The New Year sure does not seem to be starting out in favor of Rev. Lavell Jones. The word on the street is that Lavell’s days or numbered according the following report from our friends over at the Hinterland Gazette.
‘A house divided” does not begin to describe what’s going on at Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church.
The board at the Stockton church moved to fire the pastor. So the deacons, who side with the pastor, ousted the board. So the board sued the deacons.
“The deacons are outright villains,” fumed Jesse Nabors, a former city councilman and church board member.
So tense has the infighting become that police were called after a tussle over collection money.
It’s a sad state of affairs for a once-flourishing church that grew to 500 members in the 1980s, and which fed the poor in nearby Columbus Park.
Membership has sagged to 135, by one estimate, as members recoil from politicking, intimidation, slander and other acts that are not what Jesus would do.
The conflict started in October. The board of directors, disenchanted with the pastor, the Rev. LaVell Jones, called for vote on “vacating the pulpit,” or firing him.
The church’s bylaws give the board the right to call for a vote of the congregation. However, the deacons (church officers who help the pastor with religious duties) refused to communicate the decision to the congregation.
When Jones‘ secretary, Kelli Hanspard, doubling as board clerk, tried to call the meeting, Jones fired her, she said.
“We’re talking about a lying, cheating, manipulating, control freak,” Hanspard spat.
With the board gone, Jones declaimed regularly from the pulpit that the board was guilty of sins such as taking church money.
The board, charged with the fiduciary responsibility for the church, did move the church’s savings account to a bank beyond Jones‘ reach. They also hired an attorney, using, they say, only money donated specifically for their counsel.
Meanwhile, the deacons deployed their power of “consultation” – putting members on probation pending investigation – to silence opposition, Darryl George Sr. said.
George was in deacon training. “At a couple of our deacon meetings the deacons started talking about the people they wanted to put out of the church,” he recalled. “Everybody they were trying to get rid of, they all had a problem with the pastor.”
George dropped out.
“I had never been in a church where they were talking about putting people out. The objective of a church is bringing people closer to God.”
Ultimately, the deacons called for a vote to oust the board. The vote was held in January.
The congregation voted to fire the board.
The board sued in civil court to void this election. On June 21, Superior Court Judge Lesley D. Holland issued a summary judgment in favor of the board.
“The Board of Deacons,” Holland wrote, “has usurped the authority and prerogatives of the Board of Directors … “
Holland ordered an audit to determine how much church money deacons must pay back.
Head Deacon Julius Thomas declined to comment.
“I don’t think it’s the Christian thing to do,” Thomas said.
Evidently Thomas doesn’t think obeying the court order is the Christian thing to do, either. Neither he nor Jones have relinquished control.
A process server tried to give Jones and the deacons copies of the ruling. The server reported Jones threw his to the ground.
The server also reported certain deacons grew so menacing he feared for his safety and got out of there.
The Sunday after the ruling, board member Marian Dean presented the head usher with the legal papers. The usher dutifully handed over to Dean just-donated collection money.
“Almost instantly, Pastor Jones comes breaking into the back of us,” said Dean, who is 64. “He clipped my right shoulder with the back of his left shoulder. Like a football move.”
The pastor snatched the basket, Dean said. “Jones was all puffed up, yelling ‘This is our money!’ “
Dean called police. Police investigated possible misdemeanor battery. No charges were filed.
This weekend, the church holds another election on re-ousting the board. Board members fret the congregation remains unwitting about the true state of affairs.
“What he has done,” said board vice chairwoman Juanita Jack, “is usurped the authority of the board. He has taken over the church. And he is misleading and deluding the members. All he has to do now is give them Kool-Aid.”
Board members say their attorney will petition the court to find Jones and the deacons in contempt.
Jones declined to comment.
“Right now I don’t have anything to say,” the pastor said. “I’m a man of integrity, and I want it to stay that way.”
The sexual harassment allegations against might be the least of his worries and he may soon be out of a job.
