Vintage Church Answers Questions About Firing of Tyler Jones—and Next Steps
Leadership cited lack of accountability, culture of excellence, intentional hiddenness
On Wed. March 18, elders and staff members answered questions from the Vintage Church congregation about the firing of Tyler Jones, the lack of accountability related to Jones’ sexual misconduct, and how the leadership will move forward.
Tyler Jones / Video screenshot
Tyler Jones was the founding pastor of Vintage Church in Raleigh, N.C., and a vice president of the Acts 29 Network, a church planting organization. Elders voted to dismiss Jones after he admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a woman that was not his wife. Acts 29 dismissed Jones soon after. A March 9 email update from a Vintage Church staff member said that the Full Council of Elders and Leadership Team decided it was necessary to conduct a third-party investigation. The email also clarified that Jones did not confess. He only admitted the relationship to elders after he was confronted.
On March 18, Vintage Church held a “Downtown Members Night,” in which leadership — including Local Campus Director Kayla Pleasants, Pastor of Discipleship Eric Spivey, and several elders — sat on stage and answered questions. Part of this exchange was recorded on video for the Vintage Church YouTube channel.
“Some of these questions that you guys are asking, there were folks among the elders that were asking the same things — and to Tyler [Jones],” said Andrew Carmen, a Vintage Church elder. “There was intent behind that hiddenness.”
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Pastor Eric Spivey and Elder Graham Michael both said the church needs to grow in the area of accountability, specifically discussing interpersonal accountability. Spivey said he assumed that Jones had accountability in his life because he was part of an Acts 29 pastoral cohort.
In response to a participant’s question, Michael acknowledged Jones had distanced himself from Vintage members, partly because of his role with Acts 29.
Pleasants said she partly blames church leadership’s “culture of excellence,” saying it created a blind spot because leaders were discouraged from admitting their struggles. Since Jones’ misconduct came to light, Pleasants says that has changed. Staff members have been more willing to admit things they are struggling with.
Vintage Church leadership invited congregation for a “member night” to answer questions about Tyler Jones’ firing / Video screenshot
“The sentiment, the feeling that we had in [leadership discussions] was none of us are above [inappropriate conduct]. And we need each other,” Michael said. “That’s my promise to you. As long as I’m an elder. As long as we’re elders in this, we’re gonna push the envelope on that and make sure we are fully accountable to one another, so that we can be fully faithful to you all.”
Andrew Carmen has been a part of the congregation for close to 20 years.
“I’ve been here since I was 19, and Tyler [Jones] has been the primary teacher in my life since I was almost a kid,” Carmen said. “Speaking for myself, as candidly as I can, that means that my understanding of him, and my view of him is skewed. That’s part of the reason that we want to do this investigation. Because, for myself, I can’t trust my own judgment — in hindsight I see this more clearly now — when it comes to someone who’s been kind of a hero figure in my own life.”
Carmen said he hadn’t seen that as a blindspot in his ability to lead alongside Jones, but looking back he does. “So I apologize to you for that. I’m very sorry,” he said. “But it is something that, as we continue to try and move forward, we are trying to learn as much as we can, so that we don’t let this happen again.”
Carmen acknowledged that Vintage Church has legal counsel, but did not clarify whether or not there are any pending legal actions against the church.
“They’re very skilled, and they’re not skilled in trying to help us cover things up,” he said of its legal counsel. “They’re skilled in helping us try to walk in health as a church and figure out the path forward that’s going to allow us to continue to share the gospel and to serve all of you and to operate. And so I’m very grateful for that.”
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