BY : Michael Gryboski, Editor Christian Post
The G3 Church Network is reportedly shutting down effective immediately after leaders made allegations that Pastor Tom Buck regularly plagiarized sermons, according to an emailed statement cited by the discernment site Protestia.
Protestia published a story Tuesday that included a screenshot of the brief email to network partners that stated that leaders are “dissolving the G3 Church Network effective immediately.”
“All who have recurring dues set up through Stripe will have those canceled by the end of the week,” the email reads. “We are sorry for any pain we have caused you.”
G3 has not confirmed the shutdown on its website. When accessed Tuesday afternoon, the site still promoted a multiday conference scheduled for next May titled “Faithful in the Ordinary.”
According to its website, the G3 Network was founded in 2013 and describes itself as “a global fellowship of Reformed Baptist churches committed to sound doctrine, expository preaching, and the sovereignty of God in all things.”
To join the network, a church had to commit to biblical orthodoxy, practice church discipline, have an elder board and contribute at least $500 a year. As of last year, more than 100 churches in the United States and abroad were affiliated with the network.
On Wednesday morning, G3 Ministries announced on the social media platform X that it would close its account there at noon Eastern Time, giving no explanation for the decision. The organization’s Facebook and Instagram accounts appeared to have been deleted as of Wednesday morning.
The Christian Post reached out to G3 Ministries by email, phone and Facebook message to confirm the Protestia report. A response is pending.
Allegations against Buck, who served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, since 2006 and was a frequent contributor to G3 Ministries, stemmed from an anonymously authored letter that Protestia later traced to Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, which has ties to the G3 Network.
On Tuesday morning, four pastors at Pray’s Mill Baptist — Matt Sikes, Dylan Joyner, Jon Norton and Scott Aniol — sent a letter to elders at First Baptist Lindale asking for forgiveness.
“We confess that we sinfully meddled in the disciplinary process of your autonomous local church,” they wrote. “We sinned by characterizing how your church handled its discipline situation without knowing all the details.”
“We have sinned against God and against Tom Buck and the leadership of FBC Lindale, and we humbly ask you to forgive us. We recognize the pain this has caused your church, and we are sorry.”
The four also announced that they were resigning as pastors of the church, adding that “we humbly confessed our sin to the congregation, and our congregation graciously forgave us.”
Aniol became president of G3 last year after the previous president, Josh Buice, resigned following his confession that he had used various social media accounts, email accounts and Substack platforms to “publicly and anonymously slander numerous Christian leaders.”
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