Church members say they fired their pastor, but he refused to leave after judge overruled the decision

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Members of the 118-year-old New Central Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, say they voted to fire their pastor after accusing him of behaving like a dictator and a laundry list of offenses, including misappropriating $16,000 meant for emergency church expenses, but he refuses to leave after a judge overruled their decision.

The pastor has since changed the locks on the church, but the tenacious members are fighting back with an appeal currently pending before the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Billy Penn at WHYY reports.

In his most recent sermon livestreamed on Facebook on April 30, Bernard Reaves, the pastor of New Central Baptist Church at 2139 Lombard St. in South Philadelphia, welcomed his audience with a familiar greeting.

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"We do greet you in the marvelous name of Jesus who is the Christ," he said. "We greet you from the New Central Baptist here in South Philadelphia, where Jesus Christ is central. Where the table is spread and a feast of the Lord is going on. "

Though "a feast of the Lord is going on" inside Central Baptist Church, which once boasted 3,000 members in its heyday, it did not appear there were many partakers inside the church beyond Reaves by the echo in the background. The livestream had only 49 views as of Monday.

Barry Canady, a former church trustee, and other members fighting against Reaves' reign told Billy Penn that the dispute erupted in 2018. They say the church has bled so many members that the membership, approximately 100 before the pandemic, has dropped to about 35 while the historic building is falling into disrepair.

"The ceiling and some of the walls have already collapsed," Canady, a former church trustee, told Billy Penn. "Once we get back in there, there's major work for us to do."

New Central Baptist Church did not immediately respond to calls for comment from The Christian Post on Monday, and Reaves did not give an interview with Billy Penn.

A group of disgruntled members said when they voted to fire Reaves in 2018, according to their lawsuit, he had been ignoring the longstanding bylaws of the church by unilaterally appointing deacons and a trustee. They also allege that he interfered with trustee elections and misappropriated church funds. He also dismissed criticisms based on findings of a church survey as "out of line with the Word of God."

The disgruntled members and the church's board of trustees sued in April 2019 to have a court remove Reaves as pastor. But after a two-day trial in December 2021, Judge George Overton overruled Reaves' firing, saying it didn't follow church bylaws. Overton also noted Reaves' notice of termination was not adequate.

Last October, the Pennsylvania Superior Court accepted an appeal asking the court to reverse Overton's ruling.

The area where the church is located has rapidly gentrified over the years, and property prices have skyrocketed as a result.

"There are three $2 million condominiums adjacent to the church," one member said during court testimony. "I fear that if the current situation is not resolved, that the church will at some point be forced to be sold and a developer will probably purchase the church and turn it into condominiums."

Members like Canady say they plan on maintaining the fight for the church and have no plans to move on to a different congregation.

"God didn't put it on my heart and mind to go somewhere else," Canady said. "I'm not going to do it. It's New Central or nothing."