What Went Wrong?

Prior to the removal of the young but evangelistically astute pastor Ronald Jean Baptiste from Guilgal Seventh-day Adventist Church, located in Orlando, Florida, he had the pleasure of being the leader of a church administration whose members had inherited a legacy of excellence in community service. Since the election of these church administrators, Guilgal
never viewed itself as just another church. Members of the church understood themselves to
be the light and salt of the world. The mission, as they have seen it, had been to preach the
Gospel of Jesus Christ in tangible, effective ways. Consequently, the leaders had
successfully applied the tenets of philanthropic and evangelistic theology to the service of
the community in which they lived. As the 21st century made its way to the calendar of
humanity, sensing an even deeper urgency of the message of Jesus Christ, the leaders
made a vow to epitomize the spirit of evangelism.

With evangelism in mind, these leaders poured considerable energies and resources into
reenergizing the members in ministry. Given the deplorable socio-economic conditions in
the surrounding communities, they inculcated into the organizational culture of the church a
genuine commitment to community service. That commitment eventually provided the
resources to institute such programs as Medicare and Medicaid coaching, public health
screenings, academic programs, children ministry programs, hearing impaired programs,
ESL classes, citizenship classes, translation programs, abstinence class, discrimination
class, civilian police academy, foster care, food ministry, etc. According to recipients of these
programs, they had been proven to be enormously beneficial, particularly to a community
that had been receiving periodic influx of immigrants without having such formation and
information.

Not surprisingly, the leaders' conviction and exuberance in community service made the
church visible to even public and private institutions in the community. Concerned about the
well-being of the community, the leaders had established professional relationships with the
local Sheriff Department in regard to educating parents and newcomers about their civil and
legal rights in the community. Moreover, when the Haitian chamber of commerce in Orlando
was looking for a minister to perform the opening prayer for their daily business operations,
the name of pastor Jean Baptiste came up repeatedly. Consequently, having earned a
reputation for being a ministry-oriented church-community, the church experienced
successive membership.

Even more important, however, as the church prospered in terms of ministry, what became
the most attractive side of the church had been the much-anticipated Guilgal's 40-days of
prayer. The yearly prayer session started as the members began to express their personal
affection and gratitude for the ministry God had given them. Few would have imagined this
initiation would be the defining spiritual identity of the church.  Consequently, some people
in the community made reference to these leaders as the dream-team.

As a result of the overwhelming response of the church's thriving method of ministry, it wasn't
t too long before the dream-team had to make provisions for two services every Sabbath.  
But despite the division of the church into two services, each service had been packed with
members and visitors. Moreover, beyond the increasingly large proportion of the church's
membership in the city of Orlando, it became obvious to the dream-team that the city of
Orlando was becoming overly centralized as the power base for tourism, which triggered a
relatively blooming economy. Therefore, more and more people were moving to the Orlando
area, which necessitated the need to create more space for potentially new members.


The Big Dream of the Dream-Team

In an effort to accommodate increasing membership and as a way to sustain a legacy of
tangible ministries, it became apparent to the dream-team that they should think of acquiring
a facility large enough to accommodate current and prospective members as well as the
number of programs they had fostered for the community. Members of the dream-team
agreed that the time couldn't be more right for such a move. Some members of the dream-team remembered how, in previous years, even their own near-by conference had to move from a small building to a much lager facility in order to handle increasing number of churches in its jurisdiction.

Given the level of trust and faith that reigned supreme among the leaders and, in
inconsideration of the many people who relied on the humanitarian services the church had
been providing, the dream-team then discussed the possibility of building a bigger facility by
the name Guilgal Community Center and subsequently proposed a plan to the church. In the
name of ministry, most members of the church accepted the idea with much enthusiasm and
hope. The proposal involved the building of a community center that would be large enough
to occupy increasing membership, as well as a number of rooms equipped to serve the
community in various spiritual and social capacities.

