A now-retired pastor at America’s largest United Methodist Church – Highland Park United Methodist Church, which had nearly 15,000 members as recent as 2023 – was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution at a massage parlor stemming from a raid on the parlor this past October. Dr. John Fiedler, who had been at HPUMC since 2013, quietly resigned at the end of 2024 a few months after his arrest.
In the resignation submitted by his family, ABC 8 reported a spokesperson for the megachurch saying ‘the family of 72-year-old John Fiedler submitted his resignation on Oct. 8, 2024, citing “an undiagnosed medical condition.” Court records, corroborated by an outside health professional, would later reveal that while his departure seemingly stemmed from his arrest, there were other factors at play in his personal life.
All mention of Fielder’s participation with HPUMC has since been scrubbed from their website, as have videos of previous live streams on their Facebook page. The Christian Tribune previously reported that “an archived version of the church webpage” provided a short history of his background, education, and work in ministry. “In 2013, he came to Highland Park United Methodist where he preached the 11:00 a.m. sanctuary service until he was chosen to direct the Mark Craig Leadership Network.” His quiet resignation was effective December 31, 2024.
And while Highland Park United Methodist Church effectively removed their connection to Fiedler via mass deletion of website attribution and archival videos, there remains a plethora of his sermons on the YouTube channel belonging to his previous church, First United Methodist Church Dallas. The channel is called FirstChurchDallas. He was the lead pastor there for 16 years before moving to HPUMC.
In one particular sermon clipped from a larger presentation, he discussed the role of God “forgiving us and extending grace to us.” Fiedler begins speaking by saying, “Paul got up and was teaching about what God has done in Jesus Christ, the good news of God’s initiative in forgiving us and extending grace to us in the event of salvation. And all that you and I need do is to accept this marvelous gift done on our behalf, and Lydia listened to the words of Paul, and something happened.
“Something happened in her heart she needed and was looking for something more, and Paul provided it, as he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to her, and so she desired to be baptized in the faith. Now I think that’s an important connection. You notice that she would did not become a person of faith by virtue of having been baptized, but rather it was a response to the preaching and teaching of Paul, in which her heart was changed, and as a result of this conversion experience, she desired to be baptized, and her baptism was an external sign of the internal reality that this change had already taken place,” Fiedler says as the clip begins.
Take a look below at the gifted speaker Fiedler was, who by all accounts lived a decent life and was committed to spreading the word of God.
Fiedler, 72, had no prior criminal record and as was alluded to earlier had recently been diagnosed with dementia, according to court records in the case of John Fiedler versus the State of Texas. Fiedler appears to have fully cooperated with local law enforcement; he turned himself in upon learning about the warrant for his arrest since there was insufficient manpower to arrest him. He was released on a $1,000 bond.
Featured image: Carrollton, TX Police Department