The Fellowship Church Grapevine scandal is not one event but a stack of them: a private jet flown to Miami and Cabo San Lucas on the church’s dime, a pastor’s housing allowance of $240,000, a finance manager who stole more than $1 million over a decade, satellite campuses shuttered without explanation, PPP loans worth roughly $3 million, a filmmaker arrested on church property in 2024, and a lawsuit at a related Houston megachurch now heading to a July 2026 jury trial. At the center is Ed Young Jr., who founded the Grapevine, Texas megachurch and has run it under a governance structure that, since 2001, gives members no vote on anything.
The Private Jet Investigation
The scrutiny of Fellowship Church began in earnest in 2010, when Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA aired an investigative series on Ed Young’s lifestyle and the church’s finances. The reporting centered on an $8 million Dassault Falcon 50 leased by the church and kept at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. FAA flight logs covering roughly three years starting in March 2007 showed the jet was used on 416 days, and about 150 of those days involved travel to Miami, where Young owned a $1.1 million condominium in Coconut Grove purchased in 2007.1WFAA. Fellowship Church Leased Jet Travels to Exotic Destinations
The plane also flew to Cabo San Lucas, including one five-day trip that involved fishing with church attorney Dennis Brewer, plus six trips to the Bahamas and flights to Anguilla, Belize, and England. WFAA estimated that chartering equivalent flights would have cost around $2.1 million for the Miami trips alone.
Young declined interviews and routed reporters to a New York public relations firm, which said the plane was used “primarily for vital Ministry affairs.” Neither Young nor the church identified which ministries the Bahamas and Cabo trips supported. Three days after the first story aired, Young told his congregation, “When I do anything personally, whether it be on a commercial aircraft or a charter aircraft, I always, always, always pay for it. I have teams of accountants watching every single penny.”1WFAA. Fellowship Church Leased Jet Travels to Exotic Destinations WFAA asked to speak with the church’s board about how travel was approved. The request was denied.
Salary, Housing Allowance, and Personal Real Estate
Unnamed sources cited by WFAA reporter Brett Shipp in 2010 put Young’s salary at $1 million with an annual housing allowance of $240,000. Church documents from 2005 confirmed the board had approved the $240,000 housing allowance, and the church provided housing allowances to 28 additional employees as well.2MinistryWatch. Million Dollar Homes Become Status Symbols of Televangelists and Pastors Young has said his salary is set by an independent compensation committee based on industry standards and that an outside accounting firm audits the books.3Dallas Morning News. Pastored
His personal real estate has drawn matching attention. Reports have connected Young to a Lake Grapevine home described as a $1.5 million estate (since sold), a 7,027-square-foot Dallas home sold in 2023 for an estimated $4.6 million, an 8,100-square-foot Tarrant County home valued at around $6.2 million, and a Florida beach house sold in 2021 for $5.5 million.4Roy’s Report. Filmmaker Arrested Ed Young’s Church Seeking Answers About Finances2MinistryWatch. Million Dollar Homes Become Status Symbols of Televangelists and Pastors The church has not publicly disclosed detailed financial statements to its congregation.
The $1.3 Million Embezzlement
In April 2019, Fellowship Church CFO Dennis Brewer flagged irregularities in a staff member’s housing allowance. Confronted, finance manager Lara Lynn Ford admitted she had inflated her own monthly allowance and set up unauthorized auto-drafts from church accounts into her personal checking accounts.5Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Former Finance Manager Sentenced for Theft From Fellowship Church Brewer had noticed shortages as early as 2018, which led to Ford’s demotion. She kept access to the housing allowance account after being demoted.6WFAA. Former Finance Manager Bilks $1.3 Million From Fellowship Christian Church
A Grapevine Police report found Ford had taken roughly $1.377 million between December 2008 and April 2019, and an audit confirmed at least $1,068,825 transferred to her personal accounts. On April 16, 2021, she was sentenced in Tarrant County to 10 years in prison for theft of property over $300,000. Insurance recovered about half the money. Ford said she would apply for shock probation, a Texas mechanism that lets a judge suspend a prison sentence and place a defendant on probation within six months of sentencing.
The Governance Change That Ended Member Voting
Fellowship Church was originally incorporated as Las Colinas Baptist Church and operated under a congregational model in which members voted on church business. On March 7, 2001, the church amended its articles of incorporation, eliminated member voting rights entirely, and moved full authority to a body called the Ministry Leadership Team. That team consisted of Ed Young Jr., attorney Dennis Brewer Jr., and two other individuals.7Trinity Foundation. Ed Young’s Toxic Church Business Practices and Mergers The same restructuring severed the church’s affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention.8Trinity Foundation. Fellowship Church Amended Articles
Critics say the change removed any mechanism for congregational oversight of spending, leadership, or property sales. The church responds that a board oversees spending and an outside firm audits the finances. Former members and watchdog groups counter that rank-and-file congregants cannot see those audits.
