Fellowship Family,
As we continue to navigate through a pivotal time in our church’s history, we remain committed to open communication and unity within our spiritual family. Today, we bring you further updates regarding our Senior Pastor, Albert Tate, who as you know is on a leave of absence.
Review
Since Pastor Albert’s confession to the Board of limited and inappropriate texting, the Board has been reviewing Pastor Albert’s conduct and leadership, and pursuing a plan for health and restoration. As this private news eventually became public, other concerns were also raised, and it was then we decided a leave of absence could give the Board time to do a broader review and analysis of his leadership, as well as of senior leaders, staff culture, plus fiscal and governance practices. Any line of assertion or questioning raised was pursued with diligence and honesty, as we are committed to doing.
We have now prayerfully decided that a path of restoration is the most appropriate and God-led direction for both Pastor Tate and our Fellowship family.The first step of this longer process will begin this Sunday, November 5, when Albert and LaRosa Tate will be in worship with us in our services, and Albert will share some words of reflection with all of us. We encourage you to attend and to invite others to do so as well.
The specifics of the restoration plan have been discussed with Pastor Tate, and are in various stages of roll-out over the next year. Rest assured the restoration plan is comprehensive, and will include clear support, as well as appropriate accountability measures and benchmarks. Given Pastor Albert’s full commitment to restoration and improvement, the Board expresses its commitment to and confidence in Pastor Albert as he returns to preach and lead our staff in this next season.
Restoration Process
A recently formed Restoration Team– comprised of both highly regarded pastoral and lay leaders drawn from the Board, staff, and externally– has begun work with Pastor Tate. We are very thankful that Pastor Obed Martinez, a very experienced and capable pastor and church leader on our Board, is facilitating this team, and Pastor Albert’s re-entry in leading the staff and congregation again. Since we seek long-term health and restoration for Albert and his family, the staff, and the congregation, we know this will take time and will unfold over 2024.
Return
We look forward to Albert and LaRosa regularly being present with us in worship beginning November 26. That Sunday we also can look forward to the first of four sermons from Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, former pastor of Faithful Central Bible Church, between then and the end of December. Given Pastor Tate’s spiritual posture and the progress being made, we anticipate him returning to the podium and leadership of our church in early January.
Care for Staff
We have developed a care-plan for our staff, which was shared with the leadership team a few weeks ago. This multidimensional approach ensures that we uphold our core values while assisting the staff with the support they deserve. It is not surprising that we are undergoing a lot of staff changes, and we are grateful for each of those who have or are serving on staff. Our pastoral team and dedicated staff and volunteers continue the necessary work to maintain the important ministries they lead. We are incredibly thankful for their service and for your unwavering commitment to the cause of Christ.
Care for Congregation
Our congregational leaders and volunteers also deserve strong affirmation and gratitude for the additional burden this season has placed on them. We will be finding ways for our congregation to process this season, and to find greater understanding and peace about it.
Board Governance and Reset
From the beginning of Fellowship, the by-laws of the church authorized the Board to oversee the lead pastor and the budget approval, and the staff to lead the congregation. This structure needs to be reset based on extensive Board self-examination and critique, as well as congregational input. Fellowship’s organizational and governance structures need to be altered for the health of the church going forward. We anticipate a number of significant changes taking place that we will share with you in the near future.
As we look to the future, let us remember our faith teaches us that in times of adversity, God is still at work, molding us and shaping our path. We invite you to join us in prayer wisdom, healing, and divine guidance for Pastor Tate, his family, the staff, and our entire church family. We know what a difficult season this has been for all of us. “But God, who is rich in mercy…will show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2.5). Let us pray we might receive all God has for us–for our sake and far beyond.
We thank you for your steadfast faith, your prayers, and your active involvement in our shared spiritual life. Together, as a Fellowship family united in Christ, we will emerge stronger, more resilient and more attuned to God’s purpose for us.
Sincerely in Christ,
Board of Fellowship Church
P.S. The board is aware of a letter and text sent by some members of staff and some congregants expressing impassioned concerns for the welfare of Fellowship. The board has reviewed all questions, allegations, and issues brought to our attention, and, where relevant, discussed these with Albert, with staff, and with congregants. With every good faith effort, and in as timely a way as we have been able to manage, the board has acted with integrity and is resolute that its decisions were made for the benefit of Fellowship Church.
Albert Tate Apologizes for ‘Inappropriate’ Texts; More Misconduct Allegations Rile Church
After a monthlong leave of absence marked by staff resignations and turmoil, embattled Pastor Albert Tate on Sunday gave a tearful, yet vague apology before his California megachurch, Fellowship Monrovia.
“A year ago, I engaged in inappropriate text messaging, and my wife saw it very quickly,” Tate confessed. “By God’s grace, we started to do deep work—therapy, with community, with our board.”
Tate also admitted that Fellowship Monrovia was “not a great place to work” and that its culture was “hard on staff, hard on our membership, hard on our executives.”
