Jim’s Update: Attempts at Resolution (August 2025 to April 2026)
Real Names: Dave, Kathy, Rebecca, Quinn, and Suli. All others are pseudonyms to protect privacy.
Added April 2026
Since my account was published in August 2025, several readers have asked whether reconciliation was attempted. This update summarizes the efforts made and the responses received during that period.
Attempts at Resolution Before Publication (Oct 2023 to Sep 2025)
Before the website went live in August 2025, I tried multiple times to resolve the July 2023 “word” and the resulting $30,000 tithe privately and through leadership channels.
Oct 23, 2023: Meeting with Dave and Inner Circle requested
I scheduled a meeting with Dave and asked that the Inner Circle be present. I sent Dave a PDF agenda in advance, including context for his July 2023 word and what it set in motion. Only Marvin attended (Quinn was ill; Greg was out of town). When I began reading the document, Dave stopped me and said, “Just stick to the dreams.” The core issue, his original word and its impact, was not examined with witnesses present.
Late 2024 to Apr 2025: Escalation through Saturday night leadership
In late 2024, Rebecca and I started attending the Saturday night group. In late March 2025, we raised the issue with its leader, whom Dave repeatedly and publicly described as an elder over Friday night. He told me he would speak with Dave. I later learned he did confront Dave and told him to return the tithe. Dave reportedly agreed and said he would reach out to me about the July 2023 word and the $30,000 tithe. He never did.
Dave and Kathy did reach out in summer 2025 for our annual kidney donation celebration, but Dave still did not reach out to address the July 2023 word.
On Sept 1, 2025, Rebecca and I met with the Saturday night leader and a Saturday night elder to discuss the website and clear up misconceptions. At that meeting, the Saturday night leader clarified that he was never an elder over Friday night, which explained some of the confusion about his role and our attempts to involve him more formally.
Aug 14 to Aug 27, 2025: Final written appeal before any public action
On Aug 14, 2025, we delivered and emailed an eight-page letter to Dave with detailed allegations from multiple individuals and a clear request: respond to the substance, either by confession or by a case for innocence. We gave extensions due to travel and a funeral. Dave did not respond by the final deadline (Aug 27).
Suli hand delivered the letter to Dave on Aug 14, 2025. They then had a long conversation. Suli told me she asked Dave about his earlier conversation with the Saturday night leader regarding the tithe. Dave denied that any such conversation ever happened.
Summary
Over nearly two years, I attempted private resolution by (1) requesting an in-person discussion with leadership present, (2) escalating through leadership I believed Dave recognized as legitimate, and (3) delivering a final written appeal with time and extensions to respond. Each attempt was shut down, delayed, or ignored.
Timeline of Events
August 28, 2025: The website containing my account went live.
August 29, 2025: Dave responded by email with the subject line “Remember this?” He referenced communications between us prior to the prophecy he gave me, and appeared to frame my later concerns as inconsistent with prior expressions of gratitude. I acknowledged receipt. He did not engage the substance of my account.
September 19, 2025: Dave issued a public response to the website that included factual inaccuracies. Most notably, he claimed I had “two dreams about giving.” My documented account shows I had six dreams that night, none of which concerned financial giving. The dreams occurred the same night as his 3:00 a.m. message. The content of both the dreams and the “word” is documented in an email I sent him in October 2023.
September 26, 2025: I initiated and attended an in-person meeting with Dave. In that meeting, I:
explained why I no longer believed the July 2023 word, or my interpretation of it, was from God
heard Dave request that I remove my story from the website
explained I would consider that request, but I could not act unilaterally because the website is collaborative and intertwined with my wife Rebecca’s story
asked what steps he would take in response; Dave asked me to put my concerns and requests in writing
A more detailed account of this meeting appears at the end of this update.
October 7, 2025: At Dave’s request, I sent a detailed written follow-up. In that email, I:
restated my understanding of what occurred and why I no longer believed the word was from God
proposed an accountability-team process, asked Dave to identify his current accountability team, and requested that the team be copied on future correspondence. On September 19, 2025, Dave said he was “forming a board” and had already consulted with five brothers, along with Kathy, for guidance on how to respond, but no established accountability team had been identified.
asked for written recommendations from that team regarding steps toward repair and reconciliation
requested correction of factual errors in his public statement, especially the mischaracterization of the dreams
formally requested a complete copy of our text message exchange from June 1, 2023, to October 31, 2023, which he had previously offered to provide
expressed a continued desire for reconciliation grounded in truth
Dave did not respond to this email.
October 17, 2025: The final Friday Night meeting was held. Dave later announced that Friday Night had concluded after twenty years and described it as entering “a season of rest and restoration.” No public acknowledgment of the conflict, or of the accountability process I requested, was made. This announcement came ten days after my October 7 email went unanswered.
November 10, 2025: I initiated dialogue with Greg and Marvin, mutual friends and members of Dave’s inner-circle leadership team, which met weekly with him for accountability and ministry oversight. I hoped their involvement would help facilitate productive engagement.
November 20, 2025: Dave declined further meeting by text message.
December 10, 2025: Greg told me he spoke with Dave by phone that day. Dave said he had not seen, or did not remember receiving, my October 7 email. Greg forwarded screenshots of the email to Dave. In the group text between me, Marvin and Greg, I also shared copies of my October 7 and August 29 emails, confirming they had been sent. Greg reported that Dave said he would “read and work through the requests” and that we would talk “soon.” Dave did not respond to me directly, and no follow-through occurred.
