2008
May 18 – FCCOC members vote on new elders. All three were approved.
May 22 - Dr. Morey emails the new elders, prior to ordination, that he needs parts of his home remodeled and his custom bookcases moved to his home. He stated that it should be paid for by the church, since it will be used as a home office. Responses are included in the document, which cover statements as to what Dr. Morey would like to have done in the first elder meeting. (The prior document posted orginally did not show the whole conversation because it was a corrupt .pdf – this one posted on 10/11/08 and shows the full conversation)
May 23 – One of the elders emails a statement as to his suggestion for the first meeting agenda.
May 28 – First elder meeting. Dr. Morey appointed the board positions and other items were discussed. Discussion of the budget led the elders to understand that it was difficult to get FCCOC numbers because the funds were entangled with FDC Inc. The decision to move the bookcases to Dr. Morey’s home was approved by a 3 to 1 vote.
May 31 - The first men’s fellowship after the elder election met. Communication issues arose during the meeting regarding the cost affiliated with moving items and repairing Dr. Morey’s home, so a fellow elder sent an email to Dr. Morey about the situation and described what seemed to be a contradiction to what he had stated for many years – that he was moving away from his (Dr. Morey’s) church responsibilities.
June 8 - The schedule for the week of June 9 was emailed. A second elder meeting was scheduled for June 12th. One of the elders felt a definite need for prayer as the budget planning was beginning and wise discernment was needed so a prayer meeting was schedule for June 9th. To prepare for the meeting on the 12th, a full extract of the QuickBooks FDC data was completed since all of the funds were entangled. This would provide a jumping off point to create a new budget for FCCOC.
June 9 – The prayer meeting for the elders happened as scheduled. In that meeting, Dr. Morey discussed several church issues for about 1 ½ hours and then the elders prayed for approximately 30 minutes. At the end of the prayer, the full extract for the church section of the FDC QuickBooks was provided to all of the elders. Dr. Morey stated that he could not read spreadsheets and he needed his assistant, Cindy, to explain it to him. Dr. Morey then stated that he wanted two of the elders (Henry and Drew) to meet with Cindy and put together a preliminary budget for the next elder meeting.
June 10 – A family resigns their membership from the church and Dr. Morey responds without consultation from the other elders even though the member states there were doctrinal issues. (The family name has been covered for privacy purposes.)
June 11 – The two elders met without Cindy to organize a preliminary budget. After further thought of Dr. Morey’s request to have his assistant present, the elders did not believe that to be appropriate. Therefore, the two elders would prepare a preliminary budget and agreed to explain it to Cindy, who would then explain it to Dr. Morey, per Dr. Morey’s request.
June 12 - The meeting with Cindy occurred on schedule at 10:00 AM. The two elders reviewed the preliminary budget with her and had a couple of questions regarding prior FDC expenses that were put in the FCC category of the entangled budget. She responded to the questions, and took the budget to go over it with Dr. Morey.
On the link, salaries of those employees that are I understand no longer work for the ministry have been covered. Those whose status is unknown or who are still employed are shown.
June 12 – To move the process forward, an email was sent for an elder meeting on June 25 to finalize the budget.
June 13 - Dr. Morey replies to the meeting request and in that reply also states that budget corrections need to be made. This is the first of 2 emails from Dr. Morey that day which address the preliminary budget.
June 13 - After no reply from his first email, Dr. Morey sends a second email regarding the budget to dictate certain changes that must occur.
June 22 - An elder emailed the other elders to gain consensus on addressing an issue that was raised by a church member about a couple who attend the church.
June 24 - Dr. Morey contacted the couple in question and self-statedly “resolved” the issue without the plurality of elders. There was no discussion among the elders. Dr. Morey took it upon himself to decide how it would be handled.
June 25 – This was the second official meeting of the elder board. The elders unanimously approved the budget as presented. The only item in question was that Dr. Morey did not want to keep a mileage log for the church gas reimbursement even though the elders wanted it. It was determined that a fellow pastor, who is also a CPA, would be asked about this and whatever he decided would be done. Dr. Morey did not raise any of the issues that he had stated in his prior emails regarding the preliminary budget. His job duties to the church are also referenced.
