Leadership at Emmanuel Enid
Leadership at Emmanuel Enid
My full story of the corruption I have experienced with the Leadership at Emmanuel Enid.
Many people who noticed or found out that I was no longer serving in the youth group at Emmanuel Enid, had questions, and rightfully so.
Nearly anyone who knows me, especially those who go to Emmanuel, know that my wife and I have been serving in the youth group for the past couple years. For context, I wasn’t a paid employee at the church, I volunteered as the middle school teacher, a small group leader, the tech guy, and anything else needed. I really want to stress that the only reason I am mentioning what all I did, is not to boast on any level, it’s just to point out that I was heavily involved in youth. So involved that when I was no longer serving there, it didn’t go un-noticed, and for those that noticed, they wondered why I would randomly just stop. Did he do something wrong or inappropriate? Did he do something heretical? Did he… fill in the blank.
This is going to be a long read, so I apologize in advance. If you just want the abridged story, you can watch the video I made, here. This publication will have all the evidence that I have including emails, texts messages, documents, videos, and voice recordings either attached or linked for full transparency.
I also want to take this moment to recognize that I know I was not perfect in this entire matter. I may come off arrogant in some of the texts and emails and even some of my conversations with Pastor Shonn. I have apologized for that to Shonn, which will be in one or two of the recordings provided.
Scripture Supporting Exposing Evil and Leadership Accountability
Before I get into everything that happened including what led up to my removal from youth group and the church personnel committee, I want to share a few passages from scripture. In this explanation, I will be exposing some things that have gone on behind closed doors with the leadership at Emmanuel Enid.
I know for many of you, you feel unsettled with me doing that. I believe that feeling is because the way that church organizations have swept things under the rug and un-biblically dealt with evil within the church for years, but I feel that after reading these passages, you will feel differently.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
I wanted to start with this verse, because I am going to do my best to use scripture in context, and scripture that is relevant to my situation. Paul says to Timothy here that all scripture is inspired by God and good for teaching, reproofing/rebuking, correcting, and for training in righteousness. I will be using God’s word in this post for rebuking, correcting, and teaching which ultimately is training in righteousness.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” - Ephesians 5:11-14
What Paul is saying here in this passage, is that as christians we are not to take part in evil but expose evil instead. He says that it is shameful to even speak of the evil, but don’t let that make you think that it means to sweep it under the rug or act like it didn’t happen, because the shame isn’t on the exposer, it is on the exposed. He goes on to say that anything that is exposed becomes light. It seems as though this is talking about the truth prevailing. Once the truth comes out and it is out of the darkness, the guilty can acknowledge, repent, and do better. The truth will always prevail.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. - 1 Timothy 4:11-16
Paul tells Timothy not to let anyone despise him for his youth but to set an example to other believers in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Paul tells him to devote himself to publicly reading scripture, exhortation, and to teaching and not to neglect the gift that was given to him by prophecy. Paul tells Timothy to immerse himself in these things and to keep a close watch on himself and his teaching, and by doing these things, he and his hearers will be saved.
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. - 1 Timothy 3:1-7
This is Paul’s explanation of the characteristics of an overseer/bishop/elder. Now some might not realize this, but when the New Testament talks about overseers, bishops, and elders, these are all the same position. Most people recognize that overseers and bishops are the same, but not always elders. Real quick, I will show you how we know that these are the same. In Acts 20:17, Paul called for the elders of the church. When the elders came to him, he spoke to them. In verse 28, Paul says to the elders, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers”. And to be sure this is all accurate, you can look up the greek words used for each English word, and they all match up.
In protestant churches, the closest thing that we have that matches this position is the pastor. Some churches, like Emmanuel hold anyone in a leadership positions to this standard as well. Well, as long as it benefits the church “Leadership Team”.. Meaning, they only use these standards when they can use it for what the Lead Pastor and Leadership Team want.
I explain this all, because in the next passage, it goes over the discipline for “elders”(this is the same greek word as Acts 20:12).
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 21 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. - 1 Timothy 5:17-21
1 Timothy 5:17 is thrown around loosely, I think. It is also another verse that is commonly misquoted. Many will say that this verse says that pastors are “worthy of double the honor” to assert their demand for respect because they are a pastor. Well, the part that is almost always left out is the beginning, “elders who rule well”. This is very important because Paul doesn’t say that every single elder that is appointed is worthy of double honor, it is those who RULE WELL that are worthy of double honor. Not all pastors rule well, as we see in verse 19-21.
If all pastors naturally rule well, then there would be no advice on how to rebuke an elder/pastor. Verse 19 says that we are not to admit a charge on an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. We are to admit a charge based off only the evidence of two or three witnesses, that is all it takes.
Now, let’s go back 2000 years when this letter was written. Before electronics, before texts, emails, video, pictures, and many other things. We can assume that much evidence of sin would be based on eye witness accounts. To admit a charge on an elder(or pastor), they just needed two or three people to account for the accusation.
These days, we don’t need two or three people to actually witness the sin happen, if we have un-doctored evidence like texts, emails, video, picture, voice recordings, etc. People who see and examine the evidence, now become witnesses.