After an evaluation of the observed suited location for the Guilgal Community Center and its
expected structural components, it was estimated that the Community Center would cost the
church about $6 million. At this juncture, the dream-team pondered deeply over the project's
potential shortcomings and how they would cover the cost of such an expensive project.
Being driven by the passion of service, they consulted their Savior for wisdom and
guidance. One would think in the face of such large amount of money, the leaders would be
severely panicked. Instead, their trust in God helped them to overcome their fears.

It is noteworthy to reiterate that central to the building of the Guilgal Community Center was
a deep passion to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in a big way. Discussions surrounding
the proposal were aimed at establishing a center that would provide services for people in
need. Apparently, the dream-team was not satisfied with a periodic chicken soup-day or a
weekly food fest for the ones in need. They wanted to exhibit the essence of Jesus ministry
at a much bigger scale.

Southeastern Conference's Response to the Project

At this juncture, it is necessary to provide a contextual reality in regard to the conferences in
Florida and the role of a conference. There are two conferences in Florida: the Florida
Conference which consists of mostly White Adventists, and the Southeastern Conference
which consists of mostly Black Adventists. As a matter of ethnic similarity, most Haitian
churches, including Guilgal, belong to the Southeastern Conference.

Belonging to a conference essentially means that the conference has certain level of authority
over the ecclesiastical operations of the churches in its jurisdiction. This authority, however, is
stemmed from the fact that these churches have legally and religiously accepted to be a part of
the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and have pledged to submit to its fundamental beliefs. But
while the Seventh-Day Adventist Church as a trademark has a legal authority over churches,
the churches have both an economic and CLIENTSHIP authority. That is, within the
organizational culture of the Adventist Church, the members are the most powerful. One of the
key roles of a conference is to make certain that the churches are acting within the religious
and legal boundaries of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In other words, from an
organizational perspective, the conference has been established to serve the churches, and the
churches have a responsibility to work in harmony with the conference. This harmonious
relationship, however, is based on the fact that the churches expect the conference to work in
their best interest.

Since conferences operate much like public firms in terms of business transactions, a proposal of any nature has to be exhaustively evaluated. In the context of church life, there are
elements of a plan that have to be within the scope of the mission of the Church, even if the
plan does not involve financial contribution from the conference.  Generally, the conference
would evaluate a plan and prepare a well-balanced response to the church.

From this perspective, according to the members of the dream-team who worked on the
plan, they provided a detailed plan to the President of the Southeastern Conference, Mr.
Willie L. Taylor. They provided the plan to the conference in order to inform the President of
the community center and to show how they were going to archive it.

Approximately two years later, according to the leaders who provided the plan to the
President, they never received an explicit answer from the conference. Instead, they had
been hearing rumors of disapproval from outside sources. They were never informed of
the conference's decision from anyone in the conference. According to the dream-team, they
made every possible effort to get the attention of the President, but no one came forth. They
waited impatiently but to no avail. Meanwhile, tired of waiting for a response, the church
decided to continue with the project, especially since the proposed plan did not necessarily
anticipate financial contribution from the conference.  

Subsequently, suspecting that the conference would not provide an answer to the proposed
plan and not knowing the extent to which the conference was considering the plan, the church
purchased a land under the name Guilgal Community Center Inc. According to the dream-
team, this was done in order to prevent confusion, especially since much of the funds that
were to be allocated to the project were expected to come from various donors.

Two years later, perhaps in response to the proposed plan, the President of the conference
announced that it was time to relocate Pastor Ronald Jean Baptiste to a different church. The
entire church was confused because removing their pastor was not in the proposed plan. But
as they were pondering over the nature of the President's sudden announcement, they
began to realize that the conference was playing politics. It became clear to them that the
President's decision to remove their pastor was a deliberate attempt to discourage the
project, especially when the conference seemed to have ignored their plan for so long.

