ORLANDO, FL – Jessica and Michael Koulianos have been accused of fostering a toxic culture in their ministry, Jesus Image. A man by the name of Joe Pasinkski recently posted an open letter on Facebook in which he criticized the leadership of Jesus Image and requested Jessica and Michael Koulianos step back from ministry.
Joe Pasinski introduced himself as a former supporter of the ministry and a leader in the church prior to December 2025. According to the letter, it was at the end of last year that Pasinski and his wife left the ministry due to serious discrepancies.
“I can no longer, in good conscience, support any aspect of the ministry of Jesus Image, including its leadership,” Pasinski wrote in his letter. The former leader went on to outline his grievances, which included an honor culture at Jesus Image that evoked fear.
Congregants, according to Pasinski, were afraid to express differing opinions for fear of being labeled as either “dishonorable” or troublemakers. Isolation from the community was also reportedly a tool used to maintain full submission.
“People have reported feeling as if they are being placed in impossible situations where they must choose between leadership’s approval and the people they love,” Pasinski wrote in his letter.
“Some students endure difficult circumstances at the school because they fear retaliation for leaving, or fear being cut off from the community. There is a sense of anxiety that remaining friends and family will be retaliated against.”
Michael and Jessica Koulianos began Jesus Image in 2014 as a conference called “Jesus Conference.” Michael Koulianos revealed during a recent interview that the first Jesus Conference attracted 600 attendees. Subsequent events housed upwards of 9,000 attendees.
Four years after finding success with Jesus Conference, Jessica and Michael Koulianos launched a ministry school called Jesus School.
“That was 2018,” Michael Koulianos said last year during an interview with Talking Church Podcast. “And then, we needed a place for these students to worship on Sunday night because we were discovering that [while] we were teaching the scriptures, they were going to other places [and] some of the stuff [they were receiving] was scriptural [while] some wasn’t. And [I said], ‘You know what? Let’s just host a Sunday night gathering,’ [which] ended up being on my birthday.”
Joe Pasinski requested outside attention via a third-party investigation into the culture at Jesus Image in his letter. The former leader also asked Jessica and Michael Koulianos to temporarily step down as the leaders of the ministry until the findings of said proposed investigation were revealed.