------------------------------------------------------------------------
Updated News Links on Gilyard
Members of Shiloh are "Shocked"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Florida Times Union has written an article (click here to read) covering the latest mess Darrell Gilyard has gotten into at Shiloh Baptist. We hope its not true, but this may very well unfold as another example of church leaders worried more about protecting the reputation of their church and their pastor than they are the welfare of young ladies.
From the Florida Times Union article:
"According to the police report, a mother said she found obscene text messages when she checked her daughter's phone on Oct. 23. The mother, who is not identified in the report, said she later spoke with another woman who said her daughter also had received sexually graphic messages from the same phone number. "
So apparently there's more than one girl that he may have sent sexually explicit text messages.
And:
"She said she spoke with four church deacons about the phone calls and showed them a journal of alleged sexual encounters with Gilyard. She said the deacons told her not to involve the police until they could discuss the allegations with Gilyard, according to her statements in the police report.....When asked why she waited a month to lodge her complaint with police, she said she'd been told the church was going to handle the matter. "
Sadly, it looks like the allegations have gone beyond phone calls, and involve "sexual encounters", although its not clear if its with the same girls he sent the messages to, or just what "sexual encounters" mean.
And of course the crack team of deacons who were told about the allegations as early as October 23rd told her NOT to go to the police. Does that surprise anyone? Let's hope the authorities will find the names of those deacons who gave her that advice, to not report this...if the man is sending sexually explicit messages to a minor that very well is a crime and the deacons should have told her to immediately report it to the police, and the deacons should have immediately taken steps to investigate and taken steps to protect the young women of the church immediately while the investigation took place.
So the questions that need to be answered now by the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church:
1. Why did the deacons tell the woman to not report to the police what appeared to have been a crime, if someone sent sexually explicit messages to these girls from Darrell Gilyard's phone? Who were these deacons? Did they in any way threaten retaliation against the woman if she did go to the police?
2. What steps, if any, did the church leaders take between October 23rd and November 29th to protect young ladies in their congregation after they were made aware of the text messages and "sexual encounters"? Let's hope no "sexual encounters" or any abuse happened in this period when the church decided to take matters into their own hands.
3. The obvious and most painful question: Why would the church hire a man as their pastor after he had admitted to having sexual affairs with women in his previous church, especially considering that these women were (according to Paige Patterson who counseled Gilyard in Texas) women that Gilyard was counseling? Was he up front with those who hired him at Shiloh, or did he deny the allegations when he was hired? What steps were taken to make sure the same problems didn't happen at Shiloh - for instance was he prohibited from counseling women or young ladies alone? Did the men of the church take steps to hold him accountable and prevent a repeat performance of sexual encounters with young women in the church seeking counseling?
My guess is that the church's investigation will reveal someone stole Darrell Gilyard's phone and sent the sexually explicit messages to harm his reputation, and that he is 100% innocent. His church will rally around him, and all will be well, and Darrell will have been the victim of a terrible prank and be given even more power at his church. And the mother who went to the police against the deacon's advice will be brought before a church discipline committee for being divisive.
We shall see.
15 comments:
It took me a long time, but I finally figured out that "divisive" is a Baptist code word for "truth-teller."
Darrel Gilyard may be the best preacher in Jacksonville. His style and content is much like his mentor, Jerry Vines. Apparently, talented, gifted preachers are hard to find and worth whatever it takes to hire them and keep them happy. Including giving them full control over the business side of the church. FBC Jax preacher Mac Brunson is also a very talented preacher. He recently passed by-law changes to give himself more power and less accountability in response to some concerned members who raised questions about his financial and other business decisions. Those asking the questions were told to ask the chairman of the committtees, who said to ask the pastor. Others said they don't know the answer, and still others told those asking questions to leave and find another church. Others said "touch not thine anointed" even though no one was "touching" him. They were simply asking questions.