January 10th 2026: I reached out via text. Dave did not respond.
Current Status (Apr 2026):
Dave has not responded to the written requests he asked me to provide.
No accountability process has been initiated.
Factual errors in his public statement remain uncorrected.
The text message records he offered to provide have not been furnished.
Multiple third parties encouraged engagement. It did not occur.
What I Asked For
To clarify what “reconciliation” meant in practice, my requests were straightforward:
a public correction of factual errors, especially the mischaracterization of the dreams
engagement through an accountability process, including the identity of Dave’s accountability team and their participation in correspondence
written recommendations from that team regarding steps toward repair and reconciliation
the complete text message exchange Dave had previously offered to provide (June 1, 2023, to October 31, 2023)
good-faith dialogue about the substance of what I documented
A Word About Tone and Intent
Some readers have said the original account felt “mean-spirited.” I understand the concern. The piece is emotionally weighted and rhetorically charged, and that was deliberate. I did not write a legal deposition. I wrote my story. I wanted the spiritual, psychological, and emotional weight of that suffering to be felt, not merely recorded.
Could I have softened the tone? Yes. I chose not to, because I feared a softer telling would make the harm easier to minimize, or easier to miss.
To the best of my ability, I have supported my factual claims with documentation. If you believe I have misstated something or misrepresented events, please contact me directly with your concerns and any supporting documentation. From the beginning, I hoped for dialogue, including questions, clarifications, and honest engagement with what happened. In reality, few people reached out. Some who were most critical of the tone were also unwilling to discuss specifics.
What has surprised me most is not the criticism, but the absence of compassion. Many responded with neutrality, or focused on how the story was told rather than what it documented, or the harm it described.
I am grateful for the exceptions. A few of you met this with integrity, compassion, and honesty. You know who you are. Others have walked with Rebecca and me through this season, and those friendships continue to grow outside Friday Night.
Finally, I want to be clear. Reconciliation rooted in truth and repentance remains the hope. It always has been.
Summary of September 26 Breakfast Meeting
On September 26, 2025, Dave and I met for breakfast to discuss concerns raised in my published account. The meeting lasted about three hours. Below are the key exchanges and outcomes:
Correction of factual errors from Dave’s September 19 response: Dave publicly claimed that I received “two dreams from God about giving” on the same night he sent his July 26 to 27, 2023 prophecy, presenting this as divine confirmation of his word. I clarified that I received six dreams that night. None were about giving, as documented in the October 2023 email attachment I sent him (available upon request). Dave said he based his statement on my initial text message, which mentioned “two dreams” without elaboration. I told him that, whatever his source, publicly claiming I had dreams “about giving” on the same night he prophesied was false and lent his prophecy credibility it did not have. Anyone present for his September 19 response could reasonably conclude my dreams validated his word. They did not. I asked him to correct this publicly. He offered no response and made no commitment.
My mental state during the July 2023 crisis: I described what I was experiencing when Dave delivered his prophecy: suicidal thoughts, isolation after my mother’s recent death, business collapse, and impending foreclosure. But Dave had known about my psychological state for months. On January 13, 2023, six months before his curse text, Rebecca sent Dave an urgent message:
When I showed Dave that January text during our September 26, 2025 breakfast meeting, he said, “You never mentioned another thing about it. I forgot.”
I said, “I understand. But God didn’t forget.”
That was the point. I cannot reconcile a God who sees everything, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, with the idea that He would look at my state in January (suicidal, panicked, collapsing) and my state in July (the business failed, the house slipping away) and decide:
“Now is the time to have Dave quote Malachi 3 to Jim, so he understands I have an issue with his tithing, and then he can figure out why he’s in this mess.”
Dave listened, but he did not reconsider whether God would deliver that kind of word to someone in an acute psychological crisis. He said he forgot, as if that settled the theological problem.
If anything, it bore rotten fruit. The only good fruit came later, when I stopped treating his word as God’s voice and started seeking truth.
Acknowledgment of insensitivity without retraction: Dave said, “I have been insensitive.” When I explained my theological reasons for believing the word was not from God, drawing on New Testament teaching on curses, compulsory giving, and the fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant, Dave asked, “You don’t think it’s 100% from God?” He treated my objections as interpretive differences rather than scriptural correction, maintained the prophecy was divinely sourced, and declined to retract it.
Loans versus gifts: I reiterated that I consistently requested loans, with the clear intent to repay every dollar, which I did. After my story went live and during his 9/19/2025 public response Dave reframed the transactions as gifts (“it’s given to you in love… if we get it back, great, but it’s not going to be held against you”). This troubled me because it recast my intent and created a narrative of charitable giving rather than the loans I had sought.
Request for written accountability steps: Near the end of the meeting, Dave asked me to “send that to me in text or email” so he could “see clearly what is required.” I agreed and, on October 7 2025, sent a detailed email outlining specific accountability requests, corrections to his public statements, supporting documentation, and proposals for mutual reconciliation. Dave never responded.
My proposal for mutual accountability: I proposed that we each consult our support networks. I would speak with Quinn and Rebecca, and Dave would speak with his inner circle. We would then work toward a fair resolution. This included the possibility of updating or removing my published account if genuine accountability and correction occurred. Dave appeared to agree to this process but ultimately refused further dialogue.
The meeting ended cordially. I left believing we had made progress toward understanding, if not resolution. Dave’s subsequent silence suggested otherwise.