“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” (John 16:1-2)

Dear disciples around the world,

On Friday night, a letter was read at the DFW ICC congregational devotional that “falsely disfellowshipped” our RCW Leadership Team: Jason Dimitry, Fernando Chavez, Kyle Bartholomew, Evan Bartholomew, and Mike Patterson, along with our wives. This letter was read in an attempt to block the establishment of a new RCW Church in Dallas Fort Worth, as the RCW Leadership compassionately responded to the pleas of a small group within the DFW ICC who were tired of their congregational leader’s abusive leadership, personal corruption and the lukewarm direction of the DFW Church.

How can a church’s leadership group disfellowship leaders who are no longer attending their church? According to the Scriptures, they can’t! This is just another misuse of the Bible and clear evidence that the Central Leadership of the ICC considers themselves to be the ultimate authority over God’s Universal Church in addition to having authority over God’s Word. Sadly, this unbiblical maneuver is just further proof that they have no intention of addressing and repenting of any of the corrupt and unbiblical practices we have confronted them on, further proving that there is “no remedy” (2 Chronicles 36:15). This is despite more than 1,700 disciples leaving the ICC, along with 40 Evangelists and Women’s Ministry Leaders.

“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.” (John 12:42)

It is important to understand that “false disfellowshipments” are nothing new but date back to at least the time of Jesus. In the passage above, it is clear that many believed that Jesus was truly God’s Son, yet they would not acknowledge Him as they feared they would be “falsely disfellowshiped” from the synagogue. This passage is written after the infamous story of the blind man who Jesus healed (John 9). After refusing the Pharisee’s demand to alter the story of his healing into one that benefited them, “They replied, ‘You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.” (John 9:34) Sadly, the blind man only came to a relationship with Jesus outside of the synagogue, as it had become a corrupt religious institution.

This mirrors the reality of our modern day, where, so often, those seeking a relationship with Jesus have had to remove themselves from their corrupt religious establishment to find Him truly. While in the ICC, we all have had no problem calling those from other churches to leave their fellowship and commit to one that holds to God’s Word. In the same way, we believed that we had to leave the ICC to continue worshipping God with a clear conscience.

Despite the unbiblical nature of this “false disfellowshipment” and the fact that we have yet to receive a specific response to any of the merits in our original letter, “An Open Letter To The ICC Leadership,” we will address each of the charges levied against us, as we believe in transparency along with God’s call for Christians to “always be prepared to give an answer.” (1 Peter 3:15)

The ICC Central Leaders reasons given for our disfellowshipment:

1) The RCW is a faction (ungodly division) — As Kyle Bartholomew has already addressed this false accusation in an article he wrote entitled, “Scare Phrases and Red Herrings,” we will just include an excerpt from that article:

“A faction is a group within a larger group, especially a political party, that has different opinions and interests from the rest of the group. These groups often compete for power or influence within the larger organization.” (Gemini)

By this common definition, Christianity itself is a faction, as it is “in the world, but not of the world,” a smaller group within a bigger group with competing interests. Those in God’s Church should all have the same interests, but this only happens when those who lead and those who follow both submit to Christ, the “head of the church,” which is God’s Word on earth. (Colossians 1:15-21, Ephesians 2:19-21, John 1:1)

This is what separates us from the world. An ungodly division (sinful faction) is automatically caused within a church when leaders begin to go beyond the authority of God’s Word. (1 Corinthians 1:10-12, 1 Corinthians 4:6). A group fighting to uphold God’s Word and challenging those leading them who are not may be considered a faction by worldly standards. Yet, it is exactly what Jesus did during His ministry while still under the Old Covenant; he had a small group (disciples) within a bigger group (Judaism) under a leadership (Sanhedrin) with separate interests, who he challenged and was eventually murdered by. Why was this not considered a sinful faction? Because any group that is fighting to uphold God’s Word can never be a sinful faction. If our interests are to uphold God’s Word, and Raul and the WSLs stubbornly refuse to obey it, then what has occurred is a godly division, not a sinful faction. (Mark 2:21-22)

*Fact: The Greek word for a biblical faction means — heresy. As stated above, what creates division in the church is when those leading either add or take away from what is written in Scripture. This can be done through false teachings or unbiblically applying God’s Word, which both result in heresy (false doctrine).
(1 Corinthians 4:6)

2) We have used half-truths, or “total lies,” to steal the hearts of ICC disciples.
Although the ICC leadership has accused us of this on several occasions, we challenged them to specifically identify anything that was a lie in our 33-page letter detailing the tolerated corruption among the WSLs group that we believed was preventing God from blessing the ICC as a whole. According to their disfellowshipment letter, they have finally identified a single and supposed lie by pointing to several of their fastest-growing churches to debunk our claim that the ICC is not significantly growing.

Before providing clarity to the misleading numbers they provided, it is important for everyone to understand that we praise God for every baptism in the ICC and absolutely hope that it begins growing significantly again. The reason we addressed the lack of church growth in our initial letter is that we believed the lack of church growth was a symptom of a deeper problem (The leader’s unwillingness to follow the Bible as the ultimate authority), as opposed to the problem itself. We did not start the RCW because we felt competitive or because we thought we were better than the other ICC Churches. We started the RCW because we became convinced that there was “no remedy,” as the ICC Central Leadership continually refused to obey the Scriptures when confronted by those under their leadership. If any group from the ICC outgrows any one of our churches or the RCW as a whole, we will unhesitatingly praise God, as we still see the ICC members as fellow brothers and sisters. However, we feel compelled to address the examples that were provided as proof the ICC is significantly growing while accusing us of lying to our people.

