Former ministry workers for activist missionary and worship leader Sean Feucht are standing by their allegations of financial, spiritual and moral misconduct against him and challenged his claim that they’re disgruntled volunteers who were dismissed for moral failings.
“I know these people directly and which is why I’m making this video. … When you levy that kind of allegation against someone you say, ‘Hey, listen, you’re saying that Christy, Richie, Peter, Amanda, me, we were all let go of our affiliation with the Burn as volunteers because we had moral failings — all four of us, which is not the case. I can speak for myself,” Jesse Westwood, who formerly worked with Feucht as a touring musician and worship leader, said on his podcast Monday.
Westwood joined several former workers in making allegations against Feucht on a website called “Truth and Freedom Stories,” purporting to “provide a documented account of longstanding and serious moral, ethical, financial, organizational and governance failures involving Sean (John Christopher) Feucht and the four religious organizations that he founded and directs.”
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The other former workers are Christy Gafford, former USA national director-global communications director for Burn 24/7; Peter and Amanda Hartzell, formerly of Burn 24/7; Liam Bernhard, former OKC director, Burn Field Training, mid-south regional director of Burn 24/7; and Richie Booth, a former administrative staff member for Burn 24/7, Let Us Worship and Light a Candle.
In a video response posted on YouTube on June 10, Feucht, who initially dismissed his accusers as angry former volunteers, later referred to them as former employees and insisted that the financials of his ministries are in good standing.
“We have incredible accountants. We have an incredible board. We have incredible oversight. And so, we’ll respond to these in the coming days. But I can’t say a ton just because of the legal implications of it. But I will say this: you know, when you have embittered, angry, upset former volunteers, these are not staff people. These are not people that were hired. These are volunteers that … we had to dismiss because of moral issues,” he said. “We had to dismiss them. We had to release them. And a lot of them are from 15 years ago, 12 years ago, 10 years ago. A few of them I’ve only met one time. And a lot of them were in the Burn Movement.”
Westwood suggested that Feucht might be lying or was simply ignorant about what he was saying about his accusers.
“It’s one of two things. It’s either total ignorance and maybe he doesn’t realize, maybe he doesn’t know who he’s talking about. Maybe he actually doesn’t realize the people he’s talking about aren’t the people he’s talking about or he is lying to dismiss the claims and to keep moving forward,” Westwood said.
“I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he doesn’t really know who he’s talking about [but] I have a feeling he does,” he added. “I reached out to him personally. … These are all lies. This is a flat-out lie. He either doesn’t know who he’s talking about or he’s lying to you.”
Westwood then shared videos of the accusers responding to Feucht.
Gafford said she started volunteering for Feucht’s ministries in 2016, but was removed in May 2024 after raising concerns about Feucht’s operations.
“I had multiple interactions with Sean Feucht even though I directly reported to Adam Miller and that was set up by myself, my husband, Sean Feucht, and Adam Miller. My abuse story actually was a part of the degrading and dismissal of me leaving the Burn organization, and I had brought concerns to Adam,” she said.
“I brought concerns to the board and to Sean as well. And in my attempts at bringing those concerns they were dismissed. …. The allegations are very serious.”
Peter and Amanda Hartzell also pointed out that they have a long history with Feucht, so any claim that he didn’t know them very well couldn’t be true.
“We are not bitter towards Sean or Kate or his family at all, quite the opposite. Our hearts are deeply grievous that we’re even sitting here having to do this,” Amanda Hartzell said.
“Pete actually attended the same school as Sean in elementary in … Montana,” she explained. “It’s where Pete was born and raised. And we became a part of the Burn in 2008 is when we first made our connection with Sean up until 2010. … After a run-in with him that really was very not wonderful.”
The former workers allege that in 2020, Feucht’s ministry experienced a substantial revenue increase of $5.3 million. Two years later, in 2022, the ministry reclassified its IRS status to be recognized as a church, which removed “financial reporting requirements” and created “significant transparency issues.”
The group, which is calling for Feucht and his ministries to be investigated, pointed to the complex organizational structure the ministries, which seem to overlap in their business activities despite being separate legal entities, along with his real estate holdings in multiple states that they claim, “raise questions about the proportion of non-profit funds directed towards real estate rather than program activities.”
They believe Feucht’s ownership of 10 homes in California, Montana and Pennsylvania indicates “substantial investment in residential properties.”
The group further states that multiple former employees and volunteers have raised concerns about financial practices at Feucht’s ministry, such as donation diversion, restricted donor fraud, credit card misuse and bulk cash smuggling.
“Issues such as reporting no volunteers on 990 forms, questions about foreign operations like the child sponsorship program in India with no reported foreign bank accounts, and potential failures in required disclosures,” they noted.
A section titled “Abuse” highlights what the accusers claim is a “history of manipulation and broken promises,” “patterns of spiritual manipulation,” as well as “spiritual coercion and fear.” They also raised allegations of uncompensated service, “volunteer exploitation” and “retaliation against critics.”
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
