"We've done everything we can to work with Rev. Wainscott!"

Several have heard about me from the days I was famous/infamous. I made many headlines! This excerpt below about me...in another life! ....from an old Christianity Today article opens several questions re: church, wineskins, loyalty,connection, renewal from within, lawsuits between believers (or so-called believers), hierarchy, church government, shift etc . Many are asking, "What thoughts do you have for the the many still in the mainline boat?"

Well, first of all is:

The thoughts become prayers.

Secondly:

Most days, I wouldn't go back.

Thirdly:

I know I wouldn't handle everything the same way again...my hindsight is 20/20...For some fumblings about how I might do things differently, here's an audio radio interview with me a few years ago )...More later...For anyone wanting more background on what we went through, click this. (just beware, most press articles lack context. I finally refused interviews where I had little control over context) .

I actually got a comment once, "I'm so glad you don't have any fags in your church!" He didn't like my answer! On this note, for a good time, read: Pastor Sends Sodomites to Island; gets stoned!

Anyway, the CT article:

CHRISTIANITY TODAY: Not all conservatives/evangelicals have vacated their California-Nevada Conference buildings. David Wainscott, 41-year-old pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist in Fresno, says he and his 680 members want to stay in their current building (owned by the denomination) after they break away from the UMC.
Wainscott, one of the "California six" who signed the open letter in March, was suspended by Talbert without warning in August "for encouraging an all-church vote to leave the denomination."
"That is just not true," Wainscott tells CT. The pastor says he was following orders from Vickie Healy, his district superintendent, to poll his congregation about who would stay and who would leave. The next thing he knew, a new pastor had been appointed to his church.
"[Healy] left a message on my cell phone," Wainscott says. "There was no warning."

His congregation responded by changing the church's locks so that Doug Norris, the newly appointed pastor, could not get into the building.
Conference leaders took St. Luke's to court in September in an effort to get a restraining order on the congregation. Their request was denied.
Beverly Shamana, the new bishop for the California-Nevada conference, now oversees the conference's 360 churches."We've done everything we can to work with Rev. Wainscott," Shamana tells CT. "We did not want to take it to the secular courts, but he chose to disregard the decision."St. Luke's members see the conference decision to suspend Wainscott as invalid because they were not consulted before the suspension—another violation of the Book of Discipline....

yada yada:http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/013/21.28.html

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