- Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here
from Faith Forward Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.
Back in the summer of 2019, Verity Baptist Church
planted a church in Fresno, California,
which is like three hours away by car.
And Pastor Jared Puzarnsky was put at the helm.
Now, the reason that this church was started
was because there was a demand for it.
I remember talking to Pastor Jimenez about this many times
before the church plant about how we needed
a church in Fresno.
And I remember saying to him,
look, if you're not gonna start this church in Fresno,
I'll do it.
But I just said, it'd make way more sense for you to do it
since you're just geographically so much closer.
And so there was a demand, people wanted the church,
there were people in that area that wanted somewhere to go.
I remember in particular, one guy, Frank,
that I would constantly see at events in LA and Sacramento.
And we were always talking about getting a church
in Fresno, other visitors and people from Fresno,
we would have these conversations.
We had several people say this to us
when we were out sewing it.
It was people that weren't even necessarily interested
in hearing our gospel presentation,
but this is what several people said to us.
They said, "We're glad you're here."
They said, "Keep up the good work."
And this is what several people said,
"This neighborhood needs what you're doing."
- So when they started out, they had good size attendances.
You look back at the pictures and videos from back then,
you see big crowds at the grand opening,
anniversary services.
I found a clip also from December 22nd, 2019.
So this is several months after the grand opening.
This isn't the grand opening.
It's several months later, December 22nd.
And Oliver says they had 53 in the service
that Sunday morning.
- And well, it's great to be back here in Fresno.
It's good to see everyone again.
And of course, the Bizarre Spies are doing a great job.
And it's great to hear that this morning
we had, what, 53 in attendance.
So that is a great number.
And I'm excited for the future of this church.
- But then we fast forward six years later
and the church is gone, shut down, right?
Just as soon as Pastor Pizarnsky moved up to Sacramento
the church just closes its doors
because it's not even worth keeping open
because there's so few people there.
- But it was like what to do with Whole Fast Baptist Church.
I mean, to leave even the few is a hard thing.
- And this is what we've observed
over the last couple of years as well.
Pastor Mejia went there and preached
and said there were like 10 people in the service
when he went and preached.
He said it would be very generous to just say
maybe it could have been 15 or something.
I was there multiple times.
I observed the same thing.
I preached there on a Sunday morning on the road trip.
There's like 15 people.
Where did everybody go?
What happened?
The truth of the matter is that he absolutely
ran that church into the ground.
He started with all of the signage and all the support,
a verity behind him and the building
and he had all the bells and whistles
and everything setting him up for success.
A big group of people that were ready to go,
tons of visitors constantly coming to the church
and hearing about it and being excited
about a new IFB church in Fresno
and he just absolutely destroyed it and ran to the ground.
So how, like what did he do to run everybody off?
Well, several people have reached out to me about this
from that church that were there in those days
and they're all telling the same exact story.
So I'm gonna go through that right now
of why Verity Fresno, which started out
looking like it was gonna be such a success,
just completely failed and now it no longer exists.
Well, first of all, one thing that was consistent
was that everybody was telling us that they were just,
that Pastor Pzarnski, in particular,
was trashing the new IFB from day one,
trashing myself to people, Pastor Mejia, Pastor Shelley,
his son Garrett apparently said that the NIFB was evil.
And you might just think to yourself,
well, who cares, you know, I don't like the new IFB either.
Yeah, but you have to understand
that this guy was pretending to be our friend.
He's participating in events with us.
He has us preach for him.
He would come and preach at our place.
He's coming to pastoral retreats
that I'm putting on and everything.
And then behind, you know, my back,
he's just talking trash behind Pastor Mejia's back.
And a lot of these church members said
that they found it disturbing
that he would pretend to be our friend publicly
and then trash us behind our back.
Also, once he became ordained,
he would do secret sermons with the camera turned off
where he preached the weird doctrines.
You know, for example, preaching that Christians
could take the mark of the beast,
which is obviously a bizarre
and heretical thing to preach.
Everybody's also consistent in saying
that he was super controlling,
not allowing any soul winning outside the official times,
getting angry about people visiting
Pastor Mejia's church in L.A.,
not wanting them to go down there and attend events in L.A.
- Hi, my name is Johannes Hubertz.
I got saved in the summer of 2018
and started going to Verity Baptist Fresno
when it started in 2019.
I was the aving guy and soul winning map maker
for the church.
I thought it was very odd that Jared Przarski
forbade us from going soul winning
outside of the soul winning times,
as well as preach that safe people
could take the mark of the beast,
would brag about being a bully in school
and pushing down weaker kids,
and said he would physically hold down his wife
to prevent her from going to their crying babies.
It became clear to me that he was
either a major flip-flopper or a fraud,
when he was very anti-New IFB at the start of the ministry,
then became pro-New IFB after being ordained,
then again anti-now.
