Thanks again for the support,
Kati-Daughter-of-the-former-pastor-of-Zion-Baptist-Church

Thank you for the encouraging words and for taking the time to comment on this blog. I will make sure your message gets passed on.

God Bless,
Lew

I am a member of Zion Baptist Church, although I lived out of state for awhile and moved back just in time to have the opportunity to tell Pastor Rickey and Elaine goodbye. I, too, believe that he was more or less railroaded out for reasons I won’t go into here. We know that God knows the heart and true intention of each and every church member and deacon who supported his “resignation”. We are no doubt truly living the end times and God’s true Church is being filtered out. As His Word says, He is the Truth and truth will prevail. Please tell them they are loved and prayed for by one whose life was impacted by not only Pastor Richeky’s preaching, but his love and compassion and his desire to preach the truth.

Sorry to hear about this :(

Thanks for clarifying, I was confused a little but I figured you were agreeing with me. I was also attempting to give more information without giving too much information.

I am *trying* to be merciful with this post… not to use it to put down these men, but to use it to encourage others to think before they act.

I definitely agree with your observations. The problem is the deacons wanted my father-in-law to do certain tasks according to their liking. When he did not fulfill these EXTRA-biblical requirements they pushed him out.

In a way, I totally understand. In the business world if you hire someone to do something and they do not do it, you fire them. The problem is, the church is not a business.

Thanks again for clarifying.

God’s Glory,
Lew

My comment was not as clear as it ought to have been.

I was agreeing with you and highlighting the failure of churches to live the one anothers.

I have seen, far too many times, the sort of action you have written about. My question to deacons regarding their behaviour towards those who they called as pastors has often been, “Why did you call him in the first place?”

Their answer is invariably, “Because he was God’s choice for the task!”

The conclusion must be that some churches worship a fallible god, who is certainly not the God of the Scriptures.

Who do you suppose that god is?

Thanks for the comment. There are definitely a couple deacons who continue to love and support my father-in-law. I am grateful to God for those men. As for the others, I suppose they have an agenda to accomplish.

John

In my opinion, there was no need for them sending out the letter. There was also a better way they could have handled the whole situation. The letter was purely a political move on the deacon’s part. Obviously I know a lot more of the story than you all do, but I am fairly confident that the church understood a lot of these facts as well.

Thanks for the comments,
Lew

I have no way of knowing about the situation your father-in-law faced, but would question the need for a diaconate to offer such an explanation to the congregation if they were properly involved in the day to day affairs which affect them, which includes the well being of the man they called as “pastor”.

In allowing ourselves to have any doubts about the propriety of this man’s departure, surely we must be asking ourselves the question, “Why have we (those who claim to be God’s children) spiritually sunk to such a low that we can entertain ANY suspicion regarding how we LIVE the “one anothers” of Scripture??

I wonder if by trusting that God will supply their needs the deacons have washed their hands of any responsibility to help your father-in-law out financially, emotionally, phyically, mentally, and spiritually. I know that I don’t know the whole situation, but I wonder just the same.

Thanks for commenting. Yeah the whole “for the record…” thing – it is like a little child who breaks something and stands in front of it so you cannot see it. The child moves awkwardly and suspiciously as you move around which only draws attention to the fact that the child is guilty of the very act.

There is obviously much more to this story. But it is not much different than any of the other horrible deacon stories you hear in the church jungle.

Thanks for commenting.

God’s Glory,
Lew

Oh, so typical … so sad … and yes, the little “For the record …” blurb is more than a little suspicious. Why the need to say anything? I don’t think your biased …

~Heather