A group of Christian leaders asked by the board of the North Carolina-based The Line of Fire – Dr. Brown Ministries, Inc, to review the findings of a Firefly investigation, which concluded that the ministry’s founder Michael Brown engaged in sexual misconduct with two women, have rejected the findings.
The group, officially called the Elder Accountability Team, includes: Jonathan Bernis, president and CEO of Jewish Voice Ministries International; Raleigh Washington, founder and pastor emeritus of Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church in Chicago, Illinois; Leif Hetland, founder and president of Global Mission Awareness and Leif Hetland Ministries; and Mark and Nicki Pfeifer, lead pastors of Open Door Church in Chillicothe, Ohio.
“It is the position of the Elder Accountability Team that the LOF Board should have been officially contacted to seek a proper Mathew 18 process since these allegations resurfaced 5 years ago. Instead, these allegations, which could have been resolved with proper Biblical Due Process, were relitigated with accusations, judgement and sentencing by a jury on social media,” the elders said in a statement included in a 27-page response to the Firefly report on Monday.
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“This process is unbiblical and has caused irreparable damage to Dr. Brown’s credibility and ministry. We believe all who are responsible for this miscarriage of Biblical Due Process should search their hearts before God and pursue a biblical resolution to these unresolved issues.”
The Christian Post reached out to Michael Brown for comment on Tuesday morning, and a response is forthcoming and will be part of a forthcoming article.
In its 47-page report released earlier this month, independent sexual abuse investigation firm Firefly said it was asked on Jan. 13 to examine information received from Line of Fire about allegations that Brown had an inappropriate relationship with former Fire School of Ministry member Sarah Monk. Brown, 70, had said she was like a daughter to him. They were also asked to investigate a second inappropriate relationship with a married woman from his church community who has since died.
“The investigation focused on determining the validity of the complaint and whether the alleged actions were deviant. After reviewing evidence, conducting interviews, and analyzing the situation, the investigation concluded that BROWN’S actions toward the two females were inappropriate and unacceptable for his leadership position within the ministry,” investigators stated. “Such conduct violated the ethical standards expected of someone in his role and undermined the trust and integrity essential to leadership within the church community.”
The Elder Accountability Team argued in their review that the Firefly investigators overreached in their investigation of Brown’s actions when they expanded their definition of “sexual abuse” beyond the “historically narrow understanding of those terms” to classify his conduct with the two women in 2001-2002 as, “sexually abusive misconduct.”
“We believe a more accurate and historically consistent characterization of what Dr. Brown did is Moral Indiscretions in the case of the Wife and Leadership Misconduct in the case with Sarah,” the elders wrote.
Prior to Firefly’s investigation, Brown admitted to exercising a “definite lack of judgment,” but denied that he engaged in sexual misconduct with the former female staffer he treated like a “family member” more than 23 years ago. According to the report, Brown exchanged inappropriate communications of a sensual nature with the unnamed married woman who was a friend’s wife.
The Elder Accountability team also raised concern that the Firefly report included a number of testimonies that did not include a rebuttal from Brown or his wife, Nancy. A claim that Brown groomed Monk was also distilled down to “a grievous lack of judgement and a violation of the conduct established by his standards for Fire School of Ministry.”
Elders further noted that since Brown’s moral indiscretion with his friend’s wife and leadership misconduct with Monk, he has made multiple efforts over the years to address them.
“It appears clear to the Elder Accountability Team that throughout this process, dating back 23 years, Dr. Brown has been repeatedly questioned about these two situations and has answered his interrogators consistently with honesty and remorse,” the group said. “The Elders Accountability Team believes it is time to finally put this matter to rest and allow these transgressions to remain where they should be — nailed to the cross of Christ, cast as far as the east is from the west and no longer used against him.”
Monk alleged that in 1999, when she was 18, she attended the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, where Brown served as president until he was fired in 2000. Brown then started the FIRE School of Ministry in Pensacola, Florida, where the school operated until 2003 when it was relocated to North Carolina.
She explained that she followed Brown to his startup school, and he asked her to call him “Dad” and she obliged.
She recalled that because she had endured a difficult home life, she initially enjoyed the attention from Brown, and they would write endearing notes to each other.
“I looked at it as a blessing because of the respect that we all have for him,” Monk’s sister told The Roys Report in an earlier interview.
In less than a year of her working at the new school, Monk said Brown — who was recently involved with providing guidance to the International House of Prayer Kansas City as they navigated founder Mike Bickle’s sexual misconduct scandal — started holding her hands.
“He lifted it (her hand) up in the truck … and he’s like, ‘You all know that I think of (Monk) as my daughter,’ and said, ‘That’s why we’re holding hands because she’s like a daughter to me,’” Monk said.
The handholding eventually progressed to other contact, including kissing. Monk said she was alone in Brown’s office one day when he asked her to kiss him on the lips. She said she didn’t want to kiss him, so she gave him a peck that day. Kisses on the lips would become a part of their goodbyes when they spent time alone.
“It was no longer (Brown) was asking for a kiss,” she recalled. “It was (Brown) leaning down to get a kiss. … I knew I couldn’t stop it, or I felt I couldn’t stop it.”
Brown allegedly later began slapping Erin’s buttocks habitually.
The elders recommended that Brown or Line of Fire should offer to pay for reasonable counseling expenses for Monk. Among other things, it was also recommended that Brown receive counseling “to focus on the appropriate means of engaging ministry with a clearer perspective of the events and processes that led to this point.”
The Elder Accountability Team also cleared brown for public ministry with the expectation that he would follow their recommendations.
“Since Dr. Brown’s sins were committed long ago without any repeated behavioral patterns of like conduct, considering that these issues were believed to have been dealt with using Biblical Due Process as they understood it in 2002, considering his recent confession and repentance of his sins, considering his willingness to step back from ministry until the completion of the FIREFLY Investigation, believing he is trustworthy, presuming the above recommendations will be followed,” the group said, “the Elder Accountability Team recommends that Dr. Brown be released to public ministry with the hope that a new dimension of humility and strength of character may be added to his already broad field of Biblical knowledge, believing that the years ahead will be the most fruitful of all, marked by a greater humility and Christlikeness.”
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