- My name's Frank Rocha.
I am from the Fresno area.
Back in 2018, I was a church member with FWBCLA.
I used to drive to the area with my family.
Loved the church, learned a lot preaching the gospel there
and just, you know, ought to be a Christian,
ought to be, it was good times.
And the Lord directed me and my family to Sacramento.
We started driving to Verity Sacramento.
It was just a better fit with my wife and my kids.
I thought it was best.
And we were driving there faithfully.
We were church members, completed the membership class.
And then they eventually planted a church in Fresno.
It was a satellite church.
Was very thankful to that.
It was a huge blessing.
And, you know, basically, you know,
we gave our lives to that church.
You know, me and my family, we love the church.
We love the vision that Pastor Menno's had.
And, you know, we got behind the satellite leader,
Brother Jarrett Buzarnski, at the time.
And we did everything we could to help.
And everything was great as a satellite.
You know, the moment he got ordained,
things started to really take a turn for the worse.
I mean, there were signs that were really
just some big red flags.
Quick thing I'd bring up,
I remember I really wanted to go and visit First Works.
There were times I wanted to go,
this is the time they're independent.
I went and visited and one time Jared asked me,
I got back and Jared, he wasn't ordained yet,
this was right before.
And he asked me, "Why didn't you tell me,
"why didn't you tell me you went and visited over there?
"Why didn't you tell me?
"Why are you keeping this from me?"
And I was like, I didn't think I had to, you know?
I didn't think, why would I have to tell you?
Like if Pastor Berzins was guest preaching,
why would I have to tell you?
And many things like that, you know,
not allowing to have, you know, men at my house,
you know, that's not for me.
Like I got the homes for, you know,
it's a sacred area for you and your wife and your family.
It's like, I can have whoever I want over,
you know what I mean?
Like there's several things, you know,
I just kind of overlooked.
- There were two situations where Pastor Berzinski
just completely disrespected, ignored,
and usurped the authority of parents
over their own daughter.
For example, in one situation,
this girl wanted to marry this guy up in Canada
from another church.
And Berzinski basically, you know, goes into the home,
pulls the girl out of there, gets her stuff out of there,
takes it upon himself to put this girl in a hotel
and just make all the arrangements
for her to marry this guy in another country
without her parents' consent.
- Hi, my name is Marianne Arquine-Cornelio,
and I just wanna say that on October of 2021,
my daughter was eloped from our home,
and Jared was the one who took our daughter out of our home.
We had a meeting in the morning of that day after service,
'cause it was a Sunday,
and he told us, my husband, and Lucy was in the room,
and Miss Heidi was in the room,
and he told us that, he told my husband
that he had no control of the household,
and that he was gonna take over the control of Lucy,
and he really didn't explain to us what was going on.
He just said that he was gonna take control of Lucy,
and that if he tells his son to jump,
that his son tells him how high,
and that my husband didn't have that ability
of control like he did, and that he was disappointed.
So we left that meeting, and then Miss Heidi,
during that time after the meeting,
right after the meeting, asked me
if she could take Lucy out for lunch.
And I said, "Sure, she could."
So we went out for lunch, and while we went out for lunch,
I was still distraught about what was going on.
I didn't understand what was going on.
We went soul winning, and during soul winning,
a sister did ask me what was going on,
and I said, "I don't know,"
because I really didn't know.
I know my daughter wanted to get married,
and I said that they could get married, but in July,
and that was the agreement.
They even had an engagement party,
and that's what we agreed to,
but as soon as her boyfriend left, now husband,
it was like a week later,
she wanted to already leave to Canada and get married,
and I said, "I need to consult with Jared first,
with Pastor Jared first to see what's the right protocol,"
because I wanted to actually know the guy,
only know him for one week, you know how he is or anything,
so let's do things the right way,
at least know him for the sex seasons, you know?
And so I really was very confused as to what was going on
or what Lucy had in mind,
and so after that, we went soul-winding, we came back,
and during that time,
Miss Heidi took the opportunity to take Lucy out of my house
without my permission,
and Miss Heidi told me we didn't believe Lucy,
we didn't believe Lucy what she told us,
because what she was saying didn't make sense,
but my husband thought it was better for her
to take her out of the house,
and I was like, well, that's not right,
I won't agree with that,
and so yeah, so she took her out of my house,
and paid for two weeks of hotel,
and helped her get her passport and everything,
and eventually she went to Canada and get married,
without, I mean, she was an adult,
she could do whatever she wants,
but all I'm saying is this guy went into my house
and took control of my daughter,
and she helped her elope to go with him.
After I said, no, let's first consult Jerry
to see what, you know, sorry,
I don't believe this guy is fit to be a pastor.
