Tagged: abuse, abuse of faith, abuse of power, child sexual abuse, Church Finances, Church Too, ChurchToo, clergy sexual malfeasance, corruption, criminal enterprise, CSA, Financial Abuse, financial corruption, Institutional Betrayal, me too, rape, RICO, sexual abuse, sexual assault
- This topic has 11 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 1 month ago by Wisdom.
- AuthorPosts
- October 21, 2022 at 12:18 pm #4354Grieving Former Choir MemberParticipant
Today is a day of grieving for me. The new album releases. A Night of Worship with The Brooklyn Tabernacle. It was just May of 2022 when the choir received a letter saying that there was no more choir. This was after over 2 years of not really hearing anything from the leadership of the church during the pandemic. We were all facing difficulties. No care from them. They didn’t do much for the community during that time either. So to get that letter basically blaming us for not being there when they never even really reached out?
Not even weeks later after that letter shutting down the choir we see a small group of about 20 in a recording studio working on a project. It looks like it was months in the planning. Singers and other musical artists who had been gone for years were ensnared back into the fold.
I don’t even know how they would have brought the choir back anyway. There was a new set of permanent screens on the platform installed in the middle of 2021. It does not even seem like the choir risers would be able to be used again.
The new album appears a little deceptive. A Night of Worship with The Brooklyn Tabernacle. Notice how there is no choir or singers at the end. Very strategic. The clip I heard sounds like the choir, not a small group. Quotes from press releases make it seem like the choir is back together. Like thisone https://www.ccmmagazine.com/news/a-night-of-worship-with-the-brooklyn-tabernacle-set-to-release-oct-21/
They even have a new record label, StowTown Records and StowTown Worship, run by Landon Beene, TaRanda Greene’s husband. How many red flags have they seen and ignored along the way? How many red flags have others seen and ignored? They will all one day realize they are responsible in part, just as I have.
As devastating as it has been being treated like yesterday’s trash by leadership who are supposed to be caring shepherds, having separation has helped me see some of the horrible abuses that were and are going on. My God I was one of the people who endorsed this dangerous place by being apart of the ministry. What is written on this forum is only a small amount of everything going on beneath the surface of The Brooklyn Tabernacle. The deceptive beauty of the music and the deceptive image of the ministry keeps luring people in. How did I not realize what I was doing by being there? God forgive me for my part. When will people wake up?
- October 22, 2022 at 1:33 pm #4359Rose 1 2Participant
That letter from Carol hurt bad. No one ever contacted me for 2 years. Someone said the Cymbalas and Pettreys were in Florida for alot of the pandemic. Must be nice to have the finances and resources to just leave like that while the rest of us were stuck. She made it seem like we were unfaithful to God himself because the leadership didnt see us once the church doors opened back up. How could they search every seat to find us each week? Why didnt anyone from leadership contact us? Why wasn’t Carol in touch with us throughout the pandemic? Its her choir isnt it? This hurts.
- October 22, 2022 at 2:35 pm #4361ChoirMomParticipant
I just saw your post Rose. I feel the same. It was hard to see them saying they were stuck in Florida week after week and then seeing all these pictures of them will a bunch of guests at their vacation home. But wouldn’t have time to be with the choir over zoom.
PJC himself said he travel all over Florida talking with pastors. And he preached at the Cove in North Carolina. How were he and Carol stuck in Florida??
- October 22, 2022 at 2:28 pm #4360ChoirMomParticipant
I’m still getting over Carol labelling her choir members with an F if they are fat!!! How obnoxious and unchristlike Carol!
The lack of care and concern during the pandemic was matched by the unkind and insensitive email that was sent to us tell us we were the reason there is no more BT Choir. On that subject, why are they still posting on the BT Choir social media? There is no more BT Choir.
You are right @Greiving. The entire stage was changed for the singers long before that email went out. How much did they spend on those video screens? Why would they have put that in if they were hoping for the choir to return?? This wasn’t just covid and people moving away.
@bttoo. I’m so sorry.
I am so completely grieved about what has happened to BT.
- October 23, 2022 at 11:08 pm #4365TammyParticipant
The screens were installed by the time the church returned to live services on July 4, 2021. https://media.brooklyntabernacle.org/sunday_media.html “Joy Comes In The Morning.” Jim and Carol’s granddaughter Claire Pettrey got married at the church that same month.
- October 22, 2022 at 8:01 pm #4362SpeakingtruthParticipant
I wrote a reply before- I dont know where it went. So I’ll keep this short.
Just let me say dont feel too bad,former choir member. You had the best of intentions. How many of us here knew- or we wont be here?
It is a shock to your system- hopefully not anyone’s faith- to discover what BT is really like behind the scenes.
This probably won’t help,but can I tell you- the choir seemed to be the “golden child” of BTab. Apart from the children’s ministry,it seemed like few other ministries mattered. Which ones were ever talked about so much? So your testimony is shedding some light- that it wasnt “all that” for you guys.
Its not “golden child” but ” golden egg”,it seems- that really mattered. That “niche of humble pastor to the pastors,dependent on God”-(quoting another person,with which I agree).
Pastor Cymbala has mastered that,yes. But there is “nothing hidden that wont be revealed”. They too will wake up soon.
To Associate Pastors and Deacons especially,I ask – what manner of spirit are you?How do you care for the sheep?
What manner of love is this?
- October 23, 2022 at 9:24 am #4363Philippians48Participant
Is anyone able to share this letter?
- October 24, 2022 at 4:47 am #4366FedUpwithitallParticipant
The screens were installed by the time the church returned to live services on July 4, 2021. https://media.brooklyntabernacle.org/sunday_media.html “Joy Comes In The Morning.” Jim and Carol’s granddaughter Claire Pettrey got married at the church that same month
Thats why they reopened when they did, so Claire could get married.Also, Claire worked in Argentina for 3 months while the church was closed, but others were told they could not work from home from another state outside of the metro area during the pandemic. Thats how the Cymbala family works. Christian mafia
- October 24, 2022 at 6:44 pm #4367here for itParticipant
I was here for this
While there was a wall with the stage reconfigured when the church returned in July 2021, which btw that Claire designed for use at her wedding, the digital screens were not installed until early November 2021. I think the first sunday in November. (right before Luke’s wedding on November 12th) A setup like that must have taken months of planning not to mention the financial undertaking!
They must have decided well before November to permanently have these screens installed, in place of the choir risers, rendering the risers incapable of being used.
Just to be clear – It wasnt until NEXT YEAR 6 MONTHS LATER!! that they cancelled the choir. What was their plan? To sell the screen they just installed if the choir came back?
- October 25, 2022 at 9:24 pm #4368WisdomParticipant
They even have a new record label, StowTown Records and StowTown Worship, run by Landon Beene, TaRanda Greene’s husband. How many red flags have they seen and ignored along the way? How many red flags have others seen and ignored? They will all one day realize they are responsible in part, just as I have.
What’s concerning to me is how Taranda and Landon may be treated in the future. The Cymbalas have a long and storied career of getting excited by someone new and shiny, fawning over them, giving them prestigious work, and then, like a child bored with their toy, tossing them aside for the next exciting thing. Whether or not Landon and Taranda know and have ignored the warning signs, they are just being used by serial abusers. And if they are complicit in the abuse, then may God have mercy on their souls.
If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that very very few people who proclaim to be Christians actually follow His Word.
- AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.