{"id":298233,"date":"2026-07-16T23:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298233\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:24:16","slug":"fount-church-nyc-pastor-resigns-following-months-of-financial-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298233\/","title":{"rendered":"Fount Church NYC pastor resigns following months of financial turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City\u2019s Fount Church Pastor Josh Kelsey, who has been accused<\/a> of $1.4 million in questionable spending, has resigned.<\/p>\n

The megachurch\u2019s board, which recently said it cleared<\/a> Kelsey of deliberate wrongdoing, toldRoys Report (RR) about his resignation today. The statement<\/a>, which the board sent to RR through an external public relations firm, praised Kelsey\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Josh for his thirteen years of faithful leadership, vision and service in founding and building Fount Church,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

One board member resigned and left the church in March. Flavia Mendonca, who also worked as a manager overseeing audits, told RR she felt church leaders cared more about optics than accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons (my family) left was we were not fully comfortable anymore with what we were seeing behind the scenes,\u201d Mendonca told RR.<\/p>\n

Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report, and you can elect to receive our featured offer, \u201cKiss and Tell: The Innocent Moment That Shattered Mark Driscoll\u2019s Cult\u201d by Vince Manuele \u2013 click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"fountWorship service at Fount NYC-Manhattan campus in New York. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)<\/p>\n

In its statement, the Fount board didn\u2019t explain about a process to find a replacement pastor. RR emailed the PR firm for further clarification on this but the firm didn\u2019t immediately respond.<\/p>\n

The New York City church is facing another transition. Kelsey founded Fount in 2013. At the time he was pastoring in a C3 Church Global congregation in Sydney. But according to Fount\u2019s website,<\/a> he believed God was calling him to start a similar church in New York. He planted Fount \u2014 also a part of the Australian-based C3 Church Global church planting movement \u2014 by initially hosting dinner parties. It soon grew to church services throughout New York, then to Berlin and Paris, which are now independent churches.<\/p>\n

Fount left C3 last year, RR previously reported. Now Fount is joining Kingdomcity, a self-described \u201cglobal Christian church movement,\u201d founded by Australian attorney-turned-pastor Mark Varughese. Board member and Fount Pastor Olusegun Olujide made the announcement at Fount\u2019s July 5 church service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"OlusegunFount Church Pastor Olusegun Olujide addresses the congregation on July 5, 2026, announcing Josh Kelsey\u2019s resignation and the church\u2019s plans to join the global church movement Kingdomcity. (Screen grab)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just so thankful for Pastor Josh and Georgie for sowing their hearts out into New York City, but \u2026 what they have done is just a seed,\u201d Olujide said. \u201cNow Kingdom City (is) going to come in with their covering and leadership, and God\u2019s going to take that seed and He\u2019s going to increase it to the whole of New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s statement to RR gave few details on this arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFount also confirms that it is working to bring the church under the oversight of a larger, established global church movement to strengthen its long-term leadership and sustainability,\u201d the board stated. \u201cFurther details will be announced once those arrangements are finalised (sic).\u201d<\/p>\n

RR asked Fount\u2019s public relations firm for information on new oversight and accountability. RRalso emailed Kingdomcity to ask about whether it requires annual audits to be made public, and whether it has safeguarding and whistleblowing policies. Kingdomcity didn\u2019t immediately respond.<\/p>\n

Josh Kelsey could not be reached for comment either.<\/p>\n

Board member resigned<\/p>\n

In January, a leaked preliminary review by the auditing firm CapinCrouse flagged unapproved expenses on the Kelseys\u2019 church credit card, RR previously reported. The expenses included almost $30,000 spent on personal flights, $3,500 on alcohol, and more than $9,000 on surfing.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh and Georgie Kelsey, founders of New York City\u2019s Fount Church. (Photo courtesy of social media)<\/p>\n

Mendonca was one of Fount\u2019s newest board members<\/a>, elected by the congregation on Jan. 11 to the office of treasurer. One of the first orders of business for the board was to hire an auditor, the board president previously stated<\/a>. Finding fault with the CapinCrouse report, the newly elected board hired Dentons, a multinational law firm.<\/p>\n

On April 6, board president Frank Wheatley sent RR a six-page summary<\/a> of findings, written by the board, that cleared the Kelseys of wrongdoing. This summary referenced but didn\u2019t link to a 455-page investigative report from Dentons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the board, the report says the pastoral couple didn\u2019t misspend anywhere near the $1.4 million attributed to them; rather a range of church employees and volunteers incurred the expenses.<\/p>\n

What the board didn\u2019t disclose to RR at that time was that Mendonca had tried to resign in February, citing accountability concerns.<\/p>\n

Her Feb. 2 resignation letter<\/a> states she couldn\u2019t fully provide financial oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to current circumstances and limitations that prevent me from exercising the full financial oversight and independent governance required by my role, I can no longer fulfill my fiduciary duties,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

She told RR that other board members seemed more focused on clearing Kelsey\u2019s name and\u201cmoving forward,\u201d than holding anyone accountable for possible misspending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not comfortable with the framing of the communications,\u201d she told RR. \u201cThat\u2019s not the right way to do it. You have to hold people accountable for what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FountBranding image for Fount NYC (Screengrab)<\/p>\n

She said she was often the only board member raising concerns about the wisdom of some expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think I hate Pastor Josh, but I don\u2019t,\u201d Mendonca said.<\/p>\n

In her resignation letter, Mendonca gave the board a parting word.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also advise that the board focus the effort in implementing bylaws, policies and procedures considering internal controls,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

The board asked Mendonca to stay longer to continue working on policies and procedures, and she delayed her resignation to March 24.<\/p>\n

Mendonca told RR she never saw a copy of the full audit because by the time it was ready, she was on her way out.<\/p>\n

Though the church promptly removed her email access after her March 24 resignation, she said, it kept her name on the website as a board member until April 9. This date was three days after the board had sent RR a summary clearing the Kelseys of wrongdoing. The church removed her name, Mendonca told RR, only after her husband sent the entire board a request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RR emailed Wheatley, the board president, for comment. He didn\u2019t immediately respond.<\/p>\n

The official board statement mentioned no concerns about Kelsey. It said he will remain in Australia full-time. He was living mostly there for the past several months, citing health concerns in his extended family, RR previously reported. Sometimes he would fly to New York to preach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough his commitment, countless lives have been impacted,\u201d the board stated. \u201c(The board) fully supports Josh and his family as they begin this new season and thanks him for the lasting legacy he leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendonca told RR she left Fount wishing it would build a foundation of transparency moving forward.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cHow can you build trust without being clear and transparent?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Rebecca Hopkins<\/a> is a journalist based in Colorado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City\u2019s Fount Church Pastor Josh Kelsey, who has been accused of $1.4 million in questionable spending,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[58297,113456,113457,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-298233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-financial-fraud","tag-fount-nyc","tag-josh-kelsey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}