As Darrell Gilyard showed yet again, and Mac Brunson showed by accepting a $307,000 piece of land for "love and affection" only 2 weeks after he started preaching here, these men we trust often show very poor judgment. Without anyone to question them, or hold them accountable, they eventually get the press involved (not members, they can silence, ignore and intimidate them) and only then are they held accountable.
Read this blog for some disgusting financial abuses by Mac Brunson since he has arrived. And his rude and arrogant response to his congregation, followed by the formation of a discipline committee, not to deal with the thousands of sins that are going on in the church, but to deal with those being divisive.
Interesting quote from Jerry Vines in the T-U article. It seems to be stating that since he forgave Gilyard, he had no duty or moral obligation to inform the church of the man's past. Vines also publicly supported Robert Reccord at NAMB after Reccord was caught red-handed abusing his position and finances donated to NAMB.
And Paige Patterson's name keeps coming up in the articles from Dallas. Do these guys cover for each other no matter what? What a fraternity! Too bad they are supposed to be spiritual leaders. Didn't shephers PROTECT their flocks from the wolves? Sexual and financial abuses should not be tolerated. Vines and Patterson should be using their influence to help the sheep, not cover for the shepherds. You can add Bob Gray and Tom Messer to the list in Jacksonville who will never be held accountable for abuses to their flocks, by Vines or anyone else. Strange how quick they are to forgive these guys, but when it comes to anonymous emails, or bloggers, they have a zero tolerance. Hmmmm. I wonder why that is?
You all are some Christ like folks - Now it seems, not only are you all being judgemental, but now you are upset that Dr. Vines did not say something negative about Pastor Gilyard. Let God be the judge and jury, pray for Pastor Gilyard, remember, if you judge, you to shall be judged.
What is sad is that Jerry Vines has preached at both Shiloh Baptist (Darrel Gilyard's church) and Trinity Baptist (Tom Messer and Bob Gray's church) since leaving FBC Jax.
Interesting story I found when googling Darrel!
http://www.staugustine.com/stories/081301/new_0813010012.shtml
It seems to talk about his high school years and initial license to preach. It sort of (sarcasm)debunks the bridge story.
And amazingly I never remember him being poorly dressed in HS. And I certainly do not remember him living under Memorial Bridge in Palatka. I do remember him being popular with the opposite sex however.
Anon 4:18 - you must have been at Mac Brunson's sermon about being judgemental and critical.
Problem is you haven't learned the difference between "discerning" and "judging". This man, Darrell Gilyard is unfit to be a pastor - forget the recent allegations - he admitted to having sex with women he was counseling in Texas. Enough said. That is not "judginging" that is "discerning" my friend.
here is the Anon 9:58 pm story they tried to hyperlink.
Sheri said...
Anon 4:18 - Would you feel the same way if the victim were your middle school daughter? I don't think so.
We have a God given duty as parents to protect our children, even if that means having to protect them from their own pastor!
Merry Christmas, watchdog!
Merry Christmas, Jacksonville!
We feel yer pain!
Thanks for your diligence in reporting the truth. In April, 1993, I prayerfully confronted Gilyard at Shiloh and told him that he was Biblically disqualified from pastoring due to his divorce in Texas and because of all of the improprieties with women out there -- in that short meeting, he literally ran through the auditorium to get away from the rebukes. I followed with a letter outlining the reasons for disqualification. Within a week, two of his Deacons met with me -- Deacon Herman Sykes told me that I was nuts and Deacon Copeland said, "We don't care what he's done, as long as he wins souls". Both Deacons subsequently filed a complaint against me with the State Attorney's office because of my tenacious rebuke of Gilyard's evils.
The Lord Jesus gave me victory at the SA mediation. The mediator asked the Deacons whether they had reviewed the documentation I had relative to Gilyard's Texas improprieties; they said "no". The mediator then gave both deacons copies and insisted that they take it home for review. Before concluding the meeting, the mediator only asked that I stop preaching about Gilyard's evils on WCGL radio -- the director of that station had censured me earlier for the Gilyard rebukes the same month.
