PENSACOLA (FL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
April 28, 2025
By Rebecca Hopkins
An accountability team of elders has cleared apologist Michael Brown for ministry, after they publicly rejected a recent third-party investigation conclusion that he engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct.”
These findings came after Brown’s Line of Fire board commissioned Jim Holler of Firefly, a third-party investigator, in January to investigate reports of alleged sexual misconduct by Brown. Specifically, former secretary Sarah Monk claimed Brown swatted her rear end, kissed her, held her hand, and allowed her to sit on his lap in the early 2000s while he headed up the Fire School of Ministry in Pensacola, Florida.
The Elder Accountability Team assessed Firefly’s findings, which were released earlier this month, and reframed what Firefly called “sexually abusive misconduct” as “leadership misconduct.”
In their 27-page report, the elders also termed a second instance of Brown’s inappropriate communications with a married woman in 2001 and 2002 as a “moral indiscretion.”
“His actions in these instances during those time periods reflect a lapse in wisdom and good judgement,” the team wrote.
But their general take was that Firefly had left some key facts out of their report, including Brown’s rebuttal to several allegations and the testimony of his wife, Nancy. The team also concluded that his accusers should have sought a “proper Matthew 18 process” five years ago when rumors about Brown’s actions began to circulate among Fire School of Ministry alumni.
Instead, they carried out a “sentencing by a jury on social media,” the report said, “This process is unbiblical and has caused irreparable damage to Dr. Brown’s credibility and ministry.”
However, Firefly’s report listed several instances when ministry leaders tried to confront Brown, but he didn’t give consistent and full confessions. Firefly reported Brown showed a “calculated effort to evade accountability, suppress the allegations, and protect his ministry’s reputation.”
And one of Brown’s closest friends, Ron Cantor of the Messianic-themed Shelanu TV, was one who did go to Brown in private, but Brown initially denied the allegations. Brown to confess the matter to a board of elders, which Brown reportedly refused to do. Then, Cantor said he reported the matter to Brown’s Line of Fire board himself.
“Furthermore, they fail to comprehend that as long as this was private, Dr Brown refused to deal with it,” Cantor fumed on X after the report was released Monday. “10 different confrontations over 23 years. It is only being dealt with now because of the public exposure. The ‘irreparable damage to Dr Brown’s credibility and ministry’ is the fault of only one person: Dr. Michael Brown, who refused to deal with these issues any other way.”
In conclusion, the elders said, “We believe Dr. Brown made a sincere effort to follow Biblical Due Process as he understood it in both cases and has committed no sin for which he has not repented and received forgiveness and should, therefore, not be disfellowshipped from the Body of Messiah,” their findings said. “Nor has he committed a sin, in our opinion, grievous enough to be disqualified from ministry – even though the Elder Accountability Team does not condone how Dr. Brown conducted himself back in 2001 and 2002 when these events occurred.”
The report drew criticism from other whistleblowers and a victim hoping for public affirmation of the investigation and stronger discipline for Brown. Monk told The Roys Report (TRR) it was a “gut punch.”
“What hurt the most was seeing how they decided that they didn’t like the wording of the ‘sexually abusive misconduct’ when it came to me,” Monk said. “That’s why victims don’t come forward because those are supposed to be helping and protecting and counseling, they just don’t care.”
Brown, 70, is founder of the North Carolina-based ministry, The Line of Fire (formerly AskDrBrown). He also led the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry in Pensacola and founded the Fire School of Ministry in the early 2000s when the incidents happened.
TRR asked Brown for his comment about the elders’ report, but he didn’t immediately respond.
The accountability team members’ identities were kept anonymous until Monday. It included Jonathan Bernis, who is also a Line of Fire board member. Bernis also has a show, Jewish Voice, on the embattled network, Daystar TV, while many programmers have left due to Daystar’s own abuse scandal.
