Today, the Village Church met for Sabbath worship without Pastor Ron Kelly, who was fired by the Michigan Conference on Wednesday of this week.
Cody Francis, ministerial director for the Michigan Conference addressed the congregation at the beginning of the second service. He read a statement from the Michigan Conference to the Village Church members. His statement is at 3:24.00 in this video,
Francis’ Remarks
“Happy Sabbath greetings from the Michigan conference. It's been a blessing for me to be here and to worship with you this sabbath. I've been blessed with the emphasis on looking to Jesus throughout the Sabbath School. As you may have heard this has been a week of much prayer and heartfelt discussions within our conference and after much deliberation and prayer the Michigan conference executive committee—which is a committee that is made up of layman representatives, layman, and pastors and a couple teachers throughout the Michigan conference [roughly 2/3 of the executive committee are church employees, according to this image]— has made the decision to transition the senior pastor out of the village church. And we understand that this news may come as a surprise but this decision was approached with careful consideration and a desire to follow God's leading. We recognize the sensitivity of this situation and are seeking the well-being of everyone involved. We love and appreciate Pastor Kelly and desire the best for him and his future ministry and our prayers are with him and his family as he prayerfully considers where God is leading him next. And we have appointed Pastor Taariq Patel, who has served as the lead associate pastor here at Village, to serve as the interim senior pastor as we work through this transition. We recognize that many may be shocked, hurting and uncertain about what lies ahead. We understand, our hearts are hurting too but we are here to support to listen to pray with and for The Village Church community and we are confident that God will continue to lead in powerful ways here at Village and we look forward to his cont… to his continued blessing on this ministry, church family and community. May God bless each of you this sabbath and beyond is our prayer.”
After Francis’ statement, Head Elder Tom Wilson stood up and made this clarification, “Pastor Kelly has been transitioned out of the state of Michigan (not just the Village Church).”
There will be a townhall meeting tomorrow at 9 A.M. in the Village Church sanctuary. Michigan conference administrators, including the conference president will be there, presumably to present their case against Ron Kelly, and possibly Conrad Vine as well. There will be a Q&A session. The meeting will not be live streamed. It is requested that only Village Church members attend.
Prayer was requested by an elder for the meeting and for participants alike.
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“No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:16-17).
