David Hall and associate pastor Marc Harrington refused to provide a copy of the roll to church members.
The Georgia Code governing non-profit corporations is clear:
The list of members must be available for inspection by any member for the purpose of communication with other members concerning the meeting, beginning two business days after notice is given of the meeting.
Georgia Code for Non-Profit Corporations 14-3-720
But that did not stop Midway Pastor David Hall from denying the members’ request for the roll. However, church lawyers compelled him to follow the law, even though a day late, and hand over the roll to the members that requested it.
As expected, the roll showed that 21 longtime members of Midway Presbyterian Church (24% of those that signed the petition) were removed from the roll in recent weeks without their knowledge. Most of these 21 members received letters in the mail yesterday and in no case were the proper procedures in the Book of Church Order followed for removing members (BCO 38-4). Based on non-signer names that are still on the roll, the session clearly targeted signers of the petition for removal.
We will remind readers that during the infamous congregational meeting of July 2020, David Hall’s motion to pack the Session, by promoting three assistants to associates, only prevailed by 27 votes. Being able to knock out 21 votes that would have certainly voted against him, could prove to make the difference in a close election. The Midway Guardian has also learned that the families of the new assistant pastors were added to the roll in the last few weeks without going through the required new member’s class in order to pad the vote in Hall’s favor.
To make matters worse, hid away deep in the Midway website there are “instructions” listed for the congregational meeting including arriving between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. to receive your ballot from your shepherding elder before the 9:45 a.m. meeting. This information has been e-mailed to select members that are known to support the pastor, but not to the other members. It is our understanding, the voting “instructions” will be mailed to the remaining members just in time for the meeting.
Once again, David Hall is throwing the church into a controversial congregational meeting and it hasn’t even been held yet. Every person needs to be able to walk out of that meeting saying the process was fair; but that never happens in David Hall’s world, especially when his job is on the line.