Re: Richmond Outreach Center
Date: December 20, 2008 05:28AM
To XFan: I’m sorry about your experience. Your story is the same as many of us, different circumstances, but being totally deceived by the ROC and its main leaders.
First let me say, don’t go back! Ever. It’s hard leaving your friends, but they are encouraged not to have contact with you anyway. They are told that you don’t want anyone to contact you and that you want nothing to do with the ROC. I know. It happened to me. Geronimo teachs that according to Matthew 10:36-38, you should hate your family. According to G, the ROC comes first, not your family. But my bible says in Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another. My bible says to honor mother and father. It does not say honor the ROC with all that you have and all your time. It does not say spend every waking moment with the ROC and all its 100,000,000 ministries. Oh, excuse me, 100+ ministries. Who cares how many ministries? If your leadership is promoting its own agenda, not that of God, what good is it? If the pastor is living way beyond the means of anyone else in the church, what does that tell you. If he allowed 1 person to stand up and give a testimony for 45 minutes – {better than anything he could have preached he stated} simply because she has the funds to get the ROC out of debt, buy him a $1,000,000 house, extravagantly decorate same house, buy the Big House, renovate the Big House and buy him a $100,000 vehicle, why should he need any of us. Don’t go back. They don’t need you. They don’t really want you. You are a threat to the ministry. Time will heal the hurt in your heart. You belong to God, not to a ministry at the ROC and definitely not to the ROC.
I recently read this as it relates to abusive churches/ministries written by someone who apparently knows his stuff:
Does the group's leadership invite dialogue, advice and evaluation from outside its immediate circle? Authoritarian pastors are usually threatened by any outside expression of diverse opinions, whether from inside or outside the group. When outside speakers are given access to the pulpit, they are carefully selected to minimize any threat to the leadership's agenda. Coercive pastors are fiercely independent and do not function well in a structure of accountability. For the sake of public relations, they may boast that they are accountable to a board of some sort, when in actuality the board is composed of "yes-men" who do not question the leader's authority.
How many outside speakers have ever been invited to the ROC? How often do you hear about the “yes-men” at the ROC? Geronimo says it ain’t so, but you know better. Is there a board at the ROC. No, there is none, only a board of deacons who are chosen by Geronimo. Why did some deacons leave. They understand what is going on at the ROC. Geronimo feels threatened by what they know, so he makes sure they are silenced, by whatever means necessary to get them to stop talking.
Is he accountable to anyone. Nope, not a single person is over the ROC’s pastor or his ministry. He has final authority on everything in the ministry and one has to wonder if he ever really seeks God’s guidance in decisions. And why does he allow no one to really know the truth about financial information? The people who are there serve out of their love for God and give from their hearts for that same love for Him. Pray that their eyes are opened to the truth and that the truth will be revealed to everyone that calls the ROC church their church. It will hurt them to know the truth, but only for a short while.
You are going to be okay. It just takes a little time.