Leadership Transitions FAQs

01. What was the financial crisis in 2025 and how was it discovered?

In mid-March 2025,during informal discussions with the Comptroller, the Head of Staff discovered that critical assumptions underlying the Church’s workforce plan and operating budget were deeply flawed. The personnel plan relied on a projected budget of $16.5M, not including capital expenditures—instead of actual revenues of $14M. (Of which $11.8M was tithes and offerings.) This led to inflated proposals for expenses and capital expenditures that far exceeded the Church’s actual income capacity. Because forecasting was inadequate, the Church adopted a spending pattern that accelerated cash burn and eroded its surplus. Year over year, the surplus cash had been used to fund the church's mission.

The Head of Staff also learned that the Church had already begun using its cash surplus to cover both operating (including personnel costs) and capital expenses, a clear sign of an unsustainable budget. The Comptroller raised concerns that these issues had not been disclosed to the Senior Leadership Team, even though they were critical for decision-making and planning. As a result, spending continued to rise faster than income, creating a trajectory that was financially unsustainable.

03. What immediate actions were taken once this was known?

This discovery led to painful but necessary decisions, including a major reduction in force of 30 full-time and 20 part-time positions. Select members of SLT and Council reset the budget to more realistic income projections. Shortly after the mid-March discovery, senior leadership took the following key actions:

• Informed the entire Church Council.
• Informed the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) that the three-year workforce plan under development was being halted.
• Stopping or slowing all possible spending. This included selling the Retreat Center, closing the Bookstore and sunsetting the Vineyard Early Childhood Center (VECC) and the afterschool and summer programs following the summer of 2025. Additionally, 19 full-time and 11 part-time positions that were already vacant prior to discovery were to remain unfilled.
  
• Commenced an immediate close and reconciliation of financial records.
  
• VC did an internal review of cash balances and activities and found no evidence of misconduct.
• Requested the Executive Pastor’s immediate resignation, which the Church Council unanimously affirmed. He submitted his resignation shortly thereafter.
• Hosted congregational meetings to give updates and posted Financial FAQs for transparency.

05. What further changes were made to our financial processes and systems?

In response to the crisis, Vineyard Columbus initiated several corrective steps:

• The new formed Church Council’s Finance Subcommittee is to work with the Sr. Pastor(s), the interim Director of Finance, and the Comptroller.
• Hired an interim Director of Finance with significant financial experience that has forecasting and planning expertise, and VC plans to retain a senior level financial resource going forward.
• Reset the unrestricted budget to expected tithes-and-offerings income of $11.25M.
  
• Set the missions budget at 10 percent of tithes and offerings, rather than 18 percent, to maintain both generosity and sustainability. (See #2 within our Global Missions Support FAQs page for more info.)
  
• More clearly defined the cost centers for each campus, for missions, and for the Vineyard Community Center, so each has defined operating and personnel budgets.
• Combined our Viña Grandview and Viña Westerville congregations as one unified campus – Viña Columbus, to optimize resources for ministry and care of our Latino brothers and sisters.
• Allocated lease costs across all campuses and set a 20% allocation for campuses except for the Westerville campus, which is 26%, for shared services and staff.
• Built staffing plans based on clearer staffing principles, including sustainable personnel/operating ratios, campus-based FTE-to-attendance ratios, and cash reserve thresholds.
• Established a monthly cash flow planning model to monitor cash levels and forecast future cash balances based on variable levels of giving.

07. Why did the Senior Pastors, Executive Pastor, and four Campus Pastors resign?

Senior Pastors: They offered their resignations to the Church Council in March 2025. In their own words, they took “ultimate responsibility” and “offered to submit [their] resignations to the [Church Council].” They admittedly did not engage deeply enough in detailed operational expenditures or day-to-day financial oversight, did not develop sufficient understanding of complex financial systems and cash flow, and did not enforce strong accountability systems. They have described these as gaps in their leadership and recognize they should have sought counsel sooner to evaluate budgets and plans.

Council recommended that the more appropriate response was for Eric and Julia to remain, owning leadership responsibility, and lead the church through the necessary reforms and painful corrective actions.

One of those painful corrective actions was for Eric and Julia, as Senior Pastors, to ask the Executive Pastor for his resignation after Church Council unanimously concluded that he could not continue in his role.

The Founding Pastor, as the father of the Executive Pastor, disagreed with that decision. Although he had previously agreed to recuse himself from employment matters involving family members, he participated in related conversations surrounding this decision.

Those continued conversations about disagreements with process and leadership created strain and inconsistencies in communication in various areas of the church. Over time and with multiple unsuccessful attempts to reconcile, it became clear to Eric and Julia that the relational and structural challenges created by these events made continued leadership untenable for them as Senior Pastors.

On January 11, 2026, Eric and Julia communicated to the church their decision to step down from their roles and end their employment with the church to make room for the healing, repair and leadership needed to carry this church into its future.

Vineyard USA has been engaged and committed to support reconciliation efforts directly and through involving professional organizations specializing in peacemaking.

Executive Pastor: As mentioned above, Church Council unanimously concluded that he could not continue in his role, and he submitted his resignation shortly thereafter. His contributions to the financial crisis included failing to escalate cash-flow concerns and cash reserve depletion, despite the Comptroller expressing increasing urgency beginning in autumn 2024. Ultimately, it was determined the Executive Pastor did not possess the cash forecasting and planning skills required for this role.
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Four Campus Pastors: As shared in the year-end congregational meeting on December 14, 2025, several campus pastors had experienced ongoing strain related to the demands of the multi-site structure and had expressed concerns about decision-making related to the campus model. The campus-model challenge had been an on-going conversation for over ten years. Additional factors included unrealized expectations, a desire for greater local autonomy, and disappointment that significant structural changes were not likely in the near term.

At the same time, these resignations occurred during a season of heightened organizational stress that included unresolved conflict between the senior pastors and founding pastor and increased confusion following Church Council engagement with campus pastors. Church Council requested campus pastors propose a possible way forward. Subsequently, an alternate model for how a multi-site church could function was drafted by several campus pastors and was ultimately rejected by both the Senior Pastors and Church Council as inconsistent with the church’s shared vision and financial realities.

Because of the unusual timing and clustering of these resignations, we have engaged The Elemental Group to conduct an independent assessment. Their work includes interviewing multiple leaders and examining organizational culture, governance processes, and leadership decisions to better understand the factors that contributed to these simultaneous events.

09. How did differing narratives come to be?

The decisions over the last 11 months were painful for everyone. Our senior pastors, SLT, former campus pastors, founding pastors, laid-off staff, and current staff all experienced these painful decisions differently. We believe this led to relational conflict, broken trust, and anxiety in the system resulting in competing narratives.

Senior leadership recognizes that our limiting and being cautious with public communication, while intending to avoid scapegoating, unfortunately has contributed to confusion and different narratives among staff and congregants.

11. How do you, as a member of Vineyard Columbus, move forward considering the many narratives and disappointments that you may have heard or experienced?

There are many narratives and rumors regarding our present situation, which is understandable given the relationships and complexities of the last few months. The Senior Leadership Team encourages everyone to recognize that there are always different points of view, and that we respect the dignity and confidentiality of each of the people affected by this crisis. 

This is why each of us must be discerning and cautious about the things that we hear, and the things that we share with others. Instead of pursuing the many rumors and narratives that can cause more confusion or division, the better course is to refrain from speculation and press into the Spirit in prayer for peace, unity, reconciliation, healing, and restoration, which is what we encourage our community to do.