JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The legal case between Jacksonville-based Celebration Church and its former pastors will go before a judge Thursday afternoon.

Stovall and Kerri Weems filed a lawsuit last year against the church they founded in 1998, alleging the church and its attorneys defamed them and caused irreparable damage to their reputation, following the publishing of an internal investigation that included allegations of spiritual and emotional abuse, fraud and financial misconduct.

The judge on Thursday will consider if the court has subject matter jurisdiction in this case. A church attorney named in the suit filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying the court does not have jurisdiction over ecclesiastical matters and the Weemses oppose that dismissal request.

Internal investigation

Celebration Church’s attorneys released the results of an internal investigation it conducted after interviewing more than 20 former and current senior leadership members, staff, former trustees, other advisors and consultants.

The report said since at least 2019, the Weemses’ leadership has been “inconsistent and unbiblical.” It said Stovall Weems’ leadership was “marked by rampant spiritual and emotional abuse, including manipulation, a profound sense of self-importance and selfishness, superiority and entitlement, overbearing and unreasonable demands on employees’ time, a lack of accountability or humility, and demands of absolute loyalty.”

“The single word used most frequently to describe Stovall Weems was ‘narcissist.’ Nearly every witness we interviewed used that specific word,” the report stated.

RELATED: Full report of investigation into Celebration Church

Weems spoke to the News4JAX I-TEAM in Jan. 2023 and denied that assertion.

“I have never, ever in my life in 23 years, been accused of being a narcissist. I’ve got problems and issues, and I got to own my own behavior like everybody else,” said Weems. “But I will tell you what I am not. I am not someone that has no empathy that is self-absorbed and does not give away power and control.”

The church suspended Weems and he officially resigned in April 2022.

Defamation case

Stovall Weems argues the church’s board of trustees orchestrated a “coup” after he said he discovered one trustee was involved in financial misconduct. Weems said that trustee was improperly billing the church for construction-type services and after being confronted, that person turned the other trustees against him.

The Weemses’ complaint said the internal investigative report could expose them to “hatred, contempt, ridicule and disgrace.” It also said the couple “suffered humiliation, mental anguish, emotional distress and embarrassment as a direct result of Celebration Church’s false and defamatory narrative and statement.”

MORE | ‘I want to clear my name’: Embattled former pastor of Jacksonville megachurch sits down with I-TEAM

Weems told the I-TEAM he’s speaking publicly and taking the issue to court to hold people accountable and clear his name.

“Our adversaries attacked us publicly by falsely accusing us of violating secular laws and should therefore have to answer publicly for the consequences of their actions,” said Weems. “This is not a simple dispute between believers that ordinarily would be resolved as envisioned in 1 Corinthians 6.”

Allegations against church planting organization

Stovall and Kerri Weems recently filed a federal complaint against one of the largest church planting organizations in the country, the Association of Related Churches, or ARC. The complaint accuses ARC and three other pastors of masterminding a conspiracy to take over the church and oust the founders from their roles. Celebration Church is not listed as a defendant in this federal case.

“Defendants were consumed by greed and the desire to advance their own financial and business interests when they deliberately targeted Pastor Weems and those closest to him because he rejected their unbridled church growth model and was focused on missionary work and developing supporting businesses that defendants perceived as a significant threat to their economic interests,” the filing reads.

ARC was co-founded by Chris Hodges, who is also the founder and senior pastor of Church of the Highlands, one of the largest churches in the United States with more than 60,000 members and 23 campuses, according to the filing. Hodges is named as a defendant in the Weemses’ federal complaint.

Dino Rizzo, executive director of ARC and associate pastor at Church of the Highlands, is also named as a defendant. Rizzo was an overseer at Celebration Church until September 2021.

The third pastor named as a defendant is John Siebeling, who leads The Life Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He is a founding board member of ARC who also served as an overseer at Celebration Church until September 2021.

The complaint said the defendants used ARC’s significant influence and power as a vehicle to “facilitate and conceal their nefarious scheme.”

“This case arises out of a continuing unlawful conspiracy masterminded by the defendants to protect and expand their church growth business interests and endeavors and the substantial income they generate by destroying Plaintiffs and eliminating them as perceived threats and competitors, which included engineering a takeover at Celebration Church of Jacksonville, Inc. to allow defendants to effectively gain control over its operations and substantial assets, cover up numerous criminal and tortious acts committed in the process, and frame the Weemses for financial crimes they never committed,” the filing reads.

RELATED: Federal complaint accuses ARC of masterminding conspiracy

The federal complaint said when churches are planted through ARC, they enter contractual agreements where ARC provides initial loans for the launch. In turn, the church is required to pay 10% of tithes and offerings to ARC until the loan is repaid. After that, the church is required to send ARC an ongoing amount of 2% of its monthly tithes and offerings.

The filing said Celebration Church is not an ARC-planted church, but historically donated approximately $150,000 to $200,000 per year to ARC to benefit church planting operations. The federal complaint states the defendants were “constantly pressuring” Stovall Weems to commit to donating 2% of Celebration Church’s income to ARC for church planting purposes.

“ARC has attained a significant amount of power and influence through its church growth model and church-planting operations and is able to maintain and expand such power and influence through affiliated entities and ‘partners’ that it heavily encourages its members to use,” the filing reads.

“We are saddened that Stovall Weems, former pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, filed a lawsuit against ARC that included unfounded and inaccurate accusations. We are confident, however, that the truth will ultimately prevail. We respect the judicial process and look forward to addressing these matters in the courtroom,” The Association of Related Churches said in a statement to The Christian Post.

Eviction case

Another issue involves the home where the Weemses reside on Black Hammock Island in Duval County.

Stovall Weems purchased the property in Feb. 2021 for $855,000 and sold it four months later to Celebration Church for more than $1.2 million. The defamation suit said the property was part of a retirement package for the pastors. They have argued they have the right to live there. The church has served eviction notices to the couple and said they “refuse to vacate.”

Read more: Church serves pastors with eviction notices

“You’re also saying Celebration Church failed to honor its agreement with you about the parsonage. So is that ever in writing that you’re allowed?” the News4JAX I-TEAM asked Weems. “Oh, yeah, yeah, you can look right in the case. It’s been there since 2019. In 2019, the church attorney along with the overseers, the trustees, the compensation committee, the church CFO, you’ll see in there, they did the compensation resolution, and you can see why they did it. It was a parting gift. It was honoring me for my 23 years of service in the church. That’s why you’ll see in there, there’s not an address attached to it. It’s a parsonage allowance. And what they knew was, I’m going through this transition, I’m basically giving away 90% of my power, and authority, and I just want to focus on missions, and I’m getting off salary,” Weems responded.

The transition refers to Weems stepping back from a day-to-day senior pastor role and moving into a global pastor role focused on missions. Tim Timberlake was brought in to become the new senior pastor.

The Weemses have launched a new ministry called Awakening Ecclesia, which meets on Sundays in Arlington. Celebration Church continues to operate under Timberlake’s leadership.