Death of a Pastor’s Wife

Mica Miller was a woman of faith who told her social media followers over and over how much God loved them. It is Mica’s unwavering belief in God and her desire to serve him that saves this three-episode documentary from being just another true crime series.

“There’s an incredible danger in unmet needs,” declares John-Paul “JP” Miller, the pastor to whom Mica was married. He’s right, but not in the way he means.

When we meet Mica, it’s clear her need to be loved and cherished, to be secure and grounded, has gone unmet. She is just 13 when she and her mother, new stepfather, and five siblings move from Kansas to Myrtle Beach. Broken by her parents’ divorce and vulnerable, Mica is just 15 when she gravitates to the Solid Rock Church and its charismatic pastor, JP.

Deeply gifted in singing and leading worship, Mica plunges into the life of the church, clinging to it like the rock it promises to be in its title.

At age 20, married for two years, Mica begins working for the church, babysitting JP’s kids and double dating with JP and his wife.

At age 21, the news emerges that Mica and JP are having an affair. Both divorce their spouses, and somehow, the church gets behind this—and JP and Mica’s subsequent remarriage to each other—as some sort of redemptive plan B.

When JP begins to cheat on Mica, even before their marriage, he is “restored” over and over, with zero real restoration taking place. Really, his position is restored, not his soul. Meanwhile, Mica’s mental illness begins to reveal itself, and she is hospitalized several times.

Thus begins a seven-year period of anguish, dysfunction, and coercive control as JP obsessively dominates Mica’s every move. Through interviews with her friends and family, the viewer sees how those surrounding her became more and more concerned about her well-being.

Yet in the end, they are unable to protect her. Just two days after she files for divorce from JP, Mica commits suicide.

This series asks the question, who is really at fault for this precious young woman’s demise? Through police calls; video footage; Facebook posts; text records; first-hand interviews with relatives, friends, and associates of the victim; and archives, the documentary persuasively assembles these puzzle pieces into a disturbing picture of control and abuse, inviting viewers to see what allegedly led to Mica's desperation. Did JP push her to the brink through his vile treatment of her, and worse, his weaponizing of Scripture?

Repeatedly, clips are shown of JP preaching, bending and selectively interpreting Scripture to support his authority as a husband and a pastor, focusing on his needs alone. He not only groomed young Mica, but he also groomed his congregation to accept his increasingly bizarre and damaging behavior.

Even when a church leader at Solid Rock reveals yet another of JP’s affairs to the elder board, they throw up their hands and say they can’t do anything about it. In this non-denominational setting, and this particular church, elders are nothing more than hand-selected supporters of the pastor; he is not accountable to them. And people keep filling the chairs on Sunday morning.

Many people, Christians and non Christians, are talking about this documentary, which hit No. 1 on Netflix. Rated TV-MA for its disturbing content (though there is no nudity or even profanity, the suicide and the discussion of JP forcing Mica to do unspeakable things warrants this rating), this documentary could be very triggering and is not for those who are sensitive to such things.

To me, this is a tragedy of biblical proportions, a story of a flawed but beloved woman of God who fell prey to someone who was supposed to be a man of God. Instead of confronting JP like the prophet Nathan did to David, his church members enable him to continue on in his sinful ways. (It would have been God’s best for him if JP had been disciplined in love and not given free rein to do whatever he wanted.) Each person who continued to go to JP’s church, normalizing his abuse, is complicit. (Even now, two years after Mica’s death and one year after JP remarried another mistress from his church, he continues on as a pastor.)

Each viewer must ask themselves, “How am I enabling somebody who is damaging God’s image bearers? How can I protect and seek justice for those who are, like Mica, bruised reeds? How can I put my faith more firmly in God’s hands, not in human hands?”

Watching this depravity play out in a church setting is difficult, but for me, clarifying. This is what happens when sin goes unchecked. Some might say that this show is just another way to badmouth the church, but I disagree. Death of a Pastor’s Wife is not just a portrait of a deeply disturbed pastor and his dysfunctional church. With Mica at the center, it’s also a representation of a woman who tried (and failed sometimes) to love God and be loved by him. Even though her life ended in a devastating way, it was clear she kept her faith in the one who made her and loved her, her real Solid Rock, now and forever.

Note: John Paul Miller was federally indicted on one count of cyberstalking and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. He is due in court in October of 2026. (Netflix)