Announcement of sweeping changes at Harvest Bible Chapel met with walkout, concerns about new direction
As snow coated the Rolling Meadows campus of Harvest Bible Chapel, congregants watched a video recorded sermon Sunday from Pastor Rick Donald titled “How to Respond in a Storm.”
“If I had to choose a word that kind of describes where we’re at as a church right now, I would use the word storm,” Donald said.
The sermon, which drew from the Samuel 1:30 story about David’s battle with the Amalekites and how he faced down the storm — by remembering God, doing what God says and waiting for God’s “provision” — was originally delivered at a Saturday night service, where it prompted a number of people in attendance to walk out.
Last week, the church announced that Senior Pastor James MacDonald had been fired, nearly one month after elders said the popular preacher was taking an “indefinite sabbatical.” MacDonald described actions that “can only be called sin” as the primary reason why he was taking leave. His removal “accelerated,” elders said, when “highly inappropriate recorded comments made by Pastor MacDonald were given to the media and reported.”
Now, some congregants are taking issue with Donald, a longtime assistant senior pastor and elder, and the fact that he was delivering the sermon in the aftermath of MacDonald’s firing. Donald was viewed as the right-hand man of MacDonald, a founding member of the network of evangelical churches in Chicago and the suburbs that attracts thousands of worshippers.
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