It is noteworthy, however, to make mention that, by the time the President made the
announcement, Pastor Ronald Jean Baptiste had been pastoring Guilgal for close to ten
years. So his time to be removed may have been pending. However, most members refused
to accept the idea that the sudden announcement to remove the pastor at such a crucial time
in the project was just a perfect coincidence. Consequently, the President's announcement
only added more fuel to an already turbulent relationship between Guilgal and him.



The Replacement of Pastor Ronald Jean Baptiste

As a gesture of pastoral loyalty and to prevent furtherance of the widening divide between
the church and the President, pastor Jean Baptiste peacefully, prayerfully and tactfully
decided to abide by the conference's sudden decision to replace him. It doesn't need to be
repeated that his acceptance to be removed caused an excruciatingly difficult moment for
the members and leaders who were relying so much on his exceptional leadership and his
spirituality.

To make matters worst, according to observers, in the day of pastor Jean Baptiste's
inauguration to his new church, the president of the conference did not show up. Of course,
given the busy schedule of a conference's president, he could have been distracted by a
number of factors. However, not only did he fail to officially present the pastor to his new
church, but also he did not officially delegate any one else on his behalf.  The members were
outraged by what seemed to have been a deliberate insult to them.

By this time, to most members of the church, the President had been showing a pattern of
behavior that was so deliberate, it reached to the point where the members were beginning
to draw a distinction between the President as an individual and the conference as an entity.
That is, the members were so unbelievably chocked by an obvious display of inconsistency
that they were not convinced that the President's behavior was representative of the
conference. They sensed that the president was making decisions out of his own instinct,
especially when they had been hearing discriminatory rumors against Haitians under the
leadership of this President.

Immediately after pastor Jean Baptiste was removed from them, the dream-team, coupled
with the rest of the church members, had to make a crucial decision as to whether they
should continue on with the project. After a period of meditation, the church decided to take
on the project despite the President's implicit disapproval and without their beloved pastor.
Being on the impression that the conference was against the project, the church decided that
they would not even accept the placement of a new pastor until the project was done, and
they would not send their tithes to a conference that was not working in cooperation with
them. Their reluctance to accept a pastor derived from the suspicion that the President would
send a pastor with the specific intention to discourage the project.

Guilgal Taken to Court

As stated above, legally, the name Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a trademark. Therefore,
every building that carries its full name is its property. As a property of the conference, a
church does not have the legal liberty to operate outside of the religious and economic
requirements of the conference. That is, the moment Guilgal decided not to accept a pastor
from the conference and to keep the tithes, Guilgal was illegally functioning as a Seventh-day
Adventist church, even if they may have had legitimate reasons for doing so.

Therefore, in May of 2007, the President took the church to court in order to place legal
restraints on the operations of the church and to retrieve tithes that were not sent to the
conference.  The President and his lawyers were able to prove to the court that both Guilgal  
and Guilgal and the Guilgal Community Center were properties of the conference. Fair or not,
once that fact was established, the verdict was expected to be in favor of the conference.

But one observation that may have been highly suspicious to the court and to spectators was
that, according to the defense, the president of the conference admitted under oath that he
PERSONALLY purchased the land, which had been previously purchased by the church
under Guilgal Community Center Inc. Perhaps this suggested that the president of the
conference might have found out the bank that financed the land and used his legal authority
to transfer the land under the trademark Seventh-day Adventist. Of course, his statement
may have been taken out of context. It is not certain what he meant by such a statement.

Although the conference almost always comes out victorious in such legal battles, loosing a
church is never in the best interest of the conference, especially a church like Guilgal. This
was perhaps why many people were extremely confused by the President's actions. Usually,
based on the history of a few previous similar cases in other conferences, before a
conference had reached the courthouse, officials of the conference would make enormous
effort by holdind a few reconciliatory meetings to sort out the problems and try solve them,
unless the church in question posed problems that threatened to tarnish and shake the very
existence of the Adventist Church. Even then, these cases had been treated with much
patience. In this case, it was not certain why the courthouse preceded reconciliation efforts.  

