Photo—Facebook: On May 26th 2024 Ed Young (right) announces his son,
Ben Young as the next senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas
On Monday, April 15th, 2025, Jeremiah Counsel Corporation (also “Jeremiah” in this article), a non profit formed by a group of concerned members and past members of Second Baptist Church, filed an unusual court petition in Judge Latosha Lewis Paynes’s District Court 55 against the current leadership of Second Baptist Church Houston requesting church governance reforms and restoration of members’ voting rights taken away in secret.
Defendents named in the 123 page petition are Ben Young, Homer Edwin Young, Lee Maxcy, Dennis Brewer Jr., and the Second Baptist Church Corporation, collectively called the “Young Group” throughout the filing.
Yesterday, Jeremiah Counsel Corporation issued a press release and an open letter to Second Baptist’s “90,000 +” members at large from its new website.
What Happened? A Radical Change in church governance…
At a sparsely attended May 31, 2023 church business meeting, members in attendance either “unknowingly or unwittingly” rubber-stamped the church’s new regulations (its bylaws) without having the opportunity to inspect or read what they were being asked to approve, according to two letters signed by dozens of concerned members and sent directly to Pastor Ben Young months before the filing of this petition.
Section (H) of Jeremiah’s lawsuit gives examples of the “deliberately inconspicuous, legally insufficient, and intentionally vague” purported notices advising recipients of the May 31 membership meeting. According to the petition, “These statements were part of an intentional plan to alert as few members as possible to the other purpose for this church meeting and to mislead those who did see the notices.”
Section (M) of the petition states, “only about 200 of Second Baptist’s 94,000 members attended on May 31” and that those at the meeting represented less than “one quarter of one percent” of Second Baptist’s members.
What does Plaintiff Jeremiah Counsel Corporation want?
Typical lawsuits request pecuniary relief, often in the millions. However, apart from legal fees, Jeremiah’s petition doesn’t ask for monetary damages to its members but rather requests a return to the Church’s 2005 bylaws and does request money damages for Second Baptist Church from the Young Group and injunctive relief to cease and desist all conduct or actions stemming from the May 31 bylaws “updates”.
Section (I) of the lawsuit details how Second Baptist trustees, who had met for church business only a few weeks prior to the meeting, were completely unaware of the severity of the bylaw’s changes, before, during, and even after the scantly attended May 31 meeting—changes that eliminated and replaced their own positions.
According to the lawsuit, the Young Group permanently abolished: “(1) church members’ rights to vote and elect, e.g., Second Baptists Pastor and officers, to the governing body of the church, (2) church members’ rights to inspect Second Baptist’s books, financial records, and governing documents, and to provide input on its financial direction and obligations, and (3) church members’ rights to provide input on church policies.” (wording bolded in the lawsuit, p. 15)
Background
Second Baptist Church of Houston grew phenomenally under 46 years of leadership of Dr. Homer Edwin Young (also known as H. Edwin Young and sometimes as Ed Young Sr.) to its current size with six campuses, over 94,000 registered members according to the lawsuit, and tens of thousands of regular attendees.
The new non-profit, Jeremiah Counsel Corporation, states that Second Baptist Church Houston has a long-time reputation for “doing things right” and being a model church for other Christian churches to follow, not to mention stepping up and helping Houston and other cities recover on numerous occasions during natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, two of the costliest in U.S. History.
A “lack of informed consent”
In the summer of 2024, a group of church members became aware of bylaws changes approved in 2023 by several hundred members and began to educate themselves on how the changes were made “under the radar” without the knowledge or consent of the majority of the 90,000+-member congregation and the implications to the future of the church.
They believe the church is now facing a governance crisis characterized by a lack of transparency and the complete exclusion of its membership from all decision-making – financial or otherwise – without the independent oversight that is fundamental to well established and highly respected institutions in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors.
On May 31st, 2023, the church held what appeared at first glance, to be a nondescript, run-of-the-mill business meeting to update outdated bylaws and seemingly to protect the church from liberal ideology. From the lawsuit, “The represented and ostensible purpose for these amendments was to clarify the church’s beliefs, and to reinforce its stance on social issues such as marriage and family, in response to the woke agenda.”
