Berrien Springs Village Church Pastor Dismissed by Michigan Conference
5 December 2024 |
Controversial pastor Ron Kelly has announced that he has been dismissed from employment by the Michigan Conference as the senior pastor of the Berrien Springs Village Church. In a YouTube recording, he said,
On Sunday, December 1, at the end of my Thanksgiving vacation, I got a phone call at 3:16 telling me I needed to be at the conference office the next day. I was there to discuss employment issues. Things were brought up that I thought had been resolved and I was told they were not resolved at the level I thought they were. I asked for the presentation of the grievances against me in writing. They said no.
Kelly complained that the process wasn’t fair.
The next day I was before the conference committee not knowing exactly what had been said about me before I went in. If I had gotten a speeding ticket I would at least been able to hear what the police said about me and my potential offense. This isn’t what most of us thought would be the deliberating spirit and process of the highest order of Christian kindness, redemption, and just behaving—but I am no longer the senior pastor of The Village Church. Now I have my own YouTube channel, Ron Kelly.
Under Kelly’s leadership, the Berrien Springs Village Church, just a mile from Andrews University and the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, became a center for anti-vaccination and other right-wing conspiracies, all promoted under the heading of “religious liberty.” Leading members promoted those associated with Christian nationalist movements, some of whom were speakers in their periodic religious liberty conferences.
Kelly ended the announcement by encouraging people to “remain faithful to the Seventh-day Adventist Church that they’re a part of,” and “to pray for me and my family.”