Nevertheless, having won the court battles the President of the conference had to decide
what to do with Guilgal, a church close to a thousand members. Obviously, according to
members of the dream-team, they were not interested in separating from the conference at
all. Otherwise, they would have excluded themselves from the conference immediately after
the verdict. They professed that they were only interested in building a community center
that would facilitate increasing membership and various community programs.

Reconciliation

Perhaps when other church officials of higher rank and spirit took a closer look at the case,
they realized that this whole idea of building a community center was not really a threat to
the organizational structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and that reconciliation
efforts should have been taken place prior to the courthouse.  Thus, a number of officials,
including the Southeastern Conference Executive Board members, the prospective
successor of the President and the secretary of the Union, gathered at Guilgal in an effort to
create peace between the President and Guilgal Seventh-day Adventist church.

For all of the energy the president had already invested into this case, the officials' objective
was neither to conform to the President's unexpressed agenda, nor the plans sorrounding the Guilgal Community Center, rather to develop a more comprehensive, fair and balanced
agenda. In other words, they wanted to establish a perspective that would not abandon the
issues at hand, but would give sustained attention to correcting what they saw as an obvious
grudge between the members and the President.

In addition, the officials were worried not only about the potential division of the church and
the president's intervention but also about the presence of the Holy Spirit in the whole
matter. They wanted to expand much effort on sorting out the problems, working on
remedying the unstable relationship between Guilgal and the President under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps they were convinced that the president had placed too much
emphasis on his own aspirations, while ignoring the possibility of losing a major church in his
conference.  

Therefore, in order to get to the bottom of the case, the secretary of the union asked both the
President of the conference and the leaders of the church to respond to a very simple
question: What would you like to see done? The spokesperson representing the dream-
team responded by saying, "We want the conference to help us with the project and we
need a pastor. Now, the audience turned to the President, waiting intently for his response.
They waited, waited and waited but the President did not provide an answer. The secretary of
the Union posed the same question to the President two more times but to no avail. Instead,
the President attempted to personalize the issues by pointing his criticisms to a single
member of the dream-team, at which time the Secretary warned the President not to make
the matter a personal grudge. Moreover, when the President felt like he was being
pressured to answer the question, he deliberately digressed to other issues that served his
own interest. According to observers, the President's reluctance to answer key questions
was clearly on display during the entire session.

Furthermore, according to observers, as questions were being raised about the project, what
seemed to have been a surprise to the Secretary of the Union and other spectators was that
even the president's own executive board members seemed to have been oblivious of the
totality of the issues surrounding the project. Based on their reaction, it appeared that they
themselves were unaware of some key factors. As a way to disguise the obvious lack of
communication between himself and his executive board members, the President said to the
audience that he had just recently been presented with a plan for the Guilgal Community
Center, as to suggest that he didn't have enough time to inform his executive board
members of all the aspects of the plan. But at the same time, according to a trusted source,
the President subsequently elaborated extensively on the inefficiency of the plan and then
claimed that the plan was financially challenged. That is, he declared that the people who
prepared the plan did not explain how they would pay for the construction of Guilgal
Community Center.

When members of the dream-team heard the President's claim about the proposed plan, they were outraged, especially when the President never formally replied to the initial plan.
Consequently, extremely irritated, according to a trusted source, some members started to
ask serious questions about the President's sentiment towards Haitians. They wanted to
know whether he opposed the project because Haitians were behind it. The President
responded by insinuating that he opposed the project because no other church in his
conference had ever undertaken a project of this magnitude. Immediately, some members
responded by saying, "well, let us be the first".That is when the President declared to the
audience that he opposed the project because the Southeastern Conference never supported
of the establishment of mega churches.

As the secretary of the Union was raising more and more questions about the integrity of the
church administration and the President, the President blamed Guilgal for the lack of a plan.
He repeatedly said that he opposed the project because he was not presented with a plan. In
a perhaps gesture of mockery, he correctly educated the audience by saying that, even if
you wish to build a church on the moon, you must have a plan.

