A number of churches and ministries, including Mormonism Research Ministry, helped platform and promote Adam’s Road Band beginning around 2008. The band was formed by ex-Mormon professing Christians. Their music and testimony was an encouragement to those learning about the differences between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity.
Since then we have been devastated by the news of “long-standing sexual immorality within the band”, namely a “polyamorous heterosexual arrangement among the band members, which had been ongoing for more than a decade.” Some members of the band were under a,
“persistent homosexual influence from a much older adult male who has been at the center of the ministry since its inception in 2006. He had gained prominence as the band members’ erstwhile ‘prophet’ during their missionary days with the LDS church, and later positioned himself as the band’s patron…”
“This older man was welcomed as an insider to the band’s operations and exercised a powerful influence over its plans and finances for eighteen years…”“It is hard to express our grief over the loss of trust that we are now experiencing. Many ministries that had enthusiastically championed the band’s efforts are now experiencing a similar sense of betrayal. Hundreds of churches who have hosted them during their fifteen years of touring are also reeling from this news.”
– End of Adam’s Road (link)
It is with sadness that we publish the following timeline. It establishes a credible, documented history. Our goal is to bring clarity and demonstrate transparency.
The Timeline
- September 28, 1995 – Moonglow CEO Max Eric Blanchard (with others of Edgewater Hotel Inc.) purchases the Edgewater Hotel with the intent to restore it.
- 2004-2006 – Micah Wilder serves an LDS mission. As later recorded in his book, on his mission he becomes close to “Erik”. Erik is Max Eric Blanchard.
- Around this time Max was a ward mission leader.
Account of Fernando Bredariol Gaertner
“I went on my mission in Orlando, Florida. In my second area, Micah was my roommate. (Joseph came to my mission, a transfer after me.) That was the area where I met Max. I knew his last name was Blanchard but I never knew Erik was his middle name. But the time Micah’s book came out, I assumed ‘Erik’ was just an alias he made up.”
“Max used to say that he was the most ‘active inactive’ member. At the time I had the mission to re-activate him. He would always feed the missionaries for free. We hung out there some nights. We stayed at his hotel during the hurricanes and we did our service hours helping his kitchen line pulling pork and stuff.”“Every missionary that was in Max’s circle kind of revered him as a prophet. Missionaries in our area that felt super sick used to go Max for healing…”
“Max used to have a lot of secret meetings with Micah… Missionaries that stayed with the church used to refer to Joseph and Micah as Maxites.”
– Gaertner correspondence
Picture taken at an Adam’s Road concert at Plaza Bible Church in Orange, CA.
Comment added by Ex-Mormons for Jesus:
“Max is the name of the man who drove the bus and manned the sound board.”
Former LDS missionary Fernando Bredariol Gaertner confirms this picture to be of Max.
- Summer of 2005 – The Adam-ondi-Ahman band consists of 5 members: Steve Kay, Matt Wilder, Jay Graham, David Perriton, and David Carter.
- Summer of 2006 – By this time, David Perriton and David Carter had left, Micah Wilder and Joseph Warren had joined, and Adam’s Road was formed.
- The band consisted of: Micah Wilder, Matt Wilder Jay Graham, Joseph Warren, and Steve Kay.
- The bus driver was an older man, Max Eric Blanchard (born 1960).
- March 14, 2007 – Micah Wilder added as director to Winter Garden Gateway Corporation alongside Max Blanchard. (link 1, link 2)
- August 23, 2008 – Salt Lake Tribune publishes, “Band follows a new road for former LDS missionaries” (link)
- 2009, 2010 – Testimonies of band members documented on video by Sacred Groves, a ministry of Main Street Church in Brigham City. (link)
- December 7, 2010 – Domestic Non-Profit Articles of Incorporation filed for Book of Life Fellowship Inc. Micah Wilder is listed as President. Max Eric Blanchard is listed as Vice President.
- Article 3: “THE CORPORATION IS TO SERVE AS A CHURCH. GENERALLY STATED, THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH SHALL BE TO PROMOTE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY AND SUPPORT AND PROMOTE THE DOCTRINES AS OUTLINED IN THE HOLY BIBLE.”
- 2011 – Sacred Groves audio/video released by Main Street Church (lhvm.org) (link 1, link 2)
- 2013 – Both Steve Kay and Jay Graham leave the band.
- As reported later in 2024, “In 2013, one founding member of the band abruptly left the band in disgust after being propositioned by this man” (End of Adam’s Road). The band member refers to Steve Kay.
- April 29, 2013 – Max Eric Blanchard no longer listed as on the board of Book of Life Fellowship, Inc. (compare 2012, 2013)
- February 18, 2014 – Micah Wilder begins an email thread titled “Accountability” with those in ministry to Mormons.
- Micah Wilder: “As a ministry, we have an accountability system that includes regular reports to a number of local churches here in Central Florida as well as a handful more located out of state, from New York, North Carolina, Utah, California and beyond. We are also humbled to have a network of churches that includes over 300 congregations from many denominations… to which we report the on-goings of our ministry, and all of which we have ministered with/at in person.”
- Bill McKeever: “A verse that I have often appealed to in my life and ministry is Proverbs 11:14 – ‘Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.’ It is a given that we are all accountable to God, but it is also a given that we are all a bunch of fallen goofballs who at times fail to see things in our lives that others might see. Just because we are all accountable to God does not at all preclude the fact that God has also placed godly men and women in our lives who may at certain times and in certain ways, see things we may have overlooked. Unless we’ve shed our fallenness, I think we all need to listen when brothers or sisters feel a need to pull us aside. The problem with pride is it tends to make us think we’re not. This is no time to be cocky.”
- Rob Sivulka relays a concern from another local pastor: “Are they connected to ‘a’ local church[?] Are there elders that they submit to and are shepherded by? Are their families plugged into a local church with qualified shepherds while they are on the road?” (February 19, 2014)
- Eric Johnson, “A very appropriate response. First things first, the church elders should be involved, then perhaps the parachurch organizations as a secondary resource. Since elders are supposed to be the spiritually mature of the church, this is the right place to start.” (February 19, 2014)
- Micah: “Eric, to clarify this process has already gone through the local leadership and Body. We are now expanding our Biblical accountability to our partner ministries.” (February 20, 2014)
- Rob: “So what local church are you guys a part of?” (February 21, 2014)
- Micah: “Rob, Book of Life Fellowship located in Winter Garden, Florida. We are drafting lengthy and thoughtful response to you… about our ministry accountability.” (February 21, 2014)
- Rob: “Who are the pastors and elders there?” (February 21, 2014)
- Chip: “Does your church have a website? I looked and couldn’t find one.” (February 21, 2014)
- Micah: “We do not currently have a website, we are actually in the process of building one as we speak. However, we have outlined the basic structure of the church below: “Three of the members of our ministry (Joseph, Micah, and Matt) are overseers and ministers of a local congregation of believers called “Book of Life Fellowship”. This is, by the state of Florida, a legally recognized, tax-exempt “church”… There is no “pulpit preaching” or “sermonizing,” just the teaching, exhorting, and reasoning of the Word of God among believers (1 Timothy 4:3; 2 Timothy 4:2).”
- [Note: A former member of the ministry notes that this was a Bible study on Wednesday nights. They called themselves “The Acts 2 Community.” They were discouraged from becoming members at any church.]
- Chip: “So I am trying to picture what you have described. Joseph, Micah, and Matt are the only Overseers, Teachers, Elders, and Deacons or are there others? Are Joseph, Micah, and Matt all Adam’s Road Band members?”
- Micah: “There are others as well. But the three of us (founding members of the Adam’s Road ministry) are all ministers in the church.”
- Chip: “Thanks, just wasn’t clear on what you were saying. Does your church have a head elder then, like a pastor? If, so, I would be interested to know a little bit about him.”
- Micah: “Our church does have a head Pastor that oversees our congregation, Pastor Rick [name omitted].”
- [Note: This claim is disputed by Joseph Warren and Matt Wilder. Rick attended some Wednesday night Bible studies of the group but did not function as head pastor at Book of Life Fellowship.]
- February 23, 2015 – As of this date, adamsroadministry.com boasts of 19 pastoral endorsements, 6 ministry endorsements, 49 Utah host churches, and many others. (link 1, link 2)
- August 18, 2015 – Adam’s Road announces on Twitter: “Meet Lila, the newest member of our ministry! She came from a fundamentalist LDS background and now sings for Christ.” (link 1, link 2)
- 2017 – Steve Kay sends a message to members of the band regarding Max’s proposition in 2013.
- “I wrote up a Facebook message detailing everything that happened that night in Ft. Myers and making it very clear that I was only sharing all of this because I loved and cared for the other band members and their families and wanted them all to be safe.” (Steve Kay)
- 2019 – A Richard Dutcher film, “Jesus Is Enough”, is planned with Micah. (link 1, link 2). The teaser reads,
- “An unparalleled emotional testimony to faith in Christ, Jesus is Enough chronicles the modern-day journey of a passionate young religious man—akin to Saul of Tarsus—who was challenged to read the Bible like a child while serving a two-year mission for the Mormon Church. In an effort to solidify his own religious foundation and prove Mormonism true, he fervently studied God’s Word. Daily examination of the pure and simple Gospel produced in him a startling awakening to the grace and love of God that he had never before known, shaking his religious foundation and transforming his life.”
