The legal fight, playing out in Texas’ 11th Division Business Court, could determine whether the megachurch committed fraud in 2023 when it changed bylaws that stripped the congregation of all its voting rights, consolidating power in the hands of a few instead of Second Baptist’s 94,000 members.
Speaking to his congregation last year, senior pastor Ben Young said that the allegations “simply are not true.” He added that the new bylaws were both “biblically and legally” sound.
Both the defendants and plaintiffs agreed to the new trial date of July 27 as opposed to the previously scheduled trial on April 29, according to court filings.
The request from both parties came as the court ordered them to mediation last week. If the mediation is unsuccessful, the matter will proceed to a jury trial.
“This continuance is not made for the purposes of delay, but so that justice might be done,” the request read.
Alongside Second Baptist, the defendants are longtime senior pastor Ed Young; his son and the church’s new leader, Ben Young; associate pastor Lee Maxcy; and Dennis Brewer Jr., general counsel and executive pastor at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. Fellowship Church is led by Ed Young, Jr., Ben Young’s brother.
Attorneys for both parties did not respond to the Houston Chronicle by the time of publication.