celebrate 25 years of ministry, they face a barrage of criticism from former elders, pastors, and staff who say the church leadership has operated in recent years with too little transparency and accountability." After three elders resigned their positions, citing a "culture of fear and intimidation," Harvest publicly reprimanded two of them and removed them from church membership. The discipline was meted out soon after a group of former elders had laid out concerns about MacDonald's character in a letter to the remaining elders. In September 2014, Harvest and MacDonald apologized for their actions toward the two former elders and lifted the church discipline against them. 2018 defamation lawsuit In October 2018, MacDonald and Harvest filed a libel lawsuit against The Elephant's Debt bloggers Ryan Mahoney and Scott Bryant, and against journalist Julie Roys. Mahoney, Bryant and Roys had reported that Harvest was in significant debt, that the church had previously been near bankruptcy, and that MacDonald had gambling problems. The suit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court and used as its basis the Illinois Deceptive Trade Practices Act. MacDonald claimed that his intent in filing the suit was not to seek punitive or financial damages, but only to force the defendants to cease publishing these allegations. Harvest announced that it was dropping its lawsuit in early January 2019, "after a Cook County judge [...] ruled against the church's request to keep some documents private." Church elders said that the decision left them without any means of protecting third parties, saying, "In good conscience we cannot knowingly subject innocent people, in many instances against their will, to a full subpoena process." They announced that they would undertake a "peacemaking process" in the wake of dropping the suit. At the same time, they announced that MacDonald would go on indefinite sabbatical to atone for patterns of behaviour "that can only be called sin," but would be available to take part in the peacemaking process upon request. On April 30, 2019, the outgoing elders of Harvest Bible Chapel issued an apology for having filed the 2018 lawsuit, and they paid Roys $50,000 as a settlement to cover her legal fees. Accusations, sabbatical, and firing from Harvest Bible Chapel Over time, former Harvest members, elders, and staff have accused MacDonald of bullying, sexual harassment, authoritarian behaviour and lack of transparency in finances, as well as misappropriation of church funds. In December 2018,