- May 30, 2021 – Micah Wilder begins to be listed as “Pastor,” and Joseph Warren as an “Elder,” of Book of Life Fellowship in annual reports (link).
- June 1, 2021 – Harvest House Publishers publishes Micah’s autobiography, Passport to Heaven: The True Story of a Zealous Mormon Missionary Who Discovers the Jesus He Never Knew. Micah mentions “Erik” at length.
Infatuation with Erik in Passport to Heaven
A prophecy about a band
Micah depicting Elder Shumway’s words:
“I’ve heard about a guy, Erik, who is a recent convert to the Church. He owns this old hotel, and rumor has it that he has ‘spiritual’ gifts… He has made some sort of a prophecy about a band that is going to put the Bible to music in helping prepare the world for the second coming of Christ, or something like that.”
p. 135
“All I wanted was for him to flip me over and write ANDY on the bottom of my foot.“
When things seemed like they couldn’t get any more unusual, we passed by an old clock tower with the words Winter Garden at the top. We then took a sharp left around the tower and pulled up to an old, three-story red brick building. On the front of the awning were the words Edgewater Hotel.
“It’s Erik’s hotel!” I blurted aloud. We parked in front and I leapt out of the car. I could hardly bear the anticipation as I followed the troop toward the entrance. This was the moment I had been waiting for…
After taking our orders, the waitress careened across the restaurant toward the back, and as my eyes followed her, my attention was taken to a man in the back of the room who was slowly making his way toward us. He was a tall, slightly overweight man wearing a Kermit the Frog T-shirt and jeans. He had a short-cropped yet shaggy beard, his hair was unkempt, and he walked with a slight limp. He looked plain and unassuming.
“Does Erik feed the homeless?” I asked while nudging Rasmussen and pointing toward the man with my head. The others at the table almost toppled over themselves and stood up in a half-circle in front of me to shut me up as the man came toward us.
“Hey Erik!” Elder Larsen said, hugging him. “There is someone we want you to meet. This is Elder Wilder.”
My head started spinning. This wasn’t Erik. This wasn’t the guy. This couldn’t be the guy. There’s no way someone with so many supposed spiritual gifts, with such a reputation, could look like… well, this. I was confused. His appearance went against everything I had imagined him to be, and I was thoroughly devastated.
I stood up as Erik hobbled toward me. Uncertain of how to react and still wallowing in my disappointment, I opted not to hug him. Rather, I greeted him with a handshake. All the hope I had mustered for weeks about meeting the man who might be able to help me find my place in life was shattered in my heart like a glass mirror over a sharp rock. It was my patriarchal blessing all over again.
“Nice to meet you, Elder Wilder,” he said as he shook my hand. His strikingly blue eyes and small, pinpoint-like pupils were so piercing I felt as though he could see right through me. He looked me in the eyes and squinted.
“Where have we met before?” he asked. Then, in an instant, something within him changed. His smile dropped and he abruptly averted his eyes and released my hand. He became pale, as if he had seen a ghost. He had obviously been startled, and I couldn’t figure out why. Immediately, he turned away from me and began chatting with the other elders.
Erik’s odd behavior left me bewildered. When he had first looked at me, I wanted to sink into the floor on my belly and scurry away. But after his inexplicable reaction to me, all I wanted was for him to flip me over and write ANDY on the bottom of my foot. “Where have we met before?”
What did that mean? I tried to get Erik’s attention again, but he rather rudely ignored me and focused on the other missionaries.
“So, what are you guys up to today?” Erik asked.
“Probably going to go tracting this morning, and then we have a few appointments this afternoon,” Elder Larsen responded.
“Well, I’ve got to get going. I just wanted to stop in and say hi.”
I tried to make eye contact with Erik as he left the table, but he quickly headed to the rear of the restaurant and disappeared.
We finished breakfast and exited the nostalgic building. Even in my disappointment by Erik’s physical appearance, something stirred within me that caused me to want to know more about how someone like him could exist under the authority of the Church. Though I didn’t know him yet, I wanted to. For some reason, I now felt myself drawn to Erik.
As I stood in front of the hotel gazing out in amazement over the beautiful town, I heard the spring doors open and close behind me. I turned around, and Erik was standing there looking directly at me.
“It was nice to meet you, Elder Wilder,” he said as he opened his arms wide and invited me into his embrace. Though still confused and even a bit restless, I cautiously hugged him. As I did, he imparted words that immediately penetrated my guarded heart.
“It’s all about love, Kid. It’s all about love.”
pp. 143-145
“Time itself seemed to stop and something in my heart caused it to skip.”
As I looked at Erik, time itself seemed to stop and something in my heart caused it to skip a beat. I was certain God had firmly planted my feet on a road that was leading me to the fullness of His love. However, I was conflicted by the fact that this hurricane marked the conclusion of my four-month tenure in Winter Garden. In two days’ time, I would be transferred to a new home on the Florida coast. I had been promoted to be a zone leader—the youngest one in the mission—where I would be accountable for the spiritual and temporal oversight of twenty missionaries. As much as I coveted the leadership responsibilities, I didn’t want to leave my lakeside home…
Erik finally returned to the bedroom and held up the scrunched tie with a broad grin on his face. I could only smile as I dropped all decorum and hugged him, sopping wet as he was. Even amid a 500-mile-wide vortex and 100-mile-per-hour gusts of wind that made us microscopic in proportion, for some reason, in this place, I felt safer than anywhere in the world.
pp. 166-167
“I found myself drawn to Erik—even yearning for his favor.”
These were exhilarating times… because Erik and I were just now developing the friendship I had yearned for since before I even met him, but this hadn’t come without complications. From our initial awkward encounter in the hotel restaurant nearly three months ago, it appeared that we were destined to face relational obstacles…
After intentionally keeping my distance for a time, I found myself drawn to Erik—even yearning for his favor. Cautiously, I began to instigate an alliance with him. But there was a problem: Erik had been avoiding me at every turn. I didn’t notice this at first because I had essentially been doing the same thing to him. But once I started shadowing him, I found it almost impossible to gain his attention, and this discouraged me. Observing his interactions with other missionaries only led to frustration and even jealousy. In the few exchanges we had, he would make seemingly offhand spiritual comments that, for some reason, wedged themselves in my heart.
“You know that God rejoices more in the one sheep who is lost and found than the ninety-nine who are never lost, right?” he once said. He would impart random nuggets of wisdom, then abandon me. It was almost as if he was preparing me for something by testing me, but my patience was running thin.
p. 168
Flattery and “reciprocated… advances of amity“
One day, feeling hopeless after having failed to garner Erik’s attention, I confronted him at my breaking point.
“Erik, why do you hate me?” I erupted with tears in my eyes. His face crumpled, and he wrapped me in his arms.
“Oh, Kid, I don’t hate you! How could you say that? I love you. In fact, you are my favorite missionary. But most importantly, you need to know that God loves you.”
In that moment, everything changed. My confession had triggered an avalanche within Erik, and nothing could stop it. Instantaneously, seemingly impenetrable barriers were knocked down. After that encounter, Erik reciprocated my advances of amity toward him and, after months of distance, we began building a friendship that blossomed quickly. Erik had become someone I could trust.
pp. 168-169
“An opportunity to spend a few days in isolation at Erik’s hotel”
Admittedly, I had selfishly coveted an opportunity to spend a few days in isolation at Erik’s hotel, a designated shelter during the storm. Because I would soon be transferred from Winter Garden, I knew this would be my last chance—possibly of my entire mission—to finally ask the burning question that had been left unanswered for far too long.
By divine providence, Erik and I ended up doing a work shift together several hours late into the evening. Toward the end of the watch we were both getting tired and our eyes were burning. Needing a few moments of precious rest, we found the only unoccupied room down the west hall of the building that was reserved for the busy staff and missionaries who were on duty.
We entered room 208, leaving the door slightly ajar so we could hear any distresses in the building. The small chamber was beautifully decorated. An antique bed with a white metal frame and gold trim sat to the left, against the wall, and directly adjacent to it was a white dresser with an attached mirror. The floors were highly polished wood, and bright red pipes ran along the ceiling.
The room was dark, and ominous clouds filled the gloomy sky outside. The storm had sustained high-powered winds now for more than eighteen hours, and the howling sound it caused had gone from something to fear to something strangely comforting.
Erik sat in the chair on the opposite side of the room and I settled down in my wrinkly clothes on top of the blankets on the bed. For a moment I just rested there, looking up at the ceiling and focusing on the red pipes. So much in my life was changing, and it was all happening so fast.
pp. 169-170
“You are my purpose.”
