My name is Curt Parton. I live with my beautiful, wonderful wife Kelley in Rincón, Puerto Rico. Since 2001, I’ve served as an elder and teaching pastor of Church without Walls, an evangelical, nondenominational church here in Rincón (that literally has no walls).
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Dear Brother Curt,
Indeed a joy to find your blog here. I’m a missionary with The Moody Church in Chicago serving in Brazil working with pastors here offering a graduate level course on church leadership. Really enjoy your blog and found some helpful information in your reviews. Thank you, continued blessings in Christ Jesus, and may the Lord guide and grant you wisdom in Puerto Rico as you serve.
Thanks for the encouragement, brother! I pray that God richly blesses your work in Brazil and in Chicago.
Thank you for sharing, and God bless you.
Thanks, Scott. God bless you too.
Hey Curt Happy to find your site. I like your writing style and how your blog flows. I have already been recomending it to others. WOuld you mind if I e-mailed you some private questions regarding ministry?
Thanks, LAR. I’m glad the blog’s a blessing to you. I’d be glad to help any way I can. My email address is: curt@withoutwallspr.org.
Enjoy reading your blog. Could you put up some of your observations about church in Puerto Rico? I am married to a Puerto Rican who originally comes from cabo rojo and we live in New Zealand (I am a kiwi). Cheers and blessings.
Hi Catherine, thanks for your comment. Cabo Rojo is not far from us. And I’ve heard New Zealand is incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately, I’m not really qualified to observe much about churches in Puerto Rico. There are many churches in each community, but our church is here specifically for the English-speaking population. We’re the only English-speaking church in the area, and we see ourselves as missionaries to the expat community. Also, I’m the only one on staff for our church, so I typically have little time left over for additional ministry involvement outside our congregation (and why I can’t always post to this blog as regularly as I’d like). So my observations of the Puerto Rican churches would be somewhat superficial, and probably not appropriate for a public forum. Cheers and blessings to you too!
I was happy to read some of your posts. Your perspective seems to match with thoughts I wrote here on ‘my dream church’ https://sites.google.com/site/mydreamchurch/
Anil – I like your site. The vast majority of churches exist under the OT model. I call it the Roman model. During the past 2 years I have met many people who have left the modern church, or want to, and yearn to belong to a “dream church”. It is the next reformation. Keep the Faith. You are not alone.
Thanks, Anil. I like your site very much. You touch on many of the same issues that we emphasize, and you present them in an appealing, eye-catching way. I hope a lot of people find your site. I encourage you to keep writing! My prayer is that we will all become hungry to live out the biblical truth of what it means to truly be the church. God bless you in your ministry. (BTW, we have banyan trees here in Puerto Rico also.
)
LAR, Curt, Thank you. It is highly unusual for a pastor to lower his ‘elevation’ (status), and power. It takes a lot of courage and integrity. So I was surprised to see quite a bit of that in the posts I read. “It is the next reformation” is the exact phrase I heard from a leader of the Vineyard Aurora church.
Anil, it is hard for many pastors to take what they see as a lesser role in the church. I think most of these pastors would actually find such a change to be liberating. Instead of the pressure to be all things to all people, they could be freed to focus on the ministry role that God has truly given them. It might be hard to let go of the status of being the Senior Pastor, but it would be much healthier for the church and for them.
Hi Curt, I like your blog. Or what I guess I really like is your clarity of writing. You present your topics in a clear, easy-to-understand way. Maybe you should think about writing a book! I’d like to sit down and chat with you sometime–writer to writer. When are you most relaxed, and relatively free from responsibilities? Have a great day.
Thank you, Susan! I appreciate the encouragement. I’m enjoying your book as well. I’ll contact you via email.
Hi Curt! It’s your old pal Ada from Ridgecrest! You are looking fantastic and it’s great to see you doing what you love. Would be fantastic to hear from you!!!
Hey, Ada! How are you? Where are you at now? What’s going on in your life? How’s Greg doing? It’s great to hear from you! I hope you’re well.
It’s a shame when all this knowledge never leaves your head to go to your heart.
Hi, Cory. How are you? I’ve been thinking a lot about you and praying for you. I’m sure you must be angry and confused. I probably would be if I was in your place. If you ever want to talk it out, I’m available.
