Tenth Anniversary of Resignation

Today is the tenth anniversary of the occasion of being forced to resign as the preaching minister for the Westside Church of Christ, now known as the Cinco Ranch Church of Christ in Katy, Texas. This was a very significant day in the life of me and my family. I was asked by one of the two elders to resign because of my views regarding the church (I think that was the reason). A former elder had resigned a few months previous to this and had been working to gather up enough support from some of the members to get me to resign. The other elder supported me and had very similar beliefs about the church that I did.

Two weeks before I resigned I started getting hit with all kind of rumors of things I had done. To say the least, this was a very ugly two weeks. Everything from ranting and raving in elders meetings to being inappropriate with women. One man wanted to meet with me, so I agreed to cancel going to a men's seminar that I had scheduled to attend, and meet with him. He began to tell me all of these things I had done, which were false, and I got upset because I had cancelled going to this seminar so I could meet with him. When I told him these things weren't true, and I couldn't believe that I had changed my plans so I could hear him make these false allegations, he said, "See, they were right. You are out of control." He then made a disparaging remark about the denomination where the seminar was held. After meeting with this person, I decided to resign. It seemed like it was going to be only a matter of time before I was going to be charged with the OJ Simpson crime, which was in the news at the time. It was also very sad and embarrassing to see people behave in such a way that "the end justifies the means."

What were my radical beliefs? The main one that got me in trouble was that I believed the Church of Christ should move toward a team leadership model. The ministers and elders would work together as a leadership team. Not necessarily equal responsibility, but a team approach as far as discovering "who we are and where we are going," and sharing this with the church. The Independent Christian Church was moving towards this model, and after careful study, I felt it was more Biblical, especially since the preacher has such a "feeding the flock" responsibility.

Also, I believed that the church should move towards being non-denominational. I never thought how radical this was until people started talking about the fear of becoming a "community church" and not being a part of the "Church of Christ denomination" as one person I met with feared. The idea was to be less sectarian and more winsome to non-church folks.

As a young preacher, I made many mistakes. 0ne was thinking that this new church plant (really more characteristic of a split) wanted to be progressive. After ten years they are still a traditional church. This has worked for them to attract like minded people. However, our area has grown by over 250,000 people the past 10 years, and the church is now only about 400 members. They have grown in a sense, but mostly from Church of Christ members moving in to our area. Since our area in a ten mile radius is over 400,000 people, they should be much larger. It was my belief that if they had become less denominational, they would be more attracted by people who did not have any church background.

My biggest mistake was my own lack of patience. "If I had to do it all over again," as they say, I would, as much as possible, just preach, nurture relationships, and stay out of the politics of the church.

Maybe that wouldn't have worked either. At a meeting of the congregation to decide my fate, one of the former elders said, "What I am really concerned about is your view of baptism." Because I taught and preached salvation as what Christ did, instead of what we do, it was a difficult teaching for some to accept. For many years they had been taught that we achieve salvation by working through a series of steps. Grace is too good to be true for some.

My last Sunday was eventful. Most of the congregation were very surprised that I had resigned. Even people that the elder who wanted me to resign, thought were on his side (so to speak), called me and told me how shocked and disappointed they were.

The elder who asked me to resign was fearful of what I might say on my last Sunday. I didn't say anything or preach anything related to resigning. My message that Sunday was on "The Shadow of the Cross" based on scriptures from the book of Galatians.

One of the men of the congregation who thought I should resign decided it was a normal part of preaching to leave after three years. He believed my family would adjust as I moved after three years of living in Katy. His rationale was based on what is very common in churches. Before I moved to Katy, I made a commitment to Phyllis that I would stay here until our children had all graduated from high school. This would prevent me from getting another full time ministry job. Michael is a 10th grader, so I have three more years to go.

The past ten years have had their ups and downs, however, I still have a wonderful family. All three of my children are faithful Christians. Matthew is studying to be a missionary and Melissa is studying to be a counselor. Michael hasn't quite decided what he wants to do. He may pursue being a fireman. Phyllis and I are still happily married.

Cinco Ranch Church of Christ has all new elders since I left. Very few of the current members were there when I was there. They are still traditional, but not like most of the Churches of Christ in the area. Cinco Ranch is one of the most friendliest churches you could ever visit. This is very appealing to those who are looking for a Church of Christ. They are also doing some positive things that reach out to the community. May God bless them!