01/22/2021
JUSTIN RAY NELSON and BRANDON G. TAYLOR: Permanently Under Discipline for Unrepentant Abuse
Different types of allowable discipline are indicated in Scripture. Included among these are governmental, judicial, ecclesiastical (i.e., church), and parental forms of discipline. But there is yet another kind of biblical discipline which is often overlooked. It could be described as “informational discipline.” This type of discipline, which involves a Christian publicly notifying and warning others of an extremely dangerous individual or individuals, takes place when a guilty person, who cannot be held accountable by any other legal or ecclesiastical means, is held responsible for committing some form of unrepentant abuse against another person. The purpose of “informational discipline” is to lovingly protect others from the dangerous nature and tendencies of someone, using a widely circulated truthful statement about them. This statement you are reading now is one such act of “informational discipline” concerning pastor JUSTIN RAY NELSON, pastor BRANDON G. TAYLOR, and the abuse complicit congregation of SOUTH CREEK CHURCH in Springfield, Missouri.
In 2 Timothy 4:14-15, the Apostle Paul illustrates by his example how Christians are to deal with someone who is unrepentantly abusive in any way, especially when that person cannot be dealt with by the standard, correctly applied church discipline or civil means. In those verses, Paul publicly exposes an abuser named “Alexander.” Here is what Paul says: “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:14-15, NASB95) The word “harm” (v. 14; Greek term: “kakos”) means to be “abusive, injurious, damaging, destructive, or evil” to another person. The word’s range of meaning contains the idea of doing something to someone which causes major negative lasting effects, ongoing trauma, or long-term impairments to them in some way.
While the specific abuse Paul experienced is not stated in the passage, it is clear what motivated Alexander to do it: He could not control what Paul was doing and saying. Like all narcissistic abusers, Alexander became frustrated when he could not control Paul, and thus, he attempted to use abuse to silence him. This is the same case with spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and publicly abusive pastors like JUSTIN RAY NELSON and BRANDON G. TAYLOR. They use abuse to attempt to punish, penalize, intimidate, control, and silence their victims. They do this to people even over secondary doctrinal matters or tertiary matters of conscience, and for rejecting their extra-biblical pastoral advice or resisting their excessive pastoral control even in areas where Scripture is specifically silent. When the Apostle Paul was unrepentantly abused, he took four steps: (1) He openly declared he had been abused; (2) He named publicly the abuser; (3) He faithfully expressed his trust in God to bring about retribution on his abuser in the future; and (4) He lovingly warned others of this abuser's potentially destructive ways so they could avoid being abused themselves.
In 2018, after being a founding leader and member of this congregation back in 2003, I was severely spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and publicly abused by the leadership of this church through the misuse of pastoral authority, the misapplication of church discipline, the mishandling of Scripture, and the mistreatment of shunning. This was done to intentionally and maliciously cause foreseeable and extreme emotional duress, distress, and damage to me and my family, even though the entire congregation knew publicly at the time I was under the care of a physician for debilitating depression, excruciating anxiety, and complicated grief disorder. Their abuse has left me with ongoing PTSD symptoms to this day, which I did not have before.
My crime? I would not obey the extra-biblical and excessive demands of the two pastors regarding matters where the Bible is silent, I would not violate my conscience by agreeing with them about a secondary and tertiary doctrinal issue that arose, and I would not allow people in the church to continue to harshly confront me about something I had already repented of doing. Consequently, because I stood up for myself against their unbiblical actions and unloving mistreatment, I was falsely accused of causing division even though there was no one I was unwilling to have biblical reconciliation with. I would have been glad to leave with my family had they told me that is what they wanted me to do since I was only able to attend the church 30% of the time due to out of town work and school obligations along with caring for a terminally ill parent. This, however, was not the approach these strict, rigid, ungracious, and legalistic leaders chose. Personal retaliation and image management were also factors in their abuse of me.
In this church, there are only two pastors who literally control everything. There are no deacons or committees, nor is there any congregational voting. No one has the authority to terminate these pastors for their malpractice because they are not accountable to anyone on a human level according to their founding documents which can be located online. These pastors are both biblically disqualified from ministry according to Scripture for many reasons including but not limited to: lack of self-control, pride, unsound judgment, arrogance, stubborn defiance, ungraciousness, incorrectly using Scripture to justify not meeting with those they have sinned against, covetousness, being self-willed, lack of patience and gentleness, abusive and excessive use of pastoral authority including lording it over others, refusal to model humility and accountability, narcissism, boasting, hypocrisy, gluttony, unwillingness to repent and seek biblical reconciliation with others, making dishonest statements both privately and publicly about individuals, failure to treat others as they would want to be treated, and a host of other reasons which keep them from being "above reproach" as Scripture commands and requires of anyone being a pastor (1 Timothy 3:1).
These two spiritual predators have been given numerous opportunities to make these sins and offenses right with God and others but refuse to do so because it will cost them their ministries and the money that goes with it if they truly repent. As a result, they pridefully and persistently refuse to obey 1 Corinthians 6:1-6 and participate in Christian mediation and arbitration so that they can be biblically reconciled with others as God commands in Matthew 5:23-24. I cannot warn everyone strongly enough to stay completely away from this dangerous church and have absolutely nothing to do with it! You will not be safe being transparent and vulnerable in this congregation! Be sure to protect your family at all costs!!
www.SouthCreekChurch.net
www.JustinNelsonExposed.com
www.BrandonTaylorExposed.com
www.SouthCreekChurchExposed.com
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