Nearly a Year After Sex Scandal, Va. Megachurch Hires New Senior Pastor
After a search that took nearly a year, the Richmond Outreach Center (ROC) in Richmond, Va., has announced its new pastor.
Joe Donahue, who served as a teaching pastor at First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Ga., will replace Geronimo Aguilar as the megachurch’s leader. Aguilar resigned last year after he was arrested in May on sexual abuse charges.
“This man is the man God has raised up as the leader of the Richmond Outreach Center, and he will lead this ministry into the future,” Jonathan Falwell, who has been acting as a consultant for ROC, told the congregation Saturday.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., introduced the church to Donahue and his wife, Kristy, at the Saturday evening service.
He added: “I’m telling you tonight, God has heard the prayer of the Richmond Outreach Center … and God has said … ‘I will deliver you from the hands of every single person who mocked this church. And I will deliver you from the hands of every single person who laughed at this church.’ … There is a new day dawning for the Richmond Outreach Center and that day begins right now.”
P.J. Preston and David Wheeler have been filling in since August as interim pastors while ROC conducted a nationwide search for Aguilar’s permanent replacement.
A statement from the church released Saturday said the decision was made “after months of prayer, fasting and seeking the Lord’s will and direction for our church.”
