Cover-up of Steve Morgan’s Arrest for Sexual Assault of a Minor
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Celeste Irwin* and I’ve been blogging about The Network since December, 2021. I was a former Small Group Leader in one of the churches, and you can read more about my story of experiencing and committing spiritual abuse here.
*Since writing this article, I have come out as a transgender woman, and legally changed my name and gender. I have updated my name here to match my identity. I am well aware that to many in the Network, my gender transition fully undermines my credibility. But hopefully you’ll see that most of what I share below does not require you to trust me.
If you have not read Leaving the Network’s (LTN) coverage of Steve Morgan’s 1987 arrest for “aggravated criminal sodomy” against a minor (15 or younger), I suggest you start by doing that, particularly if you are still in The Network.
Seeking Truth
This site was founded on the words found in John 1:5:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Similar words are found in John 3:19-21, the words of Jesus:
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
A sinful past is common to every Christian, but we’re called to live in the light. The nation of Israel owned their sins (see the entire Old Testament). Paul owned his. They didn’t try to cover it up. They spoke about it and celebrated God’s grace over it. Luke, the author of Acts (and friend of Paul), wrote extensively about who Paul was before Jesus saved him. Paul himself said he was a “persecutor of the church” (Philippians 3:6). He did not try to hide this.
Paul even called himself “least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:8-10):
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
Disclaimers
Much of the following is sourced from Leaving the Network. The rest is my best recollection. I welcome corrections or feedback if anyone has them or disputes my recollection. I’m only interested in truth here and if I am mistaken it should be corrected.
Corroboration of Leaving the Network
First, I want to corroborate what I can from the story as told by LTN. I also received a tip regarding Steve Morgan’s arrest from the same individual that Leaving the Network heard from. Given that the tipster had made me aware that they contacted LTN, I reached out to LTN. Unlike our usual relationship, we have collaborated since then, resulting in me being able to publish this quickly following their post. As you will see below, I also knew that Andrew Lumpe had prior history with this case, and so I collaborated with him as well.
I requested the court records on Wednesday, July 6th, 2022, and received them the morning of Thursday, July 7th, 2022. I immediately forwarded the documents to Leaving the Network and Andrew Lumpe.
I am not a signatory on LTN’s “Call to Action”, but only because I never held one of the positions required to be able to sign it. I agree with it, though it’s worth noting that I consider the actions outlined to be a minimum, not a maximum.
A summary of what’s been reported
Steve Morgan is the founder and president of The Network, as well as the lead pastor of Joshua Church in Austin, Texas. Court records show that, in 1987, he was arrested for “Aggravated Criminal Sodomy” of an individual under the age of 16. Morgan was 22 at the time the crime was said to have happened (November 1986). Steve Morgan entered into a Diversion Agreement, and the case did not go to trial, but Morgan was required to attend counseling (at his own expense) and also pay for counseling for the victim and affected family members. The court documents are undeniably referring to the same Steven D. Morgan who leads The Network. They include Morgan’s birthdate, and signature, and home address at the time, all of which LTN says match what they know about Steve Morgan. An arrest is not a conviction, but Steve Morgan accepted significant costs when he signed the diversion agreement, rather than fight the charge in court in order to clear his name and avoid those costs. Importantly, Morgan regularly told a story about him learning to tithe, in which it’s clear that he was not exactly made of money early in his life, so this is not insignificant. According to LTN, Morgan was also distressed at the possibility of the court records being made public, and also did not deny the allegations when emailing Andrew Lumpe. He also appears to have self-disclosed some version of the story to a number of the pastors across the Network (again, according to LTN) While I cannot say for sure that Steve Morgan did what he was arrested for, the rest of this post will assume that the allegations are true based on the significant evidence presented.
We also know that this information has never been made publicly available in The Network, though it appears that some high-level leaders have known about it for years, dating back at least 15 years (June 2007).
As we move forward, I will have much more to say in terms of connecting the dots with various Network behaviors over the years, but for now I want to focus on my first-hand experience of this information being covered up at Vista Church in San Luis Obispo, California.
Does it matter?
We know that the Bible says that a leader is to be “above reproach” and “well thought of by outsiders”. He also must be “self-controlled” and “not violent but gentle.” (See: 1 Timothy 3:1-7)
It’s hard to reconcile Steve Morgan’s actions with those four qualifications. Most people do not have an arrest record for a crime of this severity. Crimes like these are not “well thought of by outsiders.” It exhibits a lack of self-control and is the definition of violent.
And I would argue that we are all called to live in the light, and that Steve Morgan has not done this. Moreover, as we move to next section, real people were harmed in an attempt to keep this information from coming to light.
The Cover-up
As a reminder, I was a Small Group Leader starting in early 2019 until I left Vista Church in April 2021.
Notified of Andrew Lumpe’s Departure
Andrew Lumpe reports (on LTN) that he formally left Vista in March 2020. On Thursday, June 11, 2020, myself and the other Small Group Leaders at Vista Church received an email from Lead Pastor Luke Williams. It included a number of things, but specifically included the following text:
Also, I wanted to let you know that Andrew and Torrey Lumpe have decided to leave Vista. For a while now i’ve been processing things with them from many years ago at Blue Sky in Seattle, and I agree that it’s best. No need to reach out or do anything, but let me know if you have questions.
