c. 2004 Religion News Service

KEARNY, N.J. _ Ron Green was puzzled when a pastor he had once met briefly at a retreat called and asked to meet him at the Oakwood Baptist Church in Kearny, where Green was office manager.

Oakwood’s new leader, Bruce Roberts, had been away for more than a week, having told the congregation he had served for just 10 weeks that he had to return to upstate New York to attend a wedding.

The pastor, who knew Roberts from a Baptist Bible Fellowship group, told Green that Roberts would never return to lead the church. But he wouldn’t say why.

When Green and the Oakwood congregation learned the reason, they were stunned.

While in Rochester, Roberts surrendered to face a charge that he sexually abused a 15-year-old boy who was a member of the parish where Roberts had been pastor. He pleaded guilty in January to one count of sodomy and received a five-year prison term.

Independent churches such as Oakwood are on their own when it comes to choosing a pastor. And it can be a very emotional experience.

“When a man is hired as a pastor, he becomes, for the congregation, a spiritual leader,” Green said. “You’re welcoming not only him, his family, his children. It is figuratively, emotionally and literally an embrace. And then what happens? You get used like this.”

In the wake of the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal, more and more Protestant denominations are delving more deeply into the background of those they ordain and hire as pastors.

“I think it’s a sad day that any one of us would have to say to a potential candidate: `I would like to ask you specifically to your face. Have you ever had an arrest or an allegation made against you in the realm of sexual impropriety?”’ Green said. “You’re asking a man who’s a minister of God, `Oh, by the way, are you a pedophile?”’

Those types of inquiries can be troubling for committee members, said the Rev. Eileen Lindner, deputy general secretary of research and planning for the National Council of Churches.

“I think it is true that in every denomination, pastor search committees are much wiser to _ shall we say _ the worldly aspects of pastor candidates than they were in a previous era,” said Lindner.

“The problem is the church is a voluntary organization, and the emotional aspect of this really takes its toll,” she added. “It’s a tough situation.”

The loss of their new pastor after such a brief time _ and for a reason that the congregation found so heinous _ disheartened the Oakwood faithful.

“I was in shock; I just couldn’t believe it happened,” said church deacon Bill Lackner.

“Even though you hear of things happening in other churches, you say this could never happen to us,” said Ron Franchino, a member of the pulpit search committee seeking to replace Roberts.

The loss of Roberts hurt in several ways. For one thing, his passionate preaching style and moving sermons had doubled the membership of the small congregation of 30 in a few short weeks.

“He was filling the pews _ for lack of a better way of putting it,” Green said. “He was a very dynamic speaker. He delivered a message well, and his messages were not simply feel good. They were Bible-based, Scripture-based messages, and he delivered them in a way that held your attention. He made a point.”

“Here’s a guy who was a dynamic speaker. We use the words `on fire,”’ said Wayne Briggs of Nehemiah Ministries, an organization that provides crisis management for congregations facing distress. Briggs has been brought to Oakwood to serve as interim pastor, assist in the search for a new one and help the congregation heal.

The first reaction of the congregation was to be angry at Roberts _ for deceiving them in the first place and for not delivering the crushing news to them personally.

“He knows he just got here. He knows the congregation is in the process of turning around,” Green said. “Then he’s gone _ silence. You find out after the fact it’s because he’s in jail.

“Now I’m pretty angry, because this was something that didn’t come as a shock to him,” Green said. “He certainly knew what he was doing, or at the very least what he had done. That would have to suggest that he just conveniently put that fact out of his mind when he was signing a contract with us, taking on the job in good faith. So he certainly knew he had a rather ugly skeleton.”

Normally a small congregation like Oakwood, which is loosely affiliated with the Mid-Atlantic Conservative Baptist Association, would search for a new pastor through word of mouth and contacts with Bible colleges and seminaries.

To replace Roberts, Oakwood sought the help of Briggs and Nehemiah Ministries to provide an interim pastor and help with the search.

Oakwood’s unpleasant experience with Roberts has made the task of finding a new pastor an altogether different process.

“A red flag goes up a lot faster now than ever before,” Franchino said.

“The last time you were a little naive in the sense that you believed every person was being honest and upright. Now you’re having second thoughts,” Briggs said.

Oakwood’s pulpit committee now realizes that as unsavory as it might be, they have to delve into a person’s background more deeply, including any possible criminal conduct.

“Can you say with a clear conscience, `I have no legal problem or any other kind of matter I’m bringing with me’?” Briggs said. “That’s where the questions have to be asked, and for years people didn’t think they had to ask those questions in the independent church because we expected integrity, we expected a certain moral character.”

The Oakwood congregation is determined not only to survive their ordeal, but to emerge stronger.

“Even the worst thing that happens to us,” Franchino said, “God can turn it around and make a positive out of it. And he will.”

DEA/PH END LARINI