June 30 - Dr. Morey sends an email regarding his time off to speak at other engagements and filling the pulpit. The particular guest speakers names that were discussed and not chosen were removed for privacy. He also states that he will “take off only when physically exhausted”. This statement was made after the budget and related duties had been passed unanimously by the elder board (which includes Dr. Morey), and is therefore in direct contradiction to what the other elders had already addressed per Dr. Morey’s request – to limit his duties and time spent on the church so that he could pursue writing and not endanger his health.
July 3 - Dr. Morey sends an email stating that his schedule changed. He states that he “will preach July 20″ and also that, “The money we set aside for an assistant is to be reapplied to my support. When the Lord sends us the right man, He will begin to provide for me through Faith Defenders.” These directives among other statements in the email have not been approved by the elder board and are in direct contradiction to the decisions made in the prior elder meeting. A church member had already been scheduled for the 20th to preach and Dr. Morey’s salary was already approved and it did not include the additional salary of an assistant for Dr. Morey’s use. In addition to these emails, Dr. Morey repeatedly phoned one of the elders regarding issues he had with the already approved budget. Therefore, the elders all agreed by phone to meet on July 7th so that they were all on the same page for the July 13th FCCOC member meeting where the budget would be presented.
July 7 – This is the date of the third elder meeting. The meeting starts with an opening statement to address the constant budget re-visitation by Dr. Morey – Item C in the notes. In this meeting, a preliminary job description was also presented to Dr. Morey to clarify his duties and address his prior comment that he will “take off only when physically exhausted”. The elders were supposed to take the description and provide commentary to finalize it at the next meeting. Due to the fact that Dr. Morey was only required to preach 26 times per year for approximately $58,000 plus in compensation and do no other duties for the church, vacation time was not listed in the description, but since the job description was not finalized, it was still up for discussion.
The mileage log issue had still not been finalized even though the Pastor/CPA stated that it was needed. Dr. Morey still disagreed and wanted the $300 without question. The issue was that $300 worth of gas would mean that Dr. Morey traveled approx. 500+ miles on church business every month and the elders did not think that was being done.
The unanimous vote was to not re-address the budget after the initial opening statement was completed, but Dr. Morey was still getting other input regarding the mileage log.
Item F shows that Dr. Morey was spoken to by another elder regarding his “dictatorial” emails.
16 Document 17 Document 18 Document
July 8 - Dr. Morey sends an email regarding the employment offer given by the elders signed by his wife and himself.
July 9 - Dr. Morey sends an email after a meeting with other pastors. He makes several statements regarding his role as the pastor and states that his is the only “FCC ruling/teaching elder at this time who “labors in the Word and doctrine.”" This is the first of two emails addressing the issue of paid time off that he sends to the other elders.
July 9 - Dr. Morey sends a second email requiring that the elders provide paid time off – not requesting the change per elder majority. He also begins to utilize the term lay elders to distinguish the other elders from himself.
July 13 – The member meeting occurs after the morning service. As voted on in the third elder meeting, paid staff was not present. The approved budget was handed out for the members to review and the elders committed to a quarterly variance report on the budget.
The members at the meeting had questions as to the transition of FCC as a DBA moving to its own corporation. In particular, they questioned money that was provided by FCC members and attendees to fix the roof of the building in 2006. Dr. Morey had stated that those funds would be given back to the church upon the sale of the building, which was owned by Faith Defenders, LP. However, Dr. Morey was now stating that the money from the building sale was not enough to repay the church. The elders present stated that they would bring the issue to the FDC board since they had no authority over that corporation and were not on the board at the time the promise was made.
The elders at the time of FCCOC’s budget approval agreed to just start from scratch with a July 6th date and begin to incur all the income an expenses from the church on a new QuickBooks with an elder approved budget. That way, they didn’t have to get overly involved with the mess of disentangling the QuickBooks records.
In addition, a question arose as to a donation of $2,000 in benevolence that was not transferred to the FCCOC budget from FDC.