Verse 20 says that for those elders who persist in sin are to be rebuked in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. Just like in Matthew 18, those who persist in sin against a brother, the sinner shall be rebuked in front of the entire body of Christ. In modern day, this would be equivalent at minimum to the pastor standing on stage being rebuked by another church leader on Sunday morning in front of the church congregation. Unfortunately, we don’t see this happen much at all in the modern church. There is little to no accountability for the head pastors in the church, and when there is, often it is kept quiet and secret, which is found nowhere in the Bible to do.
And lastly for this passage, in verse 21 Paul says that he, in the presence of God, Jesus, and the elect angels, charges the body of Christ to obey these rules without prejudging and without showing favoritism. This means no matter who the person is, what their name is, who their family is, what their background is, or what they did, we MUST follow these rules, there is no exception. We can not use excuses like “it will ruin their reputation”, “they may not be able to lead again after the embarrassment”, “it might look bad on the church”, or anything of the sort. There is literally no way out of these rules.
We either believe the whole Bible or none of it. We can not pick and choose what we want to follow and except as truth and what we don’t.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. - James 3:1
James makes it clear here, that those who teach will be judged more strictly than those who are not teachers. Particularly, James is talking about judgment on Judgement Day at Jesus’s second coming. But I think this could be equally talking about here on earth, that those who teach should be held more accountable and held to a higher standard than most. Not that they are “better” than anyone, but that they are to be more careful with what they do.
Later, I will share more scripture that has encouraged me in these times of trial and trouble.
Timeline of Events
For reference, I started serving in youth in February of 2022 and I started serving on the Personnel Committee in September of 2023.
The Beginning
What I believe to be the beginning, I have no actual proof for this, but if you go to Emmanuel Enid, you might be able to recognize a start and continuation. On February 11, 2024 Pastor Shonn Keel’s sermon was over Jude, which he taught on verses 5-7.
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. - Jude 4-7
Shonn took some time to talk about how hell is a real place of eternal torment and how it is not annihilation. If you watch all of my videos and read all of my stuff, you know that I believe that the fate of the wicked is annihilation, a cessation of life. It’s interesting because Jude 7 is actually an example of destruction, of annihilation. Jude says that Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of the condemnation of ungodly people. The problem with the idea of hell being a conscious eternity is that.. Sodom and Gomorrah aren’t still burning, at least as far as anything that we know and can look to for an example. As far as we know, it was and is destroyed, and no longer exists. In fact, the Bible says so itself in Genesis 19:29 that God destroyed the cities.
I won’t go into more on that, because this isn’t my explanation on how Annihilation is Biblical; although, you’ll read more of my reasoning in some texts and emails.
After I heard that sermon on Sunday, I kept thinking about that verse. I was thinking about how I believed it to be taught so clearly inaccurate; although, I know that those who hold to tradition(which is most) don’t see it as clearly as I do. So I made a post on my Facebook account that Wednesday . Here is the post:
This was the first time I had publicly alluded to the fact that I believe annihilation is the true fate of the wicked, because for months I was researching what the Bible taught on the subject. I think I even came out and said it in the comments.
After that week, Shonn seemed to mention how hell is in fact not annihilation, and how it is an eternal conscious torment more than he had in the past. It seemed as though it was either every week or every other week.
The next week, on February 18th, Shonn taught on Jude 8-16, I believe. I had some problems with the way he taught verses 8 and 9 that I thought about for a few weeks before I finally just reached out to him via email.
Emails on Jude and Hell
Below, are the emails back and forth, leading up to a lunch we had together, discussing the fate of the wicked.
A few notes from the emails:
There may be some arrogance that comes off in my emails, especially me mentioning the 100 plus hours of research. The only reason I brought that up, was to say that I have done my research and studied the subject thoroughly. I didn’t want him to think that I am only having these thoughts based off of emotions.
I said “ETC” many times instead of “ECT”, error recognized.
Notice how neither issues I brought up were given any sort of straight forward answer. For the question on Jude, you’ll notice that no thought out response was given at all. Shonn’s response was basically that he couldn’t remember, and later that “we just see it differently” when I asked how he made a connection. And we never spoke on the subject again. For my question on hell, he sent me a short video that is less than three minutes long to explain why hell is a place of eternal conscious torment.
Lastly, note this comment “Keep studying and be careful not to allow arrogance to creep in little brother. I’ve been studying longer than you have been alive and there is still much for me to learn.” Take this comment as you will, but I see a hint of arrogance, a hint of belittling, and some humility as well.
Moving on to Lunch
After the emails, we went to brunch at IHOP on March 28th.
Unfortunately, this conversation was not recorded, but it went about as expected. From my point of view, once we got to the topic of hell, it was a lot of one line scripture quotes and when I would respond, it was mostly questioning how each verse led to a conclusion of eternal conscious torment or an explanation of how that verse better explains a destruction or annihilation. And each time I would respond, he would jump to another verse, instead of giving explanation. He did try to explain a couple things, but not a ton, it was more of a scripture hopping conversation.
Later, Shonn made it clear why he communicated the way he did, not that it was right or made sense though. In texts messages that you’ll see in just a moment, he says how he doesn’t participate in debates between christians and how they are decisive. And in later conversations, he says how he thought I came off argumentative and how basically I should listen more than talk when I talk to someone older than me.
At the end of our lunch, I had asked about a passage, and he responded with a story that seemed irrelevant to the passage and didn’t answer my question. When he was done with the story, he said he had to go to the bathroom and then leave because he had to go to mens Bible Study, so I said I would just text him the question and he could respond whenever.