“Micah, please know that I love you,” [Erik] said softly. “And please know that I love Christ. This has been a tough journey for me… learning to completely surrender to God and turn away from manmade desires and dreams.” He paused as he leaned forward in his chair…
“When I saw you that day in the restaurant for the first time, so many recollections came instantly to my mind as I shockingly realized… Micah, you are my purpose. Although I was confused and torn for a time about why I was led to the Church, it all makes sense now. I was waiting for you, and once I realized you were real, at first I was frightened…
I had waited for this moment for many years, and something unspoken revealed to me that perhaps, just perhaps, God would finally unveil to me the answer to life’s most burning question, returning me to the intimacy I once shared with Him as a child. This might be my last hope.
Suppressing the tremendous fear that this moment would join the chorus of disappointing failures in my life, I took a deep breath and leapt headfirst off the precipice.
“Erik, who am I?” I blurted out, fearing that he might find the question foolish.
There was a long pause. I couldn’t believe I had done it, but it was too late to take it back. I closed my eyes, waiting with angst, praying to God fervently in my heart. As the seconds ticked by, I slowly opened my eyes and glanced at Erik. He had no visible reaction to my query. Perhaps my suspicions had been accurate. I was humiliated.
Erik’s voice then broke the awkward silence.
“Micah,” he said slowly, “there is something I have wanted to tell you for a long time. From the moment I first saw you, actually.”
My heart perked up. Could this be the revelation I was waiting for?
Erik hesitated for a moment, then continued. “You know, I do sort of know you by another name… in a sense, God knows you by another name.”
My eyes widened and my heart pulsed in my chest. Erik paused again, then turned his gaze directly toward me.
“David… David is your true name,” he said. “Which means ‘beloved.'”
The unfathomable force of that name came crashing into me like a wrecking ball and I was instantly paralyzed, unable to speak. Countless memories from my youth surfaced in my mind. The void that had plagued my life for so long somehow, in an instant, vented its hidden contents.
pp. 170-172
Erik prophesies over Micah.
As I laid there in silence, Erik arose from the chair, walked over to the antique dresser, and slowly opened one of the drawers. He retrieved a white envelope bearing a handwritten inscription, “To David.” He handed it to me and looked me in the eyes. I held the envelope tight with both of my hands.
“Micah, this is your true purpose. You have a specific responsibility in life. By the time your mission is over, you will be on the path to fulfilling your calling by recognizing your namesake and knowing what it is like to be made in the likeness of God. You, through a band of ministers of the gospel, must help bring God’s Word to the world, and by doing so work to unite the body of Christ in preparation for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this letter, you will learn more when the time is right. Don’t open it until your mission is complete. Then you will see and understand that your true mission is just beginning. But first, God must release you from bondage.”
I remained there in silence while clutching the envelope in my shaking hands. Release me from bondage? What was he talking about? I now had more unanswered questions than ever racing through my mind, but I didn’t have the strength to vocalize them. I had so much to process. But despite the level of my uncertainty, one thing I knew for sure: everything that had been seeded by God within me quickened as it came alive.
I knew my life would never be the same.
pp. 168-172
Glossing over Jay and Steve’s exit
“In 2013, two of our founding members left the ministry for other pursuits, but Joseph and Matt continue to serve in full-time capacities with Adam’s Road. Then, in 2015, God mercifully sent us a young, shy girl—Lila LeBaron—from a polygamous Mormon offshoot community in Mexico to intern with our ministry. Lila has metamorphosed into a powerful and bold witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and now serves as our lead vocalist.”
p. 316
- July 2, 2021 – Stanford, Kentucky property purchased, with Book of Life Fellowship, Inc. listed as the property owner. Property type listed as “Religious, Church, Worship”.
- June 2, 2022 – Application for Certificate of Authority(Corp) filed and received in Kentucky for Book of Life Fellowship, Inc. as non-profit corporation (link)
- December 8, 2023 – Stefan Dennis quotes from the Adam’s Road newsletter on a public Facebook post (accessed August 7, 2024):
- “Official announcement: family and ministry move from central Florida to central Kentucky:
From the Adam’s Road newsletter: “We are excited to announce that the Adam’s Road Ministry headquarters is in the process of relocating from central Florida to central Kentucky. We feel God is leading this move to allow the ministry to continue to expand and grow in ways we have not before been afforded. For the last 17 years, the ministry headquarters has been encased in the historic Edgewater Hotel in Downtown Winter Garden. We have been blessed to have had many of you all visit us and fellowship with us in the grace of Christ at the hotel. The Edgewater has been a bastion for our ministry for nearly two decades, providing housing, community, and financial support for many of our ministry team members.”
“Through it we have been given countless ministry opportunities to witness to and connect with people from all over the world. It has served as a refuge for people coming out of the bonds of man-made religion, and it has given many people a transitionary home over the years. We thank and praise God for all He has done through this ministry during our time in Florida and at the Edgewater. But, by God’s will, our season at the hotel and in Florida is coming to an end, and with a new location comes a new season of exciting possibilities. Although we do not have a definitive date when we will be officially leaving Florida, we anticipate this transition will take place sometime in 2024, all according to God’s will and His timing. We thank God for our many team members who have faithfully served at the Edgewater over the years. By God’s grace and provision, our ministry has obtained a sizable plot of land about an hour south of Lexington, Kentucky, which will be utilized for a threefold mission and purpose: 1) training and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, 2) preaching the Gospel to the lost, and 3) supporting a community of ministry team members and volunteers. Many of our team have gone to the land over the last two years and invested several months of labor to turn this vision into a reality. Our initial primary focus has been building living quarters for the team of ministry volunteers that will be relocating to Kentucky.”
“Once completed, we will move forward with subsequent phases of ministry development on the land, which will include a Christian summer camp, missionary training facilities, sabbatical housing, recreational facilities, audio/video production facilities, and more. We will continue to keep you all apprised of all God is and will do with this new ministry stewardship we have been given. We covet your prayers during this time.'”
- “Official announcement: family and ministry move from central Florida to central Kentucky:
- March 2024 – Joseph Warren confesses to Katie.
- April 2024 – Joseph Warren confesses to Katie’s parents and Matt.
- April 17, 2024 – Micah is confronted in Lancaster, KY by two pastors, one of them Jim Catlin of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
- April 20, 2024 – Micah steps down as president of Book of Life Fellowship, but remains as a director. Stefan is listed as “President” and “Elder”. (Annual Report 2024 for Florida, Annual Report 2024 for Kentucky)
- April 22, 2024 – adamsroadministry.com announces in various venues: “After nearly 18 years of ministry, Adam’s Road has closed its doors. We praise God for what He has done through this ministry. We have been greatly blessed by the overwhelming love we have continually received from the Body of Christ for nearly two decades. Our prayer is that God will continue to use each one of us in this next chapter of our lives to glorify His name and proclaim the saving Gospel of Christ to all the earth. Thank you for your support. Grace and peace to you!” (Adam’s Road Ministry)
- April 29, 2024 – Relative of ministry volunteer replies to Micah’s announcement on Facebook.
- “The incredibly public and broad-reaching nature of your ministry necessitates that you be 100% honest with everyone and you publicly confess the reason WHY you must say goodbye to this chapter of your life. I find it the height of hypocrisy that you would post this message without starting FIRST with a public confession of the egregious sins you have walked in that disqualify you now from this ministry.”
- May 1, 2024 – Jim Catlin of Main Street Church gives a statement concerning Adam’s Road to Utah ministry leaders at the Ministry in Zion Strategic Summit.
Jim Catlin’s May 1, 2024 Announcement on Adam’s Road
“I am here to announce the end of Adam’s Road Ministry. No doubt, some of you already know this based upon an announcement that the ministry itself posted this past weekend.”
“What you probably do NOT know, is the reason for God’s termination of the ministry: longstanding sexual immorality. And when I say “longstanding” I mean from 2006 into 2024, the entire 18 year span of the ministry. Knowing what I now know, I have no doubt that had God not brought a crushing conviction to one of the band’s members late last year, that this pattern of immorality would likely be ongoing today…”
“Last year, the Holy Spirit brought a crushing conviction to Joseph, a member of Adam’s Road. Deeply broken and convicted, he confessed to God his active and enthusiastic participation in this ongoing immorality. “I understood for the first time”, he told me later, “the fear of God.” It resulted in his determination to leave the band and escape its continuing temptations. It seemed best, he reasoned, to just bury the ugliness of it all and relocate to Utah with his wife. You might have heard about that last Fall.”
“Now out of the band, Joseph made several unsuccessful appeals to Micah in January to repent of these sins as he himself had already done.”
“Then in March of this year, the Spirit had compelled Joseph to reverse course and instead of burying the secret, he confessed his adultery to his wife in its entirety, and without reservation. Incredibly, she had been totally unaware of these longstanding sexual liaisons. All the more amazing is that these adulterous entanglements did NOT involve anyone outside of the band. It involved the very people with whom she shared the same roof for years. In his confession to her, Joseph admitted that he was one of two male participants in the immorality. Micah, her own brother and figure-head of Adam’s Road, was the other.
“Shortly after this, God led Joseph to confess his sin to two close pastors, myself being one of them. On our hearing of this confession, the two of us pastors had suddenly been placed under a Biblical burden to confront the ministry, and specifically Micah as its leader.”
