Post EGM - Another Deception at EGM?

At the recent EGM, a question was posed to the Board of Deacons on the retirement age of Senior Pastor (SP) and Bro Patrick Wong elaborated that under our church constitution, there is no retirement age specified for SP. This deacon tried to hoodwink the congregation by side-stepping the ‘real question’. Everyone who has read our church constitution knows that the constitution does not have any reference to the retirement age for SP. The question was not whether the constitution provided for SP’s retirement but what was the retirement age for SP. In other words, what is our church policy with regards to the retirement age for SP.

In his answer, Bro Patrick did not mention that our church has a Staff Handbook which addresses this issue. Under Section 2 of the handbook, ALL the staff of the church are classified into 3 categories namely,

1) Pastoral and Ministerial Staff
2) Office Staff
3) General/Technical Staff

Under the description of “Pastoral and Ministerial Staff”, it is stated that “Senior Pastor heads the pastoral team (pastoral and ministerial team) comprising staff categories such as Senior Associate Pastors, Associate Pastors, Assistant Pastors and Ministerial Staff.”

It is obvious that SP as the head of the Pastoral and Ministerial Staff, falls into this first staff category. He is certainly not part of the Office Staff or General/Technical Staff.

Section 11 (1) states that the Retirement Age of all Church Staff, with the exception of Pastors, will be 55 years of age. Section 11 (2) states that the Retirement Age for Pastors will be 60 years of age.

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Both SP (who is 63 this year) and Sis Petrina (who is 64 this year) have crossed the retirement age specified in the handbook.

The questions which needs to be answered are:

1. Were there contracts signed for the extension of employment of both SP and his wife?
2. Were the contracts approved by the Board of Deacons?
3. Was SP’s extension contract brought before the church members at an AGM or EGM to be approved as required under the constitution? (None of the TTG members and other members remembers such an event) His extension as Senior Pastor, may be NULL AND VOID, if not approved by members at an AGM or EGM.
4. What are the terms of their contracts?

Not too long ago, a long-serving church staff retired at age 57 (after her retirement was initially overlooked by the church administrator) and SP offered her re-employment at less than half her last drawn salary. She left in total disgust, hurt and disillusioned. We hope that SP has applied this same condition to himself and his wife and are now drawing not more than half the amount of their last drawn salaries. If not, then they are nothing but pure hypocrites. Pastors as our leaders should always follow God’s principle of using the same measure in everything they do. They must practice what they preach.

Now, back to our dear Bro Patrick. It is now clear that Bro Patrick, by answering the way he did, was trying to deceive the 800 members present at the EGM. He has been on the Board of Deacons since 1975 and therefore, he cannot claim ignorance of the Staff Handbook, which was probably approved by the deacons. And SP, by keeping mum, during Bro Patrick’s answer is guilty of abetting the deception.

We reiterate our call on Bro Patrick to resign. He was not man enough to resign when we first called on him to do so in our 8th Update. We hope he has enough integrity left in him to do so now.

As for SP, who has lost most of the members’ respect, we beseech him to leave gracefully so that Calvary Church can be restored to its former glory. There has been enough pain, hurt and lives destroyed in this whole saga.

We recognise that he has done a lot for Calvary Church in his early 30-odd years. We acknowledge his contribution and we thank God for him but it is time for him to let go. It’s time for him to move on to the next phase in life. All we ask is that he returns Calvary Church back to God!