FORT MILL (SC)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 29, 2024
By Rebecca Hopkins
Chris Reed, CEO and president of the prophetic ministry MorningStar, resigned Tuesday, telling The Roys Report (TRR) it was because he’s “standing on the side of victims,” who are suing the ministry. But Wednesday, after TRR confronted him with allegations he pursued a woman sexually in 2021, Reed admitted sending the woman “terrible” sexual texts and kissing her.
Reed still maintains he resigned because of the lawsuit filed August 7 against MorningStar, alleging that the ministry mishandled child sex abuse by a former volunteer leader, Erickson Lee. The alleged abuse occurred before Reed became MorningStar CEO. And Reed said he doesn’t want to be “the face of” a ministry engaged in a legal battle.
However, in the wake of the resignation, TRR learned of the allegations of sexual misconduct in 2021 and was able to contact the woman involved. At the time of the misconduct, Reed, who’s married and has six children, was the pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church and in line to become CEO of MorningStar.
The woman, who asked TRR to use only her first name, Kathryn, was seven years younger than Reed and a student at MorningStar where Reed was a leader. (TRR has a policy of not naming alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse, unless they request otherwise. Experts consider any sexual involvement between a person in spiritual authority and someone under him abuse because of the power differential.)
“I sorely regret it,” Reed told TRR. “I take full responsibility for it. It wasn’t her fault at all. I’m fully, fully to blame.”
Kathryn told TRR that Reed started the relationship with a prophecy about her. The two then met frequently alone in Reed’s van during November and December 2021. Reed would often kiss her, Kathryn said, and one encounter included Reed touching her genitals. Reed also sent her “vulgar” texts, she said.
“I felt very bright and shiny that I was being given attention by the great Chris Reed,” Kathryn told TRR. “We kissed all the time . . . He said things that a man of honor, even with his wife, should not have said.”
Reed told TRR on Tuesday that the relationship involved texting only and claimed he stopped it and decided to set a boundary.
Similarly, TRR spoke Tuesday with MorningStar Founder and Chairman Rick Joyner, who will be taking over as MorningStar CEO. Joyner didn’t think the relationship “crossed any kind of a line.” He added that he met with Kathryn about the matter and made sure she was okay.
“We thought it had gone far enough that it needed discipline and restoration, and boundaries set with female students,” Joyner said Tuesday. “Chris was all for it. I think Chris handled it in the best way it could’ve been done.”
However, on Wednesday, when confronted by TRR with the woman’s allegations, Reed admitted he met Kathryn alone in a public parking lot, where they only hugged. When TRR asked if they also kissed, Reed said yes, but denied any kind of sexual touching.
“There was no sexual encounter,” he said. “She’s never seen me unclothed or touched me unclothed. I’ve never seen her unclothed or touched her unclothed.”
TRR called Joyner on Wednesday for comment, as well, but he did not respond.
Kathryn said she’s speaking up now because she believes in a good God.
“It’s not about me; it’s about the Lord,” she said. “It’s about the goodness of God.”
Kathryn shared the private Facebook messages Chris initiated with her in November 2021, showing Reed pursued her and called her more “special” than other students. He also prophesied over her, asked for her class schedule, gave her his personal cell phone number, and asked if she had a tattoo.
Both Kathryn and her mom, Karen, who also asked to be identified by only her first name, told TRR that Kathryn disclosed the matter, including sexual texts to several MorningStar leaders in February 2022, with Karen also present. Kathryn said she no longer has the phone with the sexual texts on it.
Karen, who brought her kids to MorningStar because she believes God led them there, said she hopes revealing this now will lead to redemption and restoration for all.
“We want (Reed) to get the healing and restoration he needs and also (Kathryn),” Karen said. “I’ve always been about getting people the resources they need so they can be fully restored.”
Reed told TRR he became MorningStar’s CEO in March 2023, a year after originally scheduled because of his misconduct. Reed said he stepped down from public preaching for a short time but continued in other leadership responsibilities at MorningStar throughout 2022.
Reed also said he publicly told the church that he’d done something “wrong” but didn’t go into specifics.
“Here’s what I told the church, ‘I take full responsibility for it. There was a situation in my life where I needed the grace of God. It did not involve sex or money or notoriety, but it was still wrong and I had to talk to my elders in my life and be accountable about it,’” Reed said.
Lawsuit prompts resignation
Initially, Reed sent a cryptic letter to staff Tuesday, announcing his resignation, which he admitted “may come as a surprise, and perhaps even a shock, to some of you.”
He added, “There are many reasons behind this choice, but primarily, after three years of serving here, including over a year as CEO and President, I have come to realize that I cannot continue in this role.
“My calling has always been, and remains, to prophesy, pastor, teach, preach, and write. That is why I have made the decision to return fully to what God has called me to.”
Later on Tuesday, Reed told TRR he resigned because of the lawsuit. When TRR asked if he resigned due to any allegations made about Reed, he added that he wanted to be transparent about a texting relationship “several years ago.”
The lawsuit against MorningStar was filed August 7 in the York County Sixteenth Judicial District in South Carolina. It alleges that Erickson Lee, who led MorningStar’s “Young Special Forces” ministry for young teenage boys from 2019 to 2022, abused multiple children tied to the ministry.
The alleged abuse happened before Reed took over from Rick Joyner as MorningStar CEO.
Reed told TRR Tuesday, “I don’t want to be involved in being the face of a ministry and answering questions about a legal battle that didn’t involve me. I walked away with nothing because I won’t fight against minors who were abused . . . I’m standing on the side of victims.”
