Prominent Memphis Area Pastor Resigns

[AreYouReady?]

I find it interesting that some folks come on here to chide this forum for discussion of various events being told. Yet some of the church members are being told nothing at the very church they attend and read about the events happening on Facebook, which, in my opinion is worse.

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by houston

Oh, this isn't Agnostic Friends Forum?

Do you consider yourself an agnostic?

[CC1]

Originally Posted by H Gang

Also, the District Superintendent is the interim pastor, and he is a fine man with an impeccable reputation. He has character and has never been accused of immorality or mishandling church funds. He pastored for many years prior to becoming DS. The church board is not running rough shod over this church. The spiritual leadership is being provided by a godly man who is practicing what he preaches.

So the DS position in the TN district is a full time one? You mentioned that the DS used to pastor before becoming DS.

[houston]

Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa

Do you consider yourself an agnostic?

Não

[Tlswift2009]

Originally Posted by H Gang

Also, the District Superintendent is the interim pastor, and he is a fine man with an impeccable reputation. He has character and has never been accused of immorality or mishandling church funds. He pastored for many years prior to becoming DS. The church board is not running rough shod over this church. The spiritual leadership is being provided by a godly man who is practicing what he preaches.

Wow, this is good news to hear that the church does have someone that's filling in on a continual basis. I'm a Pastor and I know how important it is for the church; especially at this time to have bonding/healing RELATIONSHIP with a Pastor; and not having a revolving group of preachers in rotation-God is already covering His church in this aspect: I'm very thankful; I've been worshipping with TPC at various times since 1996, and know the former Pastor personally; although I've not spake with him in the past several years.

[Tlswift2009]

Originally Posted by StillStanding

My prayers are with all involved in this unfortunate situation. Can you image being on the board of a large UPC church with a well-known speaker, and having to make the decision to fire him and taking a chance that the church will blow up? The amount of pressure and stress had to be incredible to come to that decision! Do you secretly reprimand the pastor and allow things to stay at status quo, or are you repulsed enough by the double life and unethical dealings that you vote that enough is enough?

I would bet that there are churches where church boards would go the "cover-up" route. The actions of this Memphis church board tell me that they are indeed ethical and acting in the best interests of the church. I have no doubt that they travailed in prayer for a period of time before taking action.

I'm not sure of all of the intentions of this 3-man board, but to have a Pastor in leadership that's dealing with an outside strange woman is not a good thing at all for the Church of Jesus Christ. To have prayerfully waited before the Lord concerning this matter for over a years is commendable; it was about this amount of time that God gave David to repent before He sent the Prophet Nathan unto Daivd that his sins be revealed, and that Davis was brought to repentance. I'm praying for the total healing, and for bountiful/fruitful blessings to come out of this situation, and that our brother will be totally restored as well as his wife from her wounds.

[Tlswift2009]

Originally Posted by deltaguitar

My advice, don't try to hold it together and get out while you can. That church will never be what it once was and people are just going to have to understand that.

You can still attend but find another church and another group of people that you can lean on for a while. With all this speculation and gossip going on there there will be constant anxiety within the church. Altar calls, crying, wailing, will do nothing to fix the problem.

The leaders of the church are not being transparent and are just trying to salvage the whole thing. Let it go . . . just put your trust in God and back away and just let it all go because it will never be the same again. People will move on and your best friends will find other churches and some will stay and it will all be a struggle a lot of effort will go into trying to hold together something that was destined to end. Make me wonder if this was God trying to shake things up a little bit.

I was involved in a horrible church split a few years ago and I can honestly say we are all better off now. Many have gone their separate ways an the one who left are healthy and seem to be growing. The ones who stayed carry the burden of trying to repair something that had a weak foundation to begin with.

Sorry to be so negative but I firmly believe that these problems turn out to the for the greater good for the people in the church.

Yes Delta, you are very, very negative. Have you forgotten Jesus' promise that the "gates of hell {even fallen leadership} shall NOT prevail" against the church. The Pentecostal Church belongs to Jesus, and He can fix what's been damaged; this is why the Pastor had to be removed, and when God's people AFFECTIONS are attached to Him; then they will not only survive, but ABOUND in a GREATER way with time. Have you ever heard of "gleaning the CHAFF/DROSS-the unwanted refuse??? I refuse to believe that TPC is doomed; not if there be people still there that truly love the Lord; this is NOT a church split, and I rebuke the spirit of any split that might try to arise in Jesus name!!! This is GOD setting things in order for His Church. Those that have been a part of this ministry, and have cast their lot-inheritance with TPC have a responsibility to remain prayerfully and to WAIT on the Lord to continue to HEAL in every aspect; actually-just as the early Apostolic Church thrived in the midst of extreme persecution; TPC can flourish with time in the midst of this great dissapointment; afterall-who are we serving MAN or GOD??? We follow our God ordained leadership as they follow God-Continue in prayer!!!