I am angry and confused, but surely not at Mick or Mary Ann of Global or anything like that. I’m angry that a pastor of a church would act so ungodly, even as far as putting the business on his church website. At one time I saw you as a great teacher and I felt as though you had a heart for God. Now I’m not sure at all. I definitely don’t trust you. That trust was broken at the beginning of all this. I don’t even want you to pray for me, as i don’t believe that you and I know the same Jesus. The Jesus I know and loved promised me in Romans 8:1 that there was now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. What you did was condemn. What you did was put somebody else’s business on blast. Business that is in the past and has been in the past for a very long time. Sin that has been repented of. You had absolutely no right. You aren’t a pastor. You’re an actor. A fake.
With that said, I hope that the Gospel absolutely breaks your heart and you receive the forgiveness for attacking one of Gods people. I hope that you learn to see that to be a christian means to forgive even the unforgiveable, because that is what Christ did for us. You want Mick to give a public apology? I want you to give a public apology and verbal statement of everything you have done wrong in your life every Sunday. I think that is only fair.
Think about what you are doing. Think about the fact that all we ever did in Rincon was want to love and help people, and now you are telling us not to love and help people? You are blaspheming an organization that came in to help whoever they could, whoever would let us. We only want to reflect Christs love to others. You have hindered our ability to do that. Real Christlike, dude.
No, Cory, I assumed you would be angry and confused toward us. I assumed this because I know you’re listening to only one side of this story. That’s understandable because you’re there with Mick and Mary Ann. The difference though is that we’ve given Mick and Mary Ann a lot of opportunity to share their side of these things. You haven’t given us that opportunity. You’ve judged not only the circumstances but also our hearts, and you’ve done this without ever hearing anything except what Mick and Mary Ann are telling you.
Here’s what happened. We received some troubling reports of serious moral and ethical problems regarding Mick and Mary Ann from people who had spent time in ministry here with us in PR. We didn’t assume these reports to be true, and we couldn’t assume them to be false. We decided to remain neutral but watchful. Then Mick and Mary Ann started inviting the kids in our church to travel with them as interns. Now we had to determine whether these claims were false and we could endorse the Pattersons, or whether they were true and we would have to warn our people.
The more people we talked with, the more overwhelming the case against Mick and Mary Ann grew and the more disturbing the evidence. We finally had to—reluctantly—email Mick privately about all of this. We told him we were very concerned, but that if these were false claims against them we would do everything we could to help them fight these charges. We also told him that if they were true he didn’t have to go through this alone, that we would walk through this with him every step of the way.
Mick and Mary Ann have still not responded to any of our questions or concerns. The only explanation for their refusal to respond is that they cannot, and that the claims regarding them are so convincing because they’re true. We had no choice but to warn the rest of our church family and to publicly disassociate ourselves from Mick and Mary Ann. We stressed that we had no problems with any of you interns, that we were inspired by your devotion, and concerned about how this would affect you.
Cory, Mick and Mary Ann have deeply hurt a great many people—missionaries who have dedicated their lives to reaching others for Christ. They trusted Mick and Mary Ann, and they were taken advantage of, lied to, and treated shamefully. There is also a history of sexual sin reaching back to when Mick was a youth pastor in Oklahoma. We would be glad to know that he has truly repented of this behavior. We gave him the opportunity to tell us this, but he chose not to respond. But even if he has gone through a process of repentance and restoration, it would be unwise IMO for him to be involved in ministry that involves very young men, and it is highly unethical for him to not disclose his previous problems to parents who would entrust their children to his care.
Cory, I can send you copies of all the emails exchanged between us and Mick. I think you’ll find that we were direct but gracious and loving. Our desire has always been for what is best for all parties involved. But it is not in Mick’s and Mary Ann’s best interests to sweep these things under the rug, pretend they didn’t happen, ignore the unresolved pain and anguish of the people they’ve hurt, and allow them to potentially hurt other people—people to whom we have an obligation as elders to guard and protect. To just shrug our shoulders and give Mick and Mary Ann the benefit of the doubt—in the face of such overwhelming testimony against them—would be to shirk our God-given responsibilities to the people of this church.
Cory, let me challenge you—read the emails for yourself; read the testimonies of the people who’ve been hurt; read their continued concern for the spiritual well-being of the Pattersons; read our emails to Mick; read Mick’s replies to us and see the subterfuge and evasion of any discussion of our questions and concerns; read how he instead simply attacks his victims and ultimately insults and attacks us . . . then read what you have written above . . . and then tell me who are the ones unjustly judging and condemning others.
We aren’t condemning anyone. We have shared our concerns and asked for a response to our questions. In return we’ve received only evasion, threats, insults and shockingly underhanded, devious tactics. And so, we’ve warned our church family and disassociated ourselves from these people. How could we do any less? But, even now, if Mick and Mary Ann will only repent, we would welcome them with open arms and do everything we could to help them.