Texts
Shonn’s last two responses here are the most important. So don’t skip over those. “Know your position and I know mine” can be read two different ways I think. Considering the beginning of that message, and his understanding of Jude 9, it comes off more rude like “I’m the Spiritual Authority and you’re not”.
The text I sent about Revelation 14 was a response to his teaching the night before that he wanted me to listen to. And I can see how this could come off as arrogant on my part.
The in-between
After that lunch, things pretty much continued as normal. If you go back and watch the services after these texts, you can see/hear things that Shonn said from the pulpit that either correlate to me, could be a reference to me, or makes a point directly to me. In fact.. In my opinion, even now he still does it. But I’ll get to that.
I think the next thing that happened was one of these from-the-pulpit things. Here are two clips. Keep in mind the text messages and how Shonn calls me “bud” and “little brother” in the emails. Also his response in the text messages, how he said “In the circle I was raised in, ‘little brother’ and ‘bud’ were endearing titles from an older person to a younger person”.
Now, notice the correlation?
I feel like the vast majority of Bible readers wouldn’t read 1 John 2:1 and think that John was speaking down to his readers. It seems like this is directed toward me or at least making a point about me or something.
But it becomes a lot clearer when you see his teaching two weeks later.
Now note the differences. The two videos are talking about the same greek word. He mentions in the second video that he went over this word a couple weeks ago(the first video). But the problem is; although he teaches it correctly, he teaches it contradictory to the first video. In the first video, he teaches the word respective of age. He even had an analogy that told a story of how the word has to do with talking to someone younger in age. Then, in the second video, he says that it is “irrespective of age”, and that the word is used to refer to children of God.
The Removal Begins
On May 5, while I was sitting in service, I got a text from Melonee Spurlock. Melonee is the chairperson of the Personnel Committee and a member of the Emmanuel Enid Leadership Team. She asked me to meet at the local coffee shop that day, and I agreed. She didn’t tell me what the meeting was about, but I didn’t think much of it.
When I arrived, Melonee and another member of the Personnel Committee were there waiting for me. We did a bit of small talk and then got down to business. Melonee told me that she was tasked with informing me that the Leadership Team had met and unanimously voted to remove me from the Personnel Committee and my teaching positions in the Youth ministry. They agreed that I could not serve as a “head leader” in the church until my behavior improves and I receive mentorship. She said that Jordan Brown, the youth pastor, would be able to go into details on what that means for me serving in youth.
The Leadership Teams agreed that they wanted me to be mentored, and they had agreed on one person they thought I respected enough to be mentored by, Andy Wilkins. They were right, I was more than happy to be mentored by Andy whether I think they are right or not, Andy is a great mentor that I highly respect.
Melonee informed me that I was being removed because I am still immature in my faith and that their reasoning stems from my online ministry. They believe that I come off as argumentative and divisive. When I asked for an example of something that I have said or done that was wrong, she said that my content seams to be negative about the church. They think that it is a contradiction to speak about the bad that goes on in church, while I am a leader in the church. Keep in mind, this is based off of my church hurt videos, where I speak generally about bad things that happen in churches sometimes.
She did also mention the way I pose some conversations and my responses to commenters. Which, I can see how I am argumentative in those comments. I mean to be informative, but I admit I could show more grace.
At that time, I had a little over 2 years left in my 3 year term on the committee. Melonee told me that she could tell the rest of the Personnel Committee that I chose to step down from the committee because I was “too busy”. My response was that if they are going to remove me, they can tell the Personnel Committee the truth, because I am not willingly stepping down. I said that I do not agree with their decision and that I think it goes deeper than just my online ministry and that I believe it has to do with Shonn’s opinion of me.
She said that there has been many complaints about my ministry both online and in youth to Shonn and to other committee members. At that time no complaints had ever been discussed with me or even mentioned to me. Still to this day, I only know of one complaint: “Why did Brennen mention the book of Enoch?” and to answer this short and simply, I mention the book of Enoch every once in a while because it has history relevance. If it was relevant for Jude(Jude 14-15) and Peter(1 Peter 3:19-20 and 2 Peter 2:4-5), I think it has relevance. To be clear, this is not me saying that the book of Enoch is to be considered God Breathed.
She then told me that it might look bad on me and harder for me to serve at Emmanuel as a leader if people know that I was removed from leadership, then again offered to lie and say that I stepped down because I am too busy or something like that. I told her that she needs to just tell people the truth, because that is what I am going to do.
We all left that meeting on good terms, I hugged them both and overall it went well. They didn’t really talk down to me or rudely at all. It was actually a pretty gracious meeting considering the circumstances. The two offers to lie about what happened is the only thing I had a problem with Melonee doing, and someone may have told her to do that, I am not sure.
On May 7th, I met with Jordan. Now this meeting was much less “straight to the point”, because we talked about a lot more than just me being removed from teaching. Jordan and I are close friends, we had been working together in youth for over two years, we spoke regularly, hung out outside and inside church.
So when we met that day, we talked a little about my conversation with Melonee, talked about what serving in youth would look like moving forward, and then we talked youth ministry like we did on a regular basis.
When we talked about what I could do in the youth as far as serving goes, he said he asked Shonn what I could do, because he didn’t want me to not be able to serve at all in youth. Shonn told him I couldn’t do anything involving teaching. So we decided I would basically continue the things I was already doing, minus teaching. These duties would include running the tech booth(managing sound, lights, slides, etc.), doing the games on Wednesday nights, and what I think we called “strategic planning” which is basically helping him plan and manage events and the youth as much as I had time for.
