The Spiritual Abuse Institute (SAI) is committed to increasing transparency around the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in religious settings. As part of our ongoing efforts to promote healthy, accountable, and transparent church environments, we maintain a public, factual database of churches and ministries reported to have used NDAs that could limit transparency and open communication.

Today, we are adding Lakepointe Church, a multisite church based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, to the Church NDA Disclosure Database.

Josh Howerton is the senior pastor of Lakepointe Church, the 15th-largest church in America, according to Outreach.com. Howerton recently told podcaster Shawn Ryan the church averages 30,000 attendees and employs roughly 400 staff.

As big as Lakepointe is, Howerton's influence extends well beyond the church campus. He built a large platform with millions of followers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X. His podcast also gained several million views in 2025. Churchleaders.com has described his rise as expanding “beyond a single congregation to a national audience.”[1] And his trajectory seems to be climbing by the day.

Part of his appeal comes from his teaching, which often simplifies issues into binaries like truth versus error and biblical fidelity versus cultural compromise. In a world of political games and slick PR, people are drawn to pastors who are perceived to speak honestly and “say it like it is.”

Ironically, a pastor known for “speaking truth” is reported to use NDAs that hide it. This shows a gap between Howerton’s message and his church's practices. If silence is never the biblical response to allegations of sin, why would it be the institutional one?

Less than two weeks later, she felt she had discovered who Howerton wanted to quote, but without giving them credit.

In analyzing an eight-minute segment of a March 27, 2022, sermon, Gregoire argued that several sayings closely mirrored outside sources without credit, contending that much of the material aligned with Andy Stanley’s 2015 book, The New Rules of Love, Sex and Dating.[2]

Andy Stanley had faced recent criticism from evangelical leaders over a tweet about the Bible’s accuracy.[3] So, it could be understandable if Howerton didn’t want to seem like he was supporting him. Yet, he still appears to have used significant material from Stanley’s book, all without attribution, according to Gregoire.

Within days of the allegations, the sermon was no longer available online, and Howerton responded to the criticism in a blog post.[4]

Josh Howerton defended his preaching by arguing that verbal preaching uses public-domain ideas and that pastors often collaborate. Because of this, he rejected the “plagiarism” label. He contended that reusing quotes, outlines, or illustrations is a standard form of teaching, so long as a preacher doesn't fabricate personal anecdotes or deliver another pastor's sermon in its entirety.

For some, this explanation was enough. Others felt Howerton was being misleading and attempting to dodge accountability.

Less than two years later, Howerton was accused of plagiarism again. These allegations came on the heels of public backlash to comments he made in a sermon.

Before the sermon started, Howerton shared “a gold nugget of  [marriage] advice that [he] was given by a mentor.”[5]

Critics worried that the advice spread “harmful” ideas about women and sex and that it could be harmful to women, especially those who had experienced trauma.[6] Howerton responded that it was meant to be a joke, not advice.

But Josh’s own words communicated something different. He introduced it as a “gift”  and then framed it as “advice” for couples who weren’t yet married but were headed toward it.

He never called it a joke from the platform. It also had nothing to do with his sermon. So, if it were a joke, it would seem to be a throwaway line that didn’t advance the sermon in any way.

Rather than taking responsibility and apologizing, he used DARVO tactics to dismiss and insult anyone who questioned him. DARVO[7] stands for deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. It’s a common tactic people use to deflect responsibility and discredit those who speak out.

I would assume that Josh Howerton didn’t respond that way on purpose. He may not even know what DARVO is. Unfortunately, though, responses like this can still be hurtful even when done by accident. And DARVO responses always deflect accountability and delay healing.

Things got worse when emails and social media messages showed that two women had previously shared their concerns about this same joke with Howerton.[8] Yet years later, Josh repeated the same hurtful lines.

Howerton did eventually apologize. Unfortunately, his apology was worded nearly the same as an apology issued by his friend, Pastor Joby Martin from Church of 1122.

The videos of the two apologies were posted side by side on YouTube.  An AI analysis of the side-by-side apologies showed that around 80% of Howerton’s apology was copied nearly word-for-word. Of the 20% unique to Howerton, most was patchwriting, meaning someone copied text from another source but made only minor changes to paraphrase it.