I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you and the other interns were caught in this whole situation. But we didn’t create these problems. We’re only seeking to address them as wisely, lovingly, and appropriately as we can.
I pray that God pours out his blessings on you, Cory.
Your brother in Christ,
Curt
Cory, I left your comments on here, and responded at length, even though this isn’t really the appropriate forum for this exchange. I did this to show that we’ve been very open about how we were handling this situation. I’d like to continue discussing this if you’re willing, but I think it would be best to now move this to direct email. My email address is: curt@withoutwallspr.org.
Curt,
1) you should have gone to the police – and still do so.
2) you should have followed what Jesus said in Matthew 18, “go tell it to the church”. Many pastors
interpret it as “go tell it to the elders” but that is incorrect. ‘Church’ means church.
Hi Anil,
1. Nothing was done to us personally. We just received reports from others who had been hurt, and had to determine the veracity of these claims to make sure that our youth were protected if necessary. We have no grounds or cause to go to the police.
2. I believe we did follow Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18. Our church elders first tried to resolve this matter privately with these individuals and then, when they remained unrepentant and unresponsive, we took the issue to the whole church. (And, yes, I agree, church means more than elders here. It means the congregation.)
Thanks for your input, but this isn’t intended to be a complete account of everything that transpired. It’s a response to a brother who is personally involved in this situation and who is confused and hurting. I realize there are many who regularly read this blog and its comments, and I appreciate your patience with this interruption of the comment thread. Please be praying for everyone involved in this situation.
I believe that Mick and the rest of the organization are victims of gossip, slander, and blaspheme, so therefore no, I do not want this to be private between you and I. You made this public in the first place on your website, I am fine right here.
They never sinned against you, and you’re listening to people who are continually bringing this up after 8 years. 8 years Curt. IF they were sinned against, and I think it is a very big IF, after 8 years of not being able to get past it, that problem is no longer Mick. That is clearly a misunderstanding of grace between them and God. I believe you may have, at the very least temporarily, fallen into that same category.
I saw that some of my words were out of anger yesterday, and I do to some degree apologize. Not for what I said, but for the way I said it. But now I am asking you to see reason. These allegations are tearing these two apart emotionally. Mick has had stress related heart attacks in the past, and i honestly fear that is about to happen again. You have made your point. We have zero plans or even desire at this point to work with your church congregation, even the students. No plans at all. I don’t plan to even see them other than what it might take to get our keys to the house back.
Please take the post off the website. I’m sorry you believe these liars. There is nothing I can do to change your mind. I see that. But the goal of our ministry is still to preach the Gospel to a broken world through acts of service to the community. I truly believe the Gospel of Jesus is far bigger than Micks sins, my sins, your sins, and anyone else’s sins. Romans 8:1 and 8:38-39 clearly tell us this.
Let us do what God is calling us to do. This is now all over the internet. Anyone who types in Global Outreach is bound to see your allegations. Missions is hard enough, working with lost people is hard and delicate enough without having people who are from the church telling everyone how awful we are. I say we as an organization of course, as far as I know you have said nothing bad about me.
Also, i notice you never commented on telling the church your sins every week, just in case there is a new believer. Or a new church member. Tell them every week, make a public announcement of every sin you’ve ever done , at least from the last years. Don’t sugar coat it since you didn’t sugar coat his. Do you see my point? This is a hindrance of ministry from people who are supposed to be on the same team.
Please take the post down, at least. We give up on helping your church. We don’t care, and we surely don’t feel welcome. We have no plans at all to even reach out to any of them. Tell your kids not to reach out to us if that is what you feel you have to do. But please take the post down. There is no point for Christians to continue to kill Christians.
Cory, you’ve obviously made some strong personal conclusions about all of this. We gave Mick and Mary Ann the opportunity to respond privately to these claims regarding them. It was our desire to fairly consider both sides of this issue. Have you been equally fair with us, or with the people who claim to have unresolved issues with the Pattersons? Or are you believing only what Mick and Mary Ann tell you? You claim that these issues are limited to one timeframe eight years ago. What data do you base this on?
This whole situation could have been cleared up very quickly and privately. All Mick or Mary Ann had to do was respond to us. But they have refused to respond to even one of our questions or concerns. They have threatened legal action; they’ve harshly insulted the people who claim to have been hurt by them; they’ve insulted us. Everything they’ve done in dealing with this situation has confirmed to us that they aren’t interested in actually resolving anything, but want to continue to operate as they please without anyone holding them accountable. Even if none of the original claims are true (and that’s a big if), Mick’s and Mary Ann’s response to this situation has not demonstrated what we would expect from Christian leaders. In fact, we’ve been shocked by their evasiveness, their hostility and their willingness to hit below the belt.