Tate said his wife, LaRosa Tate, and his family had forgiven him for his failings and misconduct. Then, becoming emotional, he stated, “But as your shepherd, and as your spiritual leader, I also ask for your forgiveness. I was not the best that I could have been. I was less than the best spiritual leader. That impacted you, as well.”
Tate made no allusion to serious allegations against himself and other church leaders, which include financial malfeasance and sexual harassment, among other things.
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Tate’s congregation applauded his apology, as heard on an audio recording of the service posted to the church’s website. Fellowship Monrovia did not livestream Sunday’s service like it normally does, nor post video of it.
A congregant who was at the 9 a.m. service, Yi Jiang, told The Roys Report (TRR) that other Fellowship pastors were noticeably absent during the service. Jiang said only one pastor, Pastor to Counseling Becky White, was up front praying for people at the end of the service, when normally four to five pastors are there.
Jiang added that she also saw a pastor crying in the lobby after the service. And she said two youth pastors, who resigned last week, were saying goodbye to students and parents, who were upset the pastors were leaving.
Staff letter alleging misconduct sparks turmoil
Sunday’s dramatic service followed a letter circulated last Monday from “a concerned group of staff members and key leaders of Fellowship Monrovia Church.” The letter included links to documents detailing serious allegations of misconduct by Tate, other senior church leaders, and the church board.
Among the allegations were using designated funds to pay “hush money” to resigning staff and failing to “thoroughly investigate” multiple HR complaints about Tate’s alleged “manipulation, malice, sexual harassment . . . and failure to meet the moral and character standards of pastoral leadership.”
The letter did not include the names of its authors but included a poll, allowing readers to sign the letter and note whether they agreed with it.
Robert Haleblian, who recently resigned as an intern at Fellowship Monrovia, told TRR he knew the authors of the letter and trusted “that their interpretation of a situation is accurate.”
Jiang also said she knew the authors and vouched that they were Fellowship staff and leaders.
Haleblian and Jiang, who said they signed the letter and agreed with it, told TRR that the authors initially intended to collect signatures and then present the letter with signatures to the board.
But hours after the letter began circulating, Fellowship Monrovia Executive Director Tristan Gist sent an email to “All Staff,” saying that because of the letter, “an investigation is now required.” Gist’s email encouraged anyone who “participated in any way” to come forward. It also stated that all staff were required to meet “privately this week” with Gist and HR Manager Lara Damarian, and that church offices would be closed the rest of the week.
TRR reached out multiple times to Gist for comment, but he did not reply.
Three days later, the board sent a statement via email to the congregation, which the church also posted online. The statement announced the board had decided to give Tate a “path of restoration,” beginning with him addressing the congregation on Sunday.
The statement did not disclose details of Tate’s restoration. But it said congregants could “rest assured” that the plan is “comprehensive,” and would “include clear support, as well as appropriate accountability measures and benchmarks.”
The board admitted it kept news from the congregation about Tate’s inappropriate texting before disclosing it Sept. 24, when announcing Tate’s leave of absence.
According to the letter from concerned staff, the board first learned of Tate’s texting in December 2022—nine months before it disclosed the texting to the congregation. The letter also claimed that the board and Tate hadn’t planned to disclose Tate’s misconduct to staff and did so only when “congregants began to ask staff pastors about it” in July 2023.
On Sunday, Tate referred to the nine-month period with his wife, when staff and congregants were in the dark, as “a private journey, not a secret one. We had community and we had accountability.” During this time, Tate continued to preach and pastor as usual.
In its statement last Thursday, the board claimed that Tate’s “inappropriate” texting was “limited.”
However, Haleblian said staff told him that former Fellowship pastor, Rachel Ceballos, confronted Tate in a staff meeting Sept. 20—four days before the board announced Tate’s leave of absence—about an inappropriate text from Tate to another woman.
TRR reached out to Ceballos, who confirmed Haleblian’s account. She added that board member, Christian Washington, was at the Sept. 20 meeting.
A month later, Ceballos resigned and posted on Instagram that “revelations, both public and private, have cast a shadow” over her time at Fellowship Monrovia. “To say I’ve been consistently let down by the choices of those in senior leadership, choices that have caused real pain and fracture, is an understatement.”
TRR reached out to Tate for comment about the allegations against him, but he did not respond.
On a post-script to its statement emailed last Thursday, the board said it was aware of the letter from concerned staff, “expressing impassioned concerns for the welfare of Fellowship.”
The board said it had “reviewed all questions, allegations, and issues brought to our attention, and, where relevant, discussed these with Albert, with staff, and with congregants. With every good faith effort . . . the board has acted with integrity” and made decisions “for the benefit of Fellowship Church.”
According to Haleblian and Jiang, about 400 staff and lay leaders have signed the letter from concerned staff. Haleblian added that since the board has already published its response, glossing over many of the issues raised, he isn’t sure what the authors of the letter are going to do next.
More than half of church staffers gone
The latest developments at Fellowship Monrovia cap about five months of turmoil and turnover.
According to Haleblian, who’s been at Fellowship for more than a decade, things began unraveling after July 3, when former Chief of Staff Michael Field abruptly resigned. The next month, two more senior staff left the church.
