05/04/2025
Since this account is blocked from Chesapeake Church’s FB page, I cannot share the video they posted about their “restoration” process. So here’s a transcript:
“Hello Chesapeake Church, I’m your senior pastor Angel Cartagena, reminding you that tomorrow we are kicking off our restoration process. Understand that the seminar tomorrow isn’t the entire process. It is actually the beginning where Dr. Quick is gonna take time to teach us about the process how it works, why it has to be carried out this way, and more importantly for me at least is that he’s gonna show you how all this ties back to the word of God. Once we hold that seminar tomorrow we’re going to have history research team that is going to do everything from reading minutes to interviewing people, and this is the process where we need you to be involved. We’re inviting everybody, whether you still come here to Chesapeake or not, to come share your story, share, your pain, share what you experienced here because we need all of this for our retreat.
When we finally get together to face what has happened here and to go before God and ask God to tell us, Jesus please what shall we do and response to all of this. Then the leadership of this church will repent before a congregation in a solemn assembly, publicly, and to give the congregation opportunity to respond with forgiveness because remember, the Bible says doesn’t say that we should issue an apology. It says we should repent and the response to repentance is always forgiveness.
So for those of you who want to be in the know, don’t forget that we provided a link on our website to Dr. Quick‘s book. Not required to purchase it if you want to be part of the process, but we thought it would help you because he kind of explains it and he even talks about some cases that he’s handled with churches in the past, so just remember this this is the church of Jesus Christ. All are welcome so long as you come in love and peace and we will embrace you and welcome you to this place where we come together to worship our Lord and Savior God. Bless you have a great weekend and for many of you I hope to see you tomorrow.”
I guess I don’t understand - why should those hurt by the church publicly share their stories? There should be a thick, thick folder somewhere of emails and letters from people who reached out over the years and were ignored by the leadership. Why doesn’t the leadership realize part of their responsibility is reaching out to them rather than vice versa?
Second, it will be easy for this relatively new congregation to forgive. I don’t believe invitations to former congregants, members or all of the people who were met in the parking lot and asked to never to come back to church. (No one should be banned from God’s house without a proper excommunication process.)
I’m open minded – we’ll see how all this plays out – but I still see a pattern of the church carefully controlling the narrative and pretending that the long-lasting effects of their actions will disappear when their congregation forgives them. I hope there’s talk of restitution, which is a component of repentance and reconciliation.