To whom it may concern,
We want to state up front that we love Jared and Tanya Cox immensely. We want nothing but God’s best for them. We were hoping to partner with them in Nicaragua but our concerns continued to mount, as seen in the following document. Our primary concern is that Jared does not seem to take seriously the warning in James 3:1 about teachers of Scripture receiving a stricter judgment. This is not about name-calling or suggesting Jared is unregenerate, hypocritical, or corrupt. We are confident that he truly loves the Lord. This is about a genuine concern regarding the potential effectiveness of his ministry and the people he influences.
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Date | Issues/Concerns |
Fall 2016 | Jared speaks at an adult Sunday School class at our church and uses the term “unction.” Many in the class didn’t understand the topic and when questioning him, Jared grew defensive rather than realizing they didn’t understand the term and explain what it meant. |
Jan 2017 | Jared speaks at a our church's men’s breakfast. He says he believes women’s bible studies are unbiblical. When asked about it, he said he wasn’t aware that he said it that way. |
Feb 2017 | Jared speaks at Mission’s Conference. Prior to the conference, two head pastors requested to look over Jared’s transcripts ahead of time (for the main speaking sessions) because of concerns that biblically indefensible statements might be made. Following the conference, feedback was given that Jared made some concerning statements during the small-session seminars. He stated that Americans “pray shallow” and when Nicaraguans pray, “the room shakes.” In addition, he gave the impression that the way ministry is done in Nicaragua is superior, that any tangible act of service is wrong, that none of our people have suffered or are truly broken, and the gospel is hardly found in our nation. This was a disappointment to our elders because this was not what we had asked him to cover. Our head pastor personally addressed Jared on these issues and walked away with significant concerns. It was at this time that our Pastor became aware that Jared viewed himself as some sort of prophet. |
Feb 2017 | Our Pastor had a follow up conversation with a missionary of our church. He had some concerns about the overall tone of Jared’s talks at the conference. The impression he got was that the way Petra does ministry in Nicaragua is better than any other missionary organization. He sought to encourage him and reaffirm our church’s support of his ministry. |
Feb 2017 | Jared sent a blasting email of our Pastor'scharacter and questioned his qualification to lead the college ministry team. |
March 2017 | A member of our church tells us that they were surprised Jared was our keynote speaker for Mission’s Conference due to the way he harshly responded to a situation at a local business. |
March 2017 | Elders at our church make a decision to not have Jared speak in any area of ministry until he demonstrates more maturity with making outlandish statements. |
April 2017 | Final Nicaragua meetings with Jared and Tanya. We give Jared limited platform in light of past remarks. |
Spring 2017 | Our college pastor receives regular (weekly) concerning updates about things Jared is teaching to Montana Bible College students. The comments received ranged from counseling the students to be skeptical of their professors who sit in their offices making decisions, all the way to asserting that if the college students really want to have power, conviction, and the Holy Spirit, they need to travel to Nicaragua to experience the ministry down there. |
July 12, 2017 | (While in Nicaragua) Final day on the island, Jared speaks to High School Team about his past struggles in ministry. He shares about the problems he’s had with past elder boards and mission committees. Several of the adult team leaders express concerns about the nature and tone of the devotion, especially in the context of teens. |
July 20, 2017 | (While in Nicaragua) Final day on the island, Jared leads the devotion for the Junior High Team. He makes concerning statements such as, “It is demonic to have $200,000 in one’s 401K” and that the way American churches do bible conferences is wrong. He gave the impression that the way the Nicaraguan ministry does conferences is superior. |
July 27, 2017 | Our pastor submits feedback sheets that the Petra ministry requested we fill out. |
Aug 8, 2017 | Our pastor and one of our deacons, receive rebuking letters from Pastor Hamilton and Pastor Arnold saying they need to repent of sins and idols and that they came to Nicaragua with critical hearts. |
Aug 9, 2017 | Our elders are shocked by the response from the Nicaraguan pastors, especially since they were the ones who asked theteams for feedback. Our Pastor responds to Pastor Hamilton’s email. |
Aug 10, 2017 | Pastor Hamilton takes the issue to Facebook by making statements like, “Can you imagine the Apostle Paul worried about his bank account or his retirement fund? …Can you imagine the Apostle Paul with $200,000 in his 401k? No, I don’t think so.” our pastor appeals to Hamilton to act more maturely. Hamilton removes post and later denies that it was in response to Jon’s letter. Our pastors find out that our missionary received a rebuking letter, too. Our pastorappeals to Jared and the pastors to respond with maturity. Jared calls our Pastor that evening and agrees to have pastors stop sending rebukes. He tells him they got defensive of him and felt Jared was being attacked. |
