After facing a very public sex scandal, a Virginia megachurch is searching for a permanent senior pastor and executive pastor.
According to a statement from its board of directors, the Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) in Richmond is looking to fill two vacant positions after four of its five pastors resigned earlier this month. The board says the process will take between six months to a year.
“We are conducting this search with the help of several experienced Christian consultants,” the board says in the brief statement. “We are also hiring an interim preacher to preach at 6 o’clock ROC, our Saturday night church service, until the position of senior pastor is filled.”
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a church spokesman said Thursday, “We’re looking for the person who God wants.”
The Times-Dispatch said the senior pastor will handle pastoral duties, while the executive pastor “will look over the administrative side of the operation, which includes a series of nonprofit organizations and ministries.”
Charisma News previously reported that Jonathan Falwell would begin advising the church’s board of directors after the board announced on June 5 that it had accepted the resignations of its founding pastor, Geronimo Aguilar, and pastors Jason Helmlinger, Andrew Delgado and Matthew Aguilar.
The resignations followed a scandal-filled month, when Geronimo Aguilar—known as “Pastor G”—was charged in Texas with seven felonies in two cases of sexual assault of two sisters under the age of 14.
The alleged assaults—which were said to have taken place before Aguilar founded ROC in 2001—date back to 1996. Four of the felonies he faces carry potential life sentences.
Helmlinger, a former Henrico Country police officer, faces charges for allegedly threatening former ROC pastor Allen Caldwell, who said Helmlinger “cursed at him during a phone conversation and used racial slurs,” the Times-Dispatch said.
ROC is looking at a large pool of candidates to fill the position and hopes to select an interim pastor soon. The megachurch promised to keep members “posted and up-to-date on the progress that [it is] making.”
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