Here is a timeline detailing my experience of gas-lighting, abuse, and ego at the hands of the elders while serving as a member of the pastoral staff at Hope Community Church in Austin, TX.
Hope is a seven year old non-denominational church that’s a part of the Crete Collective. Their lead pastor Aaron Reyes also sits on the board of Crete, while his wife Michelle Reyes is a published author. Ironically, Michelle’s passion and primary focus area is in “breaking cycles of injustice in our country…” Paragraph two of her bio
The Reyeses have aggressively built their “platform” on being seen as advocates of the marginalized, outcast, mistreated, and forgotten in Austin. Despite the facade they present in articles, podcasts, and other online platforms, the turmoil and pain that exists throughout Hope under their leadership tells a radically different story.
What I Experienced
I first met Aaron around 2014 when I was a church plant resident and he had just planted a 20-25 person church in Austin. Throughout the years we stayed moderately connected and built a relationship. In June of 2021, I was contacted by Aaron via Instagram asking if I’d be interested in joining the pastoral team at Hope. Over the course of about 6 weeks my wife and I went through multiple interviews with Aaron and Michelle, as well as various combinations of the elder board. In mid August the elders approved hiring me and the goal was for my family to move back to Austin and begin serving at Hope in early September.
Despite needing to pack up our four kids and uproot our lives from Atlanta back to Austin within a matter of weeks, we were excited to join a small multi-ethnic, justice-minded church. Little did we know the way Aaron and Michelle presented themselves and the state of the church was radically different from reality..
Details of everything I experienced are unpacked in my timeline. Here’s a brief overview of the abuse of power and spiritual abuse that would shape my time at Hope:
My first Sunday, within my first hour of being at the church, a congregant approached me to share her grievance about serving opportunities that were last second decisions, not clearly communicated, but where clear congregant participation was expected.
Aaron and Michelle’s priority is clearly platform building, not pastoring or shepherding the congregation. With little to no communication to the staff ahead of time, the Reyes' constant travel left myself and others scrambling to fill in gaps.
After the first time I pushed against an idea of Aaron’s and advised against something he wanted our next meeting, started with his suggesting that I consider going back to counseling.
For context, in the interview process I was candid and open that I live with PTSD along with severe depression and anxiety. My decision to be honest and transparent about my mental health would be thrown in my face regularly by the elders.
Any disagreement with Aaron or concerns I'd take to the elders were always immediately met with the suggestion that I needed counseling, I have emotional issues, and clearly I was the problem.
From October 2021 through my leaving in March 2022 I personally met with 25+ members of Hope (it's an 80 person church) who needed someone to talk to and confide in regarding verbal mistreatment, abuse of power, and spiritual abuse they experienced at the hands of Aaron.
Staff members regularly came to share with me about their personal frustrations, burnout, and hurt they’ve experienced at the hands of Aaron and Michelle.
Based on my own experience, meeting with congregants, as well as speaking with current and former staff, the following patterns around Aaron’s behavior emerged:
Aaron is a master deflector
Aaron presents himself one way in public but becomes someone different behind closed doors.
Aaron is incredibly conflict averse. To avoid conflict he:
Uses Matt Price, another elder at Hope, and Director of RBI Austin to do his dirty work.
Hides behind elders during in-person meetings even when asked direct questions he hides behind the elders and allows them to speak on his behalf.
Specifically with staff, Aaron leverages his role as lead pastor to have the staff member he dislikes removed from their position.
This was the case for myself and 3 former women staff members.
The way this is done is not by directly firing the staff member but giving ultimatums and pushing them out so the elders can claim their hands are clean of any wrongdoing.
Aaron expects those around him, and especially other elders, to have unquestioned loyalty to him.
Aaron cannot be challenged, his decisions are made unilaterally, and are final.
Aaron speaks down to women he’s in conflict with in ways he never speaks to a man.
Despite the numerous times I brought these experiences and grievances about Aaron to the elders they always fell on deaf ears. This is in large part because the two other elders largely exist as a rubber stamp supporting Aaron’s decisions, as well as shields to prevent any accountability around those decisions.
Why I’m Speaking Out
To learn more about all that happened during my time at Hope check out my timeline.
I haven’t been on staff since March 2022. I met with all of the elders as well as a provisional elder on February 18th where my character was called into question, I was accused of not having enough faith in God for bringing congregation hurt to the elders, and was given 3 ultimatums. Since that day I hadn’t heard from an elder apart from a few brief emails sorting out my severance.
For 3 months I stayed silent in order to:
Focus on caring for my family who is still devastated by our experience at Hope.
Focus on my own healing and mental health.
Focus on finding new employment.
Giving the congregation of Hope the opportunity to hold Aaron and the elders accountable for the pattern of abuse that continues to plague the church.
I decided to speak out because on March 14th Aaron sent an email to ask for my permission to share an email I sent to the elders, and to use my name in a report going out to the church. This was the first time I’ve been contacted by an elder of this church in 3 months. It wasn’t to check on my family, it wasn’t to apologize for their behavior, or seek to make amends for how I was treated. It was to ask me for something, which affirmed the pattern that people are only worth Aaron's time or are useful when he needs something.
Furthermore, when I received a copy of the report (only sections going out to congregants that have my name) I learned more of the deceit at play during my time at Hope. Though I didn’t leave until March 2022, all the way back in December 2021 Aaron had begun actively petitioning to have me fired. This was 4 months after uprooting my family 1,400 miles to join this church. What was my fireable offense? I wasn’t afraid to challenge Aaron.
Seeing no change in Aaron or the elders behavior, learning Aaron had been plotting my exit for months behind my back while smiling to my face, and hearing from congregants that things are far worse today than they were when I left, I feel to not share my story would make me complicit to the abuse. My hope in sharing my experience is to shed light on the abuses that have existed since before my tenure and are still perpetuated by the elders and Michelle Reyes. The congregants who have experienced these abuses need care and support, while those who remain need help as they continue to try and hold their leaders accountable.
How a Lack of Oversight and Accountability Perpetuates the Abuse
The sad reality is despite the congregation's best efforts to bring change, and former staff and congregants speaking out, in all likelihood change won’t happen. I pray I’m proven wrong, but the only path forward to save Hope is for Aaron and the elders to step down or be removed from leadership.
This is where my faith in positive change coming to Hope falters. The way the church leadership structure is setup the elders have no accountability apart from other elders. The current elders are in their role because they’ve proven their unquestioned allegiance and loyalty to Aaron. There’s no higher governing body that can intervene with any authority on behalf of the congregation. Because Hope is “elder led” that means the congregation has no power to bring about change to who is leading or pastoring the church. There’s no objective or unbiased third party that can assess the abuse and bring about change. At most a third party can only assess and advise, but it’s still on the elders to choose to do what is best for Hope. Sadly, their track record is to prioritize themselves. Tragically, Hope is an oligarchy.
As much as I can I will continue to speak out about my experience working for Aaron and with the elders he has chosen. So long as Aaron and Michelle Reyes are at the helm of the congregation I cannot with a clear conscience advise anyone to consider this church as a healthy place to grow in your faith.
Stay in touch with Julie Anne Smith at www.spiritualsoundingboard.com . She was sued by her pastor for defamation and she won. Her pastor had to pay her legal fees. She can help you with tactics.