But it’s very difficult to see how these reports could all be false. If there is some kind of conspiracy against Mick and Mary Ann, it is an incredibly widespread one. The people who shared their stories with us did so out of concern that our people could be hurt by the Pattersons, as they themselves had been hurt by them. We did what we did to protect the people of our church, particularly the youth.
Even now, Mary Ann is continuing to send deceptive and divisive messages to people in our congregation. We can’t just ignore those who threaten the health, unity and vitality of the church. It is our duty as church elders to confront those who would come in to deceive and divide.
Mick and Mary Ann gain credibility by spending time with reputable—unsuspecting—churches, and having the name Global Outreach associated publicly and online with these churches and ministries. We have to make it publicly clear that we are not associated with them in any way. We cannot allow their behavior to damage our witness. This is especially true now that it appears they intend to return here to Puerto Rico.
Cory, the issue has never been the mere fact that Mick and Mary Ann have sinned. Of course we have all sinned, and we made this very point in our online statement. But Mick and Mary Ann have badly hurt many people, and when confronted with this sin they refuse to repent or respond. No, we are not going to publicly list our sins every week, and we have no desire to publicly catalog Mick’s or Mary Ann’s sins. (We were actually very brief in our description of their sin, including only what was necessary for people to understand the seriousness of the situation.) The issue isn’t sin but unrepentant sin, and so the comparison you make is not valid.
Even assuming your perception of this situation, would it have been so hard for them to have responded with something like:
We’re so sorry you had to receive these disturbing reports about us. These issues go back a number of years, and we’ve tried before to address this but without success. We would appreciate anything you can do to help us resolve this matter with these people once and for all.
Instead they have been defensive, secretive and hostile. They’ve demonstrated a lack of integrity in the way they’ve interacted with us and the people of this church, and a lack of loving concern for their past colleagues. I don’t think they could have acted more guiltily if they had tried. They have given us absolutely no reason to trust them—especially with our children!
You are certainly correct that the Gospel of Christ is far bigger than anyone’s sin. But this truth does not absolve us of the responsibility to deal with unrepentant sin in a biblical manner. Such passages as Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5, and Titus 3:10-11 give us clear instructions on how we must proceed in such a case–for the protection of the church and to seek the repentance, healing and restoration of the unrepentant brother or sister.
(I’m a little confused by something in your comment. You protest our statement on the church website because of its public nature . . . while insisting on having this discussion about the same issues on a very public blog instead of through private email! Don’t you realize this exchange of ours will be just as accessible, just as searchable, and probably more permanent than the statement on the church website? And, in my responses to you, I’ve had to include more detail than we ever intended to communicate publicly. The public nature of this discussion is your choice, not mine.)
Throughout this tragic, unnecessary series of events, we have been deeply concerned for Mick and Mary Ann. Surely you can understand that we haven’t sought to be involved in this situation and hate to be mixed up in this kind of conflict. We are filled with sorrow for Mick and Mary Ann and have pleaded with them to repent. They could have easily brought this confrontation to an end at any point (and still can). The responsibility for perpetuating this situation—and for our online statement of concern—lies squarely with them. If they want to resolve this, they can. The ball is in their court.
Thank you for your apology (not for what you said, I understand, but for how you said it). Cory, we have repeatedly expressed to the people here our concern for all of you interns and also our admiration for your dedication. You have a great heart for God and for people, and a willingness to pour yourself out in service. I see God using you in a powerful way in your future ministry. I just hope you aren’t adversely affected by your involvement with Mick and Mary Ann (as others have been before you). You may have given up on us, but we haven’t given up on you! (And we haven’t given up on Mick and Mary Ann either.)
This isn’t really the right format for this exchange between us. I hesitated whether I should post your last comment. I’m reluctant to subject the readers of this blog to the ugliness of this conflict. But, in the interest of openness between us, I’ve decided to post your comment and to respond again. I’m going to moderate any further comments. As long as you’re willing to actually interact and discuss this (and not just rant), I’ll continue to post your comments. We can publicly explore as much of this whole situation as you want. I and the other church elders aren’t ashamed of anything we’ve done in addressing these concerns.
Let me close this (very long) response with a proverb:
Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.
Proverbs 18:13
We sought to hear all the facts from Mick and Mary Ann before saying anything publicly. Their resistance and hostility have spoken very loudly.