Side Note of Explanation: The building at 17601 Fitch, Irvine, CA was purchased by Faith Defenders, LP in 2005 of which Dr. Morey is in second position as to the amount of investment. This LP made an agreement with Faith Defenders Church Inc. (FDC) that FDC would pay the mortgage deficit on the monthly payment after the tenant payments were subtracted from the total. This amounted to a rental amount by FDC of approx. $35,000 per month. However, FDC did not own the building – but, the building needed a new roof in 2006 because the building was going up for sale and Dr. Morey knew that it wouldn’t sell to another church without a new roof since the current one was falling apart. Since the LP couldn’t pay for the roof, Dr. Morey announced from the pulpit that donations were needed from the church. He took at least three offerings that day and raised over $120,000. He told the church that the money would be paid back by the LP when the building sold.
However, no contract for payback was ever established between FDC DBA Faith Community Church so there was no legal obligation created by Dr. Morey, even though he holds interest in both organization – one as a LP position and one as a board member/President.
This issue was important to the FCCOC church members because they were now being told by the elder board that FCCOC started with a zero balance on July 6, 2008 so that money was not available for church purposes. They did not want their money back personally, they wanted to funds to appropriately go into the church account to be used for church approved purposes.
July 14 – Dr. Morey sends an email to the elders with his response to the members regarding the money from the roof and the sale of the building. Dr. Morey also sent this email directly to some of the members and received some response. Member names have been removed from the email. Glenn Hendrickson posted his email exchange with Dr. Morey on his blog.
July 14 - The elders call to schedule a meeting to review the member meeting as well as several other items that needed to be done including the start of a committee for a pastor search. In addition, the job description for Dr. Morey and the mileage log were still outstanding. The church was also planning to move on August 1 and agenda items for that effort had to be discussed. However, Dr. Morey states that there are no pressing issues that he is aware of. One of the elders is not able to attend because he is having surgery on that day – July 17th.
Dr. Morey, in this email exchange now asserts authority over the other elders as the Vice President and dictates the agenda. He had already been talked to about his self-willed behavior in the prior elder meeting.
July 15 – Dr. Morey sends an email to the elders called “A Pastoral Letter to New Elders”. In it, he distinguishes the roles of pastors versus lay elders stating that pastors are worthy of “double-honor”, not lay elders as well as other differences. This letter is in direct contradiction to the FCCOC Constitution and Bylaws which reflect the doctrinal understanding of FCCOC and were written by Dr. Morey.
25 Document Constitution and Bylaws
July 17 – The fourth elder meeting occurs at Dr. Morey’s house. Jim E. is not present because of his surgery. The meeting begins with statements being read by the other two elders. They exhort Dr. Morey to repent of the sins identified in the letters or a member meeting will be called for his dismissal. The charges were given under the biblical warrant of 1Timothy 5:19-20 due to Dr. Morey’s persistence in his sins. With regard to the finances and the improper allocation of funds by Dr. Morey as presented in the statements:
1. FCCOC was incorporated in January 2008.
2. FDC under Dr. Morey, as a board member and President, knew that FDC DBA FCC had expired in 2007. However, after the January 2008 incorporation decided to continue deposited the funds of the church (FCCOC) into FDC bank accounts. No other entity at Dr. Morey’s disposal could have provided for the dollar amount of expenses in the ministry as a whole so he needed the church offering to cover it.
3. FCCOC had no rental agreement for the facility at FDC nor did it own the facility, so there was no reason for it to pay any building expenses. It could have moved at any time – it did not have to wait until August 1st. The problem was that the board of FDC was the same as the board of FCCOC, which is a conflict of interest.
4. Depositing funds made payable to one corporate entity into another corporate entity is an illegal activity and this was knowingly done by Dr. Morey, even if he himself did not take the deposit to the bank.
5. The Board of a Corporation is responsible and liable for ALL activities. Not only is Dr. Morey on the board, he is also the President of FDC. Claiming ignorance or shifting blame is not an option.
July 18 - Due to the stress brought on by Dr. Morey’s issues with FCCOC, one of the elders resigned. This elder was a witness to Dr. Morey’s sin and therefore, the other elder who was a witness could not bring the charges before the members. Knowing the history of Dr. Morey’s un-biblical dealings with those who charge him with sin, a second elder resigns his position only to be slandered later by Dr. Morey.
August 19 - An email is sent to one of the former elders of FCCOC from a current member. Dr. Morey is slandering and gossiping to the entire church with regard to the situation.
