Pastor locks congregation out of church after questions about finances
Members of the congregation at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Alabama couldn't get inside the church Sunday. So they held services outside in the parking lot....
Members of the congregation at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Alabama couldn’t get inside the church Sunday.
So they held services outside in the parking lot.
The reason the doors were closed was because the church’s pastor, Dr. Willie Jackson, locked them out.
–Pastor Admits He Has AIDS, Slept with Church Members–
Church members told WVTM 13 News the congregation had asked the pastor to resign over transparency issues and lack of financial oversight.
Sunday must have been Dr. Jackson’s retaliation, they said.
–Congregation Supports Pastor Accused of Raping Women Over 4-Year Period–
“We’re in the process of asking our pastor to vacate the pulpit, so I guess this is the way of showing us that we can’t come here and worship,” former church trustee member Ann Zellander said.
Another church member was more blunt.
“[Jackson] told us he wasn’t going nowhere and ‘I would sue everyone of y’all,'” Mussierene Mitchell, also a church member. “That’s what he told us sitting in that church.”
–103-Year-Old Woman Banned from Church for Speaking Out Against Pastor–
Zellander laid out more specifically the reasons why the congregation wants Jackson out
“The church is regressing in the membership,” she said. “We have no financial reports. The church has no voice, in other words. We’ve just lost everything. We feel like we’re in a dictatorship.”
It’s safe to assume that locking your congregation out on Sunday is not the way to win them over. WVTM News 13 reporter Fred Davenport went to Jackson’s home for comment – but the pastor’s wife shut the door in his face when he said who he was with.
