{"id":304668,"date":"2026-07-24T12:32:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:32:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:32:56","slug":"fount-church-nyc-pastor-josh-kelsey-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304668\/","title":{"rendered":"Fount Church NYC Pastor Josh Kelsey resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leonardo Blair<\/a>, Senior Reporter Thursday, July 23, 2026\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"Twitter\"<\/a>\"FountFount NYC Founding Pastors Josh and Georgie Kelsey. | YouTube\/FOUNT<\/p>\n

Founding pastors of Fount Church in New York City Josh Kelsey and his wife, Georgie, have stepped down as lead pastors and permanently returned to their native Australia months after an independent investigation cleared them of fraud allegations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fount Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Thursday but confirmed the move in a statement to The Roys Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFount Church confirms that Josh Kelsey has decided to transition out of his leadership of the church and relocate permanently to Australia. After 13 years of founding and leading the church, Josh has concluded that remaining in Australia full-time is the right course for his family,\u201d Geoff Fowlstone, a spokesperson for the church, said in the July 16 statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Josh for his 13 years of faithful leadership, vision and service in founding and building Fount Church. Through his commitment, countless lives have been impacted; it fully supports Josh and his family as they begin this new season and thanks him for the lasting legacy he leaves,\u201d Fowlstone added.<\/p>\n

He further noted that the church is currently working on getting \u201cunder the oversight of a larger, established global church movement to strengthen its long term leadership and sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, a 7-page statement<\/a> from the church\u2019s board sent to the Fount Church NYC community and published by founttransparency.org<\/a> said an independent investigation conducted by global law firm Dentons cleared Kelsey and his wife of allegations that they racked up $1.4 million in transactions on a church credit card. It stated that a former board member made that claim based on “fundamentally flawed” information.<\/p>\n

Church officials previously told CP<\/a> that the collective $1.4 million in American Express charges attributed to the Kelseys from October 2017 to 2025 were all \u201capproved by the accounts team.\u201d In their March 30 statement attributed to the Fount Church NYC board, however, officials said, \u201cThe allegation that $1.4 million was spent by Josh and Georgie Kelsey across a nine-year period is wholly false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church credit cards were used across all departments of Fount Church and by multiple staff members and volunteers throughout the nine-year period, not just Pastors Josh and Georgie. These cards processed expenses for every area of Church operations, including C3 Global annual levies and all-staff travel to conferences and ministry events, as well as all Vision Builders expenses, including Fundraising Gala expenses for church-wide events,\u201d the Fount Church NYC Board led by President Frank Wheatley stated. \u201cThe $1.4 million represents Church-wide expenditure, not a figure attributable to spending by the Lead Pastors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fount Transparency, a watchdog group formed by former members of the church who raised concerns about the church’s governance, questioned the investigation clearing the Kelseys. Among its concerns was the lead attorney who investigated the case at Dentons, identified as experienced trial lawyer Trinity Jordan. His bio on the Dentons website cites his U.S. Department of Justice experience and notes that he \u201cspent nearly a decade as lead pastor at Elevation Church in Layton, Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a \u2018pastor-attorney\u2019 who specializes in providing \u2018creative solutions\u2019 for churches facing legal and financial crises, according to his own bio. His service is to \u2018resolve the issue with zealous advocacy\u2019 rather than independently investigate and hold another pastor accountable,\u201d the advocacy group argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis undermines the Fount\u2019s claim that the investigation was \u2018independent.\u2019 Rather, it was an investigation performed by a man whose entire career is built on the success of the church-planting industry having deep vested interest as an author, trainer, and advocate of the model used by Fount, which he was tasked with investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair<\/a> Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost<\/a><\/p>\n