UPDATED:
I had earlier commented on John Vaughn’s List of 50 Most Influential Churches which was published by ChurchReport.com.
Now Christianity Today reports posts an edited version of an Associated Baptist Press story (CT’s Ted Olsen contacted me with this clarification via comments to this post):
“When young, charismatic Christian publisher Jason Christy was tapped two years ago to lead the powerful Christian Coalition, the group’s leaders praised him for his ability “to inspire and encourage people of faith to action.” But Christy’s business dealings — both before and after his one-month affiliation with the Coalition — instead have inspired former customers and co-workers to file lawsuits charging Christy with defrauding their Christian businesses.”
– read the rest of the article here.
However, one source quoted in the article, the Christian Communication Network‘s Gary McCullough characterizes the Top 50 list as “fake.” But Tim Stevens, of Granger Community Church, is a friend of John Vaughn’s – who provided the Most Influential Churches list – and provides clarifying detail here.
– the original Associated Baptist Press article
– Jason Christy has responded to these allegations here.
– Dr. John Vaughn, of Church Growth Today, makes his own statement here.
ht: Tim Stevens
Just a clarifying detail: We posted the story, but didn’t report it. It came from Associated Baptist Press.
On another note, I don’t get Tim’s critique. The PDF he posted from Vaughn seems to actually CONFIRM the Associated Baptist Press report. Tim takes issue with the ABP statement, “Vaughn has said he stopped contributing to The Church Report last January,” but Vaughn’s own letter to Tim says, “After I no longer received copies of the hard copy of the magazine, as a writer, I have not submitted articles since January 2007.”
Hi Ted,
I’ll post an updated clarification.
With the statement
“…The list of “50 Most Influential Churches” in the country was published on The Church Report’s website recently. According to Christy, the list was provided by John Vaughn of Church Growth Today, a Missouri-based consulting firm. Vaughn has said he stopped contributing to The Church Report last January.”
I think that Tim’s point was that the article seemed to indicate that Vaughn had not contributed “50 Most Influential Churches” list. Tim was able to confirm that he had in fact supplied it to Christy.
I am sure that whatever Dr. Vaughn’s involvement — he is another victim of Jason Christy’s scam; thus Dr. Vaughn’s own statement that he is done with Christy and “The Church Report.”
This article exposing Mr. Christy (http://www.abpnews.com/2685.article) is already bearing fruit:
1.) Mr. Christy’s fake Impact America PAC is gone. It was taken down on August 10, 2007. It was at http://www.ImpactAmerica.net; an archive of the site is still available online at http://web.archive.org/web/20070429060409/http://www.impactamerica.net/
2.) Potential and present advertisers have been warned that there is no print version of “The Church Report.” Christy has removed the print advertising rates from his website. An archive of the print rate card is still available online at http://web.archive.org/web/20070811195731/http://www.thecronline.com/mediakit.pdf
3.) Ministries that contributed editorial content have been notified that their good names were being used to give credibility to a scam.
4.) Past errors are less likely to be repeated. It is highly unlikely that any ministry will appoint Jason Christy to a leadership position, or that he will be given a national platform to speak for people of faith.
5.) Past victims of Mr. Christy’s scams have a sense of justice. Those that have felt intimidated by Mr. Christy have some relief.
6.) The chances of success for future fraudulent schemes by Jason Christy have been dramatically diminished.