BALTIMORE (MD)
Ministry Watch [Matthews NC]
December 29, 2025
By Tony Mator
[See also the complete Greater Grace World Outreach report.]
Independent investigator recommends ousting Greater Grace World Outreach leadership
It couldn’t be proven, he said. Besides, the decision wasn’t his. Also, the family that reported the sexual abuse was having marital problems. Those people, he insisted, were trouble. Even if their story had some truth to it, the victim was partly at fault, anyway. It was, he said, “the way she operated and how she moved about.”
The victim was 8 years old.
This interview with Pastor Steven Scibelli, director of missions for Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO), was among many similar stories cited in a blistering 172-page report that dropped on Dec. 18, concluding a 14-month investigation into GGWO’s handling of sexual misconduct.
The verdict: GGWO’s approach protected the wolves and harmed the sheep, and the shepherds must go.
“GGWO leaders have been involved, sometimes in the abuse itself and often in attempts to silence victims or smooth over situations—dynamics consistent with what many would reasonably term a cover-up,” the report concluded. “The pastoral negligence and indifference regarding victims and abuse is also amply supported by witness statements and documents received.”
The Baltimore megachurch hired an independent organization, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE, to conduct the investigation after a series of sex abuse claims caused a public outcry.
The controversy began in 2019, when a group of former GGWO members began investigating what they believed to be a pattern of abuse and concealment. The findings of that group, known as the Millstones, were revealed in a three-part series of articles published in the Baltimore Banner.
The GRACE investigation focused on 17 individuals, including some former GGWO pastors, who the church authorized the agency to look into regarding alleged sexual misconduct and the church’s response. Some of those individuals have criminal convictions, such as Jesse Anderson, a youth counselor who was convicted in 2005 of molesting a minor, and Ray Fernandez, a youth leader sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually abusing three boys.
The report noted that “credible” abuse claims had been made not just against the Baltimore church itself but also against its schools—Maryland Bible College & Seminary and Greater Grace Christian Academy—and a global network of affiliated churches.
GRACE traced GGWO’s failures to multiple causes, including an authoritarian power structure rooted in the teachings of late founder Carl Henry Stevens Jr., who was himself accused of grooming and sexually abusing minors—allegations the report deemed “credible.”
“Witnesses consistently described an authoritarian culture that systematically disempowered lay people, reinforced by fear-based messaging,” the report said. “Multiple witnesses recalled hearing senior or lead pastors, including Pastor Stevens and Pastor Schaller, ascribing grave physical consequences to the act of speaking negatively about the church or its leaders.”
In recommending a path forward, GRACE insists “meaningful change” cannot happen until GGWO ousts current leadership, including at least Scibelli as well as Senior Pastor Thomas Schaller, Youth Ministry Director Pete Westera, and Youth Pastor John Love. It also advises greater transparency, reform of its affiliation structure with other Greater Grace churches, public dissociation from offenders, and a need to reexamine the legacy and influence of its founder.
In response to the report’s release, the Millstones posted a statement on social media.
“After reading through the GRACE report, we have never felt more anger toward GGWO leadership and more compassion toward victim-survivors and church members,” the statement said.
“GRACE said, ‘Lasting, meaningful change at an institutional level cannot be achieved under the current leadership.’…We couldn’t agree more. Show that you recognize the damage you’ve done, not with improved PR or public statements about ‘learning curves,’ but with actual resignations that create space for healthier, more compassionate and trauma-informed leadership.”
In an online message, GGWO elders asked for “time to fully digest the report and to respond thoroughly and appropriately” and expressed an intention to “publish a more comprehensive statement within the next month.”
“As elders, we find the report sobering,” the statement said, “and our hearts are heavy as we process the facts that anyone under the spiritual care or influence of GGWO was ever abused. Period.”