“In his confession to us, Joseph alleged that, with the approval and direction of Micah, a sexually polyamorous group within the band had been active for a decade. Micah’s wife willingly participated in this polyamory and when a new female lead vocalist joined the band, she was included as well. In Joseph’s experience, these four were the only participants in the polyamory. Well, there is a caveat to that statement that I will share in a moment.”
“Even those closest to the ministry were completely unaware of this resident immorality… They simply had no idea whatsoever. According to Joseph’s allegations, it was able to be sustained for such a long time because of the controlling use of the false doctrines of “spiritual wifery”; those devilishly twisted rationales which had been so useful in the 19th century to serve [Joseph Smith’s] libido.”
“Speaking of polygamy and, more specifically, the wives, I should add at this point that while the two women in this mess wilfully chose to participate, the persuasiveness of this falsehood was not insignificant…”
“While these four were complicit in this regular sexual immorality, there is another person of whom I must make mention because of the deluding influence that he injected into the band. From its inception in 2006, there existed within the ministry an “insider” who, according to Joseph’s first hand testimony, repeatedly propositioned male band members for homosexual favors. I personally talked with a previous band member, Steve, who left the band in 2013 solely because of this person’s homosexual propositioning.
“More disturbingly, this ‘insider’ also considered himself sufficiently spiritual to portray himself as a prophet to the band. And, to a degree, some members respected him as such. It is an understatement to say that his influence was toxic.”
“At this point, I can only speculate about the connections between his deluding influence and the establishment of this polyamorous group. To a believing outsider looking in on this, it is an astonishment that a person of such unregenerate character was allowed such persuasive leverage with the ministry’s leadership.”
- Circa May 25, 2024 – Micah releases initial confession on passporttoheavenbook.com. “I confess, with unbearable shame and embarrassment, that I have been involved in reprehensible sexual misconduct and moral failing during my time in ministry.”
- July 19, 2024 – Main Street Church of Brigham City, Utah publishes statement, “The End of Adam’s Road“
Main Street Church “The End of Adam’s Road” Statement (July 19, 2024)
For many years, our media ministry at Main Street Church has worked closely alongside the Adam’s Road Ministry. We first documented the stories of the band members back in 2009 and released the DVD “Unveiling Grace” in 2011. We went on to capture and post interviews with the band members and some of their wives through our Sacred Groves channel. They also worked alongside us on several occasions as we created a training series we were developing to equip Christians to talk with LDS [1] missionaries.
We were devastated by the news of long-standing sexual immorality within the band, which was occurring even during our work on some of these very projects. It is hard to express our grief over the loss of trust that we are now experiencing. Many ministries that had enthusiastically championed the band’s efforts are now experiencing a similar sense of betrayal. Hundreds of churches who have hosted them during their fifteen years of touring are also reeling from this news. And we have deemed it necessary to discontinue all of the media that features the testimonies of the people associated with Adam’s Road (including the parties who are innocent and who were unaware).
A bit of background: in early 2024, we were contacted by band member Joseph Warren, who some months previous had come under a strong conviction from the Lord that he needed to separate himself from the band, and repent of his participation in a polyamorous heterosexual arrangement among the band members, which had been ongoing for more than a decade. This arrangement involved all the active band members at that time, with the exception of Matt Wilder, the pianist, who was completely unaware of the situation, and was understandably devastated when it came to light. Since we played a lead role in the confrontation of the Adam’s Road leadership in April 2024, we felt it necessary to post here what we have already announced in public. [2]
As far as we know, those closest to the ministry who were unaware include: Matt Wilder (Micah’s brother and keyboardist in the band) and his family; Joseph’s wife Katie, who is also Micah and Matt’s sister; Stefan and Sarah who labored faithfully to keep the hotel running and book the tours; parents Mike and Lynn Wilder; and hotel volunteers Hannah and Lillie. The shock and trauma for these who so faithfully co-labored in the inner circle of the ministry is unimaginable. Their healing dominates our prayers.
In addition to this decade-long sexual arrangement, there existed a persistent homosexual influence from a much older adult male who has been at the center of the ministry since its inception in 2006. He had gained prominence as the band members’ erstwhile “prophet” during their missionary days with the LDS church, and later positioned himself as the band’s patron. In 2013, one founding member of the band abruptly left the band in disgust after being propositioned by this man. This older man was welcomed as an insider to the band’s operations and exercised a powerful influence over its plans and finances for eighteen years. The band’s inclusion of him in its operational decisions remains a troubling mystery.
The fabric of Adam’s Road has had a thread of deep corruption woven into it from its start in 2006; it seems that Satan’s groundwork for sexual sin had been laid at its inception and, in the last decade especially, it had become brazenly embraced.
Two lessons arise out of this travesty. First, it raises the question of why Matt Wilder was spared from the sin. In our estimation, this is due in large part to the fact that he and his family joined a local church body early on. As a result, he gained not only Biblical knowledge to reverse a lifetime of Mormon teaching, but also benefitted from the accountability and grounding that involvement in a church community provides. Additionally, he had distanced himself and his family from the influence of the older adult male, including by moving out of the hotel where the other band members lived.
Second, this serves as a warning about the danger of new converts entering prematurely into the limelight of public ministry. The Apostle Paul’s lengthy absence from the first pages of the book of Acts underscores the need for seasoning, maturing, and in many cases, retraining of those whom God calls to send out.
We want to publicly endorse two ongoing ministries whose fruitfulness has been untarnished by this tragedy. Matt Wilder’s piano ministry, “Hands and Feet Piano Ministry”, will continue to bless many as he weaves scriptures with his extraordinary musical gifts. In the same way, Mike and Lynn Wilder’s ministry, Ex-Mormons United for Jesus (ECUJ), will continue to uniquely educate and encourage Christians to lovingly reach out to the Mormon community.
Our love for every member of the band is undeterred. Our objective in this announcement is not to condemn any person, but to bring the light of Christ into a place of darkness. After all, who among us could stand if God kept account of our iniquities (Psalm 130:3)? We are thankful that God has seen fit to lovingly uncover this sin, despite the pain of the ensuing trauma. Sin steals life. It kills. It spawns a cohort of dark accessories like lying, secrecy and deceit. But light kills sin. So there is no good reason to hide or overlook sin when our wounded life is bleeding out because of it.
By God’s spirit, forgiveness can be immediate; but the restoration of trust comes more slowly. We encourage you to join with us in the former and to patiently wait on God’s timing for the latter. While the Body of Christ is populated entirely by forgiven sinners (indeed they are welcomed!), the restoration of a leader to a prominent role is problematic. Paul’s letters are especially insistent about the issue of reproach (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:6-8). When a leader willfully embraces a lifestyle of sin while acting in the name of God, the strict requirement of being “above reproach” may prevent their return to leadership for a very long period, possibly a lifetime.
Our prayer for our beloved friends in the band is that they will patiently submit to God’s timetable in order for the cleansing process of grief and renewal to have its full redemptive effect. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. His love is indeed everlasting, even enduring through our seasons of sin.
And we pray that their broken hearts will find mending heretofore unknown to them. As a result, we are confident that God will lead them to a newfound discovery of the breathtaking expanse of His grace.
- Circa July 22, 2024 – Former band member informed that Lila has returned to Micah at Edgewater Hotel. Lila later writes, “I know this is God’s will over my life. As the Angel of the Lord said to Hagar, so God has commanded me: go back and submit.” (link)
- July 22, 2024 – adamsroadconfession.com domain is purchased. According to the site, Joseph Warren planned to soon publish his full confession there.
- Circa August 1, 2024 – Shawn McCraney reads from a relayed account of details from the ordeal on YouTube. Some details are disputed. Laced with profanity, he uses the occasion to mock evangelicalism, local church accountability, the final authority of the Bible, and the future Second Coming of Christ.
- Shawn argues that the Bible is not sufficient to argue against polygamy: “Where does it say in the Bible that polygamy cannot be practiced anymore? Where? All it says is that elders and Bishops and deacons cannot have more than one wife. I don’t see anywhere where it says… now no more polygamy.”
- Contrast with Is Polygamy Biblical?, by Doris Hanson.
- Shawn argues that the Bible is not sufficient to argue against polygamy: “Where does it say in the Bible that polygamy cannot be practiced anymore? Where? All it says is that elders and Bishops and deacons cannot have more than one wife. I don’t see anywhere where it says… now no more polygamy.”
- August 1, 2024 – Micah adds addendum to passporttoheavenbook.com, assuring no plans to re-enter public ministry.
Micah Wilder’s August 1, 2024 Addendum
“There has been much misinformation spread as of late online concerning Micah’s current and future plans for any public ministry moving forward. To be clear, Micah Wilder immediately stepped down from public ministry in April 2024, on the very day these allegations came to light. He is not and has not served in any ministry capacity since, nor does he have any plans to re-enter public ministry at any point in the near future, if ever. Micah’s desire is to live a quiet life with his family away from public ministry and from the public spotlight as he rebuilds his life with his loved ones.”
- August 2, 2024 – Linking to the Main Street Church post, Matt Wilder writes a public Facebook post.
