GFA leadership believes that lying to the staff and others is justifiable if it protects the ministry or its leaders. A number of instances have occurred where leadership lied to the staff about how or why someone left. Leadership has on multiple occasions announced to the staff that someone “chose to move on” or “felt God calling them elsewhere” when in actuality they were fired or asked to leave. In every case, the staff member in question chose not to speak up about it for fear of being labeled negatively.
Due to the testimony of a number of witnesses, and our own experience while on staff, we suspect, but have no actual knowledge, that certain field operations, such as how donations are distributed, are not at all as represented to the staff or donors. For example, pictures of donated items such as church buildings have been sent to donors, saying that they are the actual photo of what they donated, but some of us heard from people working in the ministry partners department that the same photo was re- used for many donors. Another example is that Bicycles and Jesus Wells are such a popular donation item that the ministry continues to promote them even though they have already received so much money toward them that we suspect they’ve already gone far beyond meeting the need. If this is true, donors giving toward these items aren’t actually meeting a real need even though it is falsely presented to them as a real and present need in order to keep the money flowing in. And again, some of us heard from a woman who used to sponsor hundreds of children from diverse regions, that all of the Bridge of Hope letters coming to her had the same original-language Hindi handwriting style – but the letters are represented as having been written by the actual children.
GFA is not transparent about the extent to which they have become an episcopal organization that practices episcopal traditions, especially on the field, but increasingly at home offices as well, such as in ordination ceremonies conducted by K.P. Often times, staff and students have already raised funds and dramatically altered their lives before they learn this, and have little choice but to stick out their commitment. If you google “episcopal site:gfa.org” you’ll see that the only page even mentioning the word is a “hidden” (un-linked, un-advertised) page www.gfa.org/believerschurch. GFA has a responsibility to be transparent about their denomination affiliation and practices, as these are key components of a Christian missionary organization’s operation and key considerations for donors and potential staff.
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- Telling a lie does not necessarily mean saying something that is demonstrably false. God killed Ananaias when there is no record that he ever opened his mouth. He merely gave a false impression of what was going on.
- “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” (Pr 12:22)
- “Do not lie to one another.” (Col 3:9)
- “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” (Eph 4:25)
Read the Receiving Honor from Men page for an example.