“However the true objective for the amendments was to radically alter Second Baptist´s long-observed democratic governance processes—and to eliminate the congregants’ voice in church matters in its entirety—by, e.g., abolishing church members’ right to vote, installing an unelected and unaccountable board, and concentrating almost all power, including the power to select the future church Pastor, in the Pastor alone.”
Neither the new bylaws nor any summary of these bylaws were distributed or read in their entirety or at all at the meeting, according to concerned members. This can also be called “lack of informed consent”.
Page 28 of the lawsuit details two sections of the Texas business code that were not followed by not providing written copies to members; and what articles of Second Baptist’s 2005 bylaws were violated:
- Texas Bus. Org. Code 22.105(b) and 22.156 require written copies of changes to articles of incorporation be provided to members.
- Second Baptist’s attorney (2005 bylaws Article III, 2) did not review the new bylaws updates as required by 2005 Bylaws, Article II, 6.
- The policy committee was not allowed to receive recommendations from church committees or staff pertaining to the ‘purported “updates”’ as required by 2005 Bylaws, Article III, 2.
- Second Baptist’s legal committee never reviewed the “updates” as required by 2005 Bylaws, Article III, 2.
- “Reasonable advance public notice to the church membership” by the Pastor or Church Moderator was not provided as required by the 2005 Bylaws, Article VI
Ben Young Named Senior Pastor
On May 26th, 2024, Dr. H. Edwin Young stepped away from his position as Senior Pastor and appointed his son Dr. Benjamin “Ben” Young (hereafter, Pastor Ben) as the new head pastor. Dr. Ed Young told the congregation that he “was not stepping down, he was stepping up” (i.e., he was not leaving the church’s covering).
The following day, Pastor Ben told his own father Dr. Young to clean out his office, that he was going to remodel it. He was also told that his ministry would no longer be needed, according to members of the Jeremiah Counsel Corporation.
The new bylaws gave Pastor Ben unrestricted control of Second Baptist, according to concerned church members. Pastor Ben, then hand-picked his new board of directors, now called a Ministry Leadership Team (MLT).
At least three different individuals have advised Trinity Foundation they were told by Dr. H. Edwin Young in private that he had made a big mistake. To one church member Dr. Young said, “I made the worst mistake of my life” and to another he said, “I really messed up.”
How Might Unchecked Control Affect Second Baptist?
Church members have a number of major concerns: The possible sale of assets, such as the closure and even sale of one of their campuses, intellectual property and mailing lists; increased secrecy concerning church finances; and a possible merger which would include a takeover of assets and name change of Second Baptist into Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine as happened with several other churches (one example here).
Other concerns include the humongous housing allowances doled out by Fellowship Church, the potential for Ed Young Jr.’s jet-set lifestyle rubbing off on his younger brothers Pastor Ben and Cliff; and the ease of stealing money as happened in Ed Young Jr.’s church.
The sale of assets: According to The Roys Report, surprised members of Ed Young Jr.’s and Fellowship Church’s Miami campus attended a Sunday service in 2021, only to learn that it would be the last Sunday they could ever attend in person—its building was being sold. Yet these same members had been encouraged only a month earlier to fulfill their tithes and pledges.
More sale of assets: On August 9th, 2007, three pastor employee board members of Fellowship Church, including Mac Richard—Ed and Ben Young’s cousin-in-law (also now on the board of Second Baptist), created a resolution authorizing the sale of the church website and its 20,000-person mailing list at the time to Ed Young’s for-profit company EY Publishing Inc. for $21,575.
In a similar situation, Second Baptist has already given away (or sold, no way of knowing) what was Dr. H. Edwin Young’s (Second Baptist) ministry, known by its trade name “The Winning Walk” to Dr. H. Edwin Young personally. Dr. Young has kept the trade name, but it’s registered in Texas now as Power & Light Ministries.
In fact, there are so many connections to Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church that members are concerned that a hostile asset “takeover” has already occurred.
