Hey everybody, it's Pastor Jonathan Shelley from Steadfast Baptist Church, and I wanted
to give an update about our situation regarding the directors of the Church, the financial
accounts, and I've made videos in the past about this, but I just wanted to give a conclusion
and a summary and a update.
And praise the Lord, you know what, we won, we were victorious, everything went great,
and unfortunately it was a long, hard-fought battle, but the Lord really blessed us and
made it clear who was the victor on this issue.
And when it comes to the situation, we had Ryan Gallagher, Seth Bookout, and Leslie Romero
file documents with the Secretary of State claiming to be directors of Steadfast Baptist
Church.
They seized financial control of our accounts.
Upon discovering this and reading the Texas Business Code, reading the Criminal Code,
it appeared to me that crimes had been committed.
I turned that into the authorities, the detective agreed, however criminal proceedings were
put on hold temporarily because the prosecution wanted the civil aspects of our litigation
to be resolved first.
That forced us to go into civil litigation.
In that civil litigation, we had to get granted a temporary injunction, which we were awarded,
and given access to those accounts.
Unfortunately we did not have initial compliance from Seth Bookout on this.
We had to file a content motion against him, which was essentially granted us control back
to the accounts and everything like that.
We had to go through an appeals process because the defendants tried to dismiss our case,
which we won with the judge, and then we won the appeal above that, and then they tried
to counter sue me and my friends Pastor Jimenez, Pastor Aaron Thompson, Pastor Bruce Mejia,
but we ended up prevailing in our summary judgment, and I think as a result of that
it caused them to want to just abandon the litigation.
As a result, we settled with Seth Bookout and Leslie Romero, and eventually Ryan Gallagher
eventually just dismissed his counterclaim.
The final judgments awarded to us I wanted to read for you, just so you'd have kind of
an idea of what happened.
In the agreed judgment it says, number one, that Jonathan Shelley, Ryan Urbanek, and Carrie
Sucelli are the duly appointed and lawful directors of Steadfast Baptist Church, a Texas
nonprofit corporation.
Number two, that Seth Bookout, Leslie Romero, and Ryan Gallagher are not the directors of
Steadfast Baptist Church, a Texas nonprofit corporation, and none of them has any authority,
whatsoever, to act on behalf of or to bind Steadfast Baptist Church, a Texas nonprofit
corporation.
Number three, that Seth Bookout, Leslie Romero, and Ryan Gallagher are not members of Steadfast
Baptist Church.
Number four, that all documents filed by Seth Bookout, Leslie Romero, and Ryan Gallagher
with the Texas Secretary of State, in which they designated themselves as directors of
Steadfast Baptist Church, are null and void and of no effect whatever.
Number five, that Seth Bookout and Leslie Romero lack standing to assert any claims
against Steadfast Baptist Church and or Jonathan Shelley concerning any alleged financial improprieties
or misappropriation of Steadfast Baptist Church funds by Steadfast Baptist Church and or Jonathan
Shelley.
And number six, that Seth Bookout and Leslie Romero take nothing by their counterclaims
against plaintiff and counter-defendants.
So in conclusion of the judgment, they found us to be the rightful directors, which was
great and praise the Lord that truth prevailed in this situation.
Additionally, the result of this is that many awards were granted to us.
Ordered a judge and decreed that plaintiffs awarded against defendants Seth Bookout, Leslie
Romero, and Ryan Gallagher jointly and severally the sum of $87,800 as reasonable and necessary
attorneys fees.
And then it goes on blah, blah, blah, $2,000 here, $25,000 below, $6,000 below, another
$12,000.
Additionally, there was another document in which we were granted another award.
Ordered a judge and decreed that plaintiffs are awarded in the sum of $51,600, and this
is against Seth Bookout, Leslie Romero, and Ryan Gallagher.
As a result of one of the settlements we made with Seth Bookout and Leslie Romero, the judgment
solely relies upon Ryan Gallagher now.
And so the judgments are not going to be coming against those two individuals, but solely
on Ryan Gallagher.
And this is a lot of money.
Really you can just see how God fought our battles for us and has made it clear that
you reap what you sow.
If you're going to attack God's people, if you're going to attack the Church, you know,
God is going to defend us.
And we won all of these victories, additionally we have judgments against them, and now that
opens us up to the fact that criminal proceedings can move forward.
And I'm willing, if someone has any additional information that could be used that's successful
in bringing justice to any crimes that were committed against steadfast Baptist Church,
I'd be willing to compensate or make a deal with that individual.
And I think that, you know, it makes sense that if you have that information that you
could use it for justice.
But no matter what, you know, the Bible is very clear that God is going to avenge, and
that God is going to judge, and God is going to take care of His Church.
And you know, steadfast Baptist Church is going great.
We have record attendance, we have a new building, our mission strip to the Bahamas was amazing
that we did, we're seeing record number of people saved, baptized, record number of ladies
in our church are pregnant, and really the Lord's just been blessing us greatly.
Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for us, who supported us financially, who
gave sacrificially to us, and of course we still have costs and expenditures that are
related to the situation that we still have to pay, and if you're willing or able to still
support us in the future, we would greatly appreciate it.
And I believe that God is going to greatly reward you for having supported our church
and stood with us.
And of course, our enemies should be quaking and shivering in fear right now, because it's
very clear that God is on our side.
And if God is for us, who can be against us?
And I want to make it clear that, you know, as the pastor of the church, I believe it's
my responsibility to defend the church, its assets, its resources, its people, its doctrine,
and I will do everything in my power to defend our flock from the wolves that are out there
and would try to destroy and try to cause our church to be harmed in any way.
But you know, way scarier than me is God, and God is obviously on our side and is going
to defend us, and I believe that Steadfast Baptist Church is doing some of the most important
work in this world in a very crucial time, and so we need to make sure that we are standing
in this fight as the Bible tells us, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord.
And you know what I'm telling you, brethren?
This is a really big fight, a really big battle.
We need to continue to resist the devil so he'll flee from us, and we need to just dig
into the Word of God.
You know, it's obvious who a man is by his foes, and this is some serious evil that was
caused against our church, and you know, it just makes it obvious and clear that our
church is really doing something important.
Why would someone try to destroy the work or do some evil against it?
But please pray for us.
You know, I'm not going to disclose really any more information about this situation,
as there's not really much else needed.
Of course, once the criminal proceedings have moved forward or concluded, I may make another
update video about that, but I just wanted to put this out there so you could celebrate
with us, rejoice with us, leap for joy, praise God for His infinite mercy, and the fact that
there is a judge that judges in the earth, and in conclusion, I just want to remind you
that this should be a memorial to the Lord, that He fought our battles for us, and we
were victorious.
So when we go to the next challenge, the next evil that will continue to have faith in our
faithful Creator, and that He'll deliver us through it, and I hope that you guys have
a great day.
God bless you.
Talk to you again.