FOUR:
The financial accusations against me – of misspending or misappropriating money – are entirely false and were created as cover for the millions unlawfully seized from Walk in the Word.
“An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own authority; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:30-31)
One of the more remarkable Laird Elder denials was repeated to me on October 19, 2020. I pressed them about the errors, omissions and slanders in the Wagenmaker report of November 2019, so unnecessary given undeniable EC assertions to the contrary. Laird Elders replied, “we didn’t hire Sally Wagenmaker.” While true – the only action related to Sally Wagenmaker the Laird Elders are not responsible for is her hiring – what they must own are their decisions to follow her damaging recommendations and to pay $300,000 for such a false and easily refutable report. Ron Duitsman (Executive Committee Elder who led my February 12, 2019, firing meeting) stated under oath that the Wagenmaker report was “the worst piece of work product I have seen over my 40 years of leadership in the banking industry, a true hit job,” because he knew the truth, as did the other EC Elders.
The Laird Elders may not have hired Wagenmaker, but they are responsible for what she did. After 16 months of stalling and stonewalling, the night before Sally would be exposed at the arbitration hearing, they finally made a settlement offer. Of course the offer required us to release them personally for their unlawful actions, but we refused to clear Wagenmaker and recently filed in Cook County Court for a legal remedy to her defamation.
Sally Wagenmaker created what HBC congregants were told was “an independent investigation,” yet she never attempted to speak with me, or former CFO Fred Adams, or former Treasurer Joe Martin, or former COO Scott Milholland, or former Senior Administrator Sharon Kostal, or my 26-year Administrator Kathy Elliott, or church auditor Capin Crouse, or any longstanding member of the finance committee. Sally wrote an opening statement for current HBC Treasurer Tim Stoner to read that claimed three times her report from Schechter Dokken Kanter (SDK) was forensic, yet he confessed under oath that he did not know what a forensic audit was (and SDK warned the report was not even finished).
If chronological progression is helpful…
- When it became apparent I would not acquiesce to HBC’s unlawful seizure of $6,600,000 in Walk in the Word funds, especially given my fiduciary role in honoring the contracted merger resolutions, HBC leaders escalated their public attacks against me personally.
- Sally Wagenmaker claims these documents were not in HBC files – but they are not obscure or “suspicious” as she states. These were read and fully adopted by the entire elder board here (November 2010) and by the WITW Word board here (December 2010).
- Is Wagenmaker incompetent or intentionally deceptive? At times it’s hard to tell. What credentials does she present as a basis for dismissing an entire leadership structure whose tenure averaged over 20 years, in favor of her hastily formed opinions? Is $300,000 dollars of HBC tithe money not enough for her to review even the Elder minutes of the meetings where she claims my purported ‘inner circle’ was driving my subversive leadership? If she won’t respect the seasoned HBC leaders, surely she can respect the nation’s leading evangelical auditing firm who led the merger in the first place – why does she not quote this?
- When I sought a legal remedy for their actions, HBC increased their false financial accusations and further destruction of Walk in the Word (March – May 2019).
- When I was bullied into settling for 10¢ on the dollar to regain WITW on April 13, 2019, HBC cancelled the settlement and made more false and damaging public statements, thereby forcing the arbitration over claims they were already conceding internally by August 2019.
- When it became clear I intended to go the distance (pressing on though our home was in foreclosure, etc.) in seeking a legal remedy for their ‘conversion’ (legal term for organizational theft) of WITW assets, the Laird Elders conspired to permanently end Walk in the Word and steal my fully and legally vested pension (Spring – Summer 2019).
- When it became clear they had no chance of winning the arbitration, HBC launched an all-out character assassination (November 2019), paying attorney Sally Wagenmaker $300,000 to create a fictitious financial report – a last-ditch effort to avoid accountability for the $6,600,000 that belonged to WITW and its donors, not HBC.
Regarding finances in the Senior Pastors Office:
- The donor hunting/fishing trips were strategic and extremely successful, raising $8.4 million for HBC ministries, through 13 men from 2015-2018.
- HBC Elders knew the amount of money raised in hunting/fishing trips presented by bookkeeper Kelly Altieri in the September 19, 2019, Elder meeting. Yet Tim Stoner, current HBC Treasurer, who was present for that meeting still stood up 60 days later and said “Once again, many of these payments may have been well-intended or might’ve been part of a strategy of donor development that in the end raised more funds than were spent, but too often there is insufficient documentation or no documentation at all.” How is feigning uncertainty different than lying?
