Don Reynolds dismissed from ministry

37 thoughts on “Don Reynolds dismissed from ministry”

1. Don,

   Thanks for stepping up, and stepping aside. Keep stepping.

   Next portion. If this is the ONLY case of assault in 40 years, per his statement, how is it that NO ONE picked up on this behavior? No hint, no whisper? Seriously????

   The network amongst the friends is remarkable. Something happens in CA and it is known in NY. Is one to believe the network does NOT exist in the ministry? Seriously? Need to call BS on that.

2. 1. Definitely reads as a ‘poor me’ request for sympathy rather than any genuine remorse
   2. It has led to “dismissal from the work” so it’s not by choice you are doing this
   3. You “regret” that you’re being dismissed … are you kidding?!
   3. “Imprudent move” …. Seriously? That’s what you see it as? “Criminal” behaviour better describes it!
   4. It is Gods mercy you require. How could you not understand that after 60 years in the work?!!!
   5. Yes you should be VERY thankful your relatives are allowing you to stay there.
   6. And most importantly, where is your concern for the victim and the impact it has had on her/his life?

   Next letter you write, get help.

   1. Thank you for expressing my thoughts exactly. This poor me attitude is too much.

3. More minimizing language. Implying one mistake, a long time ago, and trying to murky the waters by saying she was 15, i.e. not reaaaaalllly young – this is a familiar tune. And obviously he is sad that he has been dismissed – note he didn’t say that he did the morally correct thing (standing down and presenting himself to the nearest police department). He considers himself to have been “upright” ever since – so he told the victim’s parents, the police, and all local meetings, did he?? Thought not.

   1. His wording is “sought to be upright”; similar to “trying”. This means intentions, not reality. I apologize if I’m wrong, but that’s how I read this.

4. We chose to create the Connected and Concerned Friends group because some of us were having repeated conversations with friends and family who felt like they were disconnected, uninformed, and quickly losing hope. These conversations led to an email chain, but the readership quickly surpassed the capabilities of that. We created our platform on June 4th, 2023 as a way to keep people updated, connected, having important conversations, and working toward positive change. In all of this, the goal is to uphold Jesus, and support the healthy examination of traditions. We believe that our relationship with Jesus is a personal endeavor, but it is enhanced by sharing our love for Him with others.

   https://connected-and-concerned-friends.mn.co/share/CTu88wDyuFwaahVT?utm_source=manual

   1. Astounded. Shane Garner; your idea of: Having faithful, Godly men who rule their house according 1 Timothy 3 and understand 1 Tim. 4: is an excellent idea. These men will need to understand the prophet Amos and the condition of God’s chosen Nation of Israel is our present condition. The chill is Amos 8:12 as a result of 8:4, :9-:11.
      These Godly men need to measure what has and what is happening as in Matthew 16:19 when Jesus gave responsibility to Peter and informed him:
      :19 I will give unto thee the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: etc.. And in Matthew 18:15-:20 Jesus gives this same responsibility ALL of the 12. This is the Law of Moses given to Nation of Israel by God, their Heavenly Father. Deuteronomy 17: 17-:18 and 19:15. God requires two or three witnesses.
      Then these Godly men who want to counsel the present rot; God will honor their decisions in Heaven. So, Yes, this is scriptural for Nation of Israel.
      Consider that the 12 chosen apostles were in “training to be Jesus” witnesses in a very short time frame. Luke 22:28-30 informs us – Jesus explains those 12 were appointed a kingdom as Jesus’ father had appointed unto him.((Matthew 21:43 Jesus explains to the :23 chief priests and elders in the Temple THAT the Kingdom of God “shall be taken from them”.
      This agrees with Matthew 19:28 where Jesus explains to his 12 that in the future WHEN Jesus shall sit on David’s throne—they also shall sit on 12 Thrones “judging the 12 tribes of Israel”. Those 12 will replace the very Government of Israel that God through Moses established. When? Matthew 19:28. But, yet, at that time; all who believed and followed Jesus were to do the Law of Moses: Matthew 23:1-:7 even tho the Government of that Nation of Israel was corrupt.
      Now the responsibility of your group, Shane, is to know what those 12 chosen, appointed Apostle were to do when they were sent by Jesus in Acts 1 and 2: as the ministers of the “Only True Way” follow and preach exactly what the 12 apostles did and what they preached.
      Acts 2: 14-:16 identifies to whom Peter and the 11 message was: to those Devout Jews(:5)
      and :17-:39 is that message. WOW, you must follow this as :41 3000
      souls believed. :47 and the Lord added to the church daily
      But our concern is that the ministry is not following the the 12 apostles DOCTRINE; Acts 2:42-:26. Is this the problem with the ministry?; NOW?
      So Shane your idea of having faithful men to listen to faithful witness and make decisions on the ministries failures based on Our Bible, which is God’s Word is of great importance to guide them back to their exact examples sent by Jesus to be His witnesses. We hope you are successful with this.
      Acts 1:6 the 12 appointed apostles asked Jesus if the promised Kingdom
      :6 wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? (Jesus had just in prior days Math. 19:28 promised they would sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Revelation 21:14 confirms this)
      In Acts 15:16 James who seems to be the leader of the 12 seems to feel God’s answer to Amos 9:11 is happening right then to that Nation of Israel, but no, we now, know it has not yet happened.

