take the lead on the situation with the Bryan family when Patrick Wilson made attempts to meet with them. Instead the elders abdicated their Biblically-ordained duties to the church & the Bryan family. This singular mistake would have cascading effects that would sow seeds of division in the households of many Trinity members. This should have been disclosed to you by the elders._
- Patrick Wilson and William Nixon held a private meeting with 20 Trinity members After Patrick was repeatedly denied a meeting with the elders, both him and William Nixon organized a private meeting with 20 members from Trinity Church. In this meeting, the details of Josiah Bryan’s sexual abuse were disclosed to that entire group along with Patrick's intention to lay an ultimatum at Stuart Bryan's feet: _Either Stuart would take control of the situation in his family, or Patrick would go to the police with the information._ This private meeting was conducted without the elder's knowledge. Both Wilson/Nixon were serving as deacons of Trinity Church at this time. _Patrick Wilson and William Nixon __should not__ have called this private meeting. As deacons they are entrusted with a degree of influence, and it was abused. If they wanted to take unilateral action on behalf of the Bryan children they could have done just that – both of them could have went to the police (on their own) without involving 20 other Trinity members and spilling the beans on the Bryan family. This should have been disclosed to you by the elders and Wilson/Nixon._
- The elders came to know that Wilson/Nixon held that private meeting The elders eventually became aware that Patrick Wilson and William Nixon called this private meeting. After discovering this, the elders relieved Wilson/Nixon of their diaconal duties – but a few days later were restored as diacons after the elders and Wilson/Nixon met together. You'll have an email from Chase Fluhart from October 14, 2024 that details this in really vague language. Chase never disclosed the precipitating events that led the elders to relieve Wilson/Nixon in the first place. It was the private meeting where Wilson/Nixon invited over 20 Trinity members... that was the reason they had been temporarily relieved. _As a Head of Household, it was important for you to know that two of the deacons were willing to take unilateral action at Trinity to disclose highly-sensitive information about the Bryan family to a large group of Trinity members. This should have been disclosed to you by the elders._
- Over half of current elders gave Stuart the green light in 2019 Rewinding a bit. In 2019, an event occured in the Bryan family that led Stuart to believe that Josiah's sexual behavior had involved more than one sibling. It wasn't because Josiah did something in 2019. It was because a number of the Bryan children came together to tell Stuart that they had been abused by Josiah when they were children. The exact timeframe is fuzzy, but it is understood as occuring for some years in mid-2000s. Alarmed by this news, Stuart did 2 things: - Stuart called a family meeting so the children could seek reconciliation. - Stuart actually spoke with the elders about this so they could assess his fitness for pastoral ministry. Regarding the first item. The results of this family meeting was mixed. You will need to speak to them for their opinion. The takeaway is _there was_ a family meeting in 2019 that was centered on Josiah's sexual behavior. The other takeaway – the real takeaway – is that over half of the elders (Ken Harris, Bob Dowers, Kevin Peterson, Ed MacBurnie[^1]) already knew about Josiah Bryan's behavior back to 2019, and they made the determination that Stuart should remain in ministry since they believed the sin had been dealt with, and the siblings were walking with the LORD. Bear in mind: when Stuart had this conversation with the elders that over a decade had passed since the last known act of sexual abuse had occured. _The situation with Josiah Bryan wasn't new to the elders, however, during the string of HOH meetings last year the elders gave that impression. It also allowed them to gloss over the fact that Stuart made attempts to speak with the elders about it in 2019. This should have been disclosed to you by the elders._ [^1]: Chase Fluhart, Mark Bennon, and Doug Paul were not elders during this timeframe in 2019.
- Wilson made disparaging remarks about Stuart during HOH meetings During a few HOH meetings, Patrick Wilson called Stuart Bryan a "liar" and "notorious for downplaying things". Patrick was lobbing insults at Stuart when he wasn't there to defend himself. It was also disappointing that Patrick was allowed to say those things in the HOH meetings without any kind of correction from the elders. Patrick was a deacon when he made these comments in the HOH meetings. _The elders should have immediately corrected Patrick, and told him to keep those statements to himself. This was a gross error by both Patrick Wilson and the elders._
- Elders forced Patrick Wilson to resign in 2025 Once I had discovered Wilson/Nixon organized that private meeting, I attempted to make it known during one of the HOH meetings so I could ask the elders if they knew it had occured. Once I got the microphone and began to name Wilson/Nixon, Bob Dowers took my microphone. Bob maligned me claiming that I was spreading information that I got from "back channels" even though I hadn't disclosed anything besides both of their names. Towards the end of that HOH meeting, Patrick Wilson's resignation letter was read by the elders. After that HOH meeting was over, I went home and emailed the elders asking to meet with them. A few days later, I met with the elders and came to discover that they had, in fact, knew that Wilson/Nixon had organized that private meeting with the other 20 Trinity members. I also asked whether Patrick was asked to resign by the elders and why he wasn't held to account. To this Chase Fluhart responded, "Yes" and that "it is loving to preserve Patrick's reputation." _The elders forced Patrick Wilson to resign because he overstepped his bounds. Instead of holding Patrick accountable, they quietly put him away thereby letting him escape accountability, and made it seem as though the elders were dispensing justice to the HOH who knew about the private meeting. The Wilson family left Trinity a few months after Patrick's resignation. These events and circumstances should have been disclosed to you by the elders._
- $46,000 spent on Telios On May 5th 2025 at 6:58pm before the 7:00pm HOH that evening, Chase Fluhart sent an email with a PDF attachment of the financial reports. You can search your inbox on that date to find it. Normally, the financial reports are printed out and given as physical copies at the HOH meeting. In this financial report, a tiny line item appeared for the previous month that showed an expense of $46,000. This expense was marked for Telios Law (https://telioslaw.com). The elders hired that law firm to produce a fact-finding report that was supposed to organize the Who, What, Where, When, and Whys surrounding the Bryan situtation. In short, to produce an organized narrative.[^1] I was under the impression that the report Telios produced would be made available to every HOH so they could finally get a solid grasp of what had actually transpired. As you know, the elders ended up withholding the report and only allowed HOH to access it if you scheduled an appointment with them and read it while they were in the room with you.[^2] _I cannot definitively say the elders were hoping that the $46,000 expense for Telios would be able to sneak through that HOH meeting, but emailing financial reports two minutes before the HOH meeting made it difficult to review. What I can assert is that a very large sum from the church's tithings were used for a document that can't be readily accessed by anyone besides the elders._ [^1]: The elders have presented Telios' report as an objective account of what happened. I don't think this is a realistic expectation since the elders paid a good deal of money for it. The report should only be relied upon as an additional perspective on what happened at Trinity Church and the Bryan family. [^2]: This "Telios Report" is an incredibly lengthy document – not a simple one-pager.
Every Head of Household is entitled to know this information, but as yet remain open secrets that only privileged individuals at Trinity Church know. In order to remediate this, it was necessary to publish this information directly to all HOH for transparency's sake and so that accountability could be pursued
Modal Content
This is an elegant bottom sheet modal that can be dragged down to close or
dismissed with the close button.