The last sentence was enough to convince me not to reach out to Lumpe. He and I weren’t particularly close, but I normally would have sent a “thanks for everything.” I did not, because of the above message. It also made it clear that if I had questions, I should ask Williams, not Lumpe.
Escalation - Small Group Leader Meeting
On September 20th, 2020, there was a Small Group Leader meeting for the small group leaders at Vista Church. Incidentally, this meeting was held in my backyard due to COVID protocols. All quotations here are approximate best recollections.
Luke Williams brought up Andrew Lumpe again. He stated that Andrew Lumpe was saying things about Steve Morgan that “are not true.” The phrasing is important, and I am confident I have it (or at least the meaning) accurate because it was so jarring, though of course I could be wrong (there is no recording). But the phrasing matters because his message was not that “Andrew Lumpe is saying things…”:
“… that I think are not true.”
“… that Steve Morgan says are not true.”
“… that don’t matter.”
Any of those would have been statements about what Williams had heard. But instead, Williams puts his personal credibility behind the statement, and today is now known to have been saying something false (regardless of whether Williams believed it - he had been encouraged to push for outside investigators to determine the veracity of the claim, and did not pursue such an investigation).
He also said that if Lumpe reached out to us, he would encourage us to not engage.
Landon Nagata, who was a pastor at the time, asked “Are you saying Andrew is excommunicated?” Williams responded with something similar to “I'm not sure what the difference would be, so yeah, I guess.” This kind of in-the-moment excommunication with no due process or even agreement by the overseers is completely foreign to the Bible and indeed Vista’s Bylaws (which state that the overseer board must agree in order to remove someone).
We now know that this meeting was one day after Andrew Lumpe received an intimidating text from Phil Greger (read Andrew Lumpe’s story), which implies there were coordinated efforts across the Network.
Williams also indicated that he and the overseers were discussing legal action they could take to prevent Lumpe from talking further. I never heard an update on whether or not this was done.
I accepted Williams’ story and the caution he recommended regarding Lumpe, as he said this was the first time he’d ever taken this step as a Pastor and I felt like this was something where I should “trust my leaders.”
I echo the warning
I had a member of my small group who had previously been in Andrew Lumpe’s small group. I was genuinely worried that Lumpe was spreading lies.
Two days after the small group leader meeting, I texted back and forth with Mark Guiles, one of the non-staff overseers at Vista Church, about potentially warning my small group member.
“p” is for “pronoun”, all other redactions should be self-explanatory.
Analysis of Text Thread
Mark Guiles is first texting me about a completely unrelated family that has a thing happening. The family hadn’t told me yet, but Luke had.
Mark Guiles: Hey man, Luke mentioned that he told you about the <family>. It’s not public knowledge quite yet, but I wanted to give you a heads up that <family member> is planning to tell you later this week. I guess the <thing is happening> and <pronoun> wanted you guys to hear it from <pronoun>.
Guiles: Just so it doesn’t catch you off guard and get awkward.
Guiles is texting to let me know that the thing is happening, but that Luke Williams shouldn’t have told me, so that I wouldn’t be caught off guard when the actual family tells me. The only way this makes sense is that Guiles didn’t want me to let the person know that I already knew. So, we have gossip and an attempted cover-up of gossip.
Celeste* Irwin: Got it, thanks!
I’m acknowledging that, and then I try to switch topics…
Irwin: Also, do you know if I should reach out to <former member of Andrew’s small group, now part of mine> to check in and/or warn <pronoun>?
Guiles: No, I think they’ll start telling people before too long. Hoping between the few of us talking to them about it right now that we can lead them in how to cause the least harm. But I think it would be better for most people to hear it from them.
Guiles thinks I’m still talking about the previous person. Here he expresses a concern that the family previously mentioned would cause harm, and he’s hoping they can be “led” to not do so.
Irwin: Oh yeah, sorry, meant warning <pronoun> about Andrew, like if he would reach out to <pronoun>
Guiles: Oh I see.
Guiles: Yeah, probably worth it. Do you know whose group <pronoun> in?
Irwin: Mine (smile emoji)
Guiles: Oh, definitely then. Good thought.
Guiles: Thanks for looking out for <pronoun>
This is quite simply, the smoking gun. Guiles strongly affirms my instinct to warn an additional person in the church about Lumpe.
Irwin: Sounds good – any idea what to say? I personally wasn’t close to Andrew so don’t really need to know the details, but <name> might ask?
If you needed evidence that I didn’t know what Lumpe had done/said, and didn’t press for details, here it is.
Guiles: I’ve been thinking a lot about the verse in Hebrews about the root of bitterness that defiles many. I think that’s where Andrew is right now. So I want to honor and respect him as much as I can, but he has the potential to defile many. So I would say to <pronoun> that it’s a unique situation, but there was conflict that they didn’t resolve from before Vista that is now bearing some very hard fruit. They are in a very unhealthy spot. And that if <pronoun> can trust you (and Luke, Sundar, and Me), it’s best to give them some space and not get slimed in all of that.