5. Don was one reason major reason I lost faith in the ministry. I was at my grandparents’ home for a special meeting visit with Don, and my 9-month-old baby was fussy. I was consoling her, and he turned to me and said, “Aren’t you going to discipline your child?” I was horrified.

   So he sexually assaulted a child when he was what, 40? Or older? And never told a soul? What in the world does he think being upright means? Certainly not living honestly before God and others.

   I could not have less respect for this man.

   1. I do feel for you, Rebekah. It tells many things how he thinks toward 9 months old baby. I was there when my boy was 3 months old at a fellowship meeting.
      Shame on those workers who did or even blame on their thoughts to moms and babies. Shame myself that I tried hard to take it as something he did for a good purpose.

6. He needs to be removed from meetings, too, since he still doesn’t get it. Don, repent because you caused harm to a child. You didn’t even acknowledge that what you did was wrong! This reminds me of the thief who said he was sorry – he didn’t apologize because he was stealing, he apologized because he was caught! Molesting ONE minor is one too many. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

7. This is very personal for me – we met with Don in the NW Ohio meeting many times over the years when he was in Ohio for his “home visits” from Peru. We also traveled to gospel meeting to listen to him as a guest speaker during these visits. It makes me very upset that during this time period, children and teenagers were present in those meeting, including our two teenagers. Don does not say if his victim was male or female, but we had one child of each gender. If Don did in fact made one “imprudent move”, he is the first CSA predator in documented research where he committed the crime only once. There is no known cure for CSA.

   In the last meeting that we were in with Don, Wednesday night Bible study on July 4, 2018, he preached emphatically and forcefully on “Order” and “Submission”. At the time, I thought he was talking about the group, but now I am wondering if he used these words on CSA victims. We gave Don a fair amount of hard earned cash that we could not afford to give at that time. I am asking Don to refund every penny to us so it can be donated to a Christian Charity.

   The NW Ohio (where Don Reynolds family lives) meeting has a few young kids in attendance and frequent family underage visitors. Is Don going to be allowed to attend? The overseer of Ohio has not said one word about CSA/SA. With convention preps and conventions in August, he needs to issue a statement with guidelines. Ohio in the past has scheduled kids in for weekly convention prep shifts without parental supervision. This practice needs to stop ASAP with Don and other perverts on the loose.

