Now that a couple days have past since ABC (DFW) has run the smear story on Ed Young, I've come to a few conclusions regarding the story, the so called facts, and the man cloaked behind the hood.

Though my family has been attending a different church for the past 3 years, Fellowship Church was a huge part of my life for the 7 years prior. I played guitar on the worship team for about 6 years and was employed there full time as the webmaster for 2 years. I spent much time serving in the singles ministry where I met my wife. I was involved home teams, Jr. High ministries, and various conferences FC took part in. I would not trade those years for anything. And though I'm fully aware that having read that, most people will write me off as an FC Kool-Aid drinking insider yes man; to those I would say - not so fast.

After the story broke, I was shocked, saddened and left with many questions, some of which I was angry about. I let the harsh presentation of the story work its way into my head. But eventually I started thinking over the points.

Several years ago I was walking through the church lobby talking with a young 20's man I met at the church. The lobby had just recently had a make over with about a dozen high dollar flat screen monitors. This young man proceeded to whine and moan about what a waste of money the expensive flat screens were. He went on and on with "I can't believe this", and "I can't believe that. There are better places to put that kind of money." I let him exhaust himself. And when he was done playing the game "I'm smarter than whoever made these decisions", I chimed in with a simple snippet of information.

"All the screens you see here... they were donated." The poor attitude was quenched just like that.

This was my first experience at the church where someone didn't have all the information, and without the full understanding of the situation cast his cynicism to anyone who would listen. It wasn't long before I realized this was a common occurrence.

The story presented by ABC and Brett Shipp was not only lacking in critical information, but it also misrepresented several facts. Presenting a story in this unethical manner makes it very easy for the viewing audience to jump on the hate train.

Complete with helicopter flyover, Shipp mentions with all drama enhancing available voice inflection that Young lives in a sprawling 10,000 Sq Ft, 1.5 million dollar mansion on Lake Grapevine. ABC and Shipp missed the boat on this one. The house is 7800 Sq Ft and 1.5 million is what the taxing county has assessed its current value at today. That's no where CLOSE to what Young paid for it. How do I know? First off the land was donated to him from a personal friend. The county now assesses the land alone to carry a value of over a half a million. Just the dirt. So not only has the estate greatly appreciated in value over the last 7 years, he didn't even have to pay market value for the land. On that land, the home was more likely to be a 700K to 800K construction. Shipp makes it sound like Young cut a 1.5 million dollar check to live like the rich and famous. Now there's probably no way Shipp could have known about the land grant, but yet again - here's another lesson on why you shouldn't be caught running your mouth (especially on camera as a reporter) when you don't have all the information.

So how about the private jet? Shipp slowed his speech to make the most of this shocking number - the 8.4 million dollar luxury jet. The insinuation that the jet was bought with church donor money and kept from the congregation as a secret is ludicrous. It's great for TV ratings, but it's still ludicrous. First off, the church didn't buy the jet, so we can all forget about the jet's hefty value. The jet is leased. If you had been going to church there for a year or more, you are probably aware that Ed primarily flies privately. Several years ago, he flew on friend's jets, and then eventually found a pilot and acquired some time on the leased jet. Remember Ed has sold somewhere around a zillion books. So if he wants to fly his family to Bora Bora on a jet that the church and her donor's aren't paying for, I could not care less. On top of that, he's asked to speak all over the world year in and year out. He could have a great personal income outside of being Senior Pastor of the church. So I'm thinking, with someone who has a very full time job leading a 20,000 member church, a wife and 4 kids... can he afford to be an hour late after a 10 hour commercial airline flight that might get his baggage there with him? Especially when your career depends on you arriving on time, well rested and prepared to keynote a large conference in a few hours time with a several hour jet lag. It's just not realistic to think he could even fly commercial. Aside from the obvious logistical problems, all your big pastors in the world get regular death threats anyway. Is it not worth some extra money to make sure they always get from point A to point B safe and on time? So really, woopty do that one of his for profit companies maintains a jet lease.

Seriously, are we to believe that if you are a minister you're not allowed to fly private or have more than the 2 car garage - white picket fence suburban house with 2.5 kids?

So how about the cloaked informant? First off, ABC aired the voice manipulated segment like it was a scary movie with an evil villain. In hindsight, that display with the lights turned down, the metal chair and horror film-esq setting is laughable. For one, it's not going to hide anything. Technology is readily available to reverse engineer such amateur audio manipulation. And between Pastor Ed and Attorney Denny (the two that were thrown under the bus by the story, and two people who have resources like none of us could imagine), I would be SHOCKED if they didn't know who it was by the next morning, all while not loosing 5 minutes sleep. Some of the most talented pro audio guys I've ever known work with the church. I'd bet the farm they could crack that tape over a deli sandwich.

But I just have to go deeper on that piece of the puzzle. The kind of person that would take pleasure in presenting a smear story like that is a special person. It's a man for sure. To my knowledge only one female would have the information the cloaked man is said to have, executive salaries and what not. The CFO up to 2002 was a woman, (can't remember her name) but trust me, she wouldn't take part in such ridiculousness. So back to the cloaked man of mystery. For someone like this with probably years of pent up bitterness, the story breaking would be a victory to him. But the cloaked man couldn't celebrate because he demanded anonymity. It's so ironic. The guy finally got his day on TV (justice), but can't even be known or celebrate because he chose to be anonymous. This is the kind of stuff that bad movies are made of.

Back to reporter Shipp. I'll go ahead and forgive low quality of reporting, and him getting his "facts" mixed up and overvalued. That is easily corrected and will cause no long term damage. But here is where Shipp crossed the line. He all but gave out the pastor's address going on about the estate's title. Not cool man. You don't go around giving out mega church's pastor's addresses. It's putting a person, a husband and father at risk. That single act is extremely irresponsible. And shame on ABC for letting that information air.

Let me close with this. I've been completely unplugged from FC for about 3 years now. Do I still have lots of questions? Yes. Do I agree with how everything at the church is run (or ran)? No. I could bore you with hours of stories and situations that I personally disagree with the church's decision on. But then again, I can't think of any entity that size that I can agree on everything with. There's always stuff that I would do different. It's a good thing none of us are called to agree. And truth be told, the grey area between living above or below reproach is as wide as the continuum itself. It does no good to judge or be cynical. So with all the questions, doubts, so called secrets and what not, I have to ask myself one question: Do I deserve the answers? Do you deserve the answers? If you're still wondering, the answer is no. Last time I checked, I have exactly zero hours experience leading a mega church of 20,000 in size. I bet most of us are in that boat together. So who are we to say how things should go for a mega pastor. How things should run. Where money should be spent, and not spent. Those with successful experience running any of the nation's largest and most prominent churches, I submit to your experience, wisdom and authority on these issues.

Update from Ed Young - 2/8/2010 - 11am