According to observers, the entire reconciliatory session was spent trying to get to the
bottom of the fundamental differences between Guilgal and the President of the conference.
This does not mean, however, that the presence of the Secretary and members of the
executive board was in vain. They at least made an attempt to sit down with the church.
Unfortunately, even though the Secretary of the Union may have suspected that the
president's intervention to stop the building of the Guigal Community Center was not
professionally dealt with, he could not have done much. Leaders of the Church are not
judges. Instead, they're peacemakers. So at the end of the session, the Secretary prayed for
the Holy Spirit to take charge of the situation.  

The Separation

Weeks after the reconciliatory session, the President of the conference returned to Guilgal
and began a series of consecutive visits. Perhaps he felt that the reconciliatory session failed
to foster the peace and comfort he had hoped the session would be able to convey.
According to the members, the President spoke every Sabbath for a period of two months,
raising critical questions about the leadership of the dream-team. He specifically spoke about
the financial management of the church and questioned the integrity of the leaders managing
the church funds. For about eight Sabbaths in a row, the President boldly vilified members of
the dream-team, calling them the worst church-administration in the history of the Seventh-
day Adventist Church.

Subsequently, the President and his accountant scheduled a meeting with the church to
prove that substantial amount of money was missing from the church funds. Based on the
result of an audit, the President alleged that there was a substantial amount of money that
could not be accounted for, and that a Haitian might be going to jail. While he did not mention
specifically who would be going to jail, his insinuations were suggestive enough as to whom
he was referring. According to members of the dream-team, while they wanted to be at the
meeting to provide explanations for suspected discrepancies, it was clear that they were not
invited.  

Once members of the administration in question thought that a President, who repeatedly
refused to sit down with them had unfairly accused them of wrongdoing, they began to
resign. As they were resigning, the President was replacing them with other church
members. Consequently, the President was now free to inaugurate a new pastor and a new
administration to the church and, according to a member of the treasury staff, was able to
retrieve some $100,000 from the church funds.

Perhaps what the president did not take into account is that more than half of the church
disagreed with him and had lost trust in him. Many of them believed that the President used
mafiaticways to deal with the church administration, and his disagreement with the project
was much more profound than what he expressed above. On the other hand, while the rest of
the members' views of the President's actions were not flattering by any means, they did
express a level of loyalty to the president. A few members of the new Administration
believed rather firmly that there were indeed major discrepancies in the way in which the
previous administration handled church funds.

Furthermore, while the President was able to demonstrate to the church major misused of
funds, the President's accountant alone performed the audit. According to observers, the
auditor did not work in corporation with the previous administration. Perhaps this is the
reason why the President said that there were no explanations for what he observed as
discrepancies. Thus, as the President's two-month crusade came to an end so was the
precious relationship the church shared. The project that had been launched with such
optimism and hope now had become increasingly marred by deepening rifts with the church
family.  

Consequently, in November of 2007, many members of the dream-team who had been
severely accused of the unthinkable, and more than half of the church members who refused
to succumb to what they referred to as the President’s unfair tactic to take over the church,
excluded themselves from the rest of the Guilgal family. Due to their firm attitude of
intoleration of what they saw as Christless activities on the part of the President of the
conference, they were been forced to serve God in peace and harmony at a new church
entitled End Time Sabbath Worship Center. On the other hand, the rest of the members have
remained to be faithful Guilgal members. While many have decided to stay as a sign of
unweaving loyalty to the organizational structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, many
have claimed that some members have been robbed by an unfortunate circumstance.

It is noteworthy to reiterate that under the dream-team Administration, Guilgal experienced
successive membership. It had close to a thousand members, and they had two services
every Sabbath. So when it is said that more than half of the members separated from Guilgal
and moved to the End Time Sabbath Worship Center, it has been estimated that close to 500
members and counting have left Guilgal. Thus, the separation was not made by a small group
of people. In fact, according to members from both Guilgal and End Time, a growing number
of members from Guilgal have been moving to the End Time church. So it can be said with
great certainty that End Time Sabbath Worship Center could quickly become the giant Guilgal
once was, especially since most members of the dream-team have made End Time their
place of worship.