Matt Wilder’s August 2, 2024 Facebook Post
“Nearly four months ago, some moral failings came to light regarding some former members of Adam’s Road. I was not aware of or personally involved in those sinful activities while they persisted.
I was angered, shocked, and devastated when it was all brought to light, and immediately dissociated from Adam’s Road. I initially wanted to make a public statement about it then, but was advised to hold off.
However, in light of recent public exposure of this, I feel I need to make a public statement to mitigate rumors and direct people to reputable sources. Also, hopefully this will minimize the amount of times I have to say this over and over, as floods of people have reached out to me privately over the past few months with questions and concerns. I am grateful for everyone who has reached out
Adam’s Road was disbanded in April. In response to the tragic news, I decided back in May to take a minimal 3-month Sabbatical from music ministry (at this point, meaning my piano ministry).
Prayers are much appreciated, as Nicole and I continue to navigate through this tragedy and seek to process, heal, and move past this.
As an undeserving sinner myself, I thank and praise God for his grace upon my life. My desire and prayer for these friends is for healing, restoration, and if applicable—that God would grant repentance.
Pastor Jim Catlin helped arbitrate the situation, and wrote an article summarizing the end of Adam’s Road. He identifies those involved, exonerates the innocent, and recommends my rebranded piano ministry (and my parents’ ministry) moving forward.”
Link
- August 2, 2024 – MRM associate Aaron Shafovaloff calls Stefan Dennis. Stefan assures Aaron that Micah has no intent to re-enter public ministry.
- Stefan confirms Micah’s return to polygamy/adultery but distances himself from it.
- Aaron explains from 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 John 1:10-11 that this still warrants dissociation from Micah; that Micah should not be greeted or welcomed as a brother in Christ since he is unrepentant in scandalous sin; and that Micah’s second “wife” (who is also an employee) should be immediately encouraged to leave the business and property, to separate from Micah, and to enter a new season of life with the help of others.
- August 2, 2024 – Stefan Dennis publicly posts on Facebook, describing the turmoil (link, since taken down). He resists calls to disassociate from some unidentified band members. He also describes the band members as “all Christians… Their only desire now is to live quiet lives and heal.”
- This included Micah and Lila, who had since returned to polygamy.
Stefan Dennis’ August 6, 2024 Facebook Post
“Mid-April I received a call that shocked me to the core, sent me reeling, but in the midst of that call God tore into my heart and poured compassion and love into me for people even as I was experiencing complete horror and anguish of soul.”
“Over the next four days, I assumed authority of the ministry and corporation and dismantled behind the scenes what Sarah and I had spent the last fifteen years pouring our hearts into….”
“As the outside anger came, I shielded innocent and guilty alike from further pain… I protected dear friends in ways they’ll never understand, assuming the worst of me and knowing they’ll probably never speak to me again, but I’ll always love them.”
“I’m a witness of God’s love in their hearts, even as I get calls from people this very week telling me they’re not brothers and sisters. That I need to distance myself from them. Monstrous. They are my best friends, my heart is knit to them and they have been there for me in ways no one will ever know. I will never abandon them…”
“Post note for Christians: Matt Wilder will continue on in public ministry and is innocent.”
“All other details and names are irrelevant for me to mention, as they’re all Christians, saved by grace through their faith and forgiven, and therefore all equal in my eyes and in God’s eyes. Their only desire now is to live quiet lives and heal. Pray for everyone. They are so loved.”
- August 6, 2024 – Joseph Warren publicly posts an apology at adamsroadconfession.com
Joseph Warren’s August 6, 2024 Apology
“I have been working on a personal confession letter for several weeks and had prepared this website for it to be posted on when the whole story was completely exposed. To be clear, I wasn’t the direct source of the information in the recently-released YouTube video. And while I don’t agree with all of the conclusions that were made and some of the information given was slightly inaccurate, I am glad it was exposed. Also, a close pastor friend in Utah posted this article a few weeks ago that also sheds light on everything: Main Street Church Brigham City: Adam’s Road Statement. With all of this existing exposure I feel that posting what I had intended would be unnecessary and redundant. The only thing that remains for me to do then is to apologize.
“About 9 months ago, I was given a crushing conviction from the Holy Spirit compelling me to end all sinful arrangements and fully surrender to Jesus as the Lord of my life. I believe it was in this moment that I was born-again. I thought I could sweep my past under the rug and move forward never telling anyone of the atrocities I had made my lifestyle, but I couldn’t.
“My confession to God alone was for my forgiveness but the Holy Spirit kept gently bringing my past to the surface and then in March 2024, God made it so clear that I needed to tell my wife, Katie. I confessed everything to her, her parents, and the rest of her family.
“I want to apologize to all of you who have partnered with Adam’s Road in ministry, the hundreds of pastors who have hosted us at your churches, the hundreds of thousands of you who have listened to our music and to our testimonies, and all of you who believed and trusted in the false, hypocritical image I presented to the church and the world about myself. With the way I lived my life behind closed doors, I lied to you. I deceived you. I betrayed you. For so many years. I have personally hurt you and I am so truly sorry. Faith without works is dead so I will show you that my faith in Jesus and repentance are sincere and that I am a changed man by my actions, starting with this public apology. I hope that one day, in time, you will see me as a brother in Christ.
“I am ready to face all the consequences of my sins and place myself at the mercy of my God. I have stepped down from all ministry capacities because I do not meet the qualifications of an elder or overseer in the Body. Because of my choices I am not nor may ever be above reproach. All I hope is that I can still be a vessel of honorable use in God’s hands because I now have cleansed myself from the dishonorable (2 Tim. 2:21). While I failed, I know that God is faithful and my sin does not negate the power of the gospel to bring salvation.
“I also intend to step out of the public spotlight indefinitely so I can focus on my own personal repentance, my walk with the Lord, and rebuild my relationship with my wife.
Sincerely,
Joseph Daniel Warren
- August 7, 2024 – Harvest House Publishers releases a statement. (link)
- “As of May 21, 2024, Harvest House Publishers destroyed its entire inventory of Passport to Heaven by Micah Wilder, promptly returned the rights to him, and is no longer publishing or associated with any further distribution of the book under its logo.”
- August 7, 2024 – Eric Johnson releases statement. (link)
- “I, Eric Johnson, have distanced myself from Adam’s Road Ministry by having the foreword of my book Introducing Christianity to Mormons (Harvest House, 2022) replaced. The original foreword was written by Micah Wilder and was replaced with a new foreword from J. Warner Wallace. The new edition is now available for sale.”
“Upon learning of the sexual immorality that took place during the narrative of Micah Wilder’s book Passport to Heaven, the publisher (Harvest House) immediately stopped selling the book and destroyed all of its remaining copies. Once the online retailers sell all of the copies they had purchased, the book should only be available in used form on second-hand markets. You can see the publisher’s statement here.”
“I do not condone the sexually deviant behavior of certain members of Adam’s Road, specifically Micah and Alicia Wilder, Joseph Warren, and Lila Lebarron as well as the group’s bus driver, Max (aka Erik) Blanchard. It appears Joseph Warren has repented. I call upon the other members to fully repent by removing themselves from their continuing immoral activities. Please note, Matt Wilder and family, Michael and Lynn Wilder, and Katie Warren—all associated with Adam’s Road—were not involved in any immoral activity and should be considered victims.”
- “I, Eric Johnson, have distanced myself from Adam’s Road Ministry by having the foreword of my book Introducing Christianity to Mormons (Harvest House, 2022) replaced. The original foreword was written by Micah Wilder and was replaced with a new foreword from J. Warner Wallace. The new edition is now available for sale.”
- August 7, 2024 – Capilla Calvario LeBaron releases statement, “The End of Adam’s Road Band and Ministry”, expressing concern over Lila LeBaron’s return to Micah. (link)
- “Lila sent Rosa and me a text message informing us that she was returning back to the Edgewater Hotel to live with Micah, his wife Alicia and children, and serve by their side. In Lila’s own words: “I have the full support of the Wilder family, Dennis family, my own family, and those who are living in Kentucky. I know this is God’s will over my life. As the Angel of the Lord said to Hagar, so God has commanded me: go back and submit. And I will.” Her reference to Hagar, I believe, implies Lila will be living polygamy. However, her reference to having “the full support… of my own family…” does not include those solid Biblical Christians within her immediate and extended family…”
“The fabric of Adam’s Road has had a thread of deep corruption woven into it since its beginning in 2006; it seems that Satan’s groundwork for sexual sin had been laid at its inception, and, in the last decade especially, it had become brazenly embraced….”
“Some of Lila’s final words to her Tia Rosa and me were these: “He (God) has called me to go back to Florida and serve at the hotel, and eventually to move to Kentucky to build a new ministry for the purpose of sharing the love of Jesus to the world. I love Micah with all my heart, I love his family, and I know God has called me to serve by their side.” My concern is twofold: 1 ) That this “new ministry” would present a counterfeit gospel of the antichrist. And 2) That it would promote polygamy, leading many young innocents astray and into the hands of the devil.”