Ed Jr. and Lisa Young’s opulent lifestyle
Knowing the opulent lifestyle of Pastor Ben’s older brother Ed Young Jr. (a steady stream of extremely expensive dwellings, utilizing private jet aircraft for vacations, luxury cars, etc.), and realizing the new powers bestowed on Pastor Ben by the new board including Dennis Brewer, Jr. (Ed Young Jr.’s lawyer and deep-sea fishing buddy) these concerned members are troubled that Pastor Ben and potentially, other cronies, may utilize or siphon off Second Baptist resources to enrich their own lives.
Ed and Lisa Young have lived lavishly in a long series of multi-million-dollar mansions hidden from their congregations and public view under various trusts.
For example, at one point in 2019, the couple owned three houses simultaneously, with ownership of each cleverly hidden in the “Mangrove Revocable Trust”: 10104 Lennox Ln, Dallas, TX 75229, currently estimated to be worth $5,216,106 according to the real estate site Redfin; 8414 Swananoah Rd, Dallas, TX 75209, estimated to be worth $3,595,498 according to Redfin; and a beach house in the Florida Keys at 180 Sunrise Dr, Tavernier, FL 33070, which the Youngs sold for $5.5 million in 2021.
Best Practices Avoid Nepotism and Cronyism
It is worth noting that there is no list of current MLT/board members filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s website. However, what is alleged by the concerned members’ letters about the makeup of this new MLT board appears to violate the best practices for boards of non-profit organizations, including churches.
Board members of organizations are typically not supposed to be made up of family, employees, and friends or people with conflict of interest. Nepotism is supposed to be avoided and can end up placing total control in the hands of one leader. Employees and friends also tend to go along with the leader as well. But here’s what is known from the letters circulating prior to this lawsuit.
A Lack of Board Member Independence?
Pastor Ben’s new board/MLT, includes, besides Pastor Ben, “personal friends of the senior pastor” and “several individuals that do not live in Houston, do not attend our church, and are not members of our congregation”, as well as including Pastor Ben’s brother Clifford Young; a church employee and associate pastor, Lee Maxcy, Dennis Brewer Jr., attorney and CFO for Ben’s brother Ed Young’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas; Pastor Ben’s cousin-in-law, Mac Richard, pastor of Lake Hills Church and former associate pastor of Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church, Austin.
The 2024 Letters Asking for a Return to Transparency and Accountability
In 2024, concerned church members circulated two letters questioning the legitimacy of the new bylaws and church governance changes. They were troubled that transparency, accountability, and independent oversight had been removed.
Attempting to reverse the move away from transparency and accountability without damaging the church, these members appear to have followed biblical steps outlined in Matthew 18 to attempt to reverse the move away from transparency and accountability.
According to the second letter from the concerned members, the group chose a highly respected and longtime church member, with a leadership position with the Pastor’s Prayer Team and retired CEO of a large public company, to speak with the new Pastor and ask him to consider revising the bylaws to restore the independent oversight and governance to the church.
Additionally, at the end of the meeting, this highly regarded member encouraged Ben to take whatever time he needed to pray about this matter or consult with the MLT and they could revisit in the upcoming weeks at the pastor’s convenience. Pastor Ben stated, “that he did not need additional time to reflect, and he had no intention of amending the bylaws.”
Because of the pastor’s refusal to consider restoring the bylaws, dozens of concerned members decided to put their concerns in writing and sent a signed letter to Pastor Ben suggesting changes which should be considered to restore proper church governance. Among other things, the letter states, “We respectfully urge you as Senior Pastor, to lead the restoration of our church governance that will uphold transparency, accountability, and independent oversight.”
This September 4th letter, initially signed by thirty-five members, grew to over 150 signers by December 11, 2024. But no response was forthcoming, according to the second letter.
The group then took a third step, hoping for some resolution. A December letter claims that the new bylaws and the new “Ministry Leadership Team,” (MLT) puts the church’s integrity at extreme risk for several reasons:
- Loss of Voting Rights
- Pastoral Succession is no longer overseen by members
- Unlimited Pastoral Authority
- Lack of Independent Oversight
Influence of Ed Young Jr.’s “Entertainment Ministry”
Petition Section D claims and give illustrations—a private jet and mansions— that the Young Group (Ben, Clifford, Mac, Dennis, and Lee) were cognizant of the financial success of H. Edwin’s eldest son Edwin Barry Young’s seven campus “Entertainment Ministry” and “sought to gain the same power and control as Edwin Barry Young has with Fellowship Church.”