As the members of the End Time Sabbath Worshipers have settled down in their new church,
they have produced a financial report in response to the President's report--the report to
which they never had an opportunity to respond. In a meeting held recently, they have
managed to provide explanations in regard to what the President called major
discrepancies.  

Furthermore, the President's report mentions a number of names that allegedly made illegal
transactions on the church's accounts. Surprisingly, one of the names is Pastor Ronald Jean
Baptiste. Due to his generosity with guest speakers, he has been accused of squandering
some $7, 000 over the course of ten years. Consequently, even when pastor Jean Baptiste
had long been removed from Guilgal, he has consistently been denigrated by the President
as the one who was responsible for the financial chaos. But what may not have
been taken into consideration is that, due to pastor Jean Baptiste's influence in the
community, many people in the community donated money to various activities of the
church, particularly for the construction of the Guilgal Community Center.

There are two other names of critical significance that have been mentioned. One is the
secretary of the church and the other is the primary donor of the church. These two ladies,
according to people in the community, were the nucleus of the dream-team. The secretary
worked tirelessly in exploring the resources in the community and made sure the church
was on top of its agenda. The primary donor is actually one of the few very successful Haitian
businesswomen who has been publicly recognized for her genius in business circles. But
more importantly, she has  been recognized by the community as a very generous
person whose spirituality was visible to the community. Based on the End Time's report, she
donated over half a million dollars to various programs of the church.

Whether the President's financial report shows some discrepancies, it must be understood
that there are circumstances that could have influenced what can be generally accepted as
reasonable management of church funds. Thus, readers of the reports should pay particular
attention to the explanations that have been provided by the End Time Sabbath Worship
Center. Both reports have been posted on the Haitiansda.com for people to judge for
themselves.

Analysis

As a thinker in public life, this case has absolutely been a burden to my cognitive stability.
And this is because throughout my 32 years of age, I have strived to excel within the scope
of logic or at least a universally rational understanding. So, yes, it can be assumed that I am
often disappointed. On the other hand, as a 4th regeneration Seventh-day Adventist
Christian, this case has been enormously confusing and frustrating to me. And this is
because we Christians have rightfully claimed to be united at the cross of Jesus Christ and
have professed to have ONE mission.

Beyond tensions over bureaucracy or organizational structure, the bigger mission is to walk
in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. What, for example, it means to be the light and the salt of the
world? Unlike a popular notion amongst many of us Adventists, which implies that a
relationship with God is a call to be isolated from the worldor society, the New Testament seems to be saying that a relationship with God is essentially a relationship with society. We have a duty to be the light and the salt of the world, which requires us to be in the forefront of society. But we cannot be in the forefront if we are not mastering the social elements that define society. In other words, it would be disastrous for a LIGHT to focus so much on potential restraints that it fails to shine in darkness.

There is no doubt that the dream-team had made Guilgal a shining light in Orlando. Based on
the programs they managed to offer to society and their successful method of leadership,
they applied the tenets of a LIGHT in darkness. Consequently, hundreds of people were
relying on them to be the LIGHT in their social and spiritual paths. It is really a humanitarian
catastrophe that, due to bureaucratic restraints, their LIGHT was skewed from its inherently
spiritual duty.

In an attempt to feed your curiosity as to my position on this case, the following is all I can
say. As a matter of sociological significance, I am an adamant proponent of the establishment
of conferences. However, I am also inclined to prioritize levels of significance. That is, just
like Jesus seemed to have prioritized good-deeds over the sanctity of the Sabbath, love and
service are much more fundamental to the salvific message of our CHURCH than the banality
of bureaucratic activities. I may be wrong, but, in the context of our time, what would Jesus
do?

Last update : 05-10-2009 06:59

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