Many persons who attend Blue Sky Church and its network churches and many persons who have friends who attend these churches have argued, “I know ‘so and so’, they would never treat people like that! I only have good interactions with the Church!”
To begin, I want to start off with a quote from Octavia Butler in the Parable of Talents, “Beware: All too often, we say what we hear others say. We think what we’re told that we think. We see what we’re permitted to see. Worse! We see what we’re told that we see. Repetition and pride are the keys to this. To hear and to see even an obvious lie again and again and again may be to say it, almost by reflex then to defend it because we’ve said it and at last to embrace it because we’ve defended it And because we cannot admit that we’ve embraced and defended an obvious lie. Thus, without thought, without intent, we make mere echoes of ourselves — And we say what we hear others say.”
Slow process
When you are under the spell of false brothers and sisters, it is incredibly difficult to discern and actually identify all the abuses that are going on. The type of abuse Blue Sky perpetuates is not like the type of abuse which is commonly shown in media or written about in books, but rather a slow, eroding, and insidious type of abuse. Red flags here and there covered up. Small lies told to you about why certain people left. Twisting of the bible verses to support Blue Sky’s distinct and biblically incorrect theology.
Being part of Blue Sky Church and its network churches is like the tale of the boiling frog. The tale of the boiling frog is where if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will instantly leap out. But if you put it in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and gradually heat it, the frog will remain in the water until it boils to death. To quote Jeff Miller [41], a former lead pastor of Clearview — a network church — “Little by little it is seen that there is a willingness to follow on bigger and bigger things. Emotions are a key factor. If the leadership can lay hands on a person, push an emotional button such as, “your dad didn’t love you well,” and make them cry as they “speak into their life,” prophesying over them, they will have them for life.”
Small red flags here and there would occur, but as Casey H. [19] puts it, “this wasn’t enough to drive me away. “Just stick around!” they would always say. So I did. My whole life was starting to become entrenched in the Network. All of my social life started revolving around my church friends and church activities. All of my decisions started being made in the context of Network approval.”
It takes some people years to recognize all the red flags, if they can recognize them at all. In a review for Vista Church — a church planted from Blue Sky[33], “At first visit this church is very friendly, but once I was a part of it it got… odd…The elders, staff, and pastor would say that they believe the Spirit speaks to and through all believers. In practice, I think their actions say otherwise. It became clearer over the 3 years that I was there that the church is run by a board of men called the “Network Leadership Team,” who are not members of the church and who determine a lot, from the topics that small groups discuss (the same ones every two or three years), to what programs the church is allowed to have (no women’s or men’s ministry), to what non-profits the church is allowed to partner with locally (none).”
As Casey H. [19] puts it, “That’s the genius of the way The Network grooms you for their mission. It’s intentionally slow burning, so that by the time you’re committed, you either stay for life, or you leave and lose everything. So now, because I was “fully bought in” I was allowed to join the team.”
Blatant Dishonesty
Intentionally slow burning. Little lies to cover abuses. Stories and narratives twisted. The bible misquoted and misused. All these point to a larger picture that Blue Sky and its network churches are blatantly dishonest in how they conduct themselves and blatantly dishonest in the practice of their faith.
The most obvious example of blatant dishonest are in the online reviews [28][29][30][31][32][33]. There are many people who have been hurt by Blue Sky and its network churches and have shared their experience as a review. Rather than address these issues, Blue Sky and its network churches have its members spam 5 star reviews to drown out the real issues to artificially inflate the google reviews. This is incredibly dishonest. You can take a look at any of the churches and you will see members within the network artificially inflating ratings.
After my previous blog exposing Blue Sky’s Lead Pastor Krsevan Penzar for his dangerous attitudes towards COVID-19 (where he says in [26] at 13:30, “If I could push your buttons a little, where are you with regards to COVID, does it frighten you so much that you don’t do anything? We’re close to the end of this, so it looks like. Oh Lord we have to be together.”), Blue Sky tried to cover their tracks by changing the audio file [40].
I mean it’s bad enough I caught you red handed. The audio file goes over a completely different passage about Matthew 25 and the parable of the ten virgins than what is stated in the audio player which still says “Acts 16:11–15”. So now what you are sharing is completely inaccurate to what you advertise online. This is especially ironic given that in the same sermon [40], you share in 5:57 “If we’re gonna make disciples, we can’t be careless. There has to be this attentiveness, this alertness this life and following him.” So you are both inaccurate AND careless. Got it.
Even the founder of Blue Sky, Steve Morgan admits this as well in [4] on page 243–244 “The changes that Jesus has accomplished in us the past six years since we started the network are dramatic. He has corrected our theology, our attitudes and our practices. And I’m pretty sure he is not done yet!” This is certainly a manipulative way of saying, “We’ve been teaching wrong theology!” The matter of the fact is that Jesus does not literally correct your theology. You’ve been teaching inaccurate theology from the start — out of laziness, out of not reading the bible, out of your egos, out of yourselves. Biblically based, doesn’t mean Biblically accurate.