Howerton’s excuse was again that pastors collaborate and help one another, and that Joby helped him with some language. He then linked the previous article where he explained away plagiarism concerns in 2022. Ironically, Howerton didn’t seem to realize that he arguably broke his own rules on plagiarism (don’t copy the whole thing and don’t use personal anecdotes like they’re your own). Worse, he seemed clueless as to why people would expect an authentic apology rather than one copied from a friend.

He even referred to plagiarism concerns as “a new thing for the internet to accuse pastors of.” But that doesn’t match reality. Plagiarism has been a big concern in Christendom for a while. Thom Rainer, a researcher and former Lifeway Resources CEO, called plagiarism one of the top four reasons pastors get fired.[9]

Yet, Howerton wanted people to stop talking about it and act like it’s no big deal.

Lakepointe was later accused of manipulating a city traffic study when they circulated a sign-up sheet asking churchgoers to drive through the intersection repeatedly during the study window to inflate the traffic count.[10]

When the sign-up link appeared on Facebook, people got upset. The church then apologized and said a single overzealous staffer made the plan, even though two staff pastors were among the first who signed up.

The church apologized, but only after public pressure.

What do the plagiarism allegations, the wedding night comments, and the traffic light study have in common?  They all seem misleading or deceptive in some way.

This is not the first time Josh Howerton and Lakepointe have been involved in a discussion about NDAs. In August 2022, journalist Julie Roys criticized him for “defending” NDAs used by Echo Church and its former pastor, Andy Wood. This followed an online petition with over 1,700 signatures that asked Echo Church to release people from their silencing NDAs.

The petition’s stated purpose was to “[ask] Echo Church leadership to take urgent action on releasing all former non-disclosure agreements (and any document by another name that prevents a former employee from telling their story).”

As pressure mounted on Andy Wood and he neared his official installation as the senior pastor of Saddleback Church, Josh Howerton entered the chat to defend him.

Howerton claimed publicly that he didn’t use NDAs and had never used them in any church he had pastored. But it didn’t take long for someone to challenge that claim.

On X, Erin Harding shared an employment agreement from Lakepointe. It featured a broad confidentiality statement and a clause for mediation and arbitration. Amy Fritz, an abuse survivor from the Nashville area, confronted Howerton with additional questions. “Josh, I live in the area where you used to pastor. Are you sure that the Bridge never used NDAs while you were leading there? I’ve heard otherwise…”

Howerton responded by calling the agreement a confidentiality agreement, not an NDA. However, broad confidentiality agreements like that function practically as an NDA, regardless of what they are titled.

We have discussed this extensively, with testimony from attorneys across the country. Pastors often argue they don’t use NDAs and that confidentiality agreements are different. But this claim doesn’t hold up practically or legally. These documents can still function as a muzzle and keep people from telling their stories.

Fast forward to today, and the document we reviewed meets the definition of a silencing NDA. Regardless of what it’s called, it included multiple NDA markers.

Howerton eventually stopped engaging in the conversation and started blocking people. Today, you can still find the X posts from Julie Roys, Erin Harding, and the others involved. But the conversation has been completely deleted from Howerton’s account.

This seems like more deception. By saying he didn’t use NDAs and claiming confidentiality agreements were inherently different, Howerton tried to deflect criticism and, at some level, deceive people unfamiliar with these documents and what to look for.

Josh Howerton appeared on Shawn Ryan’s podcast on August 3 to discuss Christianity, culture, and redemption.

Shawn Ryan represents a large swath of the American public, especially millennial and older Gen Z men. A platform to speak to that demographic is a huge responsibility. When Josh Howerton went on Shawn Ryan, he was representing Team Jesus. And for better or worse, it will impact how people see Jesus and the Church.

That’s good when the Gospel is shared. But when influential pastors fall publicly or lose people’s trust, it can be devastating!

Shawn Ryan already feels deceived by leaders and institutions, and it has affected him deeply. It’s also impacted his audience, who share similar concerns.

In a July 24, 2026, interview with Tucker Carlson, Ryan said, “It's just everywhere you look, you know, everywhere you look is a lie. And the institutions are lying; the politicians are lying; everybody's lying.”[11] For Shawn, the constant deception feels like evil, and it’s had a powerfully negative impact on him.

