Pressing On

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3)

Dear Restored Church Worldwide Family, It has been over two weeks since we released a letter from our leadership group entitled “An Open Letter To The ICC and Its Central Leadership,” where we chronicled the “life and doctrine” drift of the ICC Central Leadership and announced the beginning of our new family of churches. (I Timothy 4:16) Although we chose to remove ourselves from the ICC, our letter ended with “Our Final Plea For Unity,” which we wrote to express our sincere and heartfelt desire to find a way to continue working together. We had hoped that our letter, combined with public pressure, would compel the WSLs to reconsider and pursue reform before their stubborn refusal caused further organizational damage.

Sadly, the exact opposite has happened. The ICC leadership has not publically acknowledged any of the specific misdeeds recorded in our letter nor agreed to a single reform. Instead, they have relied on fear tactics, deceptive propaganda, and harsh slander to distract and deflect everyone’s attention toward our departure and away from their well-documented corruption. Many in the RCW Churches continue receiving phone calls from those in the ICC’s top leadership group, urging them to abandon the very leaders who have spoken out against their corruption. These private calls have heavily relied on deceptive narratives and, at times, baldfaced lies.

Shockingly, as of Monday, October 28th, we had yet to receive a single offer from the ICC leadership to meet with our team and discuss the terms of unity as requested in our letter. Despite this reality, Jason Dimitry consulted with the RCW leadership team (Fernando Chavez, Kyle Bartholomew, Evan Bartholomew, and Mike Patterson), requesting to break their initial agreement so he could “make every effort to keep unity” by speaking to Raul Moreno alone, hoping it would extend an olive branch of goodwill. (Ephesians 4:2-3) The RCW team happily agreed, and Jason and Raul spoke for approximately 40 minutes over the phone. Although their talk was respectful, Raul made it abundantly clear that he was unwilling to make any of the reforms we had requested in our letter as he felt they were “ridiculous.” He added that the ICC Leadership would go after the bigger churches while leaving the smaller ones alone, revealing their focus was on recovering finances instead of unity.

His response saddened us, yet it affirmed our decision to initiate a new family of churches, as we correctly concluded that there was “no remedy.” (2 Chronicles 36:15) In light of this reality, we are now asking all RCW disciples to focus their efforts on the billions of lost souls around the world, while respecting the decision of those who have chosen to remain with the ICC. The RCW’s leadership will always leave our door open to a unified partnership in the future, provided that keeping the standards of God’s Word is the source of our unity. In the words of the Apostle Paul, Let us now “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Much love,