More upheaval is occurring at Cross Timbers, a megachurch in Argyle, Texas. Founding Cross Timbers Church Pastors Brian Hackney and Jamie Hackney, a married couple, are resigning effective Aug. 31.
This news follows the late-July resignation of Cross Timbers Senior Pastor Josiah Anthony for what church elders described as “inappropriate and hurtful” behavior. Then on Aug. 12, Byron Copeland, the executive pastor who was originally slated to step in as interim lead pastor, resigned.
Cross Timbers Church Founders Resign
In a statement to congregants, Cross Timbers Church elders said the Hackneys had been “instrumental in building and growing our church family” since January 2000. “In recent months,” they added, “Brian and Jamie have sensed their season as staff [members] was coming to a close, and have decided that now is the time to make their departure.”
Elders thanked the couple for their “open communication” during the process and assured congregants that church leaders have “a renewed energy” and “a forward-facing posture.”
While at the nondenominational Cross Timbers, Brian Hackney served as a worship pastor and campus pastor before heading The Healing Place, the church’s counseling ministry. Jamie Hackney identifies herself as a marriage and family pastor. She also served as a Care Coach at The Healing Place. The Hackneys, who’ve been married 34 years, have three adult children.
In their statement, elders encouraged church members to visit with the Hackneys on Aug. 25, their final Sunday on staff.
Recent Staffing Shakeups at Cross Timbers Church
Cross Timbers Church, located 30 miles north of Fort Worth, has a weekly attendance of 5,000. Staffing shakeups at the Texas megachurch began with the July 28 announcement that Senior Pastor Josiah Anthony had resigned due to “inappropriate and hurtful” actions.
Initially, church elders indicated those actions were related to Anthony’s “prolonged and sustained season of struggle with his emotional and mental health”—and did not “include any children, physical or sexual interactions or any illegal activity to our knowledge.”
But in an Aug. 1 email, elders offered more details about Anthony’s departure—and provided a new plan for interim leadership. “Upon further investigation,” elders wrote, “we discovered that Josiah was not forthcoming or transparent, and had a concerning pattern of behavior communicating inappropriately with women.” Although the communication wasn’t sexual, the elders noted, it was “excessively personal” and “overly familiar.”
After Anthony resigned, elders said, they “learned about additional inappropriate comments he made in text messages and through social media that were sexual in nature.” The elders emphasized that they don’t consider the encounters to be “emotional affairs” or “consensual,” due to the “power dynamic” involved.
The elders’ Aug. 1 email also indicated that the interim lead pastor role would be filled by Founding Pastor Toby Slough, not Executive Pastor Byron Copeland. The change of plans, elders said, “is not due to the lapse of Byron’s service to Cross Timbers” but his “gracious deference to the most trusted and qualified person to tend to the hearts of Cross Timbers” during the pastoral transition.
