Abuse, Inaction, and Failure of Leadership in the Vineyard Movement.
On February 25, 2014, I sent a formal complaint to the Vineyard USA (VUSA) board (see excerpts from that letter and the list of the recipients below) outlining serious concerns about Michael & Brenda Gatlin's actions as local Senior Pastors, as an employee of VUSA (Michael, National Coordinator for Multiply Vineyard), and as an official Vineyard leader (Brenda, Midwest-North Regional Leader). I was the Senior Pastor of a thriving Vineyard Church for almost a decade in the same town at the Gatlins (until the end of 2013). I served on Michael’s national church planting team. I became close friends with them both (which is one of the things that pains me about this account). That is, we were friends until we had a disagreement, at which point their actions toward me changed significantly and, thankfully, I started to see through their lies and manipulation and took power into my own hands by distancing myself from them and the broader Vineyard movement.
To be clear, the complaint I sent the VUSA board wasn’t just focused on what I alone had experienced, but moreso, my goal was to amplify the voices of more than a dozen others who had shared similar experiences and to bring to light what I witnessed happening to others: a pattern of the Gatlins abusing their power, bullying, intimidating, blacklisting people, using condescending language and actions, defensiveness whenever questioned, speaking poorly about others, etc. The independent Guidepost Solutions reports dated July 26, 2023 and October 10, 2024 (which you can access by clicking HERE & HERE) affirm their pattern of toxic leadership after interviewing numerous others spanning decades. The November 20, 2023 independent GRACE Report (which you can access by clicking HERE) also affirms this wide-spread, long-term pattern of abuse.
The truth deserves to be told. The Gatlins created a culture of intimidation and fear around them, so people were often afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. Or, when they did share, they were shut down by the power structure, both locally and in the Vineyard more broadly. (You can read a detailed timeline of events surrounding this scandal by clicking HERE.) The reason I am speaking out again (as I have no personal stake in the ground) is because this exact same thing is happening again currently; the VUSA board and leadership team is trying again to minimize and silence the voices of those of us who are sharing what actually happened and who are calling into question VUSA’s unethical and irresponsible behavior both past and present. It seems they are more interested in spinning the narrative, than they are taking responsibility.
My complaint letter to the VUSA board in 2014 outlined serious concerns about the actions of a VUSA employee and a pastor under their oversight authority. And, what did the VUSA board do? Nothing credible. Individually and collectively they failed in their responsibility by choosing inaction. They did not investigate. They did not formally respond to my allegations. They did not respond to others' allegations. Instead, they sidestepped my complaint by acting like it was just a personal conflict, “I got your note and again I will say that conflict resolution has a timetable. This letter to all, will not hurry that along.” (Phil Strout, the National Director of Vineyard USA at the time, wrote to me in an email - the only response I received). I emailed Phil back (and copied the rest of the Vineyard USA board) to make sure they understood that my outreach was not just about my personal conflict with Michael, but was much broader than that, “I am writing to bring to your attention what I believe are unethical and unScriptural actions by a Vineyard leader - Michael Gatlin . . . I am also writing, as I note in the letter, because I am concerned that Michael is (and has been) treating other people in a similar manner - bullying people, belittling people and using his power to harm and manipulate - and I would hate to see it affect others.” It was later revealed that Jay Pathak (the current National Director of VUSA) told Michael that he was shocked by my “dissociation from reality” and later labeled me a "bad guy" (a classic trick abusers use - attacking victims when they speak out and share their experience or other’s experiences.)
Instead of doing what they should have, in a bafflingly unethical move, the VUSA leaders then proceeded to email only Michael about the official complaint they received from me (about him) and let him take care of the situation (which is akin to giving the wolf back a key to the sheep pen after he’s eaten a few sheep.) They did not even email the church board or any other leadership of the Duluth Vineyard Church (DVC), where Michael also served as Senior Pastor. You can read those emails by clicking HERE. Unsurprisingly, Michael’s strategy to take care of my complaint, a strategy explicitly approved by Phil Strout and implicitly by the VUSA board, was simply to ignore me and my (now proven credible) reports of abusive behavior.