The Push Back
After thinking about it for a few days, and talking to a few people about the situation, I felt I had been wronged. So, I turned to the Constitution and Bylaws of Emmanuel Enid, which I have already read a few times and was familiar with. Based on a general understanding of the bylaws, because it does not state how to remove a committee member, it reads as though the church congregation must vote for a removal, so that is what I preposed to them.
Here are my emails with Melonee:
On May 10, Brent Price, another member of the Leadership Team, reached out to me to meet(after my dad suggested he talks to me instead of him). He and my dad are friends, and my dad currently works for him.
I have known Brent somewhat for my entire life, growing up at Emmanuel and he went to High School with my parents. I have always looked up to Brent and respected him, so I was glad he reached out. I went over to his house that day to talk.
The conversation went relatively well. I wasn’t really able to finish many of my sentences because he interrupted me a bit more than one would if they respect what the other has to say. But it didn’t come off rude, it just came off as if he knew what I was going to say, which I’m not sure he did.
During our discussion, he mentioned how he is actually the one who found Pastor Shonn Keels for Emmanuel. Brent was on the Pastor Search Committee when we were hiring a new Lead Pastor, and he is the member that found Shonn and originally proposed him to the committee.
Brent told me that he didn’t know who the person that they were voting out was, until he was informed by email that I had been spoken to by Melonee and removed. So when the Leadership Team met to vote me out, based on Brent’s story, my name wasn’t even mentioned. And if all the voters didn’t even know who they were voting about, this means they weren’t even given the opportunity to look at any evidence and that it was LIKELY just based off of Dr. Shonn Keel’s word.
During the meeting, Brent suggested that I step down quietly so that it doesn’t look bad on me, on Shonn, or on the church and told me to think about it. I told him I would think about it, and tried to get out the reason I was not planning to step down more than once. It wasn’t until we were done and starting to walk back to the front of the house that I was able to tell him why I am not stepping down. I told him that if I were to step down quietly, that would be the same as me saying that it is okay for Shonn to abuse his leadership. I would be saying that everything he has done to me is okay and that it would be okay for him to do the same thing to the people that I love, that go to my church. The church I have gone to my entire life.
Meeting With Shonn
I believe it was that day, before I went over to Brent’s house, Shonn had called me and asked if I could meet with him that day because he heard I had issues with the way he handled some things. I told him I couldn’t that day, but I could meet him for coffee the next morning, on the 11th.
So, on the morning of May 11th, Pastor Shonn Keels and I met at Da Vinci’s Coffeehouse for just under 3 hours. I recorded the whole conversation, so if you would like to listen to the whole thing, here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CvnG1KavTMB1X3ZMQBMLuEn0W5LuCs_7/view?usp=drivesdk
This meeting went about as I expected from Shonn, but not as you would expect from a Pastor. It was very disheartening for the way that Emmanuel Enid is being led, and I pray that something changes, and I believe many will agree after looking over all the evidence I provide, including the recording of this conversation.
There were very few times that I was able to finish talking without being interrupted. As soon as he heard something that he didn’t like, he would interrupt and deny or correct what I was saying. There was only one time that I stopped him and told him to let me finish talking. I tried my best to be respectful and let him talk and finish his thoughts before responding, and after listening to the recording, you’ll hear that he did most of the talking.
Throughout the conversation, you’ll notice that there are four characteristics that Shonn uses to describe me: Spiritually Immature/young in faith, Arrogant, Argumentative/Divisive, and Antagonistic.
Once we did a little small talk, I asked Shonn, “What is your problem with me, what am I being accused of?” His response was “I personally don’t have a problem with you”, along with a 5ish minute story of how he recommended me for the personnel committee, when it was really just an approval, not an actual recommendation.
Then he went on to explain the concerns that had surfaced, causing him to think that they put me in a major leadership role that I wasn’t ready for.
“The Concerns”
Shonn said, “The challenges ultimately flow from what we would coin as ‘Spiritually immature at the moment’.”
He said that what brought this up is that he had 5 employees, a few parents, and 6 members come meet with him expressing concerns.
Once I asked what the concerns were, Shonn said “So obviously the internet is a big reason some of the challenges were brought to me.”
Then he said,
“I borrowed someones social media yesterday and I went back through and read through all of your posts and I didn’t watch all of your videos because I didn’t have time, but I watched little parts of your videos. So what was said to me, I feel like were confirmed in my investigation yesterday, if you will. And that is that you come across very anti-church leadership. You come across as you are to be suspicious of your leaders, that you are to challenge your leaders, you are to hold them accountable and not necessarily what would be considered a healthy accountable, its almost as if when you go to church, don’t believe your pastor or leaders until you can prove them right.”
He then said that after that, he went and read some of Paul’s letters, specifically to Timothy and Titus “last night” and says “that’s a contrarian view to what Paul teaches about how people are to treat their spiritual leadership, and how to treat authority in general.” and then says that this “contrarian view” comes off “antagonistic”.
Take note that this meeting is 6 days AFTER I met with Melonee and she told me that I was voted off the committee. And notice that Shonn explains how it wasn’t until “Yesterday” and “last night” on May 10th, 5 days after I met with Melonee, which was a at least a few days after the Leadership Team met to vote. He uses intentional words like “yesterday”(twice) and “last night”(once) to explain when he did this research.