   Note: We left the group later in 2018 after we discovered that it was started in 1897 by Scotsman William Irvine in 1897 in Ireland. After being lied to by the local workers and the Ohio overseer about the group’s origin, we decided we could not participate anymore. Our kids left also after hearing this news. Speaking of Ireland, Don visited that country along with the NW Ohio elder, his wife, and several others from the meeting a few years ago. Don Reynolds and any who knew of his activities are a disgrace.

   1. Our meeting is the one in NW Ohio which Don would normally attend. I can confirm that he has been told by the workers that he is not permitted to attend any meetings of any type. We support this directive.

      We are also the couple that traveled to Ireland with Don. We only found out about Don’s child sex abuse last week when he texted us about it. We are as shocked and disappointed as everyone is who knows Don.

      1. Thank you for clarifying/ verifying.

8. I am saddened and angry that no one in “authority” posted that Don Reynolds was asked to leave the ministry and that he will no longer be allowed to attend meetings. How are we supposed to trust that the ministry is taking CSA seriously. That Don Reynolds gets to ask for mercy when there has been no true show of repentance and grief for the harm his has caused makes me so angry.

9. It continues to amaze me that nobody admits to knowing about CSA/SA predators and their horrible crimes until they are somehow made to leave. Later, it comes out that people DID know and nothing was done in a timely manner. Recall Doyle knowing about Bruer for 8 months and Price/Barkley knowing about Thayer for 15 years and Ira Hobbs and all the rest before anything was done. Just do not believe that nobody knew anything about Reynolds – if they did, they need to come clean now. The Bible says God hates liars.

   1. What amazes me is how the very names that come up on here and are discussed widely, inevitably end up getting kicked out. Almost as though they are monitoring these sites and deciding who they can’t get away with hiding any more. I’m sure there are plenty more who aren’t spoken of but overseers are aware of who are staying put.

10. These “admissions” are really useless. They merely allow the abuser to minimize what they’ve done and give those who don’t want to believe the accusations a reason to doubt them. “It was one time. He/she was 15.”
    I would like responses sent back with- “ my name is Jane D. I was 11 when you abused me.” With enough of these replies, maybe 1. The doubtful will have blinders lifted, 2. The abused will feel unburdened, (even in pseudo anonymity), and/or 3. The abuser can finally fully and openly repent.

    1. Anonymously, you are asking something that is VERY difficult for a victim to do. It took me 50 years to say “I was sexually abused as a child”. This did not allow me to feel “unburdened”.
       Your request for a response from the abused is unreasonable and puts the responsibility on the victim. The perpetrator can fully and openly repent without adding more trauma to a victim.

       1. In Prayer, that was not my intent. The victims are not responsible. I don’t really expect this to happen. I guess, my thinking was to force the abusers to face the harm they inflicted and not be able to hide behind mediocre words and misleading statements; and to make the naysayers see that there is too much evidence to deny any longer. (These older men have their spiel down to the point, who would believe them capable of anything sexual. I mean look at them, so old and kind and spewing scripture.) But with enough victims speaking out and refuting their claims, maybe minds could change.
          Wishful thinking on my part. But maybe?.

    2. AMEN!
       Words Fruits. Notice where this “Ministry” is today.
       I do concur, when the abused have the strength and courage to come forward, maybe some havoc will prevail upon those who assaulted the powerless, and even a larger amount of havoc upon those who have and do turn a blind eye.
       The overlooking and excusing the assaulter is disgusting. Greater concern for the assaulted persons salvation would be wise, rather than worry about the perps salvation.
       How the whole John Vandenberg issue is a joke. The length of TIME which passed and his actions overlooked, stunning. Google that guy.

