“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Matthew 7:21-23

Dr. Robert Gladstone shares poignant thoughts on the Firefly report and the actions of Dr. Michael Brown as they relate to the body of believers. Bob was a key leader with Michael Brown at Brownsville Revival School of Ministry (BRSM), FIRE School of Ministry, and Fire Church for many years.

Robert Gladstone

Some thoughts about the Firefly report on Michael Brown:

1. It falls short, but it also makes some important statements that should prove fruitful for the church’s response to Michael Brown’s sins and apparent coverup. Hopefully his accountability team will discern the truth and take a truly righteous approach for the sake of the survivors and their families, for the larger church, and for Michael Brown himself.

2. Contrary to some complaints, no one is dredging up things resolved in the past. That is a false representation of the facts and misses the entire point. These situations were not resolved at all, let alone resolved the right way. We know this for at least two reasons.

First, the Firefly report, thankfully, concluded with accurate terminology in describing Michael Brown’s misconduct toward Sarah: “sexually abusive.” The allegations against him now have a professionally-assessed definition from a former chief of police they did not have before. This explicit statement contradicts the ones Michael Brown has used to assess his own situation from the beginning: “father-daughter,” “nothing sexual or romantic,” “what appeared to some to be inappropriate showing of affection,” “lapse in judgement,” and “idiotic but innocent physical contact between us… initiated by her totally.”

The investigator also called the relationship with Kim “inappropriate,” and Michael Brown himself called it “adultery of the heart.”

The church now has accurate definitions that prove the original misconduct was not resolved the right way, making this a live issue. Keep in mind that this terminology was not just a professional conclusion in a report; it is an emotional reality for the people affected by Michael Brown’s actions. They have been hurt and forced to wrestle with his misconduct for decades, while he continued unabated in high-profile ministry. No matter how he may have tried to settle this in the past, it was never settled for what it was: abuse—deep and traumatic experiences inflicted on vulnerable people and their families by an influential, Christian leader who later called himself our voice for moral sanity.

Second, we know the situations were never resolved for reasons the report did not seem to emphasize with enough clarity—the sheer lies, half-truths, minimizations, and shifting stories Michael Brown told for years, during and after the episodes under question, to this day. I certainly never knew about them, and I was one of his co-leaders during that time. If he had been transparent and followed biblical due process, there would have been no need for a third-party investigation 23 years later. These episodes were never resolved. They were badly mishandled and swept under the rug long ago through very selective secrecy and outright lies. Readers can see this if they read the report carefully. There are several witnesses who testify to Michael Brown’s fabrications and changing stories from a number of meetings with him over time. This is documented.

3. The report “strongly” concludes these incidents of inappropriate behavior were “isolated occurrences,” confined to 2001 and 2002. Perhaps so. But as mentioned above, their effects were not isolated for those afflicted with the abuse. That has continued till now. Nor were the effects isolated for those of us trying to explain to our children how a public church leader they respected could do such horrible things and then lie about them for decades. Nor were the effects isolated for those hurt in other church discipline situations where Michael Brown came to help with counsel based on his own need for secrecy, rather than the church’s need for biblical truth. So it behooves the reader to keep these things in mind when the report sounds like it is minimizing the time frame of significantly bad behavior. All things considered, in my view, while the inappropriate relationships may have been confined to two years, the deceit, pain, and compromise lasted 24.

Further, in my opinion, Sarah and Ray both testify to an extent of unethical actions that was enough to disqualify Michael Brown from ministry permanently—particularly in view of the coverup that followed. Yet he continued for many years. Those who see those events as isolated in time, and thus resolved, do not seem to understand the full story, nor the biblical qualifications for leadership. I would also encourage those people to have more compassion on the abused. Your unkind (and unbiblical) response is part of the problem.

The accumulated effect of the past, “isolated” misconduct, along with the ensuing secrecy, amount to an irrevocable failure. The assertion that there is no evidence of further impropriety is not exactly an accomplishment for a man who refers to himself as an “elder” in the body. Mercy and restoration are available to all who truly repent of their sins. But some sins disqualify leaders. I believe the church needs to face this fact with more mettle.