[ttpaba]

Originally Posted by H Gang

Believe me, most of details you don't ever want to know. Second, the men in the church providing leadership and the District have integrity, as well as Kilgore and Hughes. If there wasn't irrefutable evidence, there would not have been a resignation. Third, if a preacher preaches it "straight" but lives a very duplicitous life that reflects nothing of what he preaches---he doesn't preach it straight. "Straight" preaching includes practicing what you preach. Fourth, worrying about a future pastor on holiness standards should be the least of your concerns. Obsessing about holiness standards before didn't prevent tragedy from happening. Do you think strict holiness standards is going to give you a desirable pastor? You better hope the man's hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness! Fifth, you better thank God that the "select group" instrumental in, as you say, "taking TB down" were men of integrity and character and were honest enough to be used by God to bring the man's gross immorality to light. The man could still be lost in dark sin and headed for hell. Now he's been granted Gods grace to get right. And "they" didn't bring the man down. He did this to himself. He made the series of horrible choices to live a double life, preaching holiness and spiritual elitism while living like the worst of sinners. I hope you can appreciate the goodness of God in bringing this to light of truth rather than to continue the charade and the deception.

See this is the whole problem. The board, the district no one is informing the congregation of any accusations, proof or any real information. It's my understanding that Kilgore was preparing to bring TB in and allow him to talk but once the board got wind of it he and hughes were "dismissed". I've heard the board had no desire to bring the district in and wanted to just handle it themselves. I don't know this to be true or not. I don't know if the board has integrity, I don't know if there computers are "clean". I don't know that the district people are honest and their impeccable reputation really doesn't help me because I was under TB who had an impeccable reputation. I still don't know if any of it's true. If things are being handled by honest, spiritual, true men of God why wouldn't their process, accusations and proof be made congregation knowledge. Also I didn't mean to mislead anyone to think I meant "strict" standards and I don't think hard, strict standards are necessarily what I want. I'm just saying we are used to a way that is going to change. In UPCI so much is left up to the pastor so if you get one in there that preaches personal convictions as bible it's going to be tough. I don't know how to have confidence in the men in leadership because if what is being rumored is true TB blew it, if what is being rumored about the men that say TB did all this stuff but if TB didn't then they blew it. I could see how certain allegations and a petition could break a man's heart and cause him to resign thinking the church has turned on him and could feel like he's not wanted so why not just resign. The confidence is likely shattered even if there aren't facts and proof but just the "talk" with hidden agendas attached. I'm not saying this is what happened because again I don't know and have very little confidence that many do. I do know some are on every angle and are convinced they do know and form their advice, outlook and feelings according to what they think they know.
Until solid, straight, down to earth explanations are given and a substantial amount of proof of the allegations against Tb are shown, I don't see how the congregation can ever recover. I know some things aren't easy to hear but we are adults and pay tithes and support the church and hold positions and have such a vested interest in the church I think it's due us to KNOW what happened and how it was handled.

[ttpaba]

Originally Posted by H Gang

First, the three man board was by the pastor's design. Second, these men are men of integrity and character. They knew damaging info about the pastor for up to a year and sat on it. They took this role very seriously and agonized over the inevitable confrontation. They took time to pray and wait on the Lord. These men are not the villains! They should be thanked for having the character to finally confront the pastor. If the pastor is right with God today or gets right with God, he owes a great deal of gratitude to these men to put an end to the wicked game he was playing, a game that would've damned his soul. The church needs to be grateful that these men put an end to the game so that greater damage that could've been done, like the local media getting ahold of this sensational story, or some other explosive revelation, was curtailed and that they've protected church goers hearing some of the worst details no one needs to hear.

Demonizing the board is like blaming the prophet Nathan for confronting David for his adultery with Bathsheba. Nathan was David's saving grace. This board was the ex-pastor's.

I'm thinking you've seen the specific allegations, that you've seen proof. You clearly have strong opinions about the boards character. If you've seem the allegations and you've seen the proof why hasn't the congregation so that they can have as firm an opinion and be as convinced as yourself instead of leaving us all to wonder, wander and grieve with out end. It almost feels like I've been told my loved one died and we hold a funeral with a closed casket and half the family says the supposed dead person is not dead and half the family says your crazy for saying that because there's a funeral. I'm saying show me the body, show me the death certificate. Let me id the body as hard as that may be so that I can grieve, heal and regroup or go find my loved one!
I can see how this course of events could play out that would bring in the media from not calling a meeting and laying it all out. There could be some that would call the media in just to get an investigation to get some straight answers.

[Tlswift2009]

Originally Posted by ttpaba

I'm thinking you've seen the specific allegations, that you've seen proof. You clearly have strong opinions about the boards character. If you've seem the allegations and you've seen the proof why hasn't the congregation so that they can have as firm an opinion and be as convinced as yourself instead of leaving us all to wonder, wander and grieve with out end. It almost feels like I've been told my loved one died and we hold a funeral with a closed casket and half the family says the supposed dead person is not dead and half the family says your crazy for saying that because there's a funeral. I'm saying show me the body, show me the death certificate. Let me id the body as hard as that may be so that I can grieve, heal and regroup or go find my loved one!
I can see how this course of events could play out that would bring in the media from not calling a meeting and laying it all out. There could be some that would call the media in just to get an investigation to get some straight answers.

Amen, the church congregation has a right to be informed properly of what has happened to their Pastor: a very tight closed meeting of ONLY the current members; no cameras, no recorders, no public-media hype. Yes, there MUST be closure so that the TRUE healing process can take place. You members of TPC need to INSIST on answers from the board!!!