Letters from an Overseas Brother-in-Christ

We post here 2 e-mails we received from Bro Michael who is from overseas.


to : calvarytoday@gmail.com
date : Nov 23, 2009 7:30 AM
subject : Scandals at Calvary Church

SCANDALS AT CALVARY CHURCH.................
It is time to stand up and say enough is enough…..

I have read with interest the article in the Star and the various comments on the Calvary saga. There seems to be many people outside and inside of Calvary church posting comments in the web. Some of the comments are highly emotional while others very factual. Some not directly commenting on the saga but revealing other things that have been very unpleasant that was kept out of public scrutiny. It looks like all these things have been happening for many years dating back to 2004.

There is definitely some element of truth is what has been highlighted both in the news paper or else the person so central to the issue would have filed for defamation . It is indeed an eye opener for all of us to see the amount of abuses that has been committed behind closed door and under the disguise of church authority. The question I want to raise is this; Why is it that only one Director from the Board of directors (BOD) was willing to address these problems, while in fact all directors have fiduciary duties to ensure that all things are done according to accepted commercial standards of practice which would entail ethical stands and good governance on the part of those in position of authority. What about the Deacons who’s first loyalty is towards God but is incapable of exercising sound bible reproach to any members or leaders of the church who has committed fraud ,abuse of power and practice of cronyism and nepotism .

The one example is the transfer of 1.8millon funds to CIM without proper authorization. Who has been given the delegation of authority to allow this to happen. If it is the senior pastor ,did the BOD give him a delegation of authority to effect this . If not , he has over stepped his authority and is liable . Did he benefit from such transfer even though restitution has been made. How long was the money kept in this CIM account . Was the funds used during the time it was in CIM and that restitution was possible only due to new additional funds being transferred to the CIM account. What other funds have gone into this account? Was there overseas funds solicited for this CIM?

There are so many other instances such as creation of positions for family members ,& high salaries for selected related parties which is nothing but abuse of powers for the benefit of a few. With all this happening why is that the present BOD still condone such practices .Does the BOD also benefit from the agreement with the Senior pastor’s action by getting bigger and better benefits for themselves in the church ..a scratch your back and you scratch mine mentality.
Has the church members ever asked who the title holders of all the properties the church own are in? The so called trustees ..can they be actually trusted? Who acts as an ombudsmen for the members of the church? As the present BOD are under suspect would it not be prudent to have a reputable External auditors to investigate, report and come up with recommendations to safe guard the church from such shameful and deceitful plundering of church funds.

With the position that the senior pastor holds in the church, has it ever occurred to the church that he may have committed sexual abuse as well to those female members that come to him for counseling. The victims may not even want to come forward now to say their piece for fear of shame and dignity lost and would want to move forward with life and take what has happened as a painful experience. But with this blog by Calvary Today this is an avenue to seek some form of release from the hurts, pains and betrayal.

Why is it that in all church matters ,those in position of power are always allowed to get away with whatever wrong just to keep things within the family. I am sure the senior pastor wants to keep within the family as he is just using the mentality and mindset of the church mentality to hide all his wrong doing amounting to criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, unethical practice and lack of good governance. Are Calvary church members so naïve to be fooled and hoodwinked by this person .You make yourself a laughing stock not to the general public but to the senior pastor himself as he looks at you as nothing but some adult with a child’s mind so innocent to not see the evil intentions of his actions…..A pawn in his game of high financial chess .

Stand up Calvary Christians if you so dare to call yourself Christians and do not let such vulgarities happen to your church that is from God that has been vandalized and prostituted to such a horrible level. Have courage and the common sense to remove and purge your church of such leaders.

To the senior pastor and the BOD…resign and make restitution with your God and the church but also be prepared to face the laws of the land for you are no different from the everyday people.. .No one is above the law .

Let this be a lesson for all churches and their leaders that you are not above the law and you need to have ethics and good governance in the way you run the church of God. In fact your standards should be God’s standards which is in the bible but because you are weak and are tempted, the corporate world has come up with a lesser standard like good ethics and good governance that is punishable by laws of the land should you falter from it. So don’t hide behind the veil of keeping within the family as it is all an excuse to cover your evil deeds.

Michael M Oldham

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to : calvarytoday@gmail.com
date : Nov 24, 2009 10:25 AM

Dear Sir,

I am from overseas and only read the article at your Calvary Today blog and was very disappointed to see these things happening to the Church of God and that it took caring Christians such a long time to address this issue and bring it out in the open.

I like to give you an analogy....Can you imagine in a home where the father abuses the child with the wife and the other children just watching.Relatives suspect but do nothing but just say he will change.Caring neighbours just suspect and say it is not our business.Don;'t you think that he should be reported to third party authorities who can have the full extent of the law on him.

Calvary church is just like that.Deacons and caring Christians pray and try and speak with the senior pastor but to no avail for years.Deacons and BOD are afraid of him for reason which I cannot comprehend.He is only a human being nothing more.

To keep this within the confines of the church with the excessive abuse of his authority,misappropriate of God's money,the contineous sins committed in the house of God,to allow him to preach the Word which is definitely NOT from God,to allow people from outside to visit your church knowing that he is preaching not God's word but who knows what is mind totally boggling and shows a lack of COMMON sense.

Every calvary member who has witness this episode for so long is guilty of sin of not caring enough of your church members, But praise God that there are those that have left the church as they sensed the falseness of Calvary church.

These members and all who know of the happenings at Calvary church must ask God also for forgiveness for not bringing this out in the in the open sooner. That is the problem with christians and the mind set of keeping problems within the house of God.Like I have said keeping this within the confines of the church is the best tactic for a sinful person to continue to do as he pleases just like an abusive father in a home.

Please do not allow him and those that are with him to continue to violate the sanctity of Calvary church.Do what you must do with all legal means which include reporting to the authorities.The house of God must be purged of such despicable things .

God Bless. God will bring a new beginning to those that love his church.

Michael M Oldham