4. There are other, credible allegations of spiritual abuse that were outside the scope of the Firefly investigation.

5. This whole issue represents a larger sickness in the church—especially the charismatic church—that must be addressed. That sickness is multi-faceted, surrounding the very nature of true leadership in the body of Jesus Christ, not merely the qualifications for leaders. And frankly, it raises issues about the nature of the body of Christ itself—issues to which we must attend urgently. Our systems should not be for the elite; they should be designed by the Spirit and Word for the people—the ordinary, the weak, and the vulnerable.

“On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.”

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Michael Brown Failed to Warn Missions Group of Known Predator, Resulting in Horrific Abuse, Parents and Victims Say

By Rebecca Hopkins

April 22, 2025
6:45 pm CDT

After an earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, the Obama administration allowed families to fast-track adoptions of children from orphanages in the stricken country – and many Americans flew there as quickly as possible.

What one group of parents didn’t know was that some of their children had been sexually abused, allegedly by a missionary, Keith Lashbrook. Lashbrook volunteered at Michael Brown’s FIRE School of Ministry until Brown fired him in 2008. At the same time, Lashbook was overseeing an orphanage in Port de Paix, north Haiti.

Lashbrook, who has never been charged with any wrongdoing, allegedly tried to force one FIRE student, Christy Scott, to accept massages and “daddy-daughter dates.” If she refused, he told her she’d soon kill herself.

Since Lashbrook’s role included mentoring young women at FIRE, Scott said she reported this odd behavior to FIRE leaders the year it happened—2008. She told The Roys Report (TRR) the leaders, including FIRE’s founder and leader Michael Brown, quickly removed Lashbrook from the North Carolina campus.

But Brown failed to report Lashbrook to Globe, the missions organization that oversaw an orphanage—In the Father’s Hands Children’s Home—that Lashbrook ran in Haiti, according to Natalie Lewis, former volunteer for Lashbrook.

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“What (Lashbrook) did was disgusting,” Lewis said. “Of course (Brown) should have gone to Keith’s leadership, but (Brown) didn’t.”

This enabled Lashbrook to return to Haiti where he and staff allegedly abused multiple children, said Lewis, also an adoptive mom of several kids who were abused. The result: traumatized adoptive families whose biological kids were preyed upon by some of the adoptees; at least one broken marriage; and trauma for the Haitians themselves.

Some adoptive parents and now-grown children are calling for Brown—who should have known Lashbrook was a predator and said something—to be held accountable.

“He had someone who was a predator on his campus, preying on young 18-, 19-, 20-year-old girls on his campus who was leaving Charlotte to go back and take care of . . . baby girls, young girls,” Lewis said. “And (Brown) knew I had children in Keith’s care.”

Brown called the accusation “vile” and “baseless” in a public statement to TRR. He added that in 2010—two full years after FIRE removed Lashbrook—Brown told Globe about their concerns with Lashbrook.

michael brown india — Michael Brown leads in prayer at Love-N-Care Ministries in Visakhapatnam, India (Photo: Facebook)

“I and my team at FIRE functioned as whistleblowers bringing the very serious concerns of two mothers, both grads from our ministry school, to Globe, which was an independent missionary organization with which we had no affiliation,” Brown stated.

But Lewis and other adoptive parents told TRR Brown protected Globe in 2010 by counseling parents who were FIRE grads not to post about the matter on social media or take legal action against Globe.

But Brown was too late. Shortly after coming to the United States, the adoptive children— sometimes through translators—began telling about the abuse they and other orphans endured while in Haiti. And parents began calling police, the FBI, and hiring attorneys.

Beginning in 2011, four families sued Globe in Escambia County, Florida, on behalf of 17 children, alleging that Lashbook and other staff and personnel at the orphanage had “sexually molested and assaulted” the children.