- “Lila sent Rosa and me a text message informing us that she was returning back to the Edgewater Hotel to live with Micah, his wife Alicia and children, and serve by their side. In Lila’s own words: “I have the full support of the Wilder family, Dennis family, my own family, and those who are living in Kentucky. I know this is God’s will over my life. As the Angel of the Lord said to Hagar, so God has commanded me: go back and submit. And I will.” Her reference to Hagar, I believe, implies Lila will be living polygamy. However, her reference to having “the full support… of my own family…” does not include those solid Biblical Christians within her immediate and extended family…”
Steve Kay’s Story (August 19, 2024)
In the Spring of 2004, as I was nearing the end of my LDS mission in Orlando, FL, I started hearing stories about this new convert to the LDS church named Max Blanchard, who apparently had spiritual gifts, including prophecy. I was very curious to meet this person and to see what he had to say about me. A few weeks later, I sang a song at a large LDS event. I don’t recall what the event was; possibly it was a stake conference, or maybe a mission-wide mission conference. Whatever the case, Max came up to me after the service had ended, and said he wanted to talk with me. So I sat down with him and he told me that he had been looking forward to meeting me because he knew that I would be a part of this band he was putting together that he claimed would be “bigger than the Beatles.” I was, of course, intrigued by this, but still somewhat skeptical. He told me that after my mission I should come back to Florida to stay at his hotel, the Edgewater Hotel in Winter Garden, FL. He said this was where the band would be gathering. I was very flattered and felt immense joy and shock that I would [be] so special as to be part of a band that would be famous!
In the summer of 2005, the band consisted of 5 members: Myself, Matt Wilder, Jay Graham, David Perriton, and David Carter. 4 returned missionaries and one convert to the LDS faith (Jay). At the time we all were told by Max that this band would be an LDS band that would bring people to the LDS faith. We spent the whole summer writing and recording original songs and made a demo. The name of the band was decided by Max to be “Adam-ondi-Ahman”, a nod to the location where big things are supposed to happen in the last days according to LDS teaching.
After that summer, Matt and I went back to school. When we returned the following summer, David Perriton and David Carter were nowhere to be seen, and we never got a clear explanation of why they had left, other than that their significant others didn’t want to be there and pushed them to leave the band. But we met two new band members, Micah Wilder and Joseph Warren, who I will refer to as Joey going forward (as that’s what we all called him).
We started doing the same process of writing music with the aim of eventually recording, but I noticed this time that something was different. None of the members of the band were attending the LDS church. I got curious as to why this was, and Max sat me down and explained to me all the reasons why the LDS church was false. He told me that it ran against the teachings of the New Testament and was too focused on works when it should be focused on grace as a gift. He challenged me to study the New Testament for myself to see if what he had shared was correct. So I did study, and with a lot of nudging from Max, decided that the LDS church was false as well. With more nudging from Max, I became a non-denominational Christian, and put my faith in Jesus alone. The summer of 2006 was the official start of the band Adam’s Road, a name which was chosen to reflect that we have all fallen short of the glory of God, just as Adam did, and we all have to walk the road to salvation through faith in Jesus alone.
For the next 7 years, I helped finish the renovation of the hotel, which was originally built in 1927, wrote songs, recorded songs, and toured with the band around the country. The hotel was where we all lived and worked. I thought I was living the dream, but there were some things about my experience that did not sit well with me. I put up with them because my dream of being in a band bigger than the Beatles won out. But all of these were red flags that I wish I had heeded:
In my first year with the band, my mom invited me to travel to Europe with her and my sister on a trip that my mom had been saving up for since I was little. As I was practicing with the band almost every day (I played bass and sang lead on the songs I wrote), I felt a responsibility to let them know that I really wanted to go on the trip, and that I was sorry if it caused any problems with me missing practice. I was told by Max and Micah, who were the de facto leaders, that if I did this trip I would essentially be demoted because I was choosing my earthly family over my spiritual family, which was them. They told me that the spiritual family was more important than the earthly family. I said, “Well that sucks, but I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time so I’m going on it anyway. Please don’t take this personally”. When I got back from the trip after two weeks in Europe, they had already replaced me with a new bass player, and made me play bongos instead. Eventually this bass player left the band and I was reinstated, but it sent a clear message that I had to put the band before all else, including my family.
In the first couple years of the band’s existence, we were regularly invited by some members of the local Baptist congregation in Winter Garden to swim at the pool in their back yard. So the members of the band would swim in their pool regularly with their significant others and we had a great time until things turned sour. Suddenly we were told one day by Max that we were not to return to their house ever again, because they had called us a cult, and they were not to be trusted. So they essentially went from being close friends of the band to being anathema simply because they had some concerns, and rightly so.
My mom came on our first tour with us, and was struck by how certain people were treated better than others despite Max’s insistence that we were equal as we had all things in common. My mom said loudly that “some people are clearly more equal than others.” This made Max very angry, and my mom was not invited on future tours.
No member of the band had their own money. None of us got paid. Max and/or Micah (I don’t recall whose name it was in) had one bank account which they claimed was the band’s, and one debit card that we all had to use if we wanted anything. Date with my wife? I had to ask permission to use the card. Want to buy a gift for my daughter’s birthday? I had to ask permission to use the card. You get the idea. And when tax season came around, I was specifically instructed how to fill out my taxes to get the maximum payout on the return, all of which went back into Max or Micah’s bank account.
Max enlisted all of the members of the band to help him renovate a home he owned way out in the boonies, which he said would be a retreat for the band. I later learned this property was used for the sexual encounters between Micah, Joey, Alicia (Micah’s wife), and Lila LeBaron (the new singer they brought into the band after I left). We would make regular trips out to this property, which was at least a half hour away. On one of these trips, Max began asking me very personal questions about [details redacted]… He claimed his questions were entirely out of concern for my physical well-being, and being naïve I trusted him… [details reacted]. I now realize he was grooming me to be comfortable with sexual talk so I wouldn’t recoil at what happened next.
On a tour of southern Florida in the spring of 2013, we had parked our bus in the parking lot of a church in Ft. Myers, with a scheduled performance in the morning during the church’s regular Sunday service. I was up late in my bunk, playing a video game on my laptop, when I suddenly got a text from Max. He asked me to come to his bunk (just down the short hall of the bus) to talk. I got out of my bunk and walked over to Max’s, where I discovered him shirtless. He asked me to lean in so he could whisper in my ear. He pulled me close in a tight embrace, which I felt very uncomfortable with, and [details redacted]… At this point, a light turned on in my brain, and I realized that this was not ok, so I told him frankly that I did not feel comfortable doing that. He then said that he understood and begged me not to tell anyone. I assured him I wouldn’t do anything rash, even though I didn’t mean it; I was just desperate to get away from him in that moment.
I went back to my bunk stunned and immediately grabbed my laptop and started typing my resignation letter from the band, because I knew I couldn’t stay with them after what had just happened. Max probably heard me typing furiously and texted me again, asking me to talk one more time. When I came back to his bunk, he asked me to go talk out in the 16-passenger van we towed behind the bus. Feeling very much in shock, and ready to tell Max my intentions, I agreed.
In the van I told him exactly how I felt about what had just happened, and about my intention of leaving the band. He apologized profusely and expressed sorrow at making me doubt the mission of the band. He “prophesied” to me that I wouldn’t stay away from the band forever, that I would eventually come back, but I knew that ship had sailed. He begged me to keep quiet and not discuss what had happened with anyone, and that if I did, he would make my leaving the band smooth and seamless, so there was no question about me making the right decision and staying in the band’s good graces. He told me they would find a car for me to drive back to Seattle in and give me monthly payments of financial support as I started out in my new life. Having no money at all to my name due to the financially communal nature of the band, I agreed, not knowing how else I was going to get out of Florida. He told me we would tell the band that I was “going on a sabbatical”, and I agreed to this ruse, thinking only of myself and how to escape unscathed.
The next morning I was listless and in shock, and several of the band members asked me if I was alright. I answered that I didn’t get much sleep and that I would be ok. Later that week, after returning to the hotel, Max and/or Micah sat down with each of the other members of the band and explained to them why I was leaving (who knows what they actually said). A week or so later, Max and Micah decided to gift me the car that Stefan Dennis and his wife Sara had donated to the band after they drove it from Utah to Florida to join the ministry. So I was gifted a car, free of charge, and with that I made my farewells, packed up what belongings I could in a 4-door sedan, and headed out with my wife (at the time) and two young kids (age 3 and 1). We drove all the way across the country back to my family home in Seattle, where my mom welcomed me back.
Very quickly after returning home I enrolled in school, and started receiving monthly “stipends” from the band. I don’t remember the exact value, but I know it was at least $100 a month, if not more. After a couple of years, the stipends stopped coming. Every once in a while, a band member would message me to ask if they could use one of the songs I had written on their new recording, and I would agree, not wishing any of them ill.
In 2017, when the Me Too movement was hitting full steam, I felt convicted that I had said nothing to the band about why I actually left, and decided it was time to come clean. I wrote up a Facebook message detailing everything that happened that night in Ft. Myers and making it very clear that I was only sharing all of this because I loved and cared for the other band members and their families and wanted them all to be safe. I sent it to every member of the band, as well as their wives, and also sent it to Max’s business partner (for the hotel), Mike Lanza and his wife Scarlett. The responses I received were interesting.