Satellite Campus Closures
Fellowship Church expanded to campuses in Miami, London, South Carolina, Norman (Oklahoma), and Keller (Texas). The Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based church watchdog, has identified at least five instances in which Fellowship Church merged with or absorbed other congregations, alleging a consistent pattern: local governance is consolidated under Fellowship leadership, the campus later closes, and property proceeds flow back to Grapevine.7Trinity Foundation. Ed Young’s Toxic Church Business Practices and Mergers
Miami is the clearest example. In February 2021, Fellowship Church Miami’s congregation learned at the end of a Sunday service that the gathering was its last. The seven-acre property was sold to Vous Church, led by Rich Wilkerson Jr., and all Fellowship Miami online pages were removed the morning of the sale. Spokesman Scott Wilson said Young had been “led” by God to make the decision. No financial or operational explanation was given to the congregation. A former worship leader said the campus had not been as financially successful as others.9Roy’s Report. Fellowship Church Sold Miami
In Norman, Oklahoma, Fellowship Church acquired a local church after its pastor chose to sell to Young. Young’s son-in-law, Brad Hughes, was installed as campus pastor, and existing staff were terminated shortly after. The campus later closed following what was described as a church split.10Mark Wing Substack. Who Owns the Church The London and Keller campuses no longer exist either.
PPP Loans During the Pandemic
Fellowship Church received two Paycheck Protection Program loans during COVID-19: $1,520,345 in 2020 and the same amount in March 2021, totaling roughly $3.04 million.11Roy’s Report. Harvest Bible Chapel and Fellowship Church Got Millions in PPP Loans The loans were later forgiven. Critics questioned whether large megachurches with substantial assets should have drawn from a program aimed at struggling small businesses and nonprofits, and raised the familiar transparency point: members had no way to see how the money was spent.
Filmmaker Arrested at the Grapevine Campus
On October 20, 2024, filmmaker Nathan Apffel was arrested at Fellowship Church’s Grapevine campus while trying to question church leadership about Young’s salary and housing allowance. Apffel was producing a seven-part docuseries called “The Religion Business,” scheduled for release on Easter 2025, examining loopholes in nonprofit law as applied to church finances.4Roy’s Report. Filmmaker Arrested Ed Young’s Church Seeking Answers About Finances
He was charged with criminal trespass, spent a night in the Grapevine Detention Center, and was released on October 21 after posting a $500 bond. His court date was set for November 12, 2024. Apffel said security personnel handcuffed him aggressively, that a contracted law enforcement officer broke his camera, and that he sustained a strained elbow, bicep, and rotator cuff. Fellowship pastor Dave Clark responded that Apffel had a “history of disruptive behavior at churches nationwide,” had ignored a warning from Grapevine Police, and that the church and police had “substantial testimony and video evidence proving that the individual’s claims are inaccurate.”
The Second Baptist Houston Lawsuit
The Fellowship governance model is now the subject of a lawsuit at a different church. At Second Baptist Church of Houston, where Ed Young Jr.’s father, Ed Young Sr., served as senior pastor for decades, members voted in May 2023 to adopt new bylaws that critics say mirror the Fellowship structure: authority concentrated in the senior pastor and a handpicked leadership team, with no congregational vote on budgets, pastoral selection, or governance.12Christianity Today. Second Baptist Ed Young Church Son Bylaws Lawsuit
In April 2025, current and former members organized as the Jeremiah Counsel Corporation sued Ben Young, Ed Young Sr., Associate Pastor Lee Maxcy, and Dennis Brewer Jr. The suit alleges the defendants conspired to alter church bylaws in order to consolidate control over an estimated $1 billion in assets and to “secure the ascendance” of Ben Young to the senior pastorate.13Houston Public Media. Houston Second Baptist Church Lawsuit Trial Plaintiffs contend the May 31, 2023 vote was invalid, that notice was legally insufficient and misleading, that committee reviews were skipped, and that attendees were not given copies of the amended documents. The vote passed 315 to 2.14Baptist News Global. Second Baptist Houston Lawsuit Headed to Trial
Dennis Brewer’s role in both institutions is central to the case. He previously served as general counsel and CFO of Fellowship Church before being appointed to the Ministry Leadership Team at Second Baptist by Ben Young.15Baptist News Global. More Accusations Fly at Second Baptist Houston Plaintiffs allege Brewer worked with the Youngs and Maxcy to orchestrate the bylaw changes and that the new structure blocks members from viewing financial audits.
The defendants have denied wrongdoing and called the lawsuit a “smear campaign,” arguing the 2023 revisions were necessary given growth to nearly 100,000 members. The case was ordered to mediation on April 1, 2026; by April 30, attorneys confirmed mediation had failed. A jury trial is scheduled for July 27, 2026, before Judge Grant Dorfman in the 11th Division of the Business Court of Texas.13Houston Public Media. Houston Second Baptist Church Lawsuit Trial
What Ed Young Has Said
Young has largely avoided engaging in detail with the financial criticisms. He told the Dallas Morning News in 2013 that he had never watched or read the WFAA reports and that many of the figures cited were “not even accurate.”3Dallas Morning News. Pastored In a September 2024 Facebook post, he defended megachurches against critics who call them “too big,” calling the critique “hypocritical” and noting that the same people readily attend concerts, football games, and shopping malls. “If a church is around a lot of people, it should be big in the context of being big,” he wrote.16Christian Post. Ed Young Responds to Critics Who Say Megachurches Are Too Big He has not publicly addressed the Trinity Foundation’s criticism of the merger practices or the Second Baptist Houston lawsuit.