My role in the firing of Micahn Carter at Church of the Highlands (COTH), at the time the largest US church, located in Birmingham, Alabama, was that of direct communication with Church Attenders and Pastors. Originally, after he was fired I feared the resources and friends Micahn Carter had. I had already been threatened by someone claiming to be Micahn’s brother that they would come after me if I continued contacting people about what Micahn had done. 

When Mary Jones made her post accusing Micahn of rape and grooming and asserted that it was not consensual, I removed all my further prodding of the issue. I felt Mary had now taken the mantle because it is her story. And while I believe Mary is heavily involved because of Micahn’s legal response claiming she has lied, I felt like I could no longer continue to watch this unfold when I felt so strongly that Micahn is the exact type of “pastoral-figure” who needs to have his words removed from consideration first. The most obvious of wolf-in-sheeps-clothing the small audience I reach would be able to directly relate to. 

My frustration with Micahn Carter started when I was a freshman in High School at West Valley in Yakima. Since the 6th grade, I had poured at least 20 volunteer hours per week into WestSide Church and subsequently Restoration Church. Around the time that I was starting to drive, Micahn and April rebranded MorningStar Church as Together Church. With newfound money from the Association of Related Churches (ARC) and support from high-profile friends like Steven Furtick at Elevation Church, Michan and April took the lukewarm Christians of the Yakima Valley and breathed energy into them (not life, but energy). 

The Carter brand was made perfectly to reach Millennials. The generation who had serious questions about the church but were told to trust the “biblical” answers and that having faith would be “enough”, probably could’ve gone two ways in Yakima spiritually. They could’ve been engaged in healthy long-form dialogue, not preaching, to connect the finer points of theology and doctrine to the modern world. Instead, Micahn pulled them in with flashy productions and a complete disregard for the hard parts of the faith, which was an allowable alternative to Millennials who had already been told to disregard their concerns around those hard parts for years prior. (Side Point: If your church has money, and the Pastor is the Preacher and still occasionally Leads Worship, you’re not at a good church).

The frustration grew from the place of Micahn knowingly deceiving and twisting the Bible (ironic for me to claim as someone who doesn’t believe the infallibility or inerrancy, but this is the standard Micahn preaches so it is the view I’m writing from) with the intended goal of growing his personal wealth and brand. 

Exhibit A is that Micahn was the first in Yakima to offer a highly-expensive “pastoral leadership program” (the equivalent of a 25 year old trust fund baby selling a business course for $2000). These programs while common, especially now, offer no return on value and lack any backing. I know many people personally who spent thousands of dollars in training at Together Church with promises of ministry careers. Similar to the leadership program Mark Driscoll created.

The frustration I carried then and carry now, is out of love for the beauty and vulnerability the church is supposed to offer its members, at its essence. When Together grew to prominence in Yakima it was obvious to most of the Yakima Christians that this thing was going to end badly or be an incredibly difficult church to work with if they continued successfully.  They were offering a unique, but watered-down, type of spirituality to its attendees, and were extremely hostile to the other successful churches of the Valley. 

And, it’s not that I have a deep love for the churches I attended or any church at this point. WestSide in particular is extremely flawed and the last church I’d step into that currently exists in the Yakima Valley right now. But I love what the essence of the idea of church was built on, and as I recognize that I didn’t lose my love for a god-figure or my philosophical belief in one, I realize I have always deeply hated the capitalized church. (When we picture angry warrior Jesus, was he flipping over the tables in the Sinner’s courts? Or, was angry warrior Jesus only present when talking to the ones who believed their ticket-to-heaven was already punched?)

 I believe this deep hatred of the capitalized church is what prompted me to love the idea of working in ministry and being a pastor. It is also what has created my deep desire to see the dead/fake church (universal to western society) of today be scrapped and rebuilt, and pastor’s like Micahn to be removed from Ministry. 

Those feelings alone don’t call for an open letter, written directly about Micahn like this. But sexual immorality while claiming to be a Godly and Pastoral leader does, if the deadness of the church is going to be made anew. And regardless of what is known about Mary Jones Vs Micahn Carter, if Micahn did not rape Mary, we know the alternative at a minimum is that  Micahn groomed a young woman sexually, cheated on his wife, left his church while blaming his sin on Bipolar Disorder (diagnosed after sexual contact with Mary), and almost immediately began working with Families and Children at the then-largest Mega Church in the country, Church of the Highlands. 

Church of the Highlands is the largest church in the ARC network, and the desire to keep Micahn on staff and in-network is what led to Micahn being on the minds of people like me still, enough to risk slandering and defaming a “pastor” for the justice of one woman, a spiritually-whiplashed community, and the protection of future church attenders. I’m a little late but better than not at all.

And, it also opened a light into COTH and the ARC network and its other problematic and sexually-abusive leaders like Dino Rizzo and Caleb Treat or leaders like Chris Hodges who desire to renew charismatic “Christian” leaders who have histories of sexual abuse because they can generate revenue. The ARC network and COTH may be one of the worst organizations existing in the U.S today. A decent Google trail will reveal an extensive history of sexual sin, scandal, and cover-ups at ARC as a network and at many individual ARC churches across the U.S. Micahn is just a small fish in that regard. 

If you knew me before I moved to Oregon to attend Multnomah Bible College, you probably at least had heard me talk shit about Micahn Carter and Together Church once or twice. I even convinced my personal trainer, classmates, and co-workers to stop attending because they were more likely to be used by Together than to be gaining anything of value at Together. 