One of the alleged victims, called “John Doe,” and his parents are suing Lee, Lee’s father Doug Lee, MorningStar Fellowship Church, Rick Joyner, former MorningStar VP Dave Yarns, and 10 unnamed MorningStar staff or ministry associates. The suit alleges that multiple leaders, including Joyner, failed to tell staff or students about allegations against Erickson in early 2023.
“Erickson Lee was quietly asked to step down,” the suit alleges. “Morningstar, Joyner, Yarns, and Doug Lee allowed a predator to run a church youth organization for years and then when caught, they tried to cover it up.”
Lee, who was a former Marine on his way to being a cop, ran the program “with little supervision,” the suit states. Soon, Lee gave Doe alcohol, vapes, and pornography, and took boys on overnight trips, according to the lawsuit.
On one trip, “Erickson Lee then forced the boys to get naked in front of him and then take a shower together,” the suit alleges. It adds that Lee began sexually abusing Doe when Doe was 14.
Last year, Lee was arrested by the York County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit for dissemination of obscene material to a person under the age of 18, assault and battery, and criminal sexual conduct.
Joyner called the lawsuit’s accusations against the ministry “outrageous” in a statement MorningStar emailed to TRR and also posted, but later removed, from MorningStar Ministries’ app.
“They alleged many outrageous things about the ministry that are not true,” Joyner wrote in the statement. “None of the leaders of MorningStar were charged with anything or were in any way involved in this.”
Alleged use of prophecy to perpetrate abuse: ‘There is something special on you’
According to Kathryn and her mother, Karen, Reed’s sexual predation was a betrayal by someone both women looked up to as a spiritual leader.
Karen said she prayed for 10 years about moving her family to the MorningStar community. Kathryn remembers she was 17 when she began attending MorningStar Fellowship Church.
“I had my first prophetic experience there,” Kathryn said. “Everything with my spiritual mentoring started at MorningStar.”
Kathryn went to several prophetic conferences over the years, including the Advanced Prophetic Conference in 2020 where Reed spoke.
When Reed moved to MorningStar in 2021 to pastor and prepare to take over from Joyner as CEO, Kathryn said she finally met Reed for the first time. She said she gave him a prophetic word about a book he was writing.
A few months later, on Nov. 7, 2021, Reed private messaged her on Facebook, opening the conversation with a prophecy about her.
“I really wanted to tell you that I felt today you came throw (sic) rough season successfully at some point,” he wrote in a private Facebook message. “But I see you getting a second wind and gaining traction for your destiny.”
A few texts later, Reed said she was special.
“I’ve got to know a few of the students,” he wrote. “But I think there is something special on you.”
That same day, he also asked her age, her class schedule, told her he would be taking over from Joyner as CEO, and told her to reach out anytime. Two days later, he said he saw her and sensed she was struggling. Then he gave her his personal phone number, telling her not to share it with anyone else.
“I can’t extend my time personally to everyone,” he wrote. “But I feel like I am for you.”
She said he later asked her to store his number in her phone under a different name.
She would later see his prophecy, texts, and other spiritual conversations with him as “manipulation” that quickly escalated to a physical relationship.
“He gave me this false word of knowledge . . .” she said. “Then I got sucked in and the manipulation started.”
He sometimes sent Kathryn money, which she verified by showing TRR a Dec. 21, 2021, gift of $250 from Reed in her cash app. When he visited her class, she said he’d text her and tell her she looked “sexy.” He used the Bible to explain the temptation.
“The thing that started getting me concerned is when he would start justifying the relationship,” she said. “He would compare himself to David in the Bible.”
She also shared a Dec. 8 journal entry with TRR in which she said she’d “fallen in love with a man who was already spoken for.”
“I’ve compromised my moral compass and given into my flesh over and over again,” she wrote. “I’m a foolish woman. I wish I could write his name, but I cannot.”
Meanwhile, Karen said she saw Kathryn texting with Reed often and pried for more information, until Kathryn disclosed more details.
Kathryn told TRR that after the sexual touching in Reed’s van, she and Reed started pulling away from each other. By late December, they mutually decided to end things but not tell anyone.
But in February, two MorningStar leaders, Justin Perry and Tom Hardiman, called Kathryn in for a disciplinary meeting, Kathryn said. She said she had struggled with addiction and had a marijuana joint in her car that she’d smoke to help with her anxiety.
Kathryn hadn’t intended to share with them what had happened with Reed but ended up telling them about the kissing in the car and van. She said she also showed them sexually explicit text messages from Reed, including one in which she said he wanted to tie her to a bed and do sexual acts to her. Karen attended the meeting with the leaders too and confirmed this with TRR.
Neither Perry nor Hardiman immediately returned messages TRR sent them asking for comment. Hardiman now directs MorningStar’s Fellowship of Ministries. Perry is no longer an employee.
A few days later, Joyner invited Kathryn and Karen to meet with him, Perry, and Hardiman to explain what happened. Kathryn said she disclosed all but the genital touching to Joyner.
Karen said Joyner was compassionate to her daughter, offering her counseling money.
“But he did say, ‘Either you trust us or you don’t,’” Karen said.
Despite the allegations, Joyner resigned as MorningStar CEO in 2023, and Reed assumed the top leadership role.
Kathryn said she hadn’t intended to speak publicly.
“I have held my tongue for almost three years,” she said. “You know when you’re waiting and you’re praying and it’s almost like you’re waiting on a breakthrough for so long, you kind of forget about it?”
But she said when TRR called her Wednesday following an anonymous tip, she believed it was an invitation from God to finally speak.
“I feel like God woke me up this morning in preparation for your phone call,” she told TRR. “It was like, ‘Oh hey, my daughter, put your armor on this morning. Let’s go.’”
Correction 8/30: A detail regarding the 2021 relationship between Kathryn and Reed was clarified for accuracy.