In what felt like a moment of dejection, he continued, “I don't know who to believe. I don't know what to believe anymore at all.” 

The deception he’s seen has caused a loss of faith, specifically in institutions. “Every single US institution out there is doing the same shit … And it just made me realize how the whole country is just built off dishonesty.” 

In the face of this disillusionment, however, Shawn’s faith in Jesus grew. “There's only one truth, and I think that's it. I'm just not really interested in anything else anymore because it's all garbage. And it's that, you know, black book right behind you, the Holy Bible.”

When asked what advice he would give to people, Ryan said, “Don't put your faith in any man. You're going to be disappointed every single time.” The young Christian’s faith in people and institutions seems to be at an all-time low. Yet, his faith in Jesus grows by the day. It’s the anchor he is holding onto.

But what happens when Shawn Ryan finds out that Christian leaders like Josh Howerton are using some of the same tools as the secular institutions that betrayed his trust? Tools like church NDAs that can cause deception.

Shawn Ryan has publicly denounced the deceptive practices and dishonesty of public institutions and leaders. Ryan went toe-to-toe with Kanakuk Ministries earlier this year over their alleged NDA use to silence victims, and in response to the legal threats in the cease-and-desist letters the camp sent him.[12]

In many ways, Howerton’s NDA talking points mimic the Kanakuk playbook that infuriated Shawn Ryan. He’s talked openly about how important it is to him not to be influenced by anyone and that no one can dictate his opinions. 

Did Josh Howerton know that when he agreed to go on the show? 

Does Josh Howerton ever think about the potential negative impacts on people like Ryan when they find out about church NDAs that involve deception and dictate what people can say?

For Christians who are new in their faith, like Shawn Ryan, these revelations can harm their faith. For mature Christians, these disclosures can still upend their faith and cause them to re-evaluate everything. For non-Christians, it can lead them to believe the Church can’t be trusted and is corrupt like other institutions.

My prayer is that as leaders like Josh Howerton and churches like Lakepointe see the reproach and harm that NDAs can bring, they would take a bold stand and choose to be a hopeful shock to the system. That kind of bold action would help accomplish their mission to help people live free more than using NDAs ever would.

Josh Howerton has said some interesting things. If you listen closely, you’ll notice he argues against church NDAs better than many critics.

On Shawn Ryan’s podcast, Howerton laid the foundation for his ministry. “I’m always going to go to the Bible, you know, I’m dumb about a lot of things, but I try to love the Word of God. I’ve searched the pages of Scripture, but I can’t find support for NDAs in the Church. However, what I do find, repeatedly, are the Biblical calls to expose sin and pursue truth. I find Scripture that teaches us to bring everything into the light, not to manage it in the dark with a legal document.

Howerton also told Ryan, “I’d be a liar not to tell you what Jesus said. And He said He was the way, the truth, and the life.” I couldn’t agree more. However, if Jesus is the truth, then why would a church ask people to sign something that silences their own experiences, including silencing things that are factually true?

When discussing the legacy he wants to leave, Howerton shared, “My life goal is to finish my race having been faithful to Jesus. I don’t want to be one of those pastors that somebody tells a story about someday. Remember what that guy did? You know, I want to finish well.”

That’s an admirable goal. However, are NDAs the best way to do this?  Aren’t NDAs a tool that keeps those “remember what that guy did” stories from ever surfacing, or keeps them hidden until it’s too late?

Katelyn Beaty, author of Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church, frames the concern like this. “Not every church that uses NDAs has faced scandal. But of those that have in recent years, NDAs were inevitably in the mix.” Finishing well isn’t just about avoiding scandal. It’s also about avoiding the conditions scandal grows in. NDAs don’t always mean scandal is coming, but they are part of the soil where scandals grow best.

NDAs often stop people from discussing their experiences with loved ones, therapists, or mentors. As a result, their wounds fester instead of healing. Howerton has lived the pain of church wounds, and he knows the power of a listening ear in healing. He told Shawn Ryan how seeing a counselor helped him find breakthrough and healing during a season of deep church hurt. Sadly, many people who sign broad NDAs never get that chance, because talking to a counselor about what happened could violate their NDA and lead to getting sued by their own church.