The parents settled in 2019 with settlements going to abused children, court records show. The mediation process recognized “alleged severe and repetitive abuse,” records show; however, no charges were ever filed against Lashbrook himself.

Keith and his wife, Cindy Lashbrook, are no longer missionaries for Globe and the orphanage, said Lewis.

The Lashbrooks have recently worked with Keith’s brother, Eric Lashbrook, in a recovery ministry, Indiana Dream Team. But the ministry recently removed the Lashbrooks’ photo from its website. TRR reached out to Indiana Dream Team regarding Keith Lashbrook’s current role but received no response.

TRR also reached out to Lashbrook and Globe’s president Doug Gehman, but they didn’t respond.

In a separate matter, a third-party investigation commissioned by Brown’s speaking ministry, the Line of Fire, recently concluded that Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct” with a former employee in the early 2000s. The investigator, Firefly, also found Brown had an “inappropriate relationship” with a second, married woman in 2001 and 2002.

‘A pattern of emotional control’

In the late 1990s, Lashbrook was like a “movie star” when Brown first invited Keith Lashbrook to Brownsville Revival School of Ministry (BRSM), FIRE’s predecessor, said Lewis, a BRSM grad.

“For this young couple with two young children to give up everything to go to Haiti, I just thought that was a beautiful story,” Lewis said.

While Brown denied that FIRE was affiliated with Globe, multiple sources said the ties are strong. Globe shared a campus with BRSM, Lewis said. Josh Peters, FIRE International’s president, previously worked for Globe, said Tom Barry, FIRE’s former pastoral care director. Students often went on Globe missions trips, Lewis said.

lashbrook haiti — Keith and CIndy Lashbrook, in a photo posted in March 2009. (Photo: Facebook)

In 2008, Christy Scott said Lashbrook took female students out, sometimes all night. Scott said Lashbrook told her that he needed to “re-father” her and required her complete trust. She said he sat close enough for their legs to touch and tried to massage her feet.

“He told me several times that if I didn’t let him go all the way through this process with me, that I would end up killing myself,” she said.

Scott said she reported Lashbrook’s behavior to Barry. Soon other students reported misconduct to FIRE, according to a 2010 letter Barry wrote to the FBI. Lashbrook invited female students to sleep in his and his deaf wife’s trailer, Barry wrote. Lashbrook woke them up by kissing or massaging their feet. In one instance, a woman ran away, but Lashbrook “physically forced her back into the trailer,” Barry wrote.

“(I)t was clear that Keith consistently developed a pattern of emotional control over the most vulnerable female students,” Barry wrote.

Barry said Bob Gladstone, former director of the FIRE School, removed Lashbrook from FIRE. At a student meeting, Gladstone and Brown said Lashbrook had been inappropriate, Scott said.

Barry told TRR he believed then—mistakenly—that Lashbrook was a missionary for FIRE and didn’t know yet about Lashbrook’s connection to Globe.

Gladstone added that Brown and other leaders brought Lashbrook to FIRE without Gladstone’s input.

haiti lashbrook — Keith Lashbrook participates in a building project in Port de Paix, Haiti.. (Photo: Facebook)

‘It’s time for them to know’

In 2007, FIRE grad Kjersti Johnson wanted to be a missionary in Haiti. She said Peters, a senior FIRE leader, told her about a FIRE missions trip to the Lashbrooks’ orphanage. Johnson said she and her husband went. When they returned home, they immediately started the adoption process.

In February 2010, Johnson brought her two adopted boys to the United States.

“It was like a dream come true,” Johnson said.

But soon she suspected the boys had been sexually abused in the orphanage.

haiti missions lashbrook — Boys’ dormitory at In the Father’s Hands Children’s Home in Port de Paix, Haiti. (Courtesy Photo)

She said she called Josh Peters, now FIRE president, who reportedly told her about Lashbrook’s inappropriate behavior in 2008. Frustrated, she asked why this was the first she heard of it.

“He was like, ‘Oh, we weren’t at liberty to speak,’” Johnson said. “Basically, they didn’t want to slander him.”

TRR reached out to Peters who didn’t respond.

