MorningStar leader Chris Reed resigns citing sexual abuse of minors by former volunteer

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Correction appended 

MorningStar Ministries leader Chris Reed resigned from all his leadership roles with the organization effective Monday, including his job as senior pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, citing, among other things, the sexual abuse of minors by a former volunteer and police officer.

In a letter to MorningStar staff shared on X, Reed explained he was returning leadership of the ministry to founder Rick Joyner to focus more on what God called him to do, which is to “to prophesy, pastor, teach, preach, and write.”

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

Subscribe

He also pointed to the 2023 arrest of former church volunteer and police officer, Erickson Douglas Lee, who is accused of sexually abusing multiple minors connected to a youth group of MorningStar Fellowship Church while revealing that both he and his wife, Missy, were sexually abused as children.

“After MUCH prayer, thought, and consideration, along with Missy and trusted friends, I have decided to fully and immediately step down from all leadership responsibilities at MorningStar Ministries. This includes my roles as CEO, President, and Senior Pastor of the Fort Mill church, turning the ministry back over to Rick Joyner, the founder of MorningStar,” Reed wrote. “I submitted my letter of resignation on Monday, August 26, 2024, and it was graciously accepted.”

Reed, who took over leadership of the ministry over a year ago but has worked with the ministry since 2021, says though he is “heartbroken” he had to resign, he plans to do what God has called him to do through the creation of “an online model of house churches led by regional elders, based on the Acts 2:42 model” that God shared with him.

He also plans to invest in an online school of the prophetic and “at some point ... relocate and start a new church in another part of South Carolina even though right now I have NO money and will be unemployed.”

The former megachurch leader then pointed to the 25-year-old Lee’s arrest in 2023. A release from the York County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina said they arrested Lee after he turned himself in to detectives on May 2, 2023. He was charged with dissemination of obscene material to a person under the age of 18, assault and battery 1st degree, criminal sexual conduct with a minor 2nd, and 3rd degree.

Warrants connected to Lee’s arrest cited by WSOC-TV said between December 2020 and June 2022, Lee allegedly committed a sex act with a victim younger than 16 years old for as many as 30 times in a 1.5-year period.

Investigators allege that around July 22, 2022, Lee, who served as a 17-year-old victim’s youth leader, hurt him through “nonconsensual touching” while the victim was intoxicated at his home. Lee also allegedly played a pornographic video for the teenager.

Warrants show that Lee did the same thing to at least three more victims less than 18 years old at his home from August 2021 until January 2023.

The church confirmed Lee’s association with the church but said they weren’t initially suspicious of him “because of his military background and law-enforcement career.”

“I never met the man or his family. This individual committed terrible crimes against minors. Missy and I stand unequivocally with the victims and their families. I condemn his actions in the strongest possible terms. This is also why I hired an external group to train our staff on sexual abuse awareness and how to safeguard minors,” Reed said in his statement on Tuesday. “This issue hits close to home for both Missy and me, as we both experienced the evils of sexual abuse when we were children by non-relatives. It is something that has haunted me throughout my life since it happened when I was just seven years old.”

Correction: The original article published on Aug. 28, 2024, reported that Chris Reed took over the ministry in 2021. He has worked with the ministry since 2021, but only took over the leadership role in 2023.