11. Thank you, Anonymously. The abusers and the doubters and naysayers will answer to God.

12. Hmm this is an interesting one and one victim only ever that’s normally a record for a guy in his 40s at the time. We sadly hope that true. Is he outing himself because he was made to and this will soften the blow? I have a hard time believing know one knew about it. Also how many other csa cases does he know about that he could have help sweept under the rug so his sin didn’t come into the light. We know he would have never steped down if Dean was not exposed. Also he is up there in age and in his 80s closer to death then ever before so of course he will seek mercy now. After a long life lived. ….Also just a thought an 80 year old in this ministry is kinda a brurdien they cost a whole lot more to keep alive and to transport places.-so I could see this steping down as a win for both him and the work. As it will seem that he did it on his own Accord and not because his name came up in investigations…

    Note.
    I have never met the man that I am aware of but I would not be surprised if I did.

13. Both of ohios messiah’s have now turned out to be creeps. I use to go to convention there and the love affair worshiping amongst the friends of Lesile White and Don Renalds was wild. Even as a teenager it made me feel uncomfortable because it did not feel right. I just can’t stop wondering how many underprivileged victims there are in pure right now who have no voice. Sickening.

    1. I was also thinking about all of the kids in Peru that Reynolds had power over for decades and it makes me sick. These guys go to third world countries and lie about the origin and then are treated as gods and then they have license to do whatever they want. Do not know for sure, but would place a large bet that CSA/SA is off the charts in those places. I just hope the funding drys up and forces these bad people back to the USA where they can be monitored.

14. Yes CSA/ SA is off the charts in those places.
    I am a witness of CSA and the workers minimize those crimes .
    I am a victim of abuse of power for speaking up against CSA .

15. The old “I’m just an old man now” isn’t going to work. Your fellow octogenarian clergy are proof of that. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/vincent-delorenzo-priest-michigan-child-abuse-funeral/

16. “We only found out about Don’s child sex abuse last week when he texted us about it. We are as shocked and disappointed as everyone is who knows Don”, wrote Tom and Debit Taylor. Why is everyone seemingly shocked by behavior from the leaders in the ” truth “? Workers. Elders. They all relishing the leadership, being at the top. And, the leadership is constantly being “shocked”. It’s time to realize bad behavior is easier when the behavior is unquestioned, and the behavior is unquestioned if there is no one to question the behavior. So the leadership gets a pass to unfettered behavior. It is high time to get past the holier than thou attitude and open the eyes of the masses. Bad behavior has taken place, is taking place and will take place as long as there is no one to question the behavior at the top of the organization. And, the leadership has to stop with the excuse of being “shocked”. Being shocked, or at least saying that, is just a way of keeping the stain from themselves and throwing their former friend under the bus. The elders and workers want to keep any target off their back. And, just learning about it and being shocked by someone else behavior, whom they knew very well, is a good way to do it. It makes for no accountability.

    1. I am all for righteous anger. As a kid we grew up having Don in our home for visits. There is a lot of anger for me reading his letter and processing the information. I spent most of the day wondering what signs I missed. But here is the thing …. truth and kindness are important too! To attack Tom and Debbie’s comment, people who I’m assuming you do not know personally, and casually group them into the problem group is unfair and definitely not Christ like. I understand everyone is reaching a breaking point, and for good reason. Let’s make sure we are directing our anger at the right sources based on facts not assumptions. Hurting another because we are hurting was never a lesson Jesus taught.

17. I do know Tom Taylor and Debi Helm Taylor personally and have for many decades. I would not have written what I did if there was no reason. What the leadership has done to cover for each other is unquestionable and inexcusable. I cannot go into more detail here because this forum is not the proper place. The people in leadership that have done wrong will at the very least, answer to God.

    1. And you too my friend, as everyone else. The more that we accuse, the more responsibility we carry in our own shoulders. We always need to keep in mind that we will be judged for what we have done. Many times come to mind that passage of the bible when Jesus told the men who were accusing the woman and ready to stone her according to the law, this woman who had sinned and had sentence of death, but what did the Lord do? Changed the sentece of death and showed mercy to her and let those men see their own sins. I wonder what would happen if Jesus let us see our own sins. Would we do like those men, turn around and leave? but I also wonder if they changed, and instead of becoming accusers, they showed Jesus’ devine love to others recognizing they were sinners too. The day will come, when we would beg for the Lord’s mercy too. Nobody can hide anything from him, nothing, so we should trust him more knowing that he is the only perfect judge, and the only one who can truly judge.