Have you sought to hear all the facts, Cory—from both sides—before making your own public statements?
My dear Cory;
Every once in a while I come to Curt’s blog and read an article here and there because I lack
the time to actually post, but reading this I feel compelled to express my thoughts. I was hoping
none of this situation about Mary Ann and Mick would hurt you or any of the interns as I see it has – Mary Anne and Mick could have done better at protecting your spiritual walk through life (I don’t mean as if you were babies that can’t handle difficult situations) – instead I can see they have done nothing to help you through this process – it makes me sick to think that they’ve just been bystanders as you continue suffering this unhealthy anger and fighting they’re fight. As a youth teacher, mother and member of “Church Without Walls” – my priority has always been to protect the spiritual health of those in my care. By this I mean that if any controversy would occur between any of them (the youth members) I would try to put peace; not feed more anger. I have had to deal with demons from my past but I have learned that honesty, truth and repentance have freed me and given me peace. And I say this only because I actually learned this lesson the hard way – I would make up excuses (denying my sin) then I would adopt the victim attitude (accusing those I had hurt) and last but not least actually trying to win credibility by deceiving those who weren’t witnesses of my wrong doing (manipulating them to fight my fight) does this sound familiar? Are you seeking the truth with an honest heart? Or are you actually afraid of the truth because you would have to admit you put your trust in man and not in God? My point is that God knows the truth about this whole situation – it’s time for you to leave it in God’s hands and let go of the anger – don’t get me wrong we should be angry where we see injustice, for God himself gets angry at injustice. But where exactly has the injustice occurred? Is it really towards Mick and Mary Ann or in all those whom they have hurt, even you are being hurt – they have corrupted your soul to the point where you “without any evidence” are accusing us the church (please get it in your head Curt is not Church Without Walls). Nino and Cecy Caceres, Kurt and Lisa Ziegler and of course also Curt and Kelley Parton are Church Without Walls, but and please make this also very clear in your head! So am I, Joel, Joely, the rest of the teachers – ministry leaders, members here in Puerto Rico and in the states! What evidence, what reason do YOU or the Pattersons have to slander US? We are a family and the only thing we did to Mick; since we considered you (Global Outreach) part of our family, is the same exact thing that would be done to any of our family members, if after extensive research and hard evidence was found in a situation in which a member ” seemed” guilty we would reach out just like we did with Mick – ask questions! Only with the sole purpose to hear both sides and to help however possible – not to badger! But what was Mick’s reaction? Anger because we believed lies? – We asked if they were lies and we received no written response! So with his and Mary Ann’s reaction they actually were the ones that pushed us to confirm that the evidence was true. And I am very grateful that the elders decided to tells because our children are not our prized possessions they belong to God – we have been entrusted by God with them – wouldn’t you have done the same if it were your responsibility? God bless you.
Curt,
It is good that you have put this here. I do not know anything about your church nor the situation – I have only read some of your blog posts and commented on a few.
As long as you are not slandering anyone, It is good that you have put this here.
Why? Church websites and services are neat and sanitized. The troublemakers – genuine and otherwise – are kicked out by a committee of handpicked ‘yes’ men. The church congregation never gets to hear both sides because the leaders fear the congregation may judge differently. So while this may look messy, it appears to be honest and the way the early church was.
Anil
correction: sentence above should read, “So while discussing your issue here may look messy, it appears to be honest and the way the early church was.”
Protect me? Like your church protected your youth? One of the kids from your youth was the first one to say anything about it hypocrites.
Thanks, Lisa, for your input, and thanks, Anil, for your encouragement.
Cory, it seems apparent to me that you aren’t really interested in discussing this, but in merely provoking. You don’t seem willing to consider the viewpoints of others even if you disagree with them. You’ve chosen your side to listen to, and now your mind’s made up. That’s a shame. But I’m not going to allow this comments section to degenerate into a spiteful, childish, tit-for-tat kind of quarrel. Please refrain from posting until you’re ready to have a real discussion about these things. You don’t have to agree with me (as I’ve shown by posting your earlier comments), but you do have to treat others with respect and not just pick a fight.
I don’t want myself or anyone else in the church to be guilty of hypocrisy, of course. We should never pretend to be something we’re not. I think most of us are fairly open about our flaws. On the other hand, I want those struggling with hypocrisy to come to our church—just as I want those struggling with addictions or anger or lust, etc., etc., to come to our church. What we can’t allow in the church are those who claim to be fellow believers but who repeatedly hurt others and then refuse to repent or resolve the issues.
And, yes, Cory, what we did was largely to protect our youth.