Pastor George Harvey, Jr.
Mt. Charity Missionary Baptist Church
Jacksonville, Florida 32206
904-356-0664
George Jr - thanks for sharing your insights.
We know about Gilyard's past...your story just sheds more light on the lack of real accountability these mega church pastors have. Sure there are deacons, and trustees...but so many of these are enamored with the pastor's prestige and star power that really these pastors operate with little to no real accountability.
I do have to admit I'm shocked that two deacons at Shiloh would be so bold and arrogant as to file a complaint with the State Attorney's office to silence someone who is trying to tell the truth.
Thanks again for sharing the truth.
If you have any documentation that you would like to make available to support your story, feel free to contact me via email and arrangements can be made. This site gets over 1000 hits per day and readership all over the country.
My Christian brothers and Sisters:
I've read the comments here with interest. What I have not read is any comment that gave the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church leadership any benefit of the doubt. There is a lot of opinion here without a lot of fact to base them on. The assumption has been that the leaders (deacons) are mindless and spineless, and a cover-up is most assuredly in the works. This is very judgmental, hurtful, and as far away from the truth as East is from West.
The "rush to judgment" seems to be pretty one-sided as I haven't heard from anyone other than the one victim writing in this blog that had anything to say that was based on personal knowledge.
You've written about what you think. I'll write about what I know.
I don't want to cause any more pain to the family that has been reported on so prominently in the news. Our heart and prayers go out to them and any other family or families in this or similar circumstances. However, consider this:
The T-U news story is full of inaccuracies and some untruths. Without going into details that would compromise privacy and the integrity of certain investigatory information and conclusions I'll just say this: 1) The T-U story has partial facts from different allegations reported as one event. 2) The article says that the mother said that some deacons asked her not to go to the authorities. That is absolutely untrue. It never happened. Had anyone involved done such a thing they would have been dropped from the internal investigatory committee--period. 3) The daughter's journal was allegedly shown to the deacons by the mother--false. This mother did not have a journal from her daughter. 4) The time lag (one month) in the reporting to the authorities was attributed to waiting for the deacons to do something. A month had passed before anyone come forth with any allegations; Inquiries were made within hours of the allegations being made known to church leadership; A "face-to-face" meeting was held to review the allegations and any supporting evidence if available; then the mother in the report went to the authorities within 48 hours of the meeting--even before the summary of the meeting could be written up and fact checked. JSO hasn't even concluded its investigated or announced charges--yet the brave men who are giving of themselves to ensure that the truth prevails are being held to a higher standard than a professional organization staffed and equipped to deal with such issues.
Finally, the men involved in looking into these issues are all men of integrity and conviction, many of whom have daughters and grand-daughters themselves and who would not for one second look away from their duty to the church and more importantly to God in seeing that truth prevails in such matters.
I pray that none of the posters here ever find themselves confronted with anything near as difficult as the issue we are discussing here. You'll find that it is a lot easier to have an opinion about it than it is to live it.
"In a ham and egg breakfast the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed".
YIC
YIC: Probably one of the reasons that people are reacting with such disgust toward Gilyard and Shiloh Baptist's leadership is the fact that Gilyard was the pastor to begin with. A man who has admitted to adulterous affairs with women in his church that he was counseling is pretty well universally considered "unfit" for the position of "pastor", no matter how great of a preacher and orator he may be. Sure, let's let the facts come out on the recent charges, but let's start talking now: who in the Shiloh leadership knew of Gilyard's past, what steps were taken to hold him accountable to not put himself in a position where he would be tempted to repeat his past adultery, and what steps were taken to warn the women of the church of Gilyard's past? We don't need to wait on the JSO investigation to get answers there.
Commenting on this thread has been closed, but you can leave comments on the most recent topic here.
Post a Comment