Week Nine – Church Fight – David

Church Fight
Brookhaven Wesleyan Church
I interviewed Pastor John Walton the assistant pastor
March 16, 2009

This is a conflict that happened in the Nazarene church that Pastor John attended when he lived in Nashville Tennessee.

The issue: Fight between Senior Pastor and his wife. The wife became jealous of the fame he got, and developed a fan club where they began to “bad mouth” him. His own partner, his roommate was bad mouthing him!
When the Pastor found out about his wife’s fan club and what they were doing, he confronted her, and asked the church board what to do. He explained to the board that he would quit the ministry for the sake of keeping his marriage.

How bad did it get: When he talked to his wife, she said that she didn’t care if he was the pastor or the president of the United States; she is not going to love him anymore. Shortly after she divorced him and left.

What could have resolved it – what should have someone done?
I honestly believe that nothing could have resolved it, the pastor did all that he could do. The wife dug herself a hole and wanted out of the relationship. The pastor was willing to leave the ministry for her but she still wanted nothing to do with him. In the end, the board said to the Pastor that his allegiance’s was to God 1st, and that they would keep him as their pastor if he was willing to stay.

The result is that when his helpmate no longer gave help… the Board aided and assisted him. He has not remarried to this day.