It’s hard to see how Howerton can celebrate his own healing from church wounds while also preventing others from finding that same healing.

Howerton and Ryan also spent a lot of time discussing Matthew 18 and how it teaches Christians to handle conflict, which is ironic because steps two and three of the Matthew 18 process are, by design, disparaging to the person being addressed.

You can’t follow Jesus’s teaching and sign an agreement with non-disparagement language at the same time. They are incompatible because exposing someone else’s sin to others, and eventually to the whole church, will inevitably cause reputational harm. Jesus was concerned about our repentance more than our reputations in Matthew 18.

Later in the interview, Shawn Ryan noted that “It sounds like people’s opinions bother you” and asked, “Is that in your head when you’re up there giving your ministry?” Howerton downplayed it, but non-disparagement clauses exist for one reason: to keep negative opinions and facts from being shared. In my experience, pastors don’t use NDAs unless they’re bothered by the negative opinions that people might share.

The sharpest contrast, though, might come from Howerton’s recent sermon on the spirit of fear.[13] In it, he called a spirit of fear “the number one problem in America today.”  Then he explained why fear does so much damage.

Again, I find myself agreeing with Josh. That kind of fear is never from God, but NDAs cause exactly that kind of fear. They tell you what you can say and what you can’t, and what you can talk about and what you can’t. I have heard people tell me they feel led by God to speak the truth, but they can’t obey God without breaking their NDA.

If that kind of fear isn’t from God, then neither are NDAs.

In the same sermon, Howerton explained what he sees happening in the church: “People will walk in scared, and they’ll walk out fearless. They’ll walk in addicted and chains will break off in here.” Unfortunately, for a hurting staff member asked to sign an NDA, the experience runs in reverse. They walk in confident and walk out terrified. Instead of breaking chains, the NDA puts heavy chains on. Instead of freedom, they are bound by a contract and the threat of a lawsuit if they ever say the wrong thing to the wrong person. They feel so chained that they can’t even tell the truth out of fear of reprisal.

To finish the sermon, Howerton highlighted something he thought was “a little kind of awesome” in 2 Timothy 1:15. He explained what the Apostle Paul was doing this way.

Pastor Josh got excited about Paul calling out Phygelus and Hermogenes. Not only that, but he thought it was a good thing that we are still aware of their misdeeds 2,000 years later. What he celebrated was Paul disparaging these two men publicly so the church would know what they did. That’s exactly the kind of thing church NDAs are designed to stop. If Paul had signed an NDA, he couldn’t have written that verse.

This article isn’t about tearing down Josh Howerton or trying to cancel Lakepointe Church. It’s about holding up a mirror between what a hyper-influential pastor says and what a church does ­­­­— and asking whether the two match.

They don’t, at least not yet. But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story.

Every pastor and church will fall short of their own preaching at some point. That’s not scandal. That’s being human. The real test isn’t whether Josh Howerton or Lakepointe ever used a silencing NDA. It’s what happens now that it’s been said out loud.

Howerton has taught countless people that fear doesn’t come from God, and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s taught that wounds don’t heal in isolation. If he believes that, then he can do something rare for pastors like him. He can free people from these agreements, share Lakepointe’s confidentiality practices, and align the church’s paperwork with its preaching.

The good news, the same good news that Howerton preaches, is that none of this has to stay in the dark. Confession is not the end of a pastor’s credibility. It’s usually the beginning of it. The Church doesn’t need Josh Howerton or Lakepointe to be perfect. It needs them to be honest, even when honesty costs something.

SAI’s goal in adding Lakepointe to this database is not to cancel anyone or end their ministry. It’s to start a conversation that too many churches have avoided for far too long. We’d love nothing more than to write a follow-up piece about how Lakepointe chose transparency over silence. They could be the kind of hopeful shock to the system this article has asked for all along. And if so, we will be the first to celebrate that.

If they keep using NDAs, all we ask is that they are open, honest, and transparent about it. While we hope for a future where church NDA use stops, we believe Christians can make their own educated decisions on this issue as long as churches are honest about how they use NDAs when they choose to.

At the end of the day, this truth remains: “Perfect love casts out fear.” Josh Howerton told us that himself. Moving forward, the question we are left to ask is whether it can cast out NDAs too.