G3 Ministries is shutting down after four pastors linked to the organization admitted anonymously distributing packets accusing Texas pastor Tom Buck of sermon plagiarism and then resigned their positions at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia.
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The controversy began months earlier. In March, anonymous packets were mailed to roughly 30 homes of elders and deacons at First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, where Buck serves as pastor. The packets accused Buck of “habitual and systemic” sermon plagiarism, citing 45 alleged instances of verbatim borrowing across 17 sermons over nine years, largely from the “Preaching the Word” commentary series, according to The Roys Report.
Phil Johnson, former executive director of Grace to You, said he reviewed the material at the request of Buck and the Lindale church’s elders. Johnson said some unattributed wording technically constituted plagiarism but rejected claims that Buck was preaching sermons written by others. He said Lindale’s leaders had already investigated the matter and required Buck to improve his attribution.
The dispute widened when the packets were sent beyond Buck’s congregation to his public ministry partners and friends. Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, said he received one in July. In a public statement, Ascol said a Pray’s Mill elder later acknowledged the church’s elders were behind the mailing and told him they had acted anonymously because doing so was the “consensus” of several pastors they had consulted. Ascol said two of those pastors later denied advising the elders to distribute the material anonymously.
In a joint apology posted Aug. 25 to G3 Ministries’ since-deleted X account, G3 President Scott Aniol and pastors Matt Sikes, Dylan Joyner, and Jon Norton acknowledged anonymously sending the packets, according to ChurchLeaders.
“We confess that we sinfully meddled in the disciplinary process of your autonomous local church,” the men wrote. They acknowledged characterizing Lindale’s handling of the matter “without knowing all the details” and said they should have contacted the church directly rather than distributing the material anonymously. All four said they voluntarily resigned their pastoral positions at Pray’s Mill.
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The shutdown comes a little more than a year after another leadership crisis. MinistryWatch reported in May 2025 that G3 founder Josh Buice resigned as president after church leaders said he had operated multiple anonymous social media accounts, email addresses, and Substack platforms used to criticize church elders and other Christian leaders. G3 canceled its 2025 national conference, promised refunds and said it would continue operating while seeking to avoid what it called the “dangerous celebrity culture” of modern evangelicalism. Aniol succeeded Buice as president in July 2025.
G3 entered its latest crisis amid substantial financial decline. Its 2025 Form 990 reported $399,645 in revenue against $950,642 in expenses, producing a $550,997 deficit. The ministry ended the year with $304,459 in net assets, while revenue had fallen from $1.21 million the previous year.
G3 has not yet publicly detailed how it will distribute its remaining assets or what will happen to G3 Press, G3 Plus, future conference registrations, or other outstanding obligations.
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