And then eventually we got kicked out of the church,
because he said that, you know,
that I was causing division, but I didn't,
I only spoke with Sister Kelly,
but I couldn't even tell her what was going on,
'cause at that time I really didn't know what was going on,
because it really, all I heard was,
I'm taking control, and we were like, what?
But yeah, so that's what happened,
and I don't believe this guy is fit.
I do believe that he is controlling.
- Then in another situation, he is assisting his son
in eloping with a girl who's 17, you know, saying,
hey, as soon as she's 18, they're gonna elope,
and not telling the parents,
and then when church members do come forward
and tell the dad and say, hey,
this is what Pozarnski's doing,
you know, obviously he's angry,
he ends up leaving the church and everything,
because, you know, obviously he doesn't appreciate
these things being done behind his back,
and it's kind of weird how there are two situations like this
in the same church where he is going in,
usurping parents' authority,
trying to marry off a girl to someone
that their parents, you know, either don't approve of,
or they don't approve of the timing,
and so it was because of these two weird situations
that a lot of people were kicked out of the church,
a lot of people left the church.
I mean, this kind of weird, controlling stuff
is what offended a lot of people,
and this is what's running people off
and just running the church into the ground,
this weird behavior.
Garrett Przarski, who was a close friend of mine,
told me he planned on eloping with a 17-year-old
when she turned 18.
I obviously thought this was wrong.
Jared Przarski then bragged to brother Frank Rocha and I
that Garrett and her would be married soon,
even though her parents had no idea.
Brother Frank and I then brought this information
to her father.
Brother Frank left the church quietly,
but then was labeled a wolf by Przarski for this.
I was later kicked out for this situation as well.
The girl admitted to this long ago,
and the elope was prevented.
So the fact that Przarski lies about this to this day
should tell you what kind of person he is.
- There's so many things I can go into,
but really I just want to say
that everything that Johannes Huvertz is mentioning,
I can agree to it and affirm to it and it is true.
I'm just one of several witnesses.
- Those decisions are left up to the parents.
It's not the job of the pastor to come in
and run people's personal lives
and get involved and disrespect
and usurp that kind of authority of a parent.
In both of these situations,
he tried to get Pastor Thompson involved
and Pastor Thompson did not get involved,
but he was trying to get Pastor Thompson
to get hotels or talk to these people.
Maybe she can stay with these people or whatever.
And he wasn't interested in getting involved,
but that's another witness to these things.
All the witnesses are telling the same stories.
Stories are bizarre.
And so all that to say this,
Pastor Buzarnsky is a failed pastor.
He was handed a great opportunity
and in six years he destroyed it and ran it into the ground.
And it's funny that people will try to dispute that
when the church doesn't exist.
Imagine pastoring for over six years in a town
and you have nothing to show for it.
And it's not like he started from scratch
and then it never got off the ground or something.
I can understand that.
And I can understand churches that are small
because they started from scratch,
they couldn't get off the ground or something.
But when you're starting with a good size group of people,
you're starting with a big group
and then you just absolutely run it into the ground
and shut it down, okay?
Well, guess what?
That isn't the blessing of God.
That's not normal, okay?
And so not only did he fail as a pastor,
but he's also a massive hypocrite.
Because remember, this is the guy getting up and preaching,
don't rule by constraint,
and just preaching all this weak, soft leadership,
while in reality, he's a control freak, megalomaniac,
and just not practicing what he preaches at all.
- There's a huge issue with pride and lording over the flock.
I love Jared, I forgive him, but it's just, it's insane.
The pride and the control that this man had,
and just the spirit of the church at Whole Fathers,
no liberty, just straight control and lording,
and just order always in the church, no liberty at all.
I felt terrible, I felt terrible
for just looking back at it for the ladies in the church,
the children in the church.
It was always his way or the highway.
Very control of guy, I was always in the room,
like I was in a preschool going in there,
I was always getting scolded, I was never enough,
I'm not like his wife, why can I be like his wife?
And whatever, and you know what?
I was miserable, sorry, but I wasn't happy.
- You know that your wife has to be with you willingly.
She has to follow you, just like you have to follow me.
- This is not someone that you wanna follow,
this is not someone that you wanna listen to.
And the purpose of this video is to warn you about this man
and to warn the people of Verity Baptist Church
that this is what this guy is like.
And it's funny, I think everybody on the outside
can see what's going on,
but I think the people on the inside,
they're just too emotional about it
to see the forest for the trees.
This guy completely failed and then everybody just acts like,
oh, what a great choice for pastor to take over Verity.
It's absurd.
And as far as the Verity situation,
I'm not gonna go into it here.
I did an entire sermon on this last Sunday
called Verity's Lack of Repentance.
So I would highly recommend that you go listen
to that sermon to understand the situation at Verity.
God bless you, have a great day.