       1. Dear D.T. We know we must all forgive. I wouldn’t have a hope without the tender mercies of Jesus. The main subject though is CSA/SA involving those that we looked up to as leaders of God’s work. The perpetrators surely can be forgiven if repentant. But, the issue of so many overseers and others covering, for decades something that needed to be dealt with head-on for the sakes of our children…that is the deep, dark sin that we know is despicable in the eyes of our Father. Sending the criminals elsewhere to abuse others, is NOT like Jesus and is not Truth. There’s no excuse. One doesn’t need a law to make us aware of that…only a conscience.

       2. Fear of casting stones can incapacitate us from standing for right. I understand the struggle. Consciousness of our own failings often paralyzes us. Preserving our own integrity and love for all involved helps us to get help for our sins and causes us to stand for right for the sake of all the little ones who trust Him (children & adults). Eli did not take a stand probably for several reasons. Many especially those with less power were harmed and in the end he did not help himself, his sons or anyone else. All of us in or from NW Ohio especially love Don and his family. After all he and I share cousins who are like sisters and brother to me. But as Don knows (we hope) this must be dealt with. It is confusing, heartbreaking, troubling time and many are hurting far and wide. Nothing written here is intended to wound anyone. Just an effort to try to be clear.

18. Where is the proper place? Don’t throw out vague other allegations for people to wonder about. Your assumption that people can know the wrongs of another person based off of having them for a meal or overnight or even on a trip in this case is absurd. Molestors do not operate in broad daylight or in the presence of others. Nor do they necessarily have a victim at all times of their life. There are definitely people in this faith who have known things as we are finding out but there are some of you taking things way to far with the blame game. And what have you Not Shocked done to expose molestors? How many have you known and turned in? Jesus asked Peter “do you love me?” three times and when Peter answered yes each time Jesus stated “take care of my flock” each time. We are to be concerned about the flock The Entire flock. Are you pained to see the kingdom suffer loss? Nor do you have enough boldness to state your name. Just a keyboard warrior.

19. Abuser do operate in broad day light! No they do not have a sign on their forehead saying, I am an abuser. It is also easy to draw them out. Just ask them questions any Christian knows. These abusers will not be able to answer. My daughter was abused by a worker and I got very personal with her abuser and the “head worker”. Both were eventually arrested, mug shots taken, time served and then, guess what? Leadership circled the wagons and both of the ” workers ” got their old jobs back — worker and head worker. Nothing changed . But I had changed. My family was very changed!
    We found out our elder had also been instrumental in the abuse. After these events were known in the local area, the union meeting went from about 60 or more to less than 15. Many people saw the light, including my family. Today we have gone to an independent church and the behavior we tolerated in the “truth” has zero tolerance here. The teachings are excellent and beneficial. No more drama, or people that are fitting to a form made by some man named William Irvine. I will not put my name out there because me and my family have been through enough trauma with “the way”. People may attack me but all I can say is, may God be in your life and lead you where you should go. And, lastly, for the healing process this is a great format.

    1. NOT SHOCKED – It will be a wonderful day when we can all fellowship together with pure love.
       I’m glad you’re still having sweet fellowship, so many people leave and struggle to find somewhere else.
       Sadly I’m not shocked by what you have shared.

20. Sad friend — thank you and may God bless you. You are ONE of His. My only wish that more “professing” were.

    1. Go and register on “Connected and Concerned Friends” it’s a loving social media platform – you will be welcomed and you will love the fellowship and discussions. Shockingly a lot of honesty.
       Register with your current non de plume. I will look for you and make contact.

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