Fired megachurch pastor, Gabriel Mills was recently arrested and charged after multiple alleged incidents involving nude photos. Mills, who was recently fired as the guest experience pastor at the Kenosha, Wisconsin campus of Journey Church, pleaded not guilty to two counts of capturing an intimate representation without consent.
The allegations against Mills claim that during a group meeting at his home, the former pastor had allegedly sent a private photograph of a female congregant to his personal phone while helping her husband download an app on his phone, where he found the image. The female congregant and her husband subsequently filed a complaint to the police department.
According to reports, just as Mills had been arrested following his preliminary hearing, another complaint of similar accusations surfaced, to which Mills was arrested again. “This morning Gabriel Mills was arrested after his preliminary hearing. A new complainant came forward, after reading the original media release. Detectives were able to locate evidence on Gabriel’s phone that substantiated the claims made against him by the complainant. Gabriel was charged with one more count of Capture an Intimate Representation Without Consent,” Lt. Josh Hecker of the Kenosha Police Department said in a statement.
The statement continued, “The investigations against Gabriel are still on-going. At this time, several search warrants have been executed and many items of evidence have been seized. The seized evidence primarily consists of electronic devices, that contain digital evidence. The seized items are still being processed to identify other potential victims. Det. Eric Traxler is asking for anyone with information related to this case to please contact him at 262-605-5223.”
The Christian Tribune has continually reported on other megachurch controversies where the former CEO of Morningstar Ministries, Chris Reed, had established a new congregation after a massive sexual abuse scandal within the South Carolina-based ministry. Reed had explained that he did not want to lead a ministry embattled with such controversy.
“I did not want to be leading the ministry that would be in a case against four victims who were abused as children by a former volunteer of the ministry who is a policeman as well. This happened before I came to MorningStar, and I could not [defend the lawsuit] because I know the families,” Reed said in a video. “I know the victims. Many of them we’ve got to know them. I made a tough, painful, painful choice, and I just didn’t care.”
However, MorningStar founder Rick Joyner slammed Reed’s resignation, as demonstrating disregard for the church. “What alarmed me even more was that in this [resignation] letter, there was almost no regard for the church, no regard for the ministry, no regard for a lot of people. It was all about him and his future and what he needed to do,” he said.
“I want him to have the brightest future he could have, but I did not feel that that there was a shepherd’s heart revealed. A shepherd lays down their life for the sheep and certainly has regard for them. I didn’t feel like there was regard for me, for our board, any of this stuff. We had entrusted a lot to him. I don’t think to just quit like that is what we ever need to do with anyone with no notice,” he added.