Aug 17, 2017 | Jared reaches out through email and offers a general apology to all parties involved for any way he had been deficient in his love (ways known and unknown). The men seem to be softening. |
Aug 29, 2017 | A Nicaraguan elder, Michael, writes to our pastor requesting that Jared and Tanya remove membership from our church. Our pastor responds to Michael’s email telling him that leaving our church would not really be the best thing for Jared and Tanya. In addition, he expresses to him how disappointed he was by the Nicaraguan pastor’s harsh response in light of the fact that they were the one’s requesting we fill out a feedback sheet. |
Aug 29, 2017 | Tanya Cox and a wife of our pastor meet together to discuss the conflict. Tanya felt that Jared was attacked by the team’s feedback and Hamilton was hurt by the situation, too. She communicated that she “knew” our pastors didn’t like Jared as far back as March and that we had gone to Nicaragua for selfish purposes and not for the benefit of the ministry. She also stated to her that Jared is a prophet and that is one of the reasons he often receives negative feedback from people. Both parties agreed to disagree on perspectives of the trip/conflict. |
Aug 30, 2017 | Pastor Arnold, Hamilton, and Edwin send written apologies to our pastors through email. |
Aug 31, 2017 | our pastor meets with Jared for the purpose of reconciliation. |
Aug ?, 2017 | A pastor from out of state contacts our pastor to ask him how things are going with the partnership with Petra Ministry. He shared of the recent problems and concerns. This pastor responded by saying, “I’m not aware of any history of positive relationships with other churches in connection to Jared’s ministry. There is no past ministry relationship that seems to have ended well.” |
Sept 1, 2017 | Our pastor meets with Jared. Jared feels offended by comments he made in response to Hamilton’s email. He also felt that he had handled the feedback unbiblically. When our pastor expressed concern about extreme/unbiblical statements Jared makes, Jared responded, “People have been trying to domesticate me for years.” Pastor walked away with more concerns about Jared’s character and ministry. |
Sept ?, 2017 | Jared and Tanya meet with our pastor to try to settle concerns. Meeting ended well and both parties wished each other God’s best. |
Sept?, 2017 | Several of our pastoral staff hear concerning feedback from a chapel Jared led at Montana Bible College. Jared was asked to share the gospel but, unfortunately, he gave a very mystical and concerning presentation. Related to this, it is a regular occurrence for the pastors to have Bible college students and others come forward with questions because of outlandish statements made by Jared, such as “the dorms at MBC are inhabited by demons” or “there are no pastors in the Gallatin Valley that preach the gospel.” |
Sept 25, 2017 | our pastor and several others have a conversation regarding concerns of thetrip. |
Sept 30, 2017 | Jared and Tanya host Nicaragua team gathering at their house. At least two members express concerns about comments made by Jared (i.e. references to Jared’s “apostolic calling” and disparaging comments about our church). |
Oct 4, 2017 | Jared Cox reaches out to our pastor to see if all of them (Nicaraguan pastors included) could go to lunch. At lunch they apologize to our pastor for any hurt they had caused. |
Oct ?, 2017 | Jared and Tanya host a Bible study at their home. They invite some members from our mission teams. Jared made concerning remarks about our pastors that made some students feel very uncomfortable. |
Oct ?, 2017 | A Heritage Christian board member reaches out to our pastor about the possibility of Jared coming on to the board at Heritage Christian. This board member was concerned because he knew that Jared had recently attended our church but none of the leadership from our church were listed as references. Our pastor shared with this board member our reservations and concerns. A separate school board member also contacted our pastor with serious concerns about the school’s potential partnership with Petra Ministries. Evidently, this board member had heard Jared speak in a different context (not connected to our church) and walked away wondering what our church’s take was on his ministry. |
Oct ?, 2017 | Our college pastor, Matt Thibault, is approached by a local teacher who expresses deep concerns about Jared’s counsel to him about how to handle the kids in his classroom. Jared’s counsel to the teacher was, “You need to figure out a way to get rid of non-elect kids.” |
Jan 19, 2018 | Tanya Cox confronts our pastor at a Heritage Christian Ski PE Day at Bridger Bowl. She expresses how hurt she is by the way he is cautioning people about their ministry. She also defended Jared by saying, “Who doesn’t make mistakes with their words from time to time?” Tanya also expressed shock that our pastor assumed Jared was a prophet, even though that is what she and Jared have either indicated or specifically told people. |
Jan ?, 2018 | Jared tells a member of our church, that our church is corrupt. This is the very kind of incident that causes us so much concern. It is okay for Jared to disagree with us and to state that to others but to call fellow committed believers “corrupt” and another church “corrupt” is unchristian and damaging in the body of Christ. |