Micah sent me back one or two sentences written in legalese wanting me to confirm that the “alleged incident” did not involve him in anyway. I confirmed it did not involve him, and was greeted with radio silence after that.
Joey didn’t write me back at all.
Jay sent me back one word: “Coward”. At the time, I was confused about this response, as coming clean about what had happened was one of the bravest things I had ever done.
Matt wrote me back, telling me that he believed me, but that “every word must be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.” He also said would be more careful around Max.
Mike Lanza and his wife Scarlett wrote me back telling me unequivocally that they believed me and thanked me for telling them. They also moved out of the hotel shortly after this.
While I was grateful that Mike and Scarlett believed me, it hurt me deeply that no-one else really sided with me. They circled the wagons and pretended that I didn’t exist. My profile picture and biography were taken down from the band website, and all communication was shut off from then on.
A few years later, Matt and Nicole came out to Seattle to visit her family, and they reached out to see if I would be willing to drive down to Maple Valley to see them. I did, and it was pleasant catching up with them, but also felt very awkward. We didn’t really touch on the letter I had sent, as Nicole’s parents were in the room the whole time. But I was touched that Matt had made an attempt to reach out and let me know he still cared about me.
Over the following years, it was still mostly radio silence on all fronts. When I heard that the band was moving to Kentucky, I was surprised, as I had the impression that the hotel would be the base of operations forever. I was even more surprised to learn that Joey had left the band, and was moving to Utah to potentially pastor at a church there. Shortly after this, I reconnected with Joey and he told me everything and apologized for gaslighting me by shutting me out. That meant a lot to me, and I accepted his apology and expressed my gratitude that we could be friends again. We were practically like brothers in the band, so it was nice that we could connect again outside of that controlling framework.
I’m happy to share my story in the hopes that justice will be served. It’s very ironic to me that when I was in the band Max told me to write a song about “Secret Sacred Things”, wanting to illustrate that LDS temple ceremonies should not be secret if they’re actually sacred. Little did I know the secrets Max and others in the band kept, thinking of them as sacred. I’m glad that the truth is finally seeing the light of day.
Matt Wilder’s Story (August 25, 2024)
In 2005, my brother, Micah, connected me with what I thought at the time was a summer music internship opportunity at a hotel in central Florida. I was a piano performance student at BYU. The agreement reached between the part owner, Max, and myself, was that I would have the opportunity to play the piano in their hotel for tips and work at their restaurants. Also, if I participated in a music recording project with other returned LDS missionaries in July, I could have free room and board that summer in between my BYU school semesters. And so I did.
In September of 2006, my wife and I moved permanently to Florida to work at the hotel and join Adam’s Road, now a professing Christian band.
Around early 2007, I believe, Nicole and I joined a Sunday evening discipleship group for young married couples, led by a deacon at the local church we currently attend. This helped us get connected with a community of seasoned believers early on, as well as Christian friends our own age.
In 2008, Adam’s Road released its first album, “Adam’s Road” and began touring.
In October of 2016, Nicole and I, with our daughter Tess, moved out of the hotel communal living situation. We had the support and encouragement of local Christian friends regarding our decision. The move freed up our availability to begin consistently attending Sunday morning church activities as a full family.
Shortly after we moved out of the hotel in the fall of 2016, a young man (who had been working at the hotel and had briefly toured with the Adam’s Road team in the fall of 2016 as a volunteer) told me that Max was demonizing and slandering our family for moving out of the hotel. I prayed for the other Adam’s Road team members, that if Max was exerting an unhealthy level of control over some of them, that they would break free from it. Little did I realize at the time how severe it was for some.
In December of 2016, I had lunch with a Christian brother and we discussed some concerns and issues including the hotel communal living situation. I then relayed the topics of our conversation to Micah. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Max. From my recollection, he called to sternly inform he was threatening to sue this Christian brother. I came away from the conversation with the sense I too could be included in a potential lawsuit if I continued engaging. So I backed off.
In January of 2017, my piano ministry (as a ministry that recites Scripture while playing the piano) took form. I began visiting churches with this new format and sharing this ministry, having the support and encouragement of both the Adam’s Road team and some members from my home church at the time in doing so.
Later on in 2017, Steve reached out with an allegation against Max regarding a sexual advance on him. Steve had not blown the whistle at the time of the incident in 2013. Nicole and I believed Steve and told him as much. Seeking how to respond Biblically, I found myself in 1 Timothy Chapter 5, particularly pondering verses 19, 24, and 25. Rightly or wrongly, I decided I could not admit a charge unless another witness came forward. I entrusted the situation to God, that He would bring to light in due time that sin if the accusation was true. I have also since apologized to Steve, for not more strongly validating his accusation and taking more specific action.
Sometime after Steve’s sexual misconduct allegation, I acquired a travel trailer and began touring separately with my family during the summer portions of the Adam’s Road tours.
In the summer of 2021, after Micah’s book had already been publicly released, I read it for the first time. I mentioned encouragingly to Micah specific portions of the book I enjoyed and found impactful. However, I was surprised and embarrassed with how much prominence Erik (Max) was given in the narrative, and uncomfortable and in disagreement with many of Erik’s statements and supposed prophecies contained in the book—many of which were news to me. In retrospect, I wish I would have confronted Micah directly about those oddities, but I did not.
In August of 2021, I was informed in a meeting with the other Adam’s Road band members that they had acquired a large piece of property in Kentucky and were planning to move the ministry headquarters there. These plans were in the works for some time, but kept a secret from me until this meeting.
I responded by encouraging them to join a local church in Kentucky and partner with them regarding any future ministry plans with that property. I warned about not isolating themselves apart from the greater church body in Kentucky, and communicated that my family would not be joining the rest of the team in that endeavor. An understanding was reached between myself and Micah that I would continue touring with the Adam’s Road team in the summers and fall, but would not be participating in the Kentucky pursuits.
In September of 2023, at my daughter’s volleyball game, I inquired about and discussed at length with my sister, Katie, their Kentucky plans. In the conversation, I encouraged her to consider whether the pursuit was actually God-led, or man-led (Max-led). Shortly thereafter, Joseph (Katie’s husband) reached out to me to ask why my family left the hotel in 2016.
This began a stream of constant communication between myself and Joseph over next few weeks, in which I explained (among other things) why we moved out of the hotel as well as some of the other concerns we had. These concerns included authoritative overreach, codependency issues, and unhealthy enmeshment within that environment. I explained using the Bible why I believed their interpretation and application of Acts 2:44-45 was unhealthy and in some respects unbiblical.
During my communication with Joseph over this time, Nicole and I realized the demonization and slander towards our family, specifically towards Nicole from Max, had continued to that day. That was a shock to us, as we thought any past issues had been resolved years prior.
In November of 2023 through January 2024, Nicole and I were in fairly regular communication with Joseph and Katie, encouraging them and supporting them in their transition out of the hotel communal living situation, once they had made that decision on their own.
In January of 2024, Joseph and Katie moved out of the hotel.
In April of 2024, Joseph called me to confess his involvement in what he coined the “inner circle.” This inside group of certain Adam’s Road members had been secretly participating in sexual immorality for years, and had been deeply indoctrinated by Max in ways I couldn’t have imagined. It’s been glorious to see God work repentance in Joseph’s life, and heal and restore their marriage.
A few weeks after the sexual immorality within Adam’s Road was exposed, I reached out to Micah to reaffirm my love for him and work towards helping to restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
In July of 2024, I received a call notifying me that Adam’s Road’s lead singer (at the time of its disbanding) had moved back to the hotel to be with Micah. I confronted Micah directly about this. He communicated that he was moving forward in what he considered were rightful and godly marriage relationships with both the wife of his youth and this other woman. I told him I did not agree with or support this decision, but was not cutting him out of my life. I continually pray for him and his family to this day.
Regardless of all of the strange and heartbreaking aspects of the Adam’s Road story, I still thank and praise God that Micah encouraged me to start reading the Bible over 18 years ago. God used that as a part of many catalysts along the way in my personal journey towards discovering the biblical Jesus and eventually coming into the salvation He offers.
It would also be unfair for me not to acknowledge the community support from the Adam’s Road team over the years that has helped enable me to develop towards the music ministry platform I currently have today, to God’s glory. I am also grateful to God for this.
As an undeserving sinner myself, I thank and praise God for his mercy and grace upon my life. I no doubt have many blind spots, weaknesses, and unaware sins the Holy Spirit is purging out of my life.
I trust that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
“…One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
May the grace of God be with us all.
Hannah Randall’s story (September 15, 2024)
Hannah was a volunteer at the Edgewater Hotel from 2019 to 2024.
