Fellowship Church Grapevine Scandal: Jet, Embezzlement, and Lawsuits

The Fellowship Church Grapevine scandal is not a single event but a two-decade accumulation of controversies around Pastor Ed Young Jr. and the Texas megachurch he leads: an $8 million private jet flown to resort destinations, a seven-figure housing allowance, a $1.3 million embezzlement by a staff finance manager, a 2001 bylaw change that stripped members of the right to vote, a pattern of satellite campus closures followed by property sales, pandemic-era PPP loans, the arrest of a documentary filmmaker on church property in 2024, and a related lawsuit at Second Baptist Church of Houston that is scheduled for jury trial in 2026.

Fellowship Church, headquartered in Grapevine, reported weekly attendance of more than 24,000 as of 2020 and worships in a 4,100-seat, 123,000-square-foot building. It was founded by Ed Young Jr., son of longtime Second Baptist Houston pastor Ed Young Sr.

The Private Jet Reporting

In 2010, Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA aired an investigation into Young’s lifestyle and church spending, built around an $8 million Dassault Falcon 50 jet kept at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. FAA flight logs for roughly three years starting in March 2007 showed the aircraft was used on 416 days, with about 150 of those days involving trips to Miami, where Young had bought a $1.1 million Coconut Grove condominium in 2007.¹ The jet also traveled to Cabo San Lucas, the Bahamas, Anguilla, Belize, and England. WFAA estimated the Miami trips alone would have cost about $2.1 million at commercial charter rates.

Young declined interviews and routed WFAA to a New York public relations firm, which said the plane was used “primarily for vital Ministry affairs.” Neither the firm nor the church identified which ministries corresponded to trips to the Bahamas or Cabo. Three days after the first report, 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.”¹ WFAA asked to interview the board about how travel was approved and was refused.

Salary, Housing Allowance, and Real Estate

Unnamed sources cited by WFAA in 2010 put Young’s salary at roughly $1 million with a $240,000 annual housing allowance. Church documents from 2005 confirmed the $240,000 allowance had been board-approved, and the church provided housing allowances to 28 additional employees as well.² Young has said his pay is set by an independent compensation committee based on industry standards and that an outside firm audits the books.³

Reporting has tied Young to a Lake Grapevine estate described as worth $1.5 million (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 about $6.2 million, and a Florida beach house sold in 2021 for $5.5 million.⁴² The church has not released detailed financial statements to its congregation, a recurring point of criticism from former members and watchdog groups.

The $1.3 Million Embezzlement

In April 2019, Fellowship Church CFO Dennis Brewer found irregularities in a staff member’s housing allowance payments. Confronted, finance manager Lara Lynn Ford admitted inflating her own monthly housing allowance and setting up unauthorized auto-draft payments from church accounts into her personal checking accounts.⁵ Brewer had begun noticing shortages as early as 2018; Ford was demoted but retained access to the housing allowance account.⁶

A Grapevine Police report found Ford had stolen approximately $1.377 million between December 2008 and April 2019; an audit confirmed at least $1,068,825 in transfers to her personal accounts. On April 16, 2021, she was sentenced in Tarrant County to 10 years in prison for theft of property over $300,000.⁵ The church recovered about half the stolen funds through insurance. Ford indicated she would seek shock probation, a Texas procedure that lets a judge suspend a prison sentence and place a defendant on probation within six months of sentencing.

The 2001 Governance Change

Fellowship Church began as Las Colinas Baptist Church under a congregational model in which members voted on church business. On March 7, 2001, the church amended its articles of incorporation to eliminate member voting entirely and transfer governing authority to a Ministry Leadership Team made up of Ed Young Jr., attorney Dennis Brewer Jr., and two others.⁷ The same restructuring formally ended the church’s affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention.⁸

Critics say the change concentrated authority in Young’s inner circle and removed any means of congregational oversight over finances, leadership, or property. The church says a board oversees spending and that an outside firm audits the books; former members and watchdogs counter that rank-and-file congregants cannot see those audits.

Campus Closures and Merger Pattern

Fellowship Church expanded to satellite campuses in Miami, London, South Carolina, Norman (Oklahoma), and Keller (Texas). The Dallas-based Trinity Foundation identified at least five instances of Fellowship Church merging with or absorbing other congregations, alleging a consistent sequence: local governance folded into Fellowship Church, the campus eventually closed, and the property was sold with proceeds flowing to Grapevine.⁷

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 Church Miami online pages were taken down the morning of the sale. Spokesman Scott Wilson said Young had been “led” by God to the decision; no financial or operational explanation was offered. A former worship leader said the campus had not been as financially successful as others.⁹

In Norman, Oklahoma, Fellowship Church acquired a local church after its pastor agreed to sell to Young. Young’s son-in-law, Brad Hughes, was installed as campus pastor, and existing staff were terminated. The campus later closed after what was described as a church split, and the property was eventually sold to a local school district for $12.5 million for use as a performing arts venue.¹⁰ The London and Keller campuses have also closed.