As a side note, feels like a huge reminder to me to work stuff out and not let it get bitter. Hasn’t been a strength of mine for most of my life, but feels like Jesus is growing it. I don’t want to shipwreck my life in 20 years.
He accuses Lumpe of having the “potential to defile many” and being a “root of bitterness” over an old unresolved conflict. He adds Torrey Lumpe (Andrew Lumpe’s wife) to the mix by switching to the pronoun “they” and says that their unresolved conflict “is now bearing some very hard fruit” and are “in a very unhealthy spot.” Finally, he employs the all-important word: trust. And then invokes all the person’s leaders (including a capitalized “Me”). He expresses hope that my small group member can “give them space” where “them” most naturally applies to the Lumpe’s. He says the small group member could “get slimed.”
Irwin: Thanks, really appreciate that – and agree, I’ve seen bitterness ruin lives before (usually the person who is bitter), and it’s just so sad to watch. And I know I can have a long memory about things that could easily turn into that, so a good reminder for me as well!
(Mark gave a thumbs-up reaction to this text via iMessage reactions).
I try to agree and express appreciation. No further texts related to this.
I did go talk to the small group member after this thread with Guiles, and they trusted me and as far as I know did not communicate with the Lumpe’s again.
We now know that there was at least some significant truth to what Lumpe was saying, and that Luke Williams knew this was true. Williams lied (or grossly misled) the Small Group Leaders. Guiles may have lied, or may have been lied to by Williams - it’s hard to say.
Sundar Ram (the other overseer at Vista Church) was present at the Small Group Leader meeting and did not intervene in any of this.
Leaving Vista
I’ll have more to say on this later, but these events left a profound chilling effect on my willingness to tell my story as I was leaving Vista.
Reconnecting with Andrew Lumpe
I reconnected with Andrew Lumpe in Summer 2021, after me and my family left Vista. He then told me what he knew about Steve Morgan, and I’ve been carrying that since then, telling very few family members and friends with no ties to The Network. I was even careful about what I told my therapist as I didn’t want to trigger mandated reporter laws without hard evidence in my hands. I had no evidence of any of this, though I believed Lumpe’s story. I had no choice but to wait and hope that eventually Lumpe would have enough evidence.
Why does this matter? Because I want it to be clear that:
When I left Vista, I did not know what Lumpe knew. His was just one of several mysterious departures.
I first heard the story from Lumpe in Summer 2021, and it’s mainly similar today as it was then, except for the additional details uncovered in the investigation.
Lumpe and I talk occasionally, but I wouldn’t call us close. I don’t collaborate with him on this site and I have not designed this site with the story about Steve Morgan’s arrest in mind.
More to come
This is just one of many publications being released by myself and LTN today, so I will stop here, and share more thoughts later. But I wanted to leave readers with the following exchange from Episode 3.11 (dated April 26, 2022) of the Uncertain podcast, in which Katherine Spearing (host) is interviewing Dr. Diane Langberg, a trauma psychologist with 50-years of experience and an amazing Christian woman.
Katherine Spearing: “What would you say to someone who just wakes up and discovers that they are in an abusive system?”
Diane Langberg: “Well, number one, I would encourage them not to spend the next two hours talking themselves out of that observation. We often try to do that, partly because we don’t want it to be true. You know if you have someone that you’ve had as a shepherd in your life and you look, step back at some point and see patterns and realize, ‘this is not a safe shepherd,’ you don’t want that to be true. And so our first reaction is often to talk ourselves out of it or to minimize it in some way. ‘Everybody has a bad day.’ ‘Everybody’s a sinner.’ We use these ‘everybody’ words, which are attempts to make it ok. The fact is you need to talk to somebody else about it probably first, you need to find a safe person to tell your story to… You need to have somebody who will be a refuge for you to talk about what has been happening in your life with whoever this person is and how it’s affecting you, and what your options are going forward.”
Please, as you process this, I beg you - please don’t outthink it. The reason all of this sounds bad is because it is. Please be so careful about rationalizations and excuses. You can reach out to me with any questions, at not.overcome@outlook.com. I’m happy to do zoom calls to discuss this and the many other issues in The Network. Please do not only process this with your leaders in The Network. Find outside friends, family, or professionals to talk to and get their honest opinion. Learn about Spiritual Abuse. Watch Diane Langberg’s video “Narcissism and the System it Breeds” to understand how solely removing the leader doesn’t always fix a toxic organization. But please, whatever you do, please don’t just shove all this aside.
To those of you who used to call me “friend” or “brother” - I’m still here. I’ve wanted to let you know about this for a year, but I’ve studied the dynamics of groups like The Network and knew it would be hard for you to believe without evidence. I’m here, I don’t blame you, and I would love to reconnect if this is finally, at last, the thing that allows you to see that those talking about abuses in The Network have been telling the truth all along, and that the Network Leaders are deceivers who are trying to protect themselves and Steve Morgan.