When the news broke of former The Village Church Associate Childrens Minister Matt Tonne’s arrest in January 2019, I was contacted by a former TVC attender concerning some other issues that were possibly going on at The Village Church – the cover-up and enabling of domestic abuse. The Karen Hinkley/Jordan Root case from 2015 catapulted TVC into the national spotlight concerning TVC’s view of wives in marital abuse situations.
Short recap: Karen Hinkley made the BIBLICAL decision to divorce child-porn-addicted-husband-Jordan and was put under ‘church discipline’ for not submitting herself to the church’s plan of marital reconciliation (since he was walking in repentance, you know, the cure for pedophilia). She disagreed with the church, withdrew her membership, and then endured further harassment (i.e.; pushed under their care). With no other recourse, she went public with her story and ended up receiving a public apology from Matt Chandler himself. It appeared that The Village Church had taken their public flogging and learned their lesson. Perhaps not.
Enter…..Jason Holleman.
Who is Jason Holleman?
Jason Holleman (according the The Village Church’s staff webpage) is on staff as a Groups Minister at the Flower Mound Campus. He is also on staff as a counselor (NOT LPC! Warning!) at North Texas Christian Counseling, and has some video content on the popular RightNow Media website.
Admittedly I had never heard of Jason Holleman until I was contacted by this former-TVC attender in January. She related to me that she was informed there were no less than 16 complaints made against Jason Holleman to TVC leadership (including Jen Wilkin, Greg Wilson, AND Matt Chandler) concerning Jason’s mishandling of counseling women in domestic abuse situations.
DISCLAIMER: I cannot verify these claims as of this date, but am in the process of trying to do so.
What has been alleged is that Jason has mishandled or been negligent when counseling women in abusive marriages. According to TVC’s membership covenant married couples are required to submit to marital reconciliation through a church guided process..
The Karen Hinkley Connection
I wrote a blog on 6/11/19 about the sexual abuse scandal at The Village Church and posted the link on Twitter. There were a lot of responses to that post, one of which came from a TVC member. He had something interesting to say about Jason Holleman as it related to the Karen Hinkley case from 2015.
It appears Jason Holleman was demoted (reason unknown) concerning his involvement in the Karen Hinkley situation. When the ex-TVC attender who contacted me emailed TVC leadership about Jason Holleman, her concerns were escalated to one of the lead pastors, Josh Patterson, who alludes to this possibility, in an email from December 2018:
She never met with Josh Patterson, as she said she did not feel comfortable doing so based on how TVC had handled the Matt Tonne sexual abuse case. The question still remains, if there have been 16 complaints made against Jason Holleman, why is he still on staff?
From what she has heard, these women in abusive marriages at The Village Church are afraid to speak out. They feel their only recourse is to appeal to the leadership. Apparently that is no recourse at all.
If you would like to share your story or corroborate what I’ve shared in this post, please contact me at: anna@noedenelsewhere.com.
Of course any and all identifying information would remain anonymous. My only purpose is to bring truth into the light and expose any TVC staff or ministers that enable abusers.
If there is a culture of domestic abuse that is being enabled at TVC, it needs to stop. Using membership covenants to keep women in abusive situations is nothing short of evil. I have also heard (unsubstantiated) reports of women afraid to pursue divorce because they fear more abuse, loss of support & community or being brought under church discipline, etc. THIS HAS TO STOP!
My new 'friend' on Twitter said these images really spoke to her...
She said "it depicts what I believe most everyone abused by an authority figure feels!"
I came across this article accidentally (disclosure I attend TVC but am not a member) and felt compelled to respond. This article is very light on substantive/verifiable information and mostly just contains innuendo. The source of the claim of “16 complaints made against…” is both anonymous and not even a first-hand source by the author’s own admission. The claims alluded to in this article may well be true, but there is not a bit of real evidence provided. On a side note: it is also disingenuous to claim that someone made a “biblical decision” in deciding to divorce their child-porn… Read more »
Eric the term is not “child porn”. Porn implies adults and a consensual act. It is abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of children. Words matter when you’re talking about a situation like this, it’s not just semantics. Making sure we use the right words is so important because it distinguishes what is and isn’t illegal in this matter. The man wasn’t addicted to “child porn” It’s not illegal to be addicted to porn. She didn’t divorce a porn addict. She divorced someone who was complicit in and aided in those who exploit, abuse, and traffic children – an illegal activity. If… Read more »
I just resigned membership from TVC, and I am thankful the Lord prompted me to do so. I am learning a lot about spiritual and emotional abuse. I will say that the general congregants at TVC (I’ve been a member since 2013) are genuine in their pursuit of care for one another, but there is a lot wrong with the leaderships’ methods. I see baby steps of improvement in the interactions I’ve had with leaders there, and I do believe it’s a process to grow and mature in this area, but I am consistently disappointed at their invitations for their… Read more »
Tell your friend she was smart not to go to that meeting. If she wants to meet, she should take a few friends and Josh can go alone, not vise versa. Their meetings are a trap.
They are the ones deceiving and not shepherding the sheep.