Encouraged not to join a local church
“We were told that other Christian bodies and churches and believers were selfish because they couldn’t handle the way we lived. Former members were regularly ridiculed for their lack of faith in our ways, and if someone left our group, there was always a reason that correlated with their own weaknesses, never anything that reflected on us. We started attending a church in 2019, but mainly just in the evening, and we were told it was to “encourage the local body since we’re all young and it’s a dying congregation.” The church generally had less than ten attendees in the evenings, and they were all seniors, awed every week that Adam’s Road would deign to attend their humble meetings. It was most certainly not a place of true community, as we took pride in our group and graced them with our presence. I even remember Micah straight up saying, “We aren’t being fed very much by going there, but look at how happy we make everybody when we show up!” He also made strong statements about us not joining a church body in membership or tithing. His reasoning was that by aligning ourselves with one body, we could potentially hurt our chances of being welcomed at more locations; we were an independent ministry and had our own mission statement that might not align with the church; and that we needed to feel unburdened from the church in order to truly pursue our calling of tour. “
“Acts 2 Community“
“Then there was the Acts 2 Community. This referred solely to the few members who chose to live at the Edgewater Hotel and forgo all personal attachments and live communally. There were many people over the years that would serve at the hotel or contribute to the band, but only the few that chose to literally live in the same building were called the Acts 2 Community, or on our text threads we would call ourselves “Adam’s Road Family.” That thread only consisted of Micah and Alicia, Joseph and Katie, Stefan and Sarah, Lila Lebaron, and myself, and then there was one or two other single women over the years that were also considered part of this group. When Joseph and Katie made the decision to leave in December of 2023, we made a second, separate text chat named “Book of Life Fellowship” that had all the other members but excluded them, as they chose not to move up to Kentucky with us. The Acts 2 Community was the most exclusive group of the whole operation, as all its members were involved in other aspects and organizations under the Adam’s Road umbrella but excluded anyone that elected to live separately and independently.
Isolated living
“Our lives were very isolated. Since we weren’t members of a church body and the majority of the group was actively living in sin, outside activities and relationships were spurned by those in leadership, and so that was the standard and correct way to live. Many times I can remember occasions where another member or myself was given grief for seeking outside friendships and entertainment. The explanation was that we had devoted ourselves to this lifestyle, and other Christians were just a little too selfish (or insert another adjective of your choice) for us to be fraternizing with. It was always such a fine line, however, because similar to finances, they would never say “you can’t do this,” but it would be the most subtle yet strong “encouragement.” Other believers or people were belittled or ridiculed, and in contrast, devotion to the hotel, ministry work, chores, extra work, and internal friendships were praised. It was a masterful manipulation, and I speedily found myself spouting out these same convictions to other members in an attempt to garner more attention from the leaders.”
“These people… had no right to dictate their own life.”
“When I would come forward with a desire or something I felt God was leading me in, he would manipulate it and somehow tactfully twist my words and desires until I ended up “feeling led” in the way he wanted. He said numerous times to our group that God didn’t lead individuals; he would lead groups of people, and that it was wrong for a single person to be able to know what God wanted for them. He said, “God works in groups of people and leaders to help an individual know what God has for them.” He brought this theology out in full force when Joseph and Katie were in the process of leaving, and at that same time there was an intern that had left as well. The explanation for both of those parties was that God was moving them in a different direction and that the hotel wasn’t the place for them anymore. However, during our Wednesday meetings. Micah would say that these people were selfish and had no right to dictate their own lives. If it seemed right to the group for them to stay, then they should stay.”
Alienating family
“There were numerous times where my mother or father would gently bring up a situation that I had mentioned to them, and they would try to help me see how unhealthy the environment was. They both work a lot with LDS and ex-LDS members and could see the cult mentality that I had begun to adopt. My own sister, while lovingly sharing what she saw at the hotel during one of her visits, was emotionally ostracized by me, and while I denied treating her any differently due to her beliefs and opinions, I absolutely categorized her as a “doubter” and treated her as such. My parents were also sorted into that category as well, and any further behavior on their part only served to confirm the bias that I had against them: They were against me and my mission, against us and Adam’s Road! How could they?! I couldn’t associate myself with those who sought to distract me.”
“This was confirmed by all of those at the hotel. They told me that I couldn’t give my family the attention and love that they sought since I was pursuing God’s great plan for our group. I could lovingly share the truth with them and hope they’d come around to our way of thinking. But if they didn’t, I should no longer prioritize them or close relationships with them. Adam’s Road was my family now. What kind of Christian would I be if I put my blood family above my brothers and sisters in Christ? Never mind that my own family consisted of believers… If they disagreed with our calling, they couldn’t be trusted.”
“We were told to cut them off.”
“There was so much slander against Joe and Katie when they left the hotel in January 2024, and we were told to cut them off as they had been seduced by evil thoughts and they could potentially poison the rest of us. This was an all-too-common story with ex-members, but it was taken far more seriously than usual. Like I stated earlier, the cult behavior came out in its full force in the final few months of our group.”
Max Blanchard
“Max Blanchard was an odd and confusing character who was revered very highly by everyone at the commune, for reasons I failed to see. He would spend his days sitting on the couch in our third-floor living room and watching Fox News or YouTube videos of conspiracy theories, aliens, or archaeology. I never once saw him reading the Bible, and he never attended a church service my whole time there. It was very strange to me that certain members of our group revered him so highly, yet he never exhibited a true Christian attitude.”
The Kentucky property
“The Kentucky property had its first beginnings as a proposition to our group in the spring of 2020, amidst the hotel closing its doors for a few months and the gravity of our dependency on its business becoming glaringly obvious. Micah told us that he and Max had decided that we’d be moving. There was no question on that point, but there was an illusion of it being a decision that we could all contribute to. However, down the road it became increasingly clear that there was a singular vision, Micah and Max’s vision, and that there was little one could do to change it. Initially, we all took the news differently, and I know that, at least for me, I was quite shocked. There was no warning or planning, and so when I was just told we were going to move to Kentucky, it was a huge surprise. Over the next few months, the vision became solidified, and Micah would share it with us during our Wednesday night meetings. It would be a haven for us, a place where we could simply focus on our ministry work without the minutiae of a demanding business such as the hotel. We’d live in a singular building, continuing to pursue a communal lifestyle that, while “necessary” at the hotel, was going to become the chosen way of life despite plenty of resources to allow independence. We’d open a camp, hold seminars and training sessions, vacations for pastors, and conferences. We’d start a farm, become self-sufficient, and, according to Max’s rather wild ideas, be prepared for the imminent end of the world. He was convinced the world would end soon and we had to leave Florida within a few years in order to avoid destruction.”
“The building that is now up there is a four-story monstrosity that sits on a hill overlooking the property. Micah and Alicia planned out the whole building and chose to make every decision themselves, and while there was a show of being inclusive and allowing us to help make decisions, there was not. They, specifically Micah, made all the important decisions, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment and resources without our knowledge, and used our hard-earned money to push forward his vision. He assigned rooms, with his family, the Warrens, and Lila all on the third floor. There was no room for negotiation; Lila had to have the closest room to them. He purchased all the material and elected to not delegate anything unless it was minute and unnecessary. His logic was that God had chosen him to be the leader, and someone had to make the important decisions…”
“When others came forward expressing their negative opinions on the future lifestyle of the house, they were immediately shot down. When the question was raised, “If we have enough money to build one massive house, why can’t we just all have our own houses?” The answer was, “This way of life is superior; other Christians don’t understand; you’re being selfish to desire your own home; how dare you reject this gift? It’s not practical to build more than one home, and ultimately it’s not right for us.” It was a hard line there was no compromise on.”
On the vague April 22, 2024 Adam’s Road statement
“I was confused by the direction that we were going in at that point. If such a horrible sin had occurred, and if Adam’s Road was such a public ministry that never had any true oversight or accountability, why were we posting such a pithy statement? Didn’t we owe it to the public to share the truth? Stefan explained that it would be hurtful to those involved to make information public; it wouldn’t allow them to heal properly but only plunge them further into disgrace.”
References
- Adam’s Road Ministry: Archived version of Adam’s Road Ministry website. (2024, May 8). Link.
- Annual Report 2024: 2024 Florida Not for Profit Corporation Amended Annual Report for Book of Life Fellowship, Inc. Filed April 20, 2024. Document Number N10000011353. Accessed from Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. Link.
- Band follows a new road: Stack, P. F. (2008, August 23). Band follows a new road for former LDS missionaries (with audio). The Salt Lake Tribune. Link.
- Book of Life Fellowship Incorporation: Electronic Articles of Incorporation for Book of Life Fellowship, Inc. Filed December 07, 2010. Document Number N10000011353. Accessed from Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. Link.
- End of Adam’s Road: Main Street Church of Brigham City, Utah. (2024, July 19). The End of Adam’s Road. Retrieved August 4, 2024. Link.
- Gaertner correspondence. Fernando Bredariol Gaertner, personal communication with Aaron Shafovaloff, August 5, 2024.
- Matt Wilder FB Post: Wilder, Matt. (2024, August 2). Retrieved August 4, 2024. Link.
- Passport to Heaven: Passport to Heaven: The True Story of a Zealous Mormon Missionary Who Discovers the Jesus He Never Knew. Harvest House Publishers, June 1, 2021. 352 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0736982870.
- Stefan Dennis FB Post: Dennis, Stefan. (2024, August 2). Retrieved August 4, 2024. Link.
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