Vote leaves Living Word Church congregation split

MADISON TOWNSHIP – The treasurer at Living Word Church earlier this month won a court order that reversed action taken last year to strip him of responsibilities as a church officer and ban him from the premises.

Votes suspending church membership for treasurer Eugene Berger Jr. and his wife, Debra, early last year were invalid because pastor Ronald Kosa and two other board members failed to follow the church constitution’s meeting notification requirements, Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese said in a ruling issued March 12.

But on Friday night, the quarrel between two church officials migrated back from the courtroom to church pews at 1034 Grace St. The meeting was attended by a sheriff’s deputy, underlining a rupture in the congregation.

The minister called the church board of directors together again to take votes on the same issues.

About 45 minutes into the meeting — after Eugene Berger left the meeting under protest that he was not being allowed to speak on issues he considered to be relevant — raining board members went into executive session.

On Saturday, Kosa said the board voted 3-0 to again remove Eugene Berger as executive board member and treasurer and to ban both Bergers from church property.

That may be an end to a dispute that has left the congregation of the modest-sized church split.

Berger, who became a church officer in 2005, said he was heartsick to have to leave a congregation he’d been so active in.

The former treasurer said he was not surprised by the vote because the three remaining board members were Kosa and his wife, along with a man who’d known Kosa from his former church.

Berger said the rift in the church has meant some longtime members don’t feel welcome anymore.

“This is a paid-for church and parsonage, and it was paid for by people before him. As far as my son and myself are concerned, that is the ‘theft’ of a church,” he said.

Kosa became pastor at Living Word when the church merged in 2011 with New Life in Christ Christian Church.

In his ruling, DeWeese noted the two church officials became at odds with one another.

The minister took complaints about Berger to the four-member church executive committee, which voted Feb. 27, 2014, to remove him as trustee. The Bergers received letters dated March 3 and 10, 2014, notifying them they were no longer church members of the church.

After the treasurer filed a lawsuit, and the pastor a countersuit last year, both sides detailed their claims.

Kosa alleged Berger repeatedly failed to follow church procedures that required a second person witness the count of each Sunday’s offering and that he failed to maintain records of the offerings.

The minister also alleged in the countersuit that Berger had harassed and maliciously injured him, and he alleged that he had forced him to spend money toward attorney fees.

Berger claims he signed for the pastor multiple times, but only after the pastor showed him how to sign his initials, on Kosa’s instructions, because the minister was too busy.

“That’s false. I would never give anyone permission to sign my name,” Kosa said Saturday.

Berger told the News Journal no one at the church ever found any proof he took any money from offerings.

“Why would I take money? I have given over $70,000 to the church,” he said.

Berger claims Living Word had more than $13,000 in its bank accounts when Rosa became pastor, but that the balance had fallen to $1,400 or less the day he was suspended, with part of the money spent on air conditioning for the parsonage benefiting only the Kosas.

He claimed Kosa did not ask for advice on church decisions from longtime members of Living Word.

In the countersuit, Kosa and the church said the Bergers produced no evidence to support their claim the pastor misspent church funds.

When the executive board meeting was convened Friday, several of Berger’s supporters attended. So did the attorney for the church and pastor, along with a sheriff’s deputy.

The minister announced the four board members would be the only people permitted to speak.

When the board turned to discussion of upcoming votes for Berger’s ouster, the church treasurer asked the board first to approve an audit of church finances.

“You are out of order. You need to be silent,” Kosa said.

Some of Berger’s supporters then began speaking, and were warned they could be asked to leave the premises. One said he found “no love in this building.”

“Let’s just keep it peaceful. Let’s keep the emotions down,” the sheriff’s deputy said.

Berger repeated his request for an audit.

“If I have done anything to hurt this church financially, I will resign,” he said.

“I have 44 documents here where you signed my initials,” Kosa said.

A few minutes later, the pastor called for an executive session on the remainder of the agenda.

Kosa told the News Journal on Saturday that 3-0 votes were cast during the closed session to remove Berger as church officer and treasurer, as well as ban Eugene and Debra Berger from the premises.

The minister was asked whether that would end the dispute.

“I sure hope so,” he said.

lmartz@gannett.com

419-521-7229

Twitter: @MNJmartz