The VUSA board had a responsibility to look into these claims. If they would have, just below the surface, they would have discovered others whose voices were muted due to their positions or affiliations, but who would have likely spoken up more loudly given the chance. Sadly, instead, the VUSA board failed in their leadership oversight duties of their own employee and a pastor in their denomination, which allowed Michael and Brenda to continue to operate in toxic ways for another decade. This gave space for terrible abuse and criminal activity to take place at the local level, along with mental, emotional, and spiritual abuse for many under their leadership. From my personal perspective, the bits of abuse that I experienced pale significantly in comparison to others, including former staff members at DVC, people who served as part of the church planting team that Michael oversaw, congregants at DVC, and, horrifically, the victims of their son Jackson Gatlin’s sexual abuse that flourished unchecked in the toxic system that the Gatlins created. If only the VUSA leadership would have taken my concerns and the concerns of others seriously at the time, as was their responsibility. They did not, however, so let it be acknowledged that there is blood on their hands.
Today, the VUSA board has a responsibility to present the full truth, rather than spinning the narrative and relying on Guidepost to report only parts of what happened. (You can read about the deficiencies of this report by clicking HERE.) The VUSA must hold their current and former board and employees accountable for mishandling abuse cases. Furthermore, the VUSA board owes an apology to me and other abuse survivors for how they have treated us.
The following are excerpts from my complaint letter to the VUSA board, so it remains clear that my outreach was not just about a personal matter, but that I was expressing concerns about a broader pattern of abuse that I and others witnessed, which we all now know were / are credible and substantiated by many others . . . Some of my words now feel chilling . . .
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“Dear Vineyard USA Board,
“I am writing to bring a matter of concern to your attention. In short, I believe that Michael Gatlin is using the power he has been entrusted with as the Senior Pastor of Duluth Vineyard Church and a leader in the Vineyard movement to harm and manipulate people.”
“I feel like Michael has no formal oversight or accountability for his leadership or actions and is acting in ways unbecoming a leader in the Kingdom of God . . . Additionally, I have also seen first hand and heard from several other people that have served under his leadership that he has done similar things to them; bullying them in private, using condescending language and actions toward them, intimidating them with his power, manipulating situations to make them feel like they are never doing good enough, speaking poorly about them should they disagree with him on something, telling them that they are not “Vineyard enough”, etc. I feel like these details need to be brought to your attention so that he can be held accountable for his words and actions toward people under his leadership and, hopefully, so that this can be avoided in the future.”
“The behind-the-scenes saying surrounding Michael’s leadership that others cite became true for us, “You are either on Michael’s good side or his really bad side.”
“Beyond my personal experience with his leadership, I am concerned about Michael’s leadership at the Duluth Vineyard and the Vineyard at large, because I have spoken to several others (people who are currently on Michael’s staff, people who were on Michael’s staff, people who were ‘under’ Michael in the church planting sphere, and people who have worked alongside Michael) who have experienced similar harmful and manipulative treatment from him. Oftentimes, they are just too intimidated by him and fearful to say anything. I would sure hate for this type of behavior to continue to take place unknown and unchecked because the people he is doing this to are too afraid to speak out. Specifically, people under his leadership have told me that if people disagree with him that he will demean them in public and / or bully them in private. People have also mentioned feeling like he manipulates situations so that the person involved always feels like they have done something wrong and that they have disappointed Michael (like a disapproving father figure). Additionally, leaders are afraid to think for themselves or do anything without first consulting Michael about what they can be involved with or even think in some cases. It seems that his influence over his people’s lives extends well beyond healthy pastoral care and into control and a constant monitoring of what free-will individuals can choose to do with their lives.”
“However, as I have fasted and prayed, dually considered the situation and consulted trusted friends and fellow pastors, it became clear that bringing this to your attention is necessary, especially to avoid this type of treatment to others in the future. It is my hope that you will take this information and look into the matter further.”
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My email on February 25, 2014 was sent to the following individuals, who, I believe, should be held accountable for their individual and collective failure of leadership: Rich Nathan, Lance Pitluck, Phil Chorlian, Phil Strout, Happy Lehman, Rick Olmstead, Mark Fields, and Doug Anderson. In that email I asked that the email be forwarded to the following individuals as well: Brian Anderson, Becky Olmstead, and Diane Leman. On February 26, 2014, Michael Gatlin forwarded my email to Jay Pathak and Jeff Heidkamp.
It is inconvenient to the VUSA board that there is a clear record of my complaint, because it demonstrates that they failed in their leadership responsibility causing undue harm to many . . .