I heard that Bill Coolidge has died. He was a disciple in pastor Mitchell's church. He was a pastor in our Fellowship. He joined the rebels in 1990 and he dropped off of my radar then. I had not heard anything about Bill until today when I heard that he had died last week.
Bill was never a good friend of mine. Bill was never a pastoral friend of mine. Bill is revered by those he pastored. No one mentioning pastor Bill even mentioned pastor Mitchell or the Prescott church.
This is a common thread among those who left. They never mention Prescott or pastor Mitchell. It's like they tore those pages out of their book and never bring it up. And yet the Prescott rebels all find each other and are as thick as thieves. Prescott is the only thing they have in common and pastor Mitchell is the reason any of them were pastoring. They give him and us zero credit.
You think you can leave and it doesn't matter but it does. This has given me a reason to reminisce about someone who I knew before he was famous.
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I was sorry to hear of Bill Coolidges passing. He was a regular guest at our church in the 1980’s so I googled his name. His resignation letter came up and it makes interesting reading:
ReplyDeleteAn Open Letter to the Fellowship:
Bev and I want to give a formal farewell to all the saints that we have served God with over the past twenty-seven years. Whether it was in Prescott, Tempe, Sierra Vista or Yuma (where we are remaining), we will always be grateful for the times of partnering with faithful believers. We owe so much to all the unsung saints who, time after time, helped with outreach teams, sent music groups, gave offerings at our
conferences and supported in countless ways the work that God has done here in Yuma.
This letter is not going to involve lengthy explanations. For our friends, such explanations aren’t needed. For our detractors, such explanations are futile.
However, for the sake of those who may have felt some confusion over the unsigned letter concerning the Board of Elders meeting that resulted in our departure from the
Fellowship, I will say this:
1) There was no “continued resistance to seek any path of reconciliation.” Repeated
efforts were made on my part to resolve our conflicts with Pastor Mitchell. Greg Johnson, Harold Warner and many of the former Board of Elder members could bear witness to this.
2) We did not pull the Yuma church from the Fellowship. I refused to resign because no just cause for resignation was found. Because I rejected the judgment of the Board of Elders, I was told I no longer had Fellowship status as a pastor and that as long as the Yuma church was under my leadership, they also would no longer have Fellowship status. We were dis-fellowshipped following my refusal to resign.
Once again, our deepest thanks to all who have labored with us and though our paths may never cross again here, I look forward to seeing you all in heaven where
we will enjoy the joint-reward for the investments that we made together.
On for God,
William H. Coolidge