- 11 months later (to the day), I finally sat in an Elder meeting with Tim Stoner face to face, and he still refused to own his deceit.
- Imagine if Tim had told the truth that night: “I am happy to report that the confusion related to Pastor James hunting trips has been resolved. By digging, we discovered that these trips were fundraising trips, the aggregate of which raised, $40 for every $1 spent.”
- He might have correctly continued … “We also learned by sitting down with Pastor James who despite being fired really wanted to clear this up, and he showed us evidence that the 40 Mighty Men project promised those donors their special gifts would not go to the cost of fund raising, so at times we paid those costs out of WITW’s surplus, or HBF if they were the direct beneficiary. It was all above board and reflective of diligent efforts to financially undergird our mission efforts. I am so sorry you had to believe your Pastor would waste your tithes on these matters as was said last April. That was never the case. If only we had slowed long enough to review the documents Pastor James, which provided understanding and evidence that our hasty conclusions were false. ”
- Instead, Stoner issued his Wagenmaker preamble: “And it appears the decisions to spend these funds were made unilaterally without proper budget procedures, oversight, or approvals.” But here you can see, for example the much discussed “Blessing Account” was entirely accountable and broadly understood for many years.
- Stoner also deceived the HBC congregation on November 19, 2019, after Brian Laird in his preamble implied multiple times the report was ‘forensic’. (Forensic audits are very detailed with specific procedures to avoid bias in preparation for a legal proceeding involving fraud.) Later Stoner admitted under oath at his deposition, that he didn’t know what the word forensic means. (SDK themselves said they had done only phase 1 of the audit.)
- Stoner deceived the congregation again saying that I misspent HBC funds on college tuition for a family member, knowing the spending had nothing to do with me, and that HBC had a tuition reimbursement policy utilized by countless other staff at all levels.
- Stoner mentioned money for car repair – this was a CFO decision to repair my truck, damaged in my absence by an HBC staff member and fixed for $5000 because the church’s deductible was $25k. But again, not only was the truth omitted, the matter was twisted into a lie and woven into the mischaracterization of me they were exhausting themselves and all credulity to create.
- Stoner says of WITW and HBC, “The reality of this statement is that these entities were not truly separate,” while knowing Capin Crouse says they’re separate, WITW merger documents say they’re separate, an internal study brought to Elders August 2019, says they’re separate.
- Stoner says, SDK looked “in depth at the spending in the private accounts.” but SDK says their report is incomplete and asked for it not to be publicized, as they never talked to anyone involved (a basic element in a forensic audit).
- Stoner says, “the HBC accounting staff members were not privy to either account operations.” So, the accounting staff didn’t know that the CFO, church treasurer, and finance committee were part of the accounting team?
- Stoner said, “The Walk in the Word reserve account was apparently used by MacDonald for personal clothing, hunting, and vehicles.” To be clear, he was referencing studio clothing (some of which was reimbursed, some were gifts to donors and ministry partners around the world, and some added to my W2 – all funded by WITW surplus not HBC tithes, such as this reimbursement for studio apparel at the end of 2018), fund raising trips, and a car repair for damage caused by an HBC staff member.
- Stoner continued, “[SDK] paid particular attention to whether there were excess benefit transactions, an IRS legal term, and whether any adjustments may need to be made to employee W2’s as a result of their findings.” Nice job scaring people. A year later, the answer is 0. As in ZERO adjustment to my W-2, which was in my hands before I was terminated. No adjustment of any kind post termination to my W-2. Tons of accusations and innuendos, but in the end – nothing. Except incalculable damage to my family and to the body of Christ.
- Stoner: “To date, we have spent over $300,000 on legal expenses related to these [financial] reviews.” Finally, some actual misuse of HBC tithe money. But not by James MacDonald; instead, Laird Elders invested in keeping the unlawfully converted WITW funds and attempted to destroy me before the arbitration.
There were no ‘secret’ accounts (see former CFO Fred Adam’s deposition testimony under oath). There were no lack of approvals. And apparently no record kept of offsetting revenue that covered many expenses related to out of town, Elder-approved ministry I did away from HBC. Apparently when a church or other ministry paid for travel or reimbursed us for hotel costs, etc., it was not credited to its expense in church records. Hence the cost but not the off-setting revenue. When I or my office reimbursed the church from my private funds, apparently that was not included in the Wagenmaker report – such as this reimbursement for studio apparel at the end of 2018, that would have otherwise been been taxable.