When Micahn’s sexual scandal hit Together and the Yakima Valley it took a while to get a full picture, let alone even a blurry view of what happened. Even now, the court will decide in essence, how true Mary’s words were in that Medium post. 

Regardless of the truth to those words, I’m hopeful content like this will exist to make it more difficult for Micahn to abuse and swindle church communities who feel like he is offering them a breath of fresh air when it is actually poison. He still grievously sexually sinned, did not meet the qualifications of an elder, and ran from the problems he created without addressing his staff or church in a sincere way. Only then, to begin preaching and working with women and children in close proximity. He was the Mark Driscoll of the Yakima Valley, and while he wouldn’t want to be Mark 2.0 in beliefs, he had the same abuse of power and the same drive to deliver his personal brand hidden as Jesus-Talk. 

The long story short of Micahn is that he was already a wolf, and it was obvious to people who were seasoned-spiritually, even if their brand was not correct either. But, Micahn made the grave error of sinning sexually without the ability to hide it. That’s an error you can’t make if you want to be a big fish in the Christian pond typically, and Alabama offered protection of ARC, COTH, and Chris Hodges. Micahn almost was able to continue in full pursuit of his quest to achieve the heights his friend Steven Furtick has (Furtick is the same as Micahn in style and system, and should not be a loud voice in the Christian world, regardless of theological beliefs), but myself, Reddit, and Mary threw a massive wrench in those plans. 

From 2018-2021, when I did my routine Google search for “Micahn Carter” I saw that he was hired and preaching regularly at COTH. A sad realization had come to me that these types of figures would always be present and stealing the church from itself, siphoning members to a clearly false gospel. Mulling over the growing impact Micahn was having again and hating both spiritual and sexual abuse, I began leaving comments on videos of him preaching all over YouTube. I responded to many comments hinting that Micahn was not the “Great Preacher and Very Insightful!” guy who was being praised in the comments. I never directly said that Micahn had sinned sexually and consensually in his church office, but prompted other commenters to dig deeper into Michan. This turned up no luck at changing the narrative around Micahn, and later ARC or COTH. 

Eventually, I went directly to the COTH Instagram page. I’m blocked now, of course. I began commenting and tagging people at COTH on content that was posted for Micahn asking questions like “Where did Micahn come from before COTH? / Why did he leave his last church in Yakima?”. Eventually, I became more bold after my comments were deleted by the social media team, and began Direct Messaging members at COTH asking how they felt about Micahn working with women and children after he had sexually sinned against his former secretary. This was the moment the ball finally got rolling. 

After I had small correspondence with a few members of the church and messaged many pastors, interns, and tech team employees, a Reddit group was started without my knowledge called r/AllboutCOTH. This was the moment I realized that my involvement in COTH and Micahn Carter was having an impact. My goal was to get a discussion started at COTH with its members and subsequently let them decide what to do with the knowledge. If they wanted to push Micahn out, they could, but I felt like I had done my due diligence in warning people about a sexually immoral pastor, among other problems. I joined the group and commented up until the point that Mary Jones and Max Jones began writing posts or commenting in the Reddit group. 

As I mentioned, when Mary made her post accusing Micahn of grooming her and raping her, I backed off. I felt I could no longer be involved because it was operating in information I was not aware of and could not verify. But, I continued to read the r/AllaboutCOTH group and was disgusted to learn of the long-list of scandals that ARC and COTH have been involved with. I recommend you scroll through the Reddit group, going back to the very beginning, it’s rough to see the destruction a “church” has caused and the destruction so many larger figures like Micahn will continue to cause. Many figures who should be in prison. If Mary is true in her post, Micahn should also be or should have been as well.

Despite any of this, Micahn can still be found online preaching for people like Bianca Olthoff of Steven Furtick. At some point, even if Micahn isn’t sexually abusive, his actions at best are sexually horrendous, and his response around the scandal has proven he was never a guy to platform in any way. 

This post is a direct response to the last few years of Mary Jones and Micahn Carter, and the lawsuit of defamation and slander he has filed against Mary. I honestly don’t know if Mary is being truthful, and that sucks. But I do know that Micahn is the kind of Pastor who needs to be intentionally kept out of Ministry regardless of outcomes.

I have formerly called for discussion with Micahn or the associated people who have threatened me on his behalf, and have heard no response. 

That offer remains to Micahn or his family.

Mary Jones, I stand with you and will continue to stand up against pastors who abuse people, the church, and their authority. I believe there are still many of us eagerly watching your story and rooting for you to prevail. 

If YOU have been hurt by Micahn Carter, Church of the Highlands, Pastoral Leadership Programs, or the broader ARC network I would love to hear from you. It can be as small as daily interactions that revealed deeper character issues, or as serious as the issues Mary presented in her Medium Post. This blog will be centered around the church and its leaders and the hopeful renewal and creation of something better. 

Links:

Mary’s Post https://medium.com/@jonesmary321.mj/moving-forward-b40408a3887b

Reddit Group https://www.reddit.com/r/AllaboutCOTH/

News About Micahn and Mary Legal Battle https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/judge-allows-ex-together-church-pastor-micahn-carters-suit-against-rape-accuser-to-proceed/article_67afb8bc-dd82-11ee-ac86-9f8f4ffa063a.html

The ARC Network https://www.arcchurches.com/launch/?gad_source=1

Church of the Highlands https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/

West Side Church https://westsidechurch.info/

Restoration Church https://www.restorationyakima.com/

Elevation Church https://elevationchurch.org/