ICC Claim: The RCW leaders lied when they said the ICC is no longer growing at a rate that is significant and is failing to have a generational impact.

Our Answer: *Although using percentage growth as a barometer when comparing bigger churches (LA) to smaller groups (European WS, Austral Asian WS) is like comparing apples to oranges, we will overlook this fact and objectively investigate each of the churches that the ICC claims is proof of significant growth that will have a generational impact?

A. Austral-China (35%) — The Austral-China pillar church (Sydney ICC) was planted in 2014, exactly 10 years ago. The Sydney ICC has yet to reach 100 disciples, and the entire world sector began 2024 with under 200 disciples after growing by only 20 disciples in 2023. Although it has grown by 35% in 2024, which we are encouraged by, it still has under 300 disciples after 10 years of work. Although we are grateful for every soul saved in this world sector, we don’t believe this is an example of significant church growth or one that is having a generational impact. We’d simply ask you to judge for yourselves.

B. Europe (25%) — The Williamsons planted the London Church (The European WS Pillar Church) in 2010, almost 15 years ago. Despite this fact, the European World Sector began the year with less than 600 total disciples after growing by a total of 43 disciples in all of 2023. Similarly, the London Church began 2024 with less than 250 disciples. Again, we are happy that they have grown by 25% this year and are starting to grow at a faster rate. However, is this an example of significant generational growth, considering the entire world sector has just a little over 700 disciples after 15 years of work? Judge for yourselves.

C. Latin America (20%) — We are very proud of the churches in Latin America, as they have had a great year in 2024! However, there are a few things Raul failed to mention regarding his world sector: 1) It only grew by 6% in 2021, and 2) It had a negative 10% growth rate in 2022. What changed? In 2023, Raul asked Jason to help him disciple and train his main church leaders in Latin America in the area of church growth. In fact, Jason has helped Raul disciple the main church leaders from Latin America since 2023, which has led to their current and much-improved statistics.

*Advantage Given to Foreign Churches: The ICC leadership has also failed to mention that each example they provided of church growth pertains to foreign churches. Why is this significant? Churches outside of America are permitted to retain 100% of their yearly Special Missions collection to grow their world sectors and are not required to pay an 18% central administration fee while generally sending few disciples out of their world sectors due to challenges with immigration. For example, the LA Church sent out the North and South Carolina Missions Teams, along with five other strong disciples, to the Africanus World Sector in 2024, and in 2023, LA sent six disciples to Thailand, ten disciples to Hawaii, seventeen disciples to Texas, and three disciples to Trinidad, which were all outside of our world sector. In contrast, most American Churches retain none of their yearly Special Missions Collections, must pay an 18% central administration fee every month, and frequently send disciples out of their geographic oversight. The advantage given to foreign churches cannot be
overstated.

The Facts: as of 9/1/2024, 87% of all ICC churches were growing by ten disciples or fewer each year. This statistical reality cannot be characterized as significant generational growth by anyone with a shred of honesty. Citing the ICC’s best examples of high percentage growth among smaller world sectors on foreign soil does not disprove our statement.

(The ICC is welcome to release its statistics if we are lying.)

3) Motivated out of personal hurts — It is interesting that anyone from the World Sector Leaders group feels they could accurately assess the motivations of the RCW leaders they have chosen to disfellowship. Remember, the Bible forbids the judging of motives (1 Corinthians 4:6). Also, consider that the RCW leadership group that was designated for unity talks (as mentioned in our letter) has never received a single offer to meet and discuss terms of unity since we released our letter on October 18, 2024. This is despite ending our letter with a section entitled “Our Final Plea For Unity.” To reiterate, none of us wanted to leave the ICC; we collectively felt that we had no other option. We could either make a stand for God’s righteousness or look the other way, making us complicit in the toleration of unrepentant sin. In truth, we left in opposition to how we felt, based on our biblical convictions and not our personal grievances.

As you consider the charges against us along with the answers we have provided, it is our prayer that those in the RCW and still in the ICC are not fooled by the ancient “scare tactic” of “false disfellowshipment.” Instead, it is our hope that you use the simple gauge Jesus gave in identifying false prophets, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:18-20) Before starting the RCW, each of us was presently in good standing with the ICC, and many disciples around the world who have been in our ministries had very little negative to say about any of us or the ministries we led. After starting the RCW Churches, we have seen over 100 souls baptized in our first month, as God has blessed the work of our hands! This is despite our leadership group being called “demon-possessed” by Andrew Smellie and our request for unity discussions being shot down by Michael Williamson, who proudly preached, “We don’t negotiate with snakes; we step on their heads.”

“Now, if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:19-20)

As you consider whether our disfellowshipment is “false,” as we have stated, you must ask yourself one simple question: Does the Restored Churches Worldwide baptize by the power of Satan, or have many of the ICC leaders become Pharisees, fighting to justify their unwillingness to repent by turning to censorship? We pray that God gives you discernment and the simple understanding that we have been “falsely
disfellowshipped.”

Much love,

Jason Dimitry and the RCW Leadership Team