Keep also in mind that it was Shonn that brought this subject to the attention of the Leadership Team. So what Shonn told me(without directly telling me) is that he didn’t even investigate these rumors and complaints before he took this to the Leadership Team to vote me out of my roles.
And you can go and watch my church hurt videos on TikTok(@bkmahaffey), Instagram(@bkmahaffey), or Facebook and see what I have to say about these things.
What Shonn is talking about in Titus and in Timothy is that elders/overseers are to live in a way that is unquestionable, above reprove(1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9) and IF they live the way they are supposed to, and direct the orders of the church WELL, then they are worthy of double honor(1 Timothy 5:17). In Titus, Paul says “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teachings show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. Titus 2:7-8” Notice that Paul is telling Titus and Timothy to live and teach the elders to live above reprove so that nobody can correct them, he isn’t saying that IF they don’t live above reprove then nobody can correct them. In 1 Timothy 5:19-21 actually tells us when and how to rebuke an elder/overseer/Pastor IF he does sin or live under reprove. In fact, it says an elder or pastor who sins is to be rebuked publicly.
So the first issues summarized:
“Not giving the vibe of loving, kind, and relational, but very antagonistic especially towards church leadership.” - Shonn
Second Issue:
Shonn’s words “I have been told that you have been trying to catch me in a lie. Quite honestly I don’t want people in our leadership that have put a bullseye on my back and said ‘let me see if I can catch Shonn wrong’” and then he said “so that’s something that concerns me even before the other(meaning the first issue), because I don’t think I am any more important than anyone else, but Paul did tell Timothy that elders who teach and preach, that is what we would call a Pastor today, are worthy double honor and I don’t feel like I get that from you at all. But again I’m not making it about you and me, that’s just one of a few things.”
For context, I met with Shonn back in January about some issues I noticed in the Personnel Committee. Without going into detail, during that meeting he told me 3 lies. I have none of them in writing or recording, so unfortunately I have no tangible proof. But what I do have is one person’s testimony as how they believe something to have gone down. So, back in April I had emailed Cathy Epps, our Church Administrator, to clear up a couple things that happened in December. She was not 100% sure but she remembered it to be the way I suspected, which is contrary to what Shonn told me in our meeting in January.
After Shonn said these things, I told him that I am not “trying to catch him in a lie, I am trying to confirm one of the lies that you told me.” which he denied and blamed it on Cathy’s memory. He also blamed another one of the lies on someone else’s memory, which was based off of a much more recent account.
Third Issue:
“Any of these issues could be at the top, The third issue Would be your contrarian view to doctrine that is apposed to what I teach, and actually is stated in our statement of beliefs at our church.” The only truth here though is that it is contrarian to the doctrine he teaches.
On the Emmanuel Enid Website the statement of beliefs says this “We believe that in the essentials relating to salvation we must have unity, in the non-essentials not directly relating to salvation we may have liberty, and in all things, we must show charity. A more complete explanation of our beliefs can be found in the Baptist Faith and Message here.” and in the Church Constitution under “iii Statement of Basic Beliefs” it says “Emmanuel Enid affirms the Bible as the inspired Word of God and the sole basis for its beliefs. We believe the essentials of the faith include the deity of Jesus Christ, God’s love demonstrated to us through the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of His Son, and the justification of sinners by grace through faith. A more specific statement detailing other important doctrines of the faith may be obtained from the church office. Emmanuel Enid is guided by the philosophy that in essentials there is unity, in nonessentials there is freedom, and in all things there is love.”
He goes on to say “some of you videos are contrary to convictions that have been held by the baptist church since its conception. I personally, in non-essentials don’t usually have an issue with someone taking slightly different views if it’t taught how I teach eschatology.” then he explained how he taught eschatology from the pulpit. Basically explaining how there are “four accepted views within christianity” and that he believes the dispensationalist view and will always teach from that standpoint. He even mentioned a “joke” he made to “make light of it”, basically to make light of him saying that his view is right and others are not.
He continues, “Where I take issue is “I know you’ve heard it taught _______, but let me tell you why they're wrong. And the idea is that you’re right, and I know you’re gonna take offense to this, and I don’t mean offense, but you’re 27 years old bro.”
It’s interesting that in the Baptist Faith and Message, under “X. Last Things” it says “The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.” I believe this is one or two of the positions he believes I teach against the statement of faith, but in reality I don’t. The word “hell” is the only thing I would “disagree” with, but that’s not a full disagreement. I believe that the unrighteous will be sent to the lake of fire and their punishment will be everlasting. The punishment I believe which is destruction, is just different than most, including Shonn’s belief which is eternal conscious torment.
But the more interesting thing to me is that what it says about the righteous, I believe doesn’t fully align with how Shonn teaches the afterlife for the righteous. Shonn says that 2 Corinthians 5:8 teaches that when the righteous die, they receive their reward and go straight to heaven to be with the Lord. But the baptist faith and message says that in their resurrected and glorified bodies, they will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord”, this isn’t until the resurrection and aligns more with my teaching of the afterlife of the righteous.