Heavily Burdened
What is the benefit of being part of Blue Sky Church and its network churches? What happens when you reach the “inner circles” of these groups? More abuse!
“Give yourself to the church. Give your time. Be committed like us. Remember you are serving Jesus.” As you spend all your hours serving the church on top of your 9–5, essentially working for two full time jobs. You feel completely drained as you pour so many hours in to receive nothing in return. “Remember you are serving Jesus!”
From the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32, the father treats the prodigal son as his returning son. How sweet is that image. The father openly rejects the notion that the son would be a servant in his household. Luke 15:19–20 “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The father is a analogy of God’s relationship to us. We are all sons to the father. And yet, Blue Sky and its network churches decides to make you servants.
Did you know that 8/28 network churches primarily depend on volunteer staff while 1/28 network churches depend on part time staff [34][35]. There are usually only 3–5 staff per church. In the 8, 1–2 of those staff are volunteers. On the summit creek website, “[Redacted name] is our main worship leader. He is responsible for leading and training worship band members, and leading worship at our Sunday Service. He takes care of all these duties on a voluntary basis at Summit Creek while simultaneously working full time.” Now there is nothing wrong with volunteering. However, given the history of manipulative behavior from these network churches it certainly paints a different image.
For reference, these are the responsibilities required of a worship leader at a network church [36]. Now imagine doing all this with working another full time job.
Devastating Impact and Trauma
The devastating impact of being part of Blue Sky and its network churches is that you become nothing but a hollow shell of who you once were. They take everything from you and give you little in return. To bring us back to my initial quote, “thus, without thought, without intent, we make mere echoes of ourselves — And we say what we hear others say.”
To take from Dan Digman’s sermon [39], who is lead pastor at Cedar Heights, “We want you to see us. We want you to see our character. You want us, I mean we’re not perfect. There, James, are you perfect? I certainly am not. We’re not perfect. But we want to earn your trust, we want you to see man, we are, we are sacrificing. We are praying like crazy. We are uh people that you can look to and see our character and see, and we want to have positive impact. We want to have the right influence over you, too. We want you to be able to experience when you are being led by us, things that push you.
…
And again, if you believe that the beginning of this verse is true, and he gave, if you believe that Jesus appointed these leaders, that’s easy. That’s not oppressive. You know, it’s even easy for me to trust my own leaders over my own thoughts and desires.”
It’s even easy for me to trust my own leaders over my own thoughts and desires. That’s terrifying. The lead pastor is nothing more than a puppet to the leader he worships. Where does he say he trusts God? A simple ctrl+F of “Trust God” shows no results.
Even Jeff Miller, former lead pastor of ClearView admits this [37], “In the network of churches there is a principle of leadership that requires the follower to give over his will and conscience to the leader. 100% of the time, if your leader (small group leader, DC pastor, lead pastor, or network leader tells you what you should do, you are expected to see it the way they see it, to “think it because they think it” (direct quote to me).”
In [29], a person writes “My relationship with God was irreversibly damaged due to pastors at this church acting from a God-complex, deciding who is and is not worthy of the love of God based on their own judgements. I would warn young students to stay away from this community if they’re in need of faith exploration and not just indoctrination.
In response: after starting mental health therapy for the first time, to try to heal from the harmful things done to me at Hills, I met with the offending pastor to try to reach reconciliation. Instead of acting in compassion and humility, he denied that he had ever done anything and instead tried to tell me that I must have “misheard” and ignored the painful truth that I was sharing — I was told that God’s love is not for me.”
Bible based does not mean biblically accurate. All are welcome, but not all are welcome to become members [38].
With power and authority, I — Frank Liu — publicly rebuke and condemn Blue Sky Church in Bellevue along with its network of churches for a systematic theology and practice of mental and spiritual abuse. This abuse and treatment of others is absolutely unacceptable.
Franchise God, Disenfranchise People — Blue Sky Church probably.
Appendix
Online Reviews
[28] Blue Sky Church Reviews
[29] Hills Church Reviews
[30] Joshua Church Reviews
[31] Vine Church Reviews
[32] High Rock Church Reviews
[33] Vista Church Review
Staffing Information
[34] Excel Sheet for Staff
[35] Website Screenshots
[36] Stoneway Worship Leader Job Ad
Former Staff Confessions
[37] Biblical Leadership
[38] Reddit Post
Additional Sermons
[39] Cedar Heights Dan Digman
[40] New Blue Sky Sermon
Primary Documents
[4] How we do church (From Previous Blog)
[19] Used up and Discarded, Casey (From Previous Blog)
[26] Sermon (From Previous Blog)
[41] Biblical Leadership
