St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Jeff Testerman, [ received 7.4.2003 ]

Ronald H. Clark has resigned as pastor of Living Water Church of Tampa, saying he needed to spare his congregation pain from publicity about his rancorous split from his wife of 24 years.

"The divorce has been the reason members have been leaving," Clark said Monday. "I have become a lightning rod for these issues, and they have become all-consuming.

"I love the people in this church, and if I did not think it was in their best interest, I wouldn't go," he said. "But I think my stepping aside will breathe life back into the place."

Clark leaves the nondenominational Christian church in financial shambles, and with a fraction of its onetime membership, according to testimony in the Clark divorce case.

Melvin Myer, a church trustee and financial planner elevated to chairman of the Living Water Church board following Clark's resignation Sunday, testified last week that the church was past due on $118,000 in bills. He also said the church had insufficient cash to pay Clark or make this month's $19,500 mortgage payment.

Church membership, which climbed to 1,800 two years ago, according to court records, fell to 444 at the end of May, Myer said.

When Clark gave his final sermon Sunday, even fewer were in the pews.

"I would say there were about 100 there," said Edward Brennan, the church's attorney. "But I may be overstating it.

"The congregation was emotional and extremely upset. They didn't want Pastor Ron to leave. He was the founder, the beacon. But he felt for the good of the church, it was time to move on."

Church officials said much of the membership decline followed the breakup of the Clarks, especially after news of their divorce began making headlines.

Belinda Clark, 41, who helped her husband co-found the church in a Holiday Inn meeting room 15 years ago, was fired from her $70,000- a-year associate pastor's job in late March. A day later, Ronald Clark, 46, filed for divorce.

He claimed his wife was delusional and had tried to undermine his credibility at the church.

She alleged her husband had threatened to kill her, and she filed a domestic violence complaint against him in Pasco County, where the couple resided in a 3,618-square-foot, $500,000 home. Mrs. Clark dropped that complaint but accused him of slandering her by telling church members she was mentally ill and an adulterer.

She then accused her husband of having a secret plan to sell the church, a plan designed to deprive her of any alimony. She said he planned to take a ministry to Africa that would be financed by church proceeds funneled to him by Myer. The result: She would get "half of nothing."

Ronald Clark and Myer said the idea was preposterous. But Mrs. Clark asserted the church was her husband's "alter ego" and sought to have it declared a marital asset so she could receive half the value of the $5-million Living Water property off Interstate 4.

Then, last week, Ronald Clark accused his wife in a court hearing of being involved in viewing pornography. Monday, he said she was involved in a campaign against smut and "somehow pornography became a fantasy for her."

Mrs. Clark could not be reached for comment Monday. She has declined to comment since a judge ordered parties in the divorce not to discuss it with the media.

Clark said he had hoped to keep details of the divorce quiet, and says "it being played out in the community" has devastated everyone.

"My wife said she would destroy me, the church and everything, and that's what's happened," he said.

Brennan said associate pastor Richard Barker will take over for Clark while the church seeks a new senior pastor. He said Clark had taken a job for a mission in Hong Kong teaching Malaysian and Chinese ministers and would leave as soon as he gets back his passport. Clark voluntarily surrendered his passport two weeks ago to allay his wife's fears that he would leave the country.

Clark said Monday, however, that he has no plans to leave Tampa any time soon. He said he had signed an employment contract as international director of education for the Family Harvest Church, a nondenominational outreach organization with headquarters in Tinley Park, Ill. Clark said he would be setting up offices in Tampa and would travel abroad only when told to by his new employer.

Family Harvest officials could not be reached Monday.

Clark declined to say what his new contract will pay him, but he said his paycheck "will be sufficient to meet my family's needs."

At Living Water Church he received a $70,000 salary and a $78,000 housing allowance annually. Mrs. Clark, through attorney Jack Hoogewind, is seeking $7,000 a month in support for herself and the couple's two children.

Myer said he is confident Living Water Church will put the "ugliness" of the divorce behind it and rebound from its poor fiscal condition.

"It will be very, very difficult," said Myer. "It will take faith and effort and gifts - maybe some large gifts - and some hunkering down. But I think people will come back. We are going to turn the church around."

Check out

http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/rodney.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/graham.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/brand.htm
http://www.rickross.com/groups/brownsville.html
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/remarks1.htm
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/witness/faitha/faithsyn.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/hinn.htm
http://sptimes.com/News2/lyons/default.html
http://www.courttv.com/trials/lyons/061899_ctv.html
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/lyons.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/bfa.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/strader.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/dan.htm
http://www.cephas-library.com/pentecostal_straders_carpenters_home.html
http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/1996/12/04/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9te/9te026.html
http://www.maclaurin.org/article_detail.php?a_id=31
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/bakker.htm
http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/tilton.htm
http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRR_02_07.html
http://www.cephasministry.com/baptists_money_changers.html