Issues I Brought Up
I told Shonn “you have been, if i’m not mistaken, talking about this…” Shonn interrupted and said “that’s what leadership does, talk to other leaders” and I said “hold on, let me finish” Shonn said “okay sorry” and I continued “You’ve been talking about me, about my content to other people for at least a month, and you’ve been talking very seemingly(not just to me) about me, to me, because of what I’ve said from the pulpit to everybody..” Shonn interrupted again and said “now that’s incorrect, the first one is correct, the pulpit is incorrect” and I continued again “k. for the last at least month, and I would say even further. And I’m not the only one that thinks that or recognizes that.” And I mentioned that after all this time that he has had issues with me, he never reached out or had anyone else reach out to talk to me and discuss this and ask questions. Here is the snippet of this part of the conversation.
Issues:
Shonn had an issue with me and never reached out to express his concerns.
I mentioned that he had said he felt personally attacked, but he said that wasn’t until “last night” when he looked at my social media.
This is when I responded to the “trying to catch him in a lie” issue, saying that I am not trying to catch him in a lie, but confirm the lies he told me. After going through those three lies, he said “Nevertheless, anything that you just brought, has not impacted what we are dealing with necessarily with your actions and what you’ve done.” But remember, me “trying to catch Shonn in a lie” was issue number two of three of why I was being removed, so it does impact the situation apparently about 33.3%.
Shonn preaching about me, to me, based off of what I have said, from the Pulpit.
Shonn said “If you felt that, that’s between you and the Lord, not me. I just preach the text.”
Shonn denied ever talking about me from the pulpit for the second time, here is a snippet of the conversation where he denies.
Now, remember the videos I showed you earlier in this where it seems very clear that he does exactly this, based off of our text messages.
Much more was said, in the meeting. You are welcome to go back and listen to it all or in part, again, here is the link for it.
Towards the end of our conversation, Shonn asked me to step down, and I said that I’m not going to. He responded by saying they had their attorney look at the bylaws, and since it isn’t exactly spelled out “he didn’t say that we can’t dismiss you, he said that it wouldn’t be the best practice” so they put me on an indefinite leave from leadership so they could discern what is best for the church.
He explained that taking it to the church for a vote would be divisive, and that it wouldn’t look good on me with him and “13 of the most influential people in the church and we would be making the case, even stronger than what I presented to you, because I would spend more time looking through the scripture and whatever… It would be us against you and that wouldn’t be a good look on you.” He did go on to say that he wouldn’t want that because it is my church.
Here is a snippet of this part.
And lastly,(at least for this conversation) I’ll share with you the last 4 minutes of the conversation. Partly because this is my explanation of why I decided stepping down was not the option I would take, and partly because Shonn says this is where my arrogance was shown the most.
From here on, I’ll focus a lot less on Pastor Shonn Keels, and more on the Leadership Team. Because from here on, the Leadership Team gets really fishy.
Leadership Team Removes me from Youth Entirely
Most of this section will just be emails. Keep in mind all the serving that I was doing in youth that was not teaching that I went over at the very beginning.
After my last email here, there was no response. I could no longer serve in youth, and the only reason given, after asked, was that I did not “seem to be acting in unity with the body of believers at Emmanuel as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13”. I encourage you to read those verses In context(at least all of Ephesians 4) and discern whether or not these verses are applicable here.
More From the Pulpit
On May 19th, my family and I stood up and walked out of a sermon after Shonn clearly(if you knew what was going on) tried to call me an imposter. My family and I were definitely not the only people in the room or that watched that noticed this. You can watch the full Refuge Sermon here, or here is the specific clip:
I didn’t see these next two clips until later, they were from the morning service. After watching it all the way through, you would see many different references to me and what I have done. This would be Shonn again trying to make connections to lead people to the idea that I am an imposter. Even though, he denied it yet again later in an hour long conversation that we had. He Specifically talks about this sermon and says that he was not talking about me at all, and does not think that I am an imposter, even though he quotes me, see the quote here:
And again, in the morning(bridge) service he goes over the characteristics of an imposter(the same that he characterized me with in our meeting) and brings up the constitution and bylaws:
Especially after seeing everything that has been going on, hearing him speak to me, and if you watch my videos on Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, or Instagram you can see that Shonn is clearly trying to paint me as an imposter, a gnostic, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or a false shepherd.
This is all yet again, a clear example of Shonn talking about me from the pulpit, even after telling me that he made it a point early on in his pastoral journey to strive to never abuse the pulpit like that, and after denying ever having done it to me.
Emails about the Business Meeting and the Church Voting.
If you do listen to my conversation with Pastor Shonn Keels, you’ll hear him tell me that if this was taken to a church vote, I wouldn’t get a chance to speak at all and that it would just be me against him and 13 of the most influential people in the church. Either way, based off what other influential and respected people in the church told me, I knew that was wrong and more of a manipulation tactic to attempt to get me to step down quietly. So, I sent this email:
The next emails were from Sherry Dinsmore, the head of the Leadership Team.
After this email from me, there was yet again a lack of response. No answer to my question, because it just doesn’t add up.
After this, I spoke with some mentors and peers, and many people agreed that this was outrageous. Not only that they were trying to remove me but also that they were only offering me 90 seconds to speak. There were a handful of members that were planning to go to the meeting and ask the Leadership Team questions that had not been answered.
Meeting with the Leadership Team
After a lot of time thinking about everything, I thought that I should take Sherry up on her offer to meet with the Leadership Team to finally hear from them what they actually thought, and let them hear my side of things if they were willing to hear me.
