I am at the second day of the first annual Abolish Abortion Indiana conference here on the south side of Indianapolis. Speakers all evening. Dear brothers with fight AND tenderness. Not hard headed. A new work. Sweet to see Russell Hunter’s repentance. Zach Lautenschlager full of joy in the fight. Matt Trewhella helpful as usual. I commend these brothers to you to watch for and join with as we work to learn spiritual war here in Indiana.
If you’re in Indianapolis area and have the evening free tonight, there are sessions scheduled through 8:30pm with supper provided, come on over! See the website for directions.
Thanks to dear brothers at Aletheia church for hosting this.
I used to know Hunter personally - we worked together to set up the Abolish Abortion DC conference in 2015 - but haven’t spoken to him in a while due to his involvement in a friends personal situation among other things.
IMO, he never “hated the Church” as some have accused him of doing. In reality, last I checked, he denies the instutitonalization of the Church, ala Frank Viola. He denies there is such a thing as church offices i.e. Elder to him is a function - older godly man whose elderliness and godliness gives him authority VS an actual office of the church with the above requirements that holds institutional and ecclesiastical authority. Thus he is the de facto pastor/elder of a home church that has been involved in numerous incidences that cannot be traced or, IMO, rightly handled.
Russel Hunter has been through a lot the past year or so. He is a part of a local church in Oklahoma. He has shown a lot of repentance and humility. I was very impressed with him at the conference and have been seeing much growth in him over the past year.
I would also suggest that John Andrew Reasnor is not a good source to use for any information here. He is a rebellious egalitarian who I would not trust to be a janitor.
I went to Trinity when I was young and grew up with his family around (we’re about the same age), and my parents still attend TBC, so that’s how I know he’s been excommunicated. I did not know about his strange understanding of eldership, though, that’s a new one.
I don’t doubt that the man has had a good change in mind/heart in numerous areas. The fact that, apparently, he has been reconciled with Jeff Durbin and others is evidence enough for me in that regard. He at least appears to be more level headed and ecumenical in this regard.
Again, however, I have not had much contact with him outside of a devastating incident that he was involved in with a close friend. This incident opened my eyes to the danger of the entirely disjointed community he is the leader of in OK, a community that has had many issues that have been unable to be rightly addressed since it is, in my understanding, entirely “non-institutional” but instead unofficially ran by a few different dominant personalities with dangerous theology - for example, a type of Wesleyan perfectionism.
Also, Reasnor’s supposed “egalitarianism” doesn’t make him a bad source. If anything, the evidence he provides along with his history of being close to Russell and a part of his home church makes him a fine source. Along the lines of Reasnor’s point, drunkenness is a disqualifier from leadership and needs to be immediately confessed by leaders along with, at least, their temporary resignation. Attempting to hide or minimize it is not only wrong, but extremely troubling in the fact that it removes any form of trust that could be had in said leader to be honest and open about other potentially disqualifying actions.
Russell (and others) claim that they were excommunicated for “divisiveness” because they were demanding that the church discipline an elders daughter who had been sexually immoral and unrepentant - that along with their hard stance on abortion activism. There are a few podcasts out there on the inter webs where Russell goes into detail about the whole ordeal.
I don’t know about that part of it; I heard a different report. I would be surprised if it were true, given Trinity’s good history of disciplining errant members, but I suppose it’s possible.
If anyone found it necessary to know more, or to confirm Russell’s story, perhaps he could contact the head pastor, Ronnie Rogers, and ask.
Drunkenness would mean that there is a observable pattern of such, does it not? To my knowledge there has been no such pattern observed in Mr. Hunter’s life.
Mr. Hunter confessed this sin, with those he believes are elders, and openly. And from our personal conversation, he has forsaken that sin completely.