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 about $3.04 million.¹¹ Critics questioned whether large megachurches should have drawn on funds intended for struggling small businesses and nonprofits, and whether members would receive any accounting of how the money was used. The loan was later forgiven.

Arrest of a Filmmaker in 2024

On October 20, 2024, filmmaker Nathan Apffel was arrested at Fellowship Church’s Grapevine campus while trying to question leadership about Young’s housing allowance and salary. Apffel was producing a seven-part docuseries called “The Religion Business,” scheduled for Easter 2025 release, examining nonprofit-law loopholes around church finances.⁴

Apffel was charged with criminal trespass, held overnight at the Grapevine Detention Center, and released October 21 on a $500 bond, with a court date set for November 12, 2024. He alleged that security personnel aggressively handcuffed him, that a contracted law enforcement officer broke his camera, and that he suffered a strained elbow, bicep, and rotator cuff. Fellowship Church pastor Dave Clark said Apffel had a “history of disruptive behavior at churches nationwide,” had failed to comply with 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

Fellowship Church’s governance model is now at the center of a lawsuit at Second Baptist Houston, where Ed Young Sr. served as senior pastor for decades. In May 2023, Second Baptist members voted to adopt new bylaws that critics say mirror the Fellowship Church structure: authority concentrated in the senior pastor and a handpicked leadership team, with the congregation stripped of votes on budgets, pastoral selection, and governance.¹²

In April 2025, a group of current and former Second Baptist members organized as the Jeremiah Counsel Corporation sued Ben Young, Ed Young Sr., Associate Pastor Lee Maxcy, and Dennis Brewer Jr. The complaint alleges the defendants conspired to change the bylaws to consolidate control over an estimated $1 billion in church assets and to “secure the ascendance” of Ben Young to the senior pastorate.¹³ Plaintiffs say the May 31, 2023, vote was invalid because notice was legally insufficient and misleading, committee reviews of the proposed bylaws did not take place, and the roughly 200 attendees (out of a claimed membership of more than 94,000) were not given copies of the amended documents. The vote passed 315 to 2.¹⁴

Dennis Brewer’s role in both churches is central. He previously served as general counsel and CFO at Fellowship Church before Ben Young appointed him to the Ministry Leadership Team at Second Baptist.¹⁵ The plaintiffs allege Brewer worked with the Youngs and Maxcy to orchestrate the bylaw changes and that the new structure bars members from reviewing financial audits.

The defendants deny wrongdoing and have called the suit a “smear campaign,” arguing the 2023 revisions were appropriate for a church that has grown to nearly 100,000 members. The case was ordered to mediation on April 1, 2026; attorneys confirmed mediation failed by April 30. A jury trial is set for July 27, 2026, before Judge Grant Dorfman in the 11th Division of the Business Court of Texas.¹³

How Ed Young Has Responded

Young has largely declined detailed engagement with the financial criticism. He told the Dallas Morning News in 2013 that he had never watched or read the WFAA reports and that many of the cited figures were “not even accurate.”³ In a September 2024 Facebook post, he defended megachurches against the “too big” critique as “hypocritical,” noting that critics freely 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.”¹⁶ He has not publicly addressed the Trinity Foundation’s criticism of the merger practices or the Second Baptist Houston lawsuit.

1
WFAA. Fellowship Church Leased Jet Travels to Exotic Destinations
2
MinistryWatch. Million Dollar Homes Become Status Symbols of Televangelists and Pastors
3
Dallas Morning News. Pastored
4
Roy’s Report. Filmmaker Arrested Ed Young’s Church Seeking Answers About Finances
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Former Finance Manager Sentenced for Theft From Fellowship Church
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WFAA. Former Finance Manager Bilks $1.3 Million From Fellowship Christian Church
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Trinity Foundation. Ed Young’s Toxic Church Business Practices and Mergers
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Trinity Foundation. Fellowship Church Amended Articles
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Roy’s Report. Fellowship Church Sold Miami
10
Mark Wing Substack. Who Owns the Church
11
Roy’s Report. Harvest Bible Chapel and Fellowship Church Got Millions in PPP Loans
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Christianity Today. Second Baptist Ed Young Church Son Bylaws Lawsuit
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Houston Public Media. Houston Second Baptist Church Lawsuit Trial
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Baptist News Global. Second Baptist Houston Lawsuit Headed to Trial
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Baptist News Global. More Accusations Fly at Second Baptist Houston
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Christian Post. Ed Young Responds to Critics Who Say Megachurches Are Too Big