LANSING — Mike Rogers is continuing to stay silent even as Tim Cross, a member of his campaign’s senior leadership team, resigned today in disgrace amid reports about his “connection to a Midland church where three elders have been convicted of sex crimes involving children” and how he didn’t believe the victims when they came forward.
Cross’s resignation follows calls from two former members of Living Word Church who demanded Mike Rogers remove Cross and another pastor connected to the church, Brian Ford, from his campaign’s faith coalition team. In the open letter, Dana and Dan Stahl say to Rogers that they “reached out privately on March 9th to alert you to the fact that your campaign has elevated leaders connected to the sexual abuse scandal at Mark Barclay Ministries […] and we did not receive a response.”
Read the public letter from former Living Word Church members demanding Mike Rogers speak up after he elevated ministry leaders connected to the scandal to his campaign team:
Midland Daily News: LETTER: Couple urges Mike Rogers to remove pastors tied to Midland church scandal
An Open Letter to Mike Rogers, Candidate for U.S. Senate:
We are two former members of Mark Barclay Ministries/Living Word Church in Midland, where we ran the church nursery for over 21 years.
We cared for countless children, including the eight known sexual assault victims, from infancy through their toddler years and believed we were part of a community that would protect and never endanger them.
We were wrong.
We reached out privately on March 9 to alert you to the fact that your campaign has elevated leaders connected to the sexual abuse scandal at Mark Barclay Ministries, an institution that endangered and failed to protect children from predators, and we did not receive a response.
Your continued silence on this matter is unacceptable for someone seeking to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate.
Within a two-year period, three leaders at Mark Barclay Ministries/Living Word Church were convicted of sexually assaulting children: James Randolph, Brandon Saylor, and Randy Saylor.
As we’ve learned about the details of their crimes and the church’s response, it’s become clear this was an institutional failure that put vulnerable children in harm’s way.
One of the men who was convicted, Randolph, served as our supervisor in the church nursery while he helped lead the youth ministry.
What Mark Barclay Ministries’ leadership knew and concealed from us and other church members was that Randolph had previously been convicted and incarcerated for a sex crime involving a minor. After we obtained court records we learned the conviction was for the violent gang rape of a 15-year-old girl with special needs.
Mark Barclay and other ministry leaders didn’t just endanger and fail to inform church members of Randolph’s conviction—we believe they actively worked to silence the accusations against these leaders, using the pulpit and a televangelist platform to publicly threaten, intimidate and call the victims liars.
This is why we were shocked to learn that you named two pastors affiliated with Mark Barclay Ministries to serve as leaders on your Faith Coalition Leadership team for your campaign.
Tim Cross and Brian Ford both have strong ties to the Midland ministry where three leaders have been convicted of sex crimes involving children. Both men consider Mark Barclay as their own pastor and mentor.
Tim Cross, leader of Living Word Church in Muskegon, said he didn’t believe the victims when they first came forward. Cross also admitted that he first met James Randolph while Randolph was still in prison for his first conviction for sexually assaulting a minor, suggesting that Cross knew Randolph’s criminal history but yet still did not believe his additional victims.
Brian Ford, head pastor for Living Word Church of Ludington, has stood by the church’s leadership without speaking out against their failure to protect children, and even showed up to James Randolph’s trial to show support for Mark Barclay Ministries.
We are calling on you to immediately remove Tim Cross and Brian Ford from your campaign’s leadership.
Your decision to elevate both to senior positions on your campaign reflects a willingness to look the other way when people in power abuse their position to harm others, and your refusal to address this publicly is unacceptable for a candidate seeking to represent Michigan families in the U.S. Senate.
Dana and Dan Stahl – Former Members of Living Word Church, Midland
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