The popular Christian band MercyMe received more than $17 million for promoting child sponsorship organizations over seven years, a new court filing shows. Others benefitted richly from the deal, as well, including the charity helping the children and a brokerage business run by Newsboys owner Wes Campbell.

The charity, Children International, based in Kansas City, Missouri, asks donors to support — or sponsor — children on several continents for $39 a month.

Paperwork from a $1 million rolling agreement, signed in 2019, went public this week as part of Wes Campbell’s $50 million antitrust lawsuit against 33 parties, including Christian band MercyMe.

The lawsuit, which also names Roys Report (RR), alleges that MercyMe was part of a conspiracy to dismantle Campbell’s business Thriving Children Advocates (TCA). As reported earlier, RR stands by its articles and denies any knowledge of a “conspiracy.”

The estrangement between TCA and MercyMe began when the band broke a seven-plus year relationship with Campbell and then signed a sponsorship agreement in late 2025 with TPR/Live Co, another faith-based production company.

Campbell’s TCA accuses MercyMe of multiple wrongdoings. They range from  creating a monopoly in the Christian music touring and sponsorship market to unlawfully sharing donor data.

Lawyers for MercyMe filed a motion in federal district court to have 11 claims against the band dismissed. In response, Campbell filed additional paperwork on Aug. 25, revealing that MercyMe signed a $1 million contractwith TCA in 2019 in exchange for 22,500 child sponsorships. The contract included an option of repeating the deal for another $1 million.

The contract does not disclose how much TCA was paid by Children International for the contract.

The unredacted paperwork now reveals that the Grammy-nominated band received $230 for each new confirmed sponsor. Through this, TCA recouped their $1 million advance to the band. Once the band reached 22,500 sponsors, the contract was fulfilled.

MercyMe could clear a profit of $4 million under the original contract. Revenue from ticket and merchandise sales supplemented its take.

Campbell, according to the lawsuit, expected that 6% of concertgoers would become sponsors. Based on that, MercyMe would have to perform for 375,000 fans to hit its quota, representing approximately a year of sold-out concerts.

By March 2020, COVID-19 put the music industry on life support. Despite this, the relationship between MercyMe and TCA was in good standing, with MercyMe earning $17 million from its child sponsorship sales, according to the lawsuit.

TCA was the first broker of its kind, connecting Christian music artists with child- sponsorship charities. Newsboys was its most prominent client; MercyMe as another top-tier artist.

Then everything fell apart in the middle of 2025. First, the band’s representative, Troy Collins, resigned from TCA. MercyMe, which argues it completed its contract, ended its relationship with TCA in July. The band later signed with LiveCo/TPR, another faith-based promotion company.

The beginning of the end

According to the suit, TCA’s demise began with a story by RR about a woman who claimed she was raped by a Newsboys crew member. The woman also alleged that lead singer Michael Tait drugged her prior to the assault and then watched the assault happen. The RR story included video footage, hospital records and a police report, with witness statements.

Campbell alleged in his lawsuit that the story was “formed, facilitated and fomented, to destroy Campbell and his companies as a competitor, seize his business for themselves and thereby consolidate and maintain their monopoly power.” Campbell claims that TCA was worthless after the story published.

Calling it the “Fargo Fabrication,” the lawsuit claims this story was fabricated and planted by Waterland, a Netherlands-based company that had been in negotiations to purchase TCA for $50 million.

Campbell alleges that Waterland created a monopoly with TPR and World Vision to copy TCA’s business model. The lawsuit alleges the Fargo Fabrication spread through the Christian music industry to build distrust among artists. MercyMe and its management company, Bricknell Entertainment were a part of this conspiracy, Campbell’s lawsuit says.

The claims against MercyMe and Bricknell are extensive. They are accused of violating five federal laws under the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act and the Defend Trade Secret Act. In addition, Campbell and TCA allege that MercyMe and its management company have violated six Tennessee state laws, including  antitrust statutes, tortious interference and solicitation of charitable funds.

A year later this past July, MercyMe’s lawyer, Jay Bowen, filed a motion to dismiss. Calling the antitrust claims “self-defeating,” the court filings reiterate that MercyMe never breached the contract. Instead, it chose not to renew with TCA after Collins resigned from TCA.

As Campbell and MercyMe wait for the judge’s response to the latest filings, there is no clear timeline for the lawsuit. After U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. for the Midde District of Tennessee recused himself from the lawsuit July 27, U.S. District Judge Eli J. Richardson took over.

TPR, Waterland and RR have all filed to have the lawsuit dismissed. RR has reached out to representatives of MercyMe and Campbell for comment.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Compassion International was associated with this lawsuit. We regret this error. 

Jessica Morris is a music journalist, podcaster and author based in Melbourne, Australia.