In October, Ceballos and Markay Fairley, Fellowship Monrovia’s longtime worship director, resigned. The church also reportedly told Angela Lee, executive director of Harambee Ministries, that it would no longer pay her salary and dropped its annual $127,000 support for Harambee.
After the board’s statement published last Thursday, two more pastors resigned—High School Pastor Hannah Helwege and Youth Director Daniel Namkung.
In all, about 15-20 staff—more than half of Fellowship’s total employees—have either resigned or been laid off in the past five months, Haleblian and Jiang said.
One issue raised in the letter from concerned staff is that Tate, “with knowledge of the board,” paid some staff who resigned severance payments in exchange for signing non-disclosure agreements. This “hush money” allegedly “came at least in part from Fellowship’s designated funds, which are set apart for specific purposes,” the letter claims. The letter also states that Fellowship policy forbids giving severance to employees who resign.
Additionally, the letter alleges that consultants hired by the church over the past year for “various purposes—including crisis management” cost the church more than $100,000. And to mitigate “the current financial crisis . . . 12 staff members have been laid off within 2.5 months without any communication to the congregation,” it states.
TRR reached out to Mark Labberton, former president of Fuller Seminary and one of five members on Fellowship Monrovia’s board, with specific questions related to the letter from concerned staff. Labberton did not respond to our questions.
However, when asked in early October about Tate’s leave of absence, Labberton replied that the board was “doing a comprehensive review of Albert Tate and will be reporting to our community fairly soon.”
‘No checks and balances’ in church leadership
In addition to financial issues, the letter from concerned staff revealed serious questions concerning Tate’s moral conduct—and the board’s willingness to hold him accountable.
The letter states that in August, the board claimed in a meeting that they had brought in an outside organization to investigate Tate’s “marital misconduct,” discovered nine months earlier. But, the letter says, “No outside organization was hired to conduct a thorough investigation of this infidelity”(emphasis in original letter).
The letter also reveals many other issues with Tate, which it claims the board has not appropriately handled.
“(T)here have been multiple Human Resources reports submitted about the Senior Pastor’s neglect, manipulation, malice, sexual harassment, lack of empathy, intimidating threats, oversight of a toxic work environment, and failure to meet the moral and character standards of pastoral leadership,” the letter states.
Although a staff member was terminated for sexual harassment in early 2023, Tate effectively was given a pass when credible allegations of sexual harassment were lodged against him, the letter says. Plus, when staff and congregants “seek basic acknowledgement, ownership, and remorse for wrongdoing . . . at the hands of the Board and Senior Pastor, our request is rejected, deemed ‘punitive,’ or any wrongdoing is denied,” the letter adds (emphasis in original letter).
“There are no ‘checks and balances’ (emphasis in original letter) to the power held by the senior leadership and the board. . . . (P)ower is trapped in a self-reinforcing loop. Per the Board bylaws, the Senior Pastor is accountable only to the Board, and the Board is accountable only to the Senior Pastor.”
The letter also states, “If any signs of disagreement or lack of alignment with the Senior Pastor or Board are demonstrated, staff is pressured into silence.”
The letter also noted that though the board mandated Tate was to have no contact with staff during his leave, Tate repeatedly violated this boundary, communicating to some staff that their loyalty would be rewarded. The letter says these violations were reported to the board, but Tate received no punishment.
In light of the issues cited, the letter asks for the board to be dissolved; an interim fiduciary committee to be created; and a fully local elder board to be “implemented with urgency.” (Four of the board’s five members are Christian leaders who do not attend Fellowship Monrovia.)
In its statement released last Thursday, the board admitted that “Fellowship’s organizational and governance structures need to be altered for the health of the church.” The board added that it anticipates a “number of significant changes taking place,” which it would share with the congregation “in the near future.”
Former staff and congregants speak out
Michael Field and the two other senior leaders who resigned in August, Brandan and Tiana Spencer, left without criticizing the church. However, the most recent staff to resign or be laid off have been openly critical on social media.
On her Instagram account, Angela Lee said she was “shattered” by what Fellowship Monrovia “has become.”
“I have felt so disrespected by this place,” Lee continued. “I have been lied to by this place, and I (and) my family has (sic) been forgotten by this place.”
She added, “With devastation and utter heartbreak, my husband Paul and I have decided that Fellowship can no longer be our church home. I don’t know where we are going, but it can’t be here. . . . I want Fellowship, but not built on the narcissistic system that continues to prop it up.”
High School Pastor Hannah Helwege expressed similar sentiments on her Instagram account.
“Over the last few months my beloved church community has become unrecognizable,” Helwege wrote. “The pain that this family is experiencing is unbearable, and I am deeply grieved that my efforts (& those of many, many others) to stop the bleeding & bandage the wounds have fallen short thus far.”
TRR reached out to Helwege and Lee for more information about their experience at Fellowship Monrovia. Helwege did not respond, and Lee did not have any on-the-record comments.
Albert and LaRosa Tate’s Message to Fellowship Monrovia – Nov. 5, 2023*
