A Navy veteran and missionary with Philip Renner Ministries says he and other Christian evangelists were removed from Burning Man in Nevada after sharing their faith with hundreds of attendees, while event organizers say the group was expelled for repeatedly violating community rules.
John Calvin Hinerman, who describes himself as a “front-lines revivalist,” said his team ministered throughout the temporary Black Rock City community before being ordered to leave the event.
Burning Man officials said the issue was not the group’s Christian message but its conduct toward other participants.
“Burning Man takes participants' right to privacy seriously. Seeking permission and consent before filming or engaging other participants in Black Rock City is a requirement and responsibility for anyone at the event,” organizers said in a Sept. 3 statement to the Reno Gazette Journal. “This camp received multiple warnings and opportunities to correct their behavior yet continued to violate our policies and were therefore evicted.”
The Burning Man Project, which has operated for about 40 years and holds its annual gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, describes itself as “a community and global cultural movement” built around 10 Principles, including radical inclusion, radical self-reliance and communal effort.
Hinerman disputed the organizers’ account in a series of Instagram posts Wednesday, arguing that his team had been targeted because of its Christian witness.
“Burning Man is discriminating us and breaking their own rules of being ‘radically inclusive’ and KICKING us out for being Christians?!” he wrote while claiming that some 800 people had given their lives to Jesus as a result of his ministry being at the event.
Hinerman also said organizers gave his team only three hours to dismantle tents and other equipment before leaving the site.
“Many other BURNERS are coming and JOINING us, helping us clean up everything up because even THEY are against the Burning Man for kicking us out for sharing our Faith,” Hinerman wrote. “Burning Man is WRONG for kicking us out, and the devil is MAD over 800 people gave their lives to Jesus and became a LIVING temple of the Holy Spirit.”
Witnesses told the Reno Gazette Journal that the Christian camp drew attendees by serving coffee and matcha before encouraging them to accept Jesus as Savior.
In a GoFundMe campaign seeking $7,000, Hinerman said he became a missionary in 2025 after what he described as a life-changing encounter with Jesus while serving in the Navy.
“My plan was to become a United States Navy Seal [sic] and to be on the front lines of a physical war ... and God asked me to surrender my ways and my plans to Him. So I did, and He redirected me to the mission field,” he wrote.
After leaving the Navy in March 2025, Hinerman said he accumulated $10,000 in debt while adjusting to civilian life and entering the mission field, but by August 2026, he said God had helped him reduce his credit card debt to $7,000.