The petition states that the Young Group began to plot changes to co-opt Second Baptist’s “governance mechanisms, real properties, financial assets and resources for assimilation into another ‘entertainment ministry’”, like Edwin Barry Young’s “religion-as-a-business” model.
Fellowship Church has satellite campuses in Grapevine, Frisco, Dallas, Ft Worth, and Hawkins TX (Allaso Ranch).
Ed Young Jr. and Dennis Brewer Jr.’s Church-In-A-Box Machine
For pastors or leaders that like to be in control and prefer to leave all the important decisions up to themselves, for $70 you can purchase a “bylaws kit” already laid out for you on Ed Young Jr.’s Creative Pastors for-profit website.
Here are some quotes from the website: “After hundreds and hundreds of hours of study, after paying tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers who are experts in the 501C3 world, Fellowship Church came up with bylaws that are in concert with the New Testament and, also, in concert with our culture and our context. This bylaws kit allows leaders the opportunity to lead with great accountability and make decisions rapidly with tremendous protection.” Yet the funds go to Ed Young Jr.’s for-profit business.
Trinity Foundation asks, ‘How can a pastor “lead with great accountability” if the membership of the congregation has no access or input to the bylaws, the decisions, who the senior pastor hires, or no right to elect the board who oversees the senior pastor, etc.? The list goes on and on.
The “tremendous protection” part, well, from the looks of it, Ed Young Jr.’s bylaws have that part down pat.
More about Ed Young Jr.’s private jet
Ed Young Jr.’s Fellowship Church had satellite church campuses in Florida at one time and he used to fly back and forth to Miami on his church’s private jet. The jet was hidden from his Fellowship Church’s members according to informants, that is, until Ed Young Jr. was forced to admit its existence. An informant told Trinity Foundation that employees who took trips on the jet were told not to tell anyone, or they would be fired.
Trinity Foundation filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for flight records over the years and we helped ABC affiliate, WFAA in Dallas, with the exposé linked earlier. We analyzed how the jet was used for close to three years (2007-2009). It included trips to the Caribbean islands, Los Cabos Mexico, Belize, and England for a total of 53 days at ten different locations outside the U.S. and, within the U.S., a three-day trip to Las Vegas.
Staff Responses to Letters Appear Retaliatory
Again, from the letters, Pastor Ben and his staff’s response “has ranged from full denial of the concerns raised, trivializing member concerns and even characterizing those troubled by what is taking place as merely ‘disgruntled older members’ that are either resistant to change, dissatisfied with the new pastor, or unhappy with other aspects such as the worship service format or music program.”
The concerned members state, “Staff members have gone as far to suggest, that the members asking the questions ‘might do better by finding another place to worship.’” Some church members who have been removed from committees and positions feel they have literally been dis-fellowshipped for raising questions about the new church bylaws and church governance under Pastor Ben.
Governance
In 2023, The 95-year-old church governance model that involved the congregation’s membership, was radically changed to a model that no longer involved the members.
The new regulations mean the church congregation can no longer hire or fire their pastor. Moreover, new bylaws show a contempt for traditional congregational and elder led forms of church governance that are so prevalent with other Baptist churches around the country.
Legal Authority: “Top Down or Bottom Up?” — Ultra Vires Acts
Many pastors and televangelists believe they know what’s best for their congregations and that they should hold all the decision-making power.
Pastors and televangelists who believe they know what’s best for their congregations can eventually end up being accountable to no one. In some cases, it’s the stuff that cults are made of.
Numerous denominations and churches are organized in this manner, but Second Baptist Church’s 2005 bylaws placed management power in an independent board of trustees, along with committees made up of members who make recommendations to the trustees.
Jeremiah Counsel Corporation’s lawsuit uses the legal term ‘ultra vires acts’ many times. An “ultra vires” act is any action taken by a corporation or other entity that is beyond its legal authority or scope of power. It essentially means acting “beyond the power” and is the opposite of “intra vires,” which is acting within the proper authority.