Rather, the men responsible for OSP financial oversight went silent, most abandoning me from fear of being named in a public gossip riot. They refused to stand up and speak out publicly for unknown reasons about the quality financial oversight they did in fact provide.
The financial controls over my spending were higher than any other budgeted category at HBC. Reviewed directly by HBC’s CFO/COO, and HBC treasurer, OSP expenditures were also available to the finance committee and EC Elders, and specifically reviewed by independent auditors Capin Crouse.
Where Satan really showed up in this debacle was in the decision to destroy WITW and defame me to justify their seizure. That defamation centers around the false financial accusations.
In an effort to believe the best about HBC’s early financial misrepresentations, in March 2019, an extensive document explaining how OSP expenses were managed was sent to HBC and WITW CFOs, where it was apparently ignored (for $6.6 million reasons).
- According to CFO Jeff Sharda/COO Roger McCoy, when this detailed explanation of every OSP expenditure was submitted from 2015- 2018, establishing full integrity for OSP spending, Greg Bradshaw instructed Sharda and in-house General Counsel Chris Nudo to ignore her submittal and what she documented.
- Wagenmaker also disregarded the detailed provided, using terms like “it appears” while actively ignoring evidence to the contrary. She also ignored the Memorandum of Understanding, historic Elder board minutes documenting the Intellectual Property Agreements, a board report to the Laird Elders documenting how much money was raised through donor hunting trips ($8.4 million), etc. Did Sally really not know this?
- Pejorative terms like “private” or “black box” accounts were chosen to inflame the public and impugn my financial integrity, despite the fact that no financial concerns by any active Elder prior to my firing were ever expressed to me, in three decades of building HBC from the ground up. The accounts called ‘private’ were known to Executive Elders and financial committee members.
- The unvetted letters used to campaign for my firing were brimming with false financial information. HBC’s own documents show they knew this by spring 2019, stating things like, ‘We can’t find the Naples resort where James spent $20k’ or, ‘We can’t find anything close to the totals he supposedly spent on his palooza campsite’, etc.
- The private flight home from Haiti was offered and personally paid for by an Elder, not HBC.
- The cost of my truck was incorrectly inflated by $30,000+.
- Taxidermy was the gift given to men who paid for their own hunting and gave millions of dollars to HBC ministries.
- The cost of the Risen for the Nations tour and who funded it, the description of outside ministry costs, private travel, who paid, who reimbursed – all of it falsely presented in Dallas Jenkins’ letter campaign.
- HBC leaders knew these and other pieces of financial data to be false, but they hid the truth and kept inflating the “ungodly spending” balloon as their method of destroying congregational support for my leadership.
- Those Elders and financial Staff tasked with review and accountability for Executive and WITW Reserve accounts may have feared to own their roles publicly, given the hell storm falling on anyone who suggested that the digital mob was not correct. Thus I was left alone in the deafening silence of Elders who assured me over and over again, creating detrimental reliance upon the finance team’s professional oversight [promissory estoppal], then went entirely silent in self protection. (See Ron Duitsman interview for first hand testimony to these realities.)
- During my tenure, the EC Elders were actually the best HBC Elders. By fall 2019 they personally informed Wagenmaker that many of her accusations and conclusions were false, but she disregarded them and her faulty report is now the subject of a Cook County defamation lawsuit. One of the EC’s primary objections to Wagenmaker was her condemnation of the compensation committee, and the due diligence they demonstrated in setting my compensation. She had their meeting minutes and rationale in her hands but deceptively wrote her report as though no documentation for their decisions existed.
- Wagenmaker was informed by HBC attorney Chris Nudo and CFO Jeff Sharda that the Vanilla Bean personal checking account and credit card were used exclusively to pay our household bills in a private manner, and had no relationship to HBC. Yet Wagenmaker (at time of arbitration, President of the Christian Legal Society) declared the Vanilla Bean account “secretive” and “raises concerns with respect to specific expenses that may have been paid by HBC and attributable as taxable income to MacDonald, as well as broader concerns about MacDonald’s financial improprieties” – that sentence still takes my breath away with the scope of its lie. Multiple HBC leaders (who were far from friends to me in 2019) told Sally, ‘There is nothing wrong with Vanilla Bean,’ but she published the opposite. That is worse than incorrect, it’s evil. Think of the number of believers who had to battle family members they longed to reach for Christ, raising Wagenmaker’s garbage as factual evidence, when in fact it is fictional.
