A World of Difference Best of 2022: Our Story Part 1, Lori and Jason Adams-Brown Share Their Story of a Hostile Work Environment, Toxic Culture, Gaslighting and Spiritual and Psychological Abuse at a Megachurch in Silicon Valley
In this podcast episode Lori and Jason Adams-Brown share their story of spiritual abuse and betrayal at Echo.Church and Saddleback Church, while remaining hopeful that God will bring restoration, reconciliation and resurrection through their courageous testimony.
Lori Adams-Brown and Jason Adams-Brown are a married couple who share their story of working at Echo.Church in Silicon Valley in order to protect the vulnerable and call out the wolves among us.
Please consider signing the petition by Echo Survivors to release former staff at Echo.church from NDAs so they can share their stories and heal. As of this uploading, 1,329 people have signed in support of this NDA free plea. Go to: https://www.change.org/echochurchNDA
Trigger warning: If you have experienced spiritual abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse or any type of abuse especially in a faith-based environment, this episode deals with content that may be triggering. Please feel free to listen in small chunks or if this is too traumatizing, please feel free to not listen until you are ready. We do recommend speaking with a therapist who is trauma-informed. Please take good care of yourself.
"We still hold on to hope and have faith that God can bring restoration, reconciliation, resurrection out of this horrible, awful mess. We believe our brothers, Andy and Felipe, both are behaving very badly. And I wish they hadn't behaved so badly in front of me because then I wouldn't have anything to say. But unfortunately, they did on more than one occasion. And we've not given up on our brothers, and it's because we believe that change can happen and should happen
Lori Adams-Brown and Jason Adams-Brown are a married couple who share their story of working at Echo Church in Silicon Valley in order to protect the vulnerable and call out the wolves among us.
Lori and Jason Adams-Brown had a strong faith and were dedicated to their work in Singapore, but a change in circumstances forced them to make a difficult decision. After weeks of prayer and fasting, they received a Zoom call offering them two jobs at Echo Church. Lori didn't want the job, but Andy assured her they'd fight for her, and she felt God was speaking to her. Though it was not her heart's desire, they accepted the job in obedience and were soon thrown into a whirlwind of abuse and betrayal. Though they suffered, they still held on to hope that God would bring restoration and reconciliation.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. How did Jason and Lori Adams-Brown end up working on the Echo Church staff?
2. How does the story of Echo Church and Saddleback Church illustrate spiritual abuse?
3. How does God use suffering to bring about restoration and reconciliation?
Resources:
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Other episodes you'll enjoy:
Dr. Wade Mullen on Spiritual Abuse
Jenai Auman on Spiritual Abuse
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Chapter Summaries:
[00:00:01]
Lori Adams-Brown and her husband Jason share their story of working at Echo.Church in Silicon Valley. They hope to call out the wolves among us so that we can help warn the sheep and also help these wolves get the help that they need. We're not going to share it all at once.
[00:01:37]
We believe our brothers, Andy and Filipe, both are behaving very badly. And so I would just hope people would consider that just to listen with an open heart and open mind. We still hold on to hope that God can bring restoration, reconciliation, resurrection out of this horrible, awful mess.
[00:07:08]
Jason and Lori came to Echo Church while on a stateside assignment in 2017, 2018. Originally wanted to partner with Echo Church and Andy and Filipe and start a church in Singapore. When circumstances changed, Echo.Church offered Lori and Jason jobs.
[00:17:05]
We loved the work that we're doing. There was still more work to be done. I took this role because I knew it was what God wanted. It ended up being a lot of suffering in that journey. But I still stand by the fact that God led us to do this.
[00:18:48]
Lori's main question for Andy in her interview process was what do you believe about spiritual authority. After arriving at Echo.Church, she realized Andy had a very different view of authority.
[00:24:01]
Lori: I've never worked on a staff at a church. There was just so much more of a higher level of stress that I noticed on those that were working at the campus level. The biggest red flags early on where I started to think something's not right.
[00:28:08]
As people who've walked through spiritual abuse, part of the way we heal is to tell our stories. Just you listening today is really a part of just helping us heal. We've done a lot of healing, but with this kind of thing it just takes time.
[00:35:55]
When COVID hit, there was a constant push against Dr. Sarah Cody's lockdown. Andy was constantly pushing against her regulations. In some ways, it felt like the art of pastoring was something I was having to carry a lot of the load for with so many of the Sunnyvale campus's needs during lockdown.
[00:44:39]
Jason: My role was more in helping other churches do outreach. Now looking back, the motivation behind all that was not about loving the community. It was about trying to groom other smaller churches that might then recognize we could merge with them.
[00:48:03]
Within a month of arriving at Echo, staff they were told you would get fired for gossiping. Contagious joy was one of the values, and it was used like a weapon. Lori: It was more like work related conversations I was afraid to have. Looking back, I am ashamed that I was that naive.
[00:54:32]
Andy Wood came into the SLT meeting in summer of 2020, with a new strategy of "driving two cars," the digital car and the socially distanced outdoor services car. "How is it possible to drive two cars?," Lori asked. This was the question. From then on, things have never, ever been the same.
Lori and Jason Adams-Brown share their story of spiritual abuse, emotional abuse and psychological abuse at Echo.church in San Jose, CA at the hands of Andy Wood and Filipe Santos. Their story is by no means the worst story of abuse behind the curtain of Echo.church, but it is one that is not covered by the many NDA's that Andy and Filipe had many staff sign over the years in order to control the narrative and image manage the abuse of particular staff over the years. Many former staff have shared their stories, but due to fear of going public and also the many NDA's, there is much fear. This is part one of their story: The Calm Before the Storm.
Part 3: The Gaslighting and the Flanking
Part 5: Image Management & Discrediting the Whistleblower
Part 6: Disaster Relief & False Narratives
Open Letter by Gabriel Beddingfield to Echo.church
Open Letter by Echo Survivors to Echo.church
Religion News article by Bob Smietana
Julie Roys's article after NDA petition reached 700 signatures
Julie Roys's article about the predatory nature of Echo.church's "merges"
Julie Roys's article on the pattern of retaliation
Religion News article on NDAs (that mentions Andy Wood and the Saddleback situation) by Katelyn Beaty, author of Celebrities for Jesus
Lori's appearance as a guest on Talkin' Politics and Religion Without Killin' Each Other podcast with Corey Nathan.
Lori's Linktree for more articles and updates
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