Ultra vires acts violate the established legal framework within which an entity operates such as its charter, bylaws, or relevant laws.
Church Discipline, Removing Pastors When Appropriate
Gerald Thompson, attorney and author, addresses the role and responsibilities of church members and pastors.
In his book Five Biblical Principles of Church Government, Thompson writes, “In the visible church, the people are in charge, and the leaders serve them. In the language of agency, the members of the Church are the principals, and church leaders are their agents or servants. When church leaders fail to fulfill their duties properly, church members can remove and/or replace their leaders.”
Jesus set an example of servanthood by laying down his life for all who believe on him. The example he set on Passover by getting down on the floor and washing each of his disciple’s feet exemplifies this. Once a pastor or televangelist begins to believe he or she is special, their ministry is corrupted.
In the Young Group’s altered bylaws, Second Baptist’s members become only attendees with no say in any matters that affect their church. Their ability to remove or replace their senior pastor or any other leader is lost.
More from Gerald Thompson: “If the structure of any church is found to be lacking in any way, the members of the church may alter or abolish it and establish such a new form of government as seems best to them to secure their spiritual well-being.”
“Further, accountability runs to the source from which authority is derived. Thus, all church leaders are accountable to the association of believers from which their authority is derived, i.e., general church members. As no ecclesiastical authority proceeds directly from any divine source, no church leaders may avoid accountability to church members by claiming to be accountable exclusively to God. Or to any ecclesiastical group, for that matter.”
The Main Changes, Point by Point
Section (F) of the Petition states that the 2005 bylaws provided for governance of Second Baptist by a board of trustees and committees elected by the members of Second Baptist. These bylaws were in effect at the time of what the lawsuit calls a “coup” by the Young Group.
Section (K) lays out the main changes point-by-point effected by the Young Group’s radically altered bylaws:
1) exactly how the secret May 31 bylaws change completely eliminated the right to vote on any matters by any members,
2) Replacement of the independent board of trustees with a newly created “Ministry Leadership Team”,
3) Control and the ability to dispose of all church property and financial assets, with no fiduciary duty (emphasis in the petition) to Second Baptist,
4) Elimination of the member’s right to vote, or provide input on, the selection or discharge of the senior pastor,
5) The senior pastor’s nearly dictatorial power and control over Second Baptist business,
6) Anticipating litigation as a result of their actions, the Young Group included indemnification provisions in they purported bylaws updates
And the final paragraphs of section K state, “Anticipating that their attempted coup to gain total control of Second Baptist property, financial assets and governance might encounter resistance, the Young Group carefully included indemnification provisions in their bylaws ‘updates.’”
“Once again showing their true colors, the Young Group thus sought to make the Church pay for their legal fees even to defend future actions they might take to the detriment of the Church.”
No Access to Bylaws
Hiding the bylaws from membership is another troubling development.
The May 31 congregational meeting, according to the letters, withheld “key details of what they were asked to approve (and did so approve)”, and these details “were not discussed, such as forever removing our member’s right to vote on anything, the elimination of the pastoral search committee and granted total authority to the senior pastor to appoint the next successor senior pastor.”
Moreover, no church member can obtain copies from the new leadership, although they are often told they can come to the office of Lee Maxcy the church’s administrator and read them in his office.
Quoting from the December letter, “The senior church administrator has imposed restrictions allowing church members to view the bylaws, only under supervision in the church office and has prohibited members from taking copies. These restrictions are problematic in that members and deacons cannot easily review the “how, what and why” of the modifications that were made to our church’s bylaws.”
Concerned members of Second Baptist Houston are not alone in this regard. Many of these changes have been happening in churches around the country as well.
Similar Situations in Tennessee and South Dakota
Tennessee: Singer, Song-writer Amy Lee Grant is currently enmeshed in a battle to save her great-grandfather’s downtown Nashville Tennessee church building, which she claims was “steeple-jacked” by a businessman named Shawn Jackson.
The Church’s lucrative parking lot profits now support Jackson’s non-profit corporation. However, the original church deed required it to continue operating as a place of worship and the court battle is ongoing.