I reached out to sherry and we set up a time for me to meet with them on July 8th for 30 minutes. I had asked a couple mentors if they would be available to come with me. One of them was going to be out of town and the other agreed; but not remembering that he had a different meeting at the same time.
Since he was unable to make it to the meeting, he offered to submit something to them in writing. Here is the letter he wrote to the Leadership Team. By request I am keeping this person’s name out of it, due to their relationship with the church.
I arrived to the meeting about 5 minutes early. When I walked into the conference room, I was asked by Sherry to wait outside and someone will come get me after they pray.
After waiting around 7 or 8 minutes, Sherry came and got me. When I walked into the conference room, they were all sitting on three sides of the large conference table. There were three sitting on one short side of the table, two sitting on one long side of the table, and three were sitting on the other short side of the table. This left me to sit alone, on the long side of the table.
To keep it short, and because I don’t have a recording of this meeting, I’ll say it didn’t go great. There was a lot of talk about my church hurt video and how it looked bad because I didn’t specify that Emmanuel doesn’t have the issues I bring up in the video(which is now clear from all of this mess that Emmanuel definitely has many issues I brought up).
When I told the Leadership Team about Shonn bullying me, by belittling me, speaking arrogantly to me, and preaching about me from the pulpit, they didn’t care to hear it. And when I asked them “At what point do you stop standing by your pastor?” I got three synchronized responses saying “never”..
This response blew my mind, but also made perfect sense why this was all happening.
I responded by saying, “Never..? Really? Okay, I’m going to take this to extremes, but if we had a sexually immoral pastor, you would still stand by him?” and Sherry responded with “we don’t have a sexually immoral pastor.” There was some more dialogue that I don’t remember, unfortunately; But the main thing that I got from them was that they were going to stand by Pastor Shonn no mater what I said or showed them.
They even mentioned that they read the letter, but didn’t really care what it said.
Tom Martin asked me at the end, what I wanted out of all of this. I said that I honestly would love for Shonn and I to sit down, put our pride down and honestly talk out our differences with each other and walk away with a hug.
Shonn responded with “I can meet tomorrow”. So we set up a time to sit down again together and that was basically the end of the meeting for me, but they continued the meeting after I left.
Second Meeting With Shonn Keels
Here is a link for the recording of this conversation in case you would like to listen to it. We had two witnesses present this time. This was July 9th.
During this meeting, Shonn apologized for interrupting me because I mentioned it in the Leadership Team meeting, and he apologized for the arrogance in his words saying “know your position and I know mine” once I told him that he 100% said that and I have proof of it.
Besides that, he denied practically any other issue I pointed out that I had with him, including speaking about me, to me, and because of me from the pulpit. This leading to us ultimately not getting anywhere with the conversation. It pretty much ended with Shonn asking me to step down quietly and told me that they needed to know by the end of the week and the “ball” was “in my court”. We did still end with a hug but I did tell him that I wasn’t sure about us being all good, mainly because he did not ask for any forgiveness, because that would require admitting guilt; as well as, the lies continuing during this meeting.
Email to The Leadership Team
After this meeting, I sent an email to the Leadership Team on July 12th.
Here is the email:
Now, as you can see, it had been a whole week since I sent the first email on July 12th and had not received a response, no surprise there. On July 19th in the afternoon, I sent an email for confirmation, not knowing that I had gotten a separate email earlier that morning, which I will show those emails here shortly.
Sherry did respond to this email asking for confirmation.
This was the Friday before the business meeting that was to be held on Wednesday, where I was told by Sherry(on behalf of the Emmanuel Enid Leadership Team) that I would be able to speak for 90 seconds to defend myself.
The next Monday, July 22nd, I was working on my “speech” for the meeting. I messaged Jordan Brown to see if he was okay with me using his name in my speech. He responded that he was told by a Leadership Team member that I was informed that a decision was made and it will no longer be taken to the church for a vote.
You can imagine my disbelief, since Sherry had told me it was being taken to the church for a vote and even told me that I would be given a time to speak. Not only that, but Shonn had told me that I could still step down quietly or we can move forward with taking it to a church vote.
A Clear Indication of Deceit and Lack of Transparency in Emmanuel Enid Leadership
So I looked back in my emails, and discovered an email I had not noticed come in, the morning of July 19th, before I had sent the email to confirm Sherry got my email from the 12th.
This is the email, and emails that followed:
Notice again, the lack of precise information from Sherry, and you will see why in a moment. And after I spoke with their attorney, there is deceit and lies in both of these emails. Article IV of the Constitution and Bylaws can be seen at the bottom of the Bylaws here. More emails:
Here is a link to the “Committees and Committee Member Policy” Becky sent to me.
If you review this policy, you can plainly see that it was written primarily to remove a member and keep them “in line”, not much else.
More emails:
This email from Becky at least made it seem as though this policy has been in existence since Aaron was working at the church. Aaron left employment with Emmanuel back in December I believe. So, I texted Aaron to see if he had ever seen this policy. He told me that he does not recall ever having seen it, going on to say that he had never seen it.
More emails:
I never got a response except for an email from their attorney, Randy Long, that evening. He offered to talk to me if I had any questions and that I could call him.
I should mention that Randy Long is the husband of Lori Long who is on the Leadership Team. I will also say that Lori is the only member on the Leadership Team that spoke to me with nothing but grace and love.
