Drizzt
Member
Original story here:
Mt. Juliet church, minister part ways after gun arrest
By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer
First came the tip-off from within the church. Then came the arrest and the federal agents emerging with a stockpile of 15 automatic weapons. A jampacked detention hearing followed, as did a federal indictment.
Now, the strained relationship between a Mt. Juliet music minister and the Green Hill Church has been codified in a negotiated agreement that ended the professional ties between Mark Lancaster and the church. According to attorneys for both sides, last week's agreement also stipulates that neither side will speak ill of the other.
''The church has been about trying to heal itself,'' said Green Hill's attorney Larry Crain on Friday. ''Obviously there were a number of people who were disappointed and hurt over this.''
Lancaster attorney Mark Scruggs said the agreement became official a week ago.
''It severed all ties that my client had with that church,'' Scruggs said.
Church officials have not returned calls from The Tennessean seeking comment about the circumstances that surrounded Lancaster's stormy exit from his ministry there and about the effects that has had on the Mt. Juliet congregation.
Clearly though, ill will permeates the official record.
When agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived Jan. 8 at Lancaster's Mt. Juliet house, they were acting mostly on tips from three confidential sources within the church who described the married father in such alarming — though unsubstantiated — psychological terms that the bureau arrived with an expert in negotiations, lest the execution of the search warrant turn confrontational.
The tipsters told the agents that Lancaster had once turned a parked church bus into a ''shooting gallery'' — although not with a machine gun. No proof of Lancaster's shooting the bus emerged at his hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Brown. Informants, affidavits show, also described how Lancaster liked to fire his machine guns. One reported having gone shooting with Lancaster.
By ATF accounts though, the search at the house went smoothly. Lancaster willingly showed the agents the locked room where he kept his collection. A specially trained agent, who had flown in from Washington, confirmed that the firearms in question were working machine guns, many of them World War II vintage guns that had been remanufactured.
Despite his cooperation, Lancaster was arrested on the spot on federal firearms charges. He didn't have the necessary license, agents charge.
The tips from within the church had set in motion a series of events that now have Lancaster facing, if convicted, a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.
Soon after his arrest but before his release on bail, Green Hill Church secured a restraining order keeping the man — who led its music ministry and often accompanied its youth choirs on trips to amusement parks — off church property.
The rifts within the church were in stark relief recently, as dozens of his supporters wedged themselves into the wooden benches of a small Nashville courtroom. In the hallways outside federal magistrate's court, Green Hill members were clearly incensed that a man with whom they said they would trust their children was now in a green prison jumpsuit and chained at the ankles.
During the bond hearing late last month, they listened to Lancaster's father, a retired minister living in Florida, describe from the witness stand how his son had grown up following his ministry, including accompanying him frequently on overseas missions on behalf of the church.
James Lancaster described for the court how sometimes a minister has to know when it is time to consider a taking a new job. It comes, he said, when he ''is not able to motivate'' his congregation.
On one hand were about 40 supporters celebrating Mark Lancaster's release that afternoon on bail — and fuming about how some of their fellow congregants, who apparently had put him in that position after a stormy round of budget negotiations at the church.
On the other hand was a church that officially sought to ban Lancaster from its property because of fear of what he might do.
''Speaking for the pastor and the church elders, they were as surprised as anyone when the ATF came in and did what they did,'' Crain said.
For now, Lancaster, who has pleaded not guilty, is awaiting trial, and the church, according to its attorney, is trying to move past the whole episode — without saying anything bad about the man.
http://tennessean.com/local/archives/03/02/28967962.shtml?Element_ID=28967962
Mt. Juliet church, minister part ways after gun arrest
By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer
First came the tip-off from within the church. Then came the arrest and the federal agents emerging with a stockpile of 15 automatic weapons. A jampacked detention hearing followed, as did a federal indictment.
Now, the strained relationship between a Mt. Juliet music minister and the Green Hill Church has been codified in a negotiated agreement that ended the professional ties between Mark Lancaster and the church. According to attorneys for both sides, last week's agreement also stipulates that neither side will speak ill of the other.
''The church has been about trying to heal itself,'' said Green Hill's attorney Larry Crain on Friday. ''Obviously there were a number of people who were disappointed and hurt over this.''
Lancaster attorney Mark Scruggs said the agreement became official a week ago.
''It severed all ties that my client had with that church,'' Scruggs said.
Church officials have not returned calls from The Tennessean seeking comment about the circumstances that surrounded Lancaster's stormy exit from his ministry there and about the effects that has had on the Mt. Juliet congregation.
Clearly though, ill will permeates the official record.
When agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrived Jan. 8 at Lancaster's Mt. Juliet house, they were acting mostly on tips from three confidential sources within the church who described the married father in such alarming — though unsubstantiated — psychological terms that the bureau arrived with an expert in negotiations, lest the execution of the search warrant turn confrontational.
The tipsters told the agents that Lancaster had once turned a parked church bus into a ''shooting gallery'' — although not with a machine gun. No proof of Lancaster's shooting the bus emerged at his hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Brown. Informants, affidavits show, also described how Lancaster liked to fire his machine guns. One reported having gone shooting with Lancaster.
By ATF accounts though, the search at the house went smoothly. Lancaster willingly showed the agents the locked room where he kept his collection. A specially trained agent, who had flown in from Washington, confirmed that the firearms in question were working machine guns, many of them World War II vintage guns that had been remanufactured.
Despite his cooperation, Lancaster was arrested on the spot on federal firearms charges. He didn't have the necessary license, agents charge.
The tips from within the church had set in motion a series of events that now have Lancaster facing, if convicted, a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.
Soon after his arrest but before his release on bail, Green Hill Church secured a restraining order keeping the man — who led its music ministry and often accompanied its youth choirs on trips to amusement parks — off church property.
The rifts within the church were in stark relief recently, as dozens of his supporters wedged themselves into the wooden benches of a small Nashville courtroom. In the hallways outside federal magistrate's court, Green Hill members were clearly incensed that a man with whom they said they would trust their children was now in a green prison jumpsuit and chained at the ankles.
During the bond hearing late last month, they listened to Lancaster's father, a retired minister living in Florida, describe from the witness stand how his son had grown up following his ministry, including accompanying him frequently on overseas missions on behalf of the church.
James Lancaster described for the court how sometimes a minister has to know when it is time to consider a taking a new job. It comes, he said, when he ''is not able to motivate'' his congregation.
On one hand were about 40 supporters celebrating Mark Lancaster's release that afternoon on bail — and fuming about how some of their fellow congregants, who apparently had put him in that position after a stormy round of budget negotiations at the church.
On the other hand was a church that officially sought to ban Lancaster from its property because of fear of what he might do.
''Speaking for the pastor and the church elders, they were as surprised as anyone when the ATF came in and did what they did,'' Crain said.
For now, Lancaster, who has pleaded not guilty, is awaiting trial, and the church, according to its attorney, is trying to move past the whole episode — without saying anything bad about the man.
http://tennessean.com/local/archives/03/02/28967962.shtml?Element_ID=28967962