January 21, 2025
To the editors of Fulcrum7 and to my fellow Adventist church members,
Thank you for your work in exposing the situation at the Village SDA Church as well as bringing attention to many other important issues. You are doing good work.
My husband and I have been members of the Village Seventh-day Adventist Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, for about 10 years now. The reason we joined the Village Church was because of Pastor Ron Kelly. My husband and I had both read through our Bibles, cover-to-cover, and found the teachings from Pastor Kelly to be aligned and in harmony with what we read in our Bibles. Over the many years we have attended the church we have found Pastor Kelly to be truthful, hard-working, compassionate, and most importantly, fervently seeking the will of God as he proclaims the Gospel of Christ. Pastor Kelly has been a blessing to our family personally, as well as a wonderful leader and shepherd of our church family. He has been an answer to prayer. Pastor Kelly has helped, through the Holy Spirit, to create an active, thriving, loving church body. Throughout all Christian denominations, churches are dying, so it has been a joy to be part of a thriving, active church!
On December 8, 2024, approximately 800 people (maybe more?) from VSDA came to the meeting with Michigan Conference leadership to seek information, to protest and request our pastor be returned to our pulpit. My husband, my father, and I were among them. The meeting lasted approximately 4 hours and could have gone on longer, but they eventually cut off the comments/questions due to time.
I know some personal cell phone videos have been released via YouTube of people speaking and asking Elder Jim Micheff questions. What those videos didn’t pick up is the audience reactions. In the very beginning, Mr. Daniel Bacchiocchi read a letter written by Pastor Kelly. Much of the audience was weeping and at the conclusion to the letter, the congregants erupted into THUNDERING applause and a standing ovation. The members of the MISDA Executive Committee sat silently on the front rows of our church pews and heard people weeping and then cheering, applauding, and standing up for our Pastor Kelly. Were their hearts moved? I know mine was. We were not a silent audience and the support for Pastor Kelly and Pastor Conrad Vine were palpable.
Our church elders demanded Pastor Kelly be restored to his position as Senior Pastor at our church by January 2, 2025. That did not happen. On January 11, our church elders bravely stood in unity asking for the MISDA Conference to work with us in due process and to restore our Pastor to his pulpit. No restoration took place, in fact Ron Kelly was terminated. I have no doubt the MISDA Conference is hoping that our fervor will die out and this situation will quietly be accepted, and we will move on with business as usual, particularly when it comes to paying our tithe.
Back in December, I sent a letter to Elder Micheff and various members of the MISDA Executive Committee. I never received a response from them. I sent another letter on January 17, this one perhaps more direct, to the MISDA Conference. I am enclosing the letter that I sent to Elder Jim Micheff, Elder Ringstaff, Elder Francis, and others at MISDA. I do not believe it will ever be read by anyone at the conference office. Perhaps it will be useful here? It is imperative that we church members let our voices be heard and cry out openly about the abuse of power that has taken place in our conference.
I believe the time has come for us to call for an Emergency Constituency Meeting. Also, to call for votes of no-confidence and formal censure.
Elder Micheff, in his December 19, 2024, letter to Taariq Patel demanding we cancel the Religious Liberty weekend, noted that “The Conference President . . . is the chief elder, or overseer, of all the churches.” I believe as such, we as voting members of the MISDA Church have a right to censure him. If the firm and united voices of our Village SDA Church account for nothing in the consideration of whom holds the role as our pastor, what recourse do we have? When church leadership breaks the rules as well as breaks our faith in the system, what is our process for correction? I believe we must call for a formal censure for those who voted to have Pastor Kelly fired as well as those who seek to have Pastor Vine removed from positions within the Village Church. There must be transparency, due process, and adherence to our rules for all members, let alone our beloved Pastor Kelly and Pastor Vine. Lawlessness and dictatorial measures have no place within the church of God.
Why have so many in Michigan been silent? There seems to be an unspoken hostility towards the Village SDA Church and our pastors. Why? Are we not partners in telling others about Jesus so they may have the hope of salvation? Thankfully, there have been some willing to speak out in support of the Village SDA Church, Pastor Kelly, and Pastor Vine. Our VSDA Church Elders have been very brave and have been working prayerfully to rectify this mistake. I deeply appreciate our church elders as well as our former associate pastor, Pastor Dennis Page, as well as Pastor Bowman from a neighboring church, for their strong support. I also appreciate the Sandpoint SDA Church elders from Idaho who have voiced their support for our church. I thank “Pathway to Paradise” and Pastor Rumsey for the thoughtful video that was released in early December. I sincerely appreciate Fulcrum7 for shining a light on this issue, as well as the many letter-writers, commentators, and others who recognize this is a troubling abuse of power that has repercussions for the entire church. It seems the MISDA Conference, and the Lake Union, are willing to ignore all these people voicing legitimate concerns.
I think we need MORE voices to call out this abuse of power and we need to come together to try to fix the weaknesses within our administrative bodies. Some within our administrative bodies are actively silencing the voices that are calling people to repent and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. As my husband pointed out, many of us Adventists have been so singularly focused on “Papal persecution,” that we have neglected to see the growing threats within our very own church.
Fulcrum7 editors, thank you again for doing such good work.
Sincerely,
Michelle Proctor-Stembridge
Village SDA Church Member
Michelle
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[From the Editor. Tomorrow night, there will be a farewell vespers to celebrate the ministry and legacy of Pastor Ron Kelly’s contribution to the Village SDA Church. Time: 5:30 PM. Location: The Village Church.]