The elder team also included former Promise Keepers CEO Raleigh Washington; Leif Hetland, founder and president of Global Mission Awareness; and Mark and Nicki Pfeifer, lead pastors of Open Door Church in Chillicothe, Ohio.
The team doesn’t specifically include a trauma-informed counselor, which Line of Fire previously promised would be the case.
Bernis told TRR the board hasn’t yet responded to the elders’ report. But whistleblower Katherine Marialke said she’s lost trust in the board.
“We have been lied to from the beginning by this board,” Marielke said. “It is just one trick after another, and I am not surprised at all at this ridiculous board that has been kept anonymous until today.”
Praise and recommendations for Brown
The elders’ report included praise, criticism, and recommendations for Brown. Brown “fell short of the high calling of God,” the elders wrote. But they wrote that Brown has honored the board’s requirement that he step down from public ministry during the investigation. However, evidence shows Brown has stayed active online.
The team also praised Michael Brown for already publicly apologizing in a video in December. However, Monk and “Ray,” the husband of the married woman, previously said Brown’s apology include falsehoods.
Ron Cantor, president of Shelanu TV, told TRR the elders’ report is “dishonest” and favored Brown’s testimony.
“Most of the people I’ve talked to, and this is my own testimony, believe it was written as if they were taking Dr Brown’s narrative as gospel truth, and completely ignoring the fact that he had misled many people,” Cantor said.
Former FIRE leader Robert Gladstone wrote on Facebook the report was the “opposite” of what he’d hoped it would be.
“I believe it insults the survivors, further injures them, ignores many who testify of Michael Brown’s coverup and lies, completely misjudges the need for public exposure, and then commends a man back into ministry while giving those he mistreated further pain,” Gladstone wrote. “The injustice continues.”
The Elder Accountability Team is recommending Brown get counseling, answer to an accountability team, pay for Monk’s counseling, and invite Monk to an in-person meeting. It recommended Line of Fire implement training, policies, and protections. But Monk told TRR that many of those policies were in place at FIRE, but didn’t prevent Brown’s mistreatment of her.
The elders said Brown shouldn’t be disqualified for ministry for boundary-crossing incidents with women from the early 2000s. Rather, Brown’s “most fruitful” days are ahead, the elders stated.
“(T)he Elder Accountability Team recommends that Dr. Brown be released to public ministry with the hope that a new dimension of humility and strength of character may be added to his already broad field of Biblical knowledge, believing that the years ahead will be the most fruitful of all, marked by a greater humility and Christlikeness,” they wrote.
‘Overreaches beyond its intended boundaries’
One of the sticking points in the elders’ findings was what constituted sexual abuse. The Elder Accountability Team said Firefly investigator Jim Holler’s definition of “sexually abusive misconduct” went too far, watered down its original meaning and could be offensive to victims.
“While we respect FIREFLY’s decision to expand their definition of ‘sexual abuse’ beyond the ‘historically narrow understanding of those terms,’ the Elder Accountability Team will not follow this expanded definition which, in our opinion, overreaches beyond its intended boundaries. . . .” they stated.
Holler stated in both his report and his original contract with the Line of Fire board that he uses a broader definition to sexual abuse than sexual assault or battery without consent. Holler includes “physical and nonphysical conduct that a person suffers, submits to, participates in, or performs due to the deception, manipulation, coercion, grooming (children and adults) and/or intimidation by another.”
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have criminalized adult clergy sexual abuse for sexual contact between two adults in which one adult is the pastor. The power dynamic, not necessarily physical force, makes consent in these cases not possible, experts say.
Holler wrote that Brown’s behavior could be seen as “sexual harassment” or a “hostile work environment” due to the power dynamics.
Cantor posted on X that the board, which sent one of its members to the accountability team, should’ve resolved any problems it had with Holler’s definition before signing the contract with Firefly.
“Only after the result was not what they had hoped for, are they saying they disagree with the definition?” Cantor wrote. “It’s their job to define the scope. They signed the contract!”
*This story has been updated.