Church Wrangle

A local church has fallen into turmoil upon hearing word that the pastor has resigned his office as pastor of Locust Grove Baptist Church in Columbia, LA. The Monroe Dispatch was informed by a concerned individual of some alleged issues that the pastor and several deacons appeared to have had issues within the church that could not be resolved. According to sources, Pastor Troy Gaines was allegedly forced to resign after seven years of fighting with members of the church. The alleged dispute was said to be over “making changes” which was met with pushback from some members. The fight allegedly began when the pastor found that the church bank account was in the name of the secretary of the church. Not knowing how long it had been in her name, the account was put in the church's name. One of the deacons, who is the secretary's son, got upset and reminded the pastor that his past family members built Locust Grove Baptist Church. Later, the same deacon was confronted with being on drugs and asked to step down from his position as deacon. Strangely, another family member appointed herself as the church secretary when the original secretary became too elderly to hold her position. Members witnessed the deacon coming out of a “crack house”, but of course, he denied it. Some of the members wondered where he had been. After church service on the 4th Sunday in June 2023, the pastor asked to have a meeting immediately following the service to discuss church business.

During the meeting, one of the elderly members decided to leave, but it was reported that she got upset and left. Although, the person who reported the false statements failed to mention her disrespect or yelling and accused the pastor of hiding the financial records. The deacon accused of drugs was not present at the meeting, but another deacon was there and retrieved the financial records from the secretary’s office. Since the transfer of the church account, the pastor has had to fight the wiles of the devil. There were very few members of the church, and the deacon that was accused of being under the influence decided to take it upon himself to try to call a meeting to ask for the pastor’s resignation. A relative called the deacon to inform him that her aunt would not be a part of the conspiracy. The relative briefly placed the deacon on hold. After returning to the call, the deacon was calling the relative derogatory names. The aunt's relative tried several times to let him know that they were on the phone, but he didn’t hear. So, the relative recorded him, so he could not deny this lie. The relative then contacted the other deacon of their intentions to call the other deacon and play the recording. He called the pastor, who said enough is enough and refused to get elderly members and families involved. The pastor stated that he has done all that he could do to help rebuild Locust Grove Baptist Church of Colombia, and now, it is in the hands of God. The pastor resigned. There are three sides to every story. This was one side of this story. The Monroe Dispatch welcomes another side of this story. You make the news! We only print it.