After speaking with Randy and asking if the process of events went the way that Sherry said they did, he confirmed that it was inaccurate. I explain in the following email.
Of course, I got no response yet again. Anytime I called anyone out on the Leadership Team, including Shonn, for doing something wrong, either no responses were given or it was deflected.
This email was sent the morning of the 24th, the same day the Business Meeting was taking place. So even though they told me it would no longer be taken to a vote, I figured we would still go and show up, hoping that they had a change of heart and did the right thing.
We showed up to the meeting, as well as some other members. There were many members there ready to ask question about why I was being removed and on what grounds. Nothing about me was ever brought up. Interestingly enough, they actually replaced my position on the Personnel Committee in that meeting, it just wasn’t specifically said what position they were replacing.
The next day, I emailed a request that followed their new policy. Here is that email:
You’ll see though that Randy Long refused to follow the “policy” actually sending me a letter. He gives me many excuses, sometimes using scripture out of context and misunderstanding the situation and even what my confidentiality agreement entails.
Here are the emails between attorney Randy Long and I:
For reference, here is the slideshow I sent Randy. Everything in that slideshow is also in this post.
This is the last of any direct dialog and conversation that has gone on regarding this matter, although I believe it is far from over. I would even suggest that Shonn knows it is far from over. If you have read this far, it is likely that you can put a lot more together if you are a member at Emmanuel Enid. Throughout all of this and still even to this day, Shonn still uses the pulpit to try to paint a picture of me being a false profit, antichrist, faithless, imposter, or some other unrighteous name.
Conclusion
I believe that Pastor Shonn Keels didn’t like that I have contrary beliefs to his doctrinal beliefs and teach like so, and that is why I was removed from my positions. Shonn states it clearly that this is one of the 3 reasons why I was removed, although this reason was never brought up by any of the other Leadership Team members. The fact that this reason was never brought up by the Leadership Team to me, leads me to believe that it is possible that Shonn didn't discuss this reason with them, but instead attacked my character and slandered my name. Randy did mention at the end of it all that some people had issues with me going against the church and baptist statement of faith, but that is based off of Shonn’s word.
With our previous pastor, Wade Burleson(of over 30 years), when it came to non-essentials, we were allowed to believe and teach what we believe the Bible teaches. Although there is only one truth, for anyone to believe that they understand and are correct about every single doctrinal issue in the Bible is arrogant. This is what is called a fundamentalist. Someone who holds traditional teaching to a higher or equal standard than what the Bible says. I however, hold to the doctrine of Sola Scriptora, the belief that the Bible is the most important authority, not tradition or orthodoxy.
If I find the Bible to teach something that might go against the most common belief or the “traditional” belief, then I lean in the direction of the Bible, not tradition. It seems that Shonn however, leans to tradition and believes that everything he believes is the only correct way to believe.
After I said in my video on Facebook, that Shonn is a fundamentalist, then the very next Sunday, Shonn says that being called a fundamentalist is actually a compliment. Although this was cut out of the sermon for that week on YouTube for some reason, it is still on their live stream. Here is a short clip though. Then a few weeks later on September 15th, Shonn actually calls himself a fundamentalist. I don’t have an actual clip of this though because he just briefly mentioned it and I don’t remember exactly where in the sermon he said it.
I find it problematic that after all that Shonn has said and done, the Leadership Team stood by him fully. I find it problematic the way Pastor Shonn treated me. I find it problematic that it was such an issue with Shonn that I have a few different beliefs, that many other members and teachers in the church also believe and teach. I find it problematic that the Shonn and the Leadership Team fought so hard to keep this all quiet. I find it problematic that they treated me with such ungodliness. I find it problematic that the Leadership Team created a policy mid-process to give them authority to remove me themselves instead of taking it to the church. There are just too many problems in this situation to stay silent and let this be swept under the rug.
I think the Leadership Team and Shonn need to be held accountable for all these actions and more. I think that Emmanuel Enid needs new leadership including at least a new Lead Pastor and new Leadership Team members. There may need to be more change in leadership including some office staff. You can see from the emails that there were other office staff in “the know”, although I do not know what they have said, done, or believe outside of those emails.
I don’t know what will come of all this, but here is what I do know:
I have filled my Biblical obligation of exposing evil(Ephesians 5:11), and rebuking elders publicly(1 Timothy 5:20-21).
The truth will prevail.
Verses that have kept me encouraged:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:28
“indeed all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people will go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived” - 2 Timothy 3:12-13
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” - James 1:2-4
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” - 1 Peter 4 12-19
When I read these verses and think about how Jesus was persecuted by the legalistic religious leaders of his day, I feel at peace with this situation. Although none of this has been easy, I find peace knowing that God uses trials and troubled times like this as a test of faith, producing steadfast faith. All I know to do is what I am doing here, prayer, and putting my faith in Jesus.
At the end of days, we will all stand before Jesus and make an account for our own actions and he will either condemn us to death or welcome us to eternal life. I am accountable for only my actions. Shonn and all the Leadership team are accountable for each of their own actions.
If something like this has happened to you or ever does, stay encouraged with these passages. Don’t let “Spiritual Leaders” abuse their power and influence, and do not be afraid. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Jesus is saying to speak the truth without fear of what people will do to you, I pray more people start speaking out truth, start living with faith over fear, instead of fear over faith.
God bless,
Brennen Mahaffey