South Dakota: A former attendee of Calvary Chapel Sioux Falls, told Trinity Foundation “I tried for at least three months to get the bylaws, and the bottom line is I never got any.” After asking, a spokesman for the leadership of Calvary Chapel Sioux Falls texted him back, “… is there any reason for asking other than curiosity?”
The man responded that he wanted to be sure his tithes were being handled properly and that the church operated under biblical principles of accountability and transparency as shown in 2nd Corinthians 8:21.
Behind the Scenes: The Attorney Advising the Young Group
What happened at Second Baptist followed a similar occurrence at Fellowship Church. On Tuesday, March 7, 2001, members of Fellowship Church voted to approve the restatement of the church’s articles of incorporation.
With a simple vote, members of Fellowship Church lost their church member voting rights. The church’s new governing document stated, “Plenary power to manage and govern the affairs of the Corporation is vested in the board of directors, otherwise known as the Ministry Leadership Team of the Corporation.”
Dennis Brewer Jr. joined the Fellowship Church board of directors in 2001 when the church eliminated member voting rights and is believed to be the author of both Fellowship Church and Second Baptist bylaws.
Dennis “Denny” Brewer Jr. and his late father Dennis Brewer Sr have spent decades representing televangelists and megachurch pastors. Past and current clients of their law firms include Benny Hinn Ministries, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Fellowship Church (pastored by Ed Young Jr), Hillsong Church and many others.
According to his bio, Brewer Jr. has served as general counsel and CFO of Fellowship Church since 2007 and serves on the staff of Fellowship Church and C3 Global (association of churches) and as an officer of both entities.
Brewer Jr. is an ordained minister and receives full pastor benefits, a car and housing allowance from Fellowship Church according to an informant. Brewer reported to the police in April 2019 that around thirty or so staff members of Fellowship Church receive housing allowances from Fellowship church. (police report)
Brewers’ law firms (Sr. and Jr.) helped create a template for how televangelists operate today with financial secrecy. Dennis Brewer Jr. has performed legal services for Second Baptist Church and now serves as a member of the MLT (board) of Second Baptist Church in Houston.
Second Baptist’s Reputation for Relief Efforts
Jesus once told his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste (purpose), how can it be made salty?” In the same way, when a church damages its reputation, can it be restored again?
Second Baptist has a long history of engaging in charitable acts of service in its community.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Second Baptist implemented “Operation Compassion” which aided and housed victims. Approximately 32,000 people filled Second Baptist Church in Houston September 3-5, 2005, to be trained in relief operations for Katrina evacuees. Many were Baptists, but many were not even Christians. By Sept. 6, the 32,000 volunteers in Houston had assumed responsibility for supplying 240 volunteers for each meal shift at the convention center for the next month, feeding and caring for Katrina victims.
On August 28, 2017, during Hurricane Harvey, a letter from former Senior Pastor H. Edwin Young urged the congregation to volunteer with relief efforts following the event. Dr. Young met with then Houston Mayor Turner looking for ways for the church to help the flood-stricken city of Houston. Second Baptist decided to set itself up as a combination distribution center and an operations center.
A “battle cry” with the words “Houston Strong” was printed on T-shirts. The operations spanned across all six Second Baptist campuses to reach people in every affected part of the city. There were teams of volunteers mucking out homes, teams dedicated to getting meals out to work crews, teams dedicated to organizing and distributing supplies to volunteers, an entire “needs” team whose job was to find out what the specific needs were and organize them so they could be met, and so many more.
The court petition states, “Guided by principles of faith, accountability and transparency, the board of trustees has ensured prudent governance and financial transparency for the Second Baptist congregation, with the intent that the church will be in the best position to serve many generations of Houstonians in the future.”
A Legacy destroyed?
One longtime Second Baptist member and member of the Jeremiah Counsel Corp. feels very strongly about this (quoting), “In a moment of betrayal of the long legacy of Second Baptist, H. Edwin Young marred his own long-lived legacy as a servant pastor and his son’s as an associate pastor by moving Second Baptist from a church led by members in its mission to one serving the Young Family, key staff members, and others who have their own financial self interest at heart.”