Lewis had a similar experience, but with Brown. In 2008, she told Brown she was working for Lashbrook to help FIRE and BRSM grads adopt from his orphanage, but said Brown didn’t mention his concerns to her then.

Two years later, in July 2010, when news of the orphanage abuse spread, Lewis said Brown finally revealed to her the 2008 allegations about Lashbrook.

“How dare you not tell me?” Lewis said she told him. “He said that they never had told Globe what Keith had done on their FIRE campus. But he said, ‘I think it’s time for them to know.’”

Waiting for justice

By the time Lewis talked with Brown in 2010, she and other adoptive families had spent several tense months trying to get Lashbrook and Globe to respond to their suspicions. In August, Globe admitted “abusive activities took place,” but didn’t hold Lashbrook responsible.

“We did NOT find that there was indifference to such things or an attempt to cover up by the STAFF or the Lashbrooks,” Gehman wrote to the adoptive families in August 2010.

The next month, Lashbrook was still fundraising through Globe.

By late October, Gehman hadn’t met with the adoptive parents, Lewis said, so families began informing churches that supported Globe and Lashbrook of the abuse allegations. In November 2010, Brown managed to get a meeting with Gehman, according to an email from Brown. No adoptive families were invited, Lewis said.

Brown, who said he saw himself as the families’ advocate, told Globe they should communicate that they’re “aggressively working to clean up the Haiti orphanage situation,” according to his email. But he also encouraged families not to take legal action or publicize their concerns and to trust Globe.

“I have encouraged grads . . . Do not send out letters or make posts on social networking sites attacking Globe,” Brown wrote. “Believe that Globe is not trying to cover anything up or simply protect its own reputation or that of its missionaries.”

In a private Facebook message to Lewis, Brown chastised her for a post she made about Lashbrook.

“(A)iring things out for the world to see, make it much more difficult for justice really to be done,” he wrote.

But families believed Brown was covering for Globe’s mistakes, Lewis said.

She wrote to Brown, “Globe has had 7 months to do something about this. It is interesting they are doing it now, after we have gone public.”

natalie lewis — Chris and Natalie (center) Lewis, with their family; the children are now young adults. (Courtesy Photo)

In Brown’s statement to TRR, he stated he meant for them to stay quiet due to the investigation.

“This is standard counsel to anyone who understands how investigations work,” Brown stated.

However, at the time, Brown said it was to avoid “attacking Globe.”

On Nov. 22, 2010, Gehman wrote to Globe “friends” that Lashbrook would take a one-year “break,” but didn’t mention abuse allegations or disciplinary measures.

Meanwhile, some adoptive kids were acting out sexually on their new siblings, Lewis said. Due to the risk, some parents, like Johnson, disrupted their adoptions, leaving deep regrets and wounds all around.

Traumatized Haitian children who barely spoke English were fragile and angry. Under extreme stress, some marriages, like that of adoptive mom Milissa (Evans) McGavin, fell apart.

“We fought so hard and we have lost so much,” McGavin told TRR. (She and Lewis recounted more details on a March 3 broadcast with Canadian podcaster Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson.)

Since the abuses happened overseas, the families’ struggled to make headway with U.S. authorities. McGavin reported the abuse to agencies in two U.S. states, the U.S. Department of State, the FBI, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Fifteen years later, no one has been arrested, Lewis said, though an ICE investigator reportedly told her last month the investigation is open.

TRR contacted the investigator a month ago but hasn’t received an update.

Light and darkness

Lydia Lewis, Natalie Lewis’s young adult daughter, told TRR that she’s continued to struggle with the lack of justice.

But she also told TRR about Haiti’s beauty. When she was 5, she played outside her house, admiring the sky and ocean.

“I remember seeing a butterfly for the first time . . . and it circles around me,” she said. “When it flew into the sunlight . . . it kind of turned white and then it flew away.”

Later that day, she said everything changed. Her widower dad dropped her off at Lashbrook’s orphanage.

“Then everything got dark,” she said.