- Worst of all is the false air of stewardship… people with no financial acumen attacking my stewardship of HBC. We started with nothing in 1988, and left HBC (per the 2018 audit) with $95 million in net assets. Additionally, 2018 was HBC’s best year ever financially, with nearly $30 million in Closer campaign pledges, and another $20 million yet to come in through 40 Mighty Men pledges.
- When I was terminated, both campaigns went to zero, a minimum $45 million loss to HBC, not counting the closure of WITW, $10 million annually, or the the budget was cut in half, another $20 million loss to date – as HBC Elders only recently stopped arguing about who paid for a pair of pants.
For the longest time, HBC persisted in publicly arguing about hunting trips that raised 40:1 over what they cost, about spending that was actually reimbursed by another ministry, or reimbursed by us personally… not awakening to the futility of arguing over fractions while they flush millions down the drain that could be impacting lives for Jesus Christ. That is the work of Pharisees, blind guides whom Jesus says “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Mathew 23:24).
The Final Financial Word
As part of the settlement of the arbitration claims, I agreed at HBC’s request to jointly conduct a final review of their list of questioned expenditures from the Senior Pastor’s office in 2017 and 2018, as per the Wagenmaker report. Finally, the meeting I had been begging for – even asking as the arbitration closed, “Can we do it today?”
On September 24, 2020, I met with HBC CFO Jeff Sharda and COO Roger McCoy for this long-awaited “W-2 meeting.” They bought only $104,000 in expenditures needing resolution – not even close to the $451,000 (April 2019) or the $1.900,000 (November 2019) as Tim Stoner and HBC fallaciously publicized.
The meeting I had sought for so long finally happened – with no tension, no arguments, just facts and overdue reasonableness. After reviewing every questioned expense, HBC’s CFO and COO agreed that each had a proper ministry purpose, be it HBC or WITW (they were less concerned about WITW spending, given the arbitration outcome that it was not their ministry) and/or had been reimbursed at the time it was made. In follow up, we sent this meeting summary statement:
“It was agreed that the needed financial explanations had been offered to HBC in spreadsheet form by email dated May 16, 2019, and in multiple attempts by MacDonald to gain a hearing with HBC Elders and leaders throughout 2019. Jeff Sharda was instructed by an unnamed Harvest superior, not to review the offered spreadsheet. Upon review it was agreed that the majority of the items had a clear ministry purpose. A small percentage (approximately 10%) were clerical errors unknown to MacDonald; however, unreimbursed amounts to the MacDonald’s during that same period exceeded the total of the ~10%, and he agreed to forgo reimbursements potentially due him in order to bring the entire matter to closure. Both McCoy and Sharda expressed regret that MacDonald was publicly maligned for a large number of financial transactions with a clear ministry purpose, be they fundraising or a small number of approved gifts to publicly honor faithful servants of Christ. Dr. MacDonald’s financial leadership at HBC was conducted with integrity and at great advantage to all HBC ministries during his tenure.”
I was in the elder meeting on October 19, 2020, when the W2 meeting result was communicated to the Laird Elders, who responded with silence – no apology, no remorse. So I am left carrying the stigma of Tim Stoner (on behalf of HBC and Sally Wagenmaker) telling the church and the world that $1.9 million was paid to me and my family, or to others for my benefit. But now that slander has finally been refuted, and the outcome, with no post-termination adjustments made to my W2, accepted by HBC representatives in the legally prescribed resolution.
Laird Elders had access to the financial records that would have resolved the issues. They had the explanations of how / why / who / what for from me, from Sharon Kostal, from Capin Crouse, from Fred Adams and Trei Tatum – and chose to disregard it all. They could have utilized those facts, could have dug a little deeper or permitted the meetings I continually sought, but they did not. Which makes this truth unavoidable: The vicious and false financial accusations were not misunderstandings; they were deceptions that Greg Bradshaw, Jeff Smith, Carl Barkow, Steve Stewart, Brian Laird, Tim Stoner, and Jeff Sharda created or allowed, to provide cover for the $6.6 million of Walk in the Word assets they unlawfully converted. Instead of trusting God to provide for the needs of HBC, they villainized me to justify their seizures.
Had those funds not been under seizure prior to my firing in February 2019, I would have resigned, and none of this fallout would have happened.
Had they not seen, had they not heard, how faithfully God provided for HBC over three decades? Had they not been taught that any effort to take into their own hands the work of the Lord would surely lead to ruin for them and for those believers they were blessed to care for?
