Forced Termination: A Forever Pain
Elaine Herrin Onley
We can survive it. But the pain that comes from a forced termination lies forever in the recesses of the heart. Perhaps it is because those who suffer the ecclesiastical abuse most often do so for no valid reason at all.
That was our case, and the result is a forever pain that even though it is now tucked away in some tiny crevice of our minds and our lives, it is yet there. And, after five years, it arises at some unexpected moment--much like those pains that accompany the bereavement of a loved one.
It was 1991 when the cruel axe fell upon my husband, Ed. He had left a significant state denominational position as we joined together in what we saw as an incredible opportunity of 'missions' in a small resort community. Both widowed, Ed had worked in home missions and I was a 14-year veteran of foreign missions. We were married while both were working with the Georgia Baptist Convention. With the newness of our married life, the call to go to the small church seemed to challenge us both, and satisfy the 'missionary' spirit so alive in both of us. Never mind that such a move necessitated a serious cut in salary--our faith was strong and we saw the potential in the young church.
For more than a year, things couldn't have been better. Then seemingly from nowhere, we learned that a small power group didn't want us anymore. Ed was forced to resign in January 1991. The church voted to give us six months' severance pay, but stopped it within two months. They left us on a limb, and then cut that off.
God has been faithful, even though those who claim to be His people were not. And we now know much joy in the new church which we began two years later. Our new associations have enabled us to grow that fellowship, and the encouragement of the MTM Foundation has strengthened our purpose and held us to our divine call. We do not put our heads down in shame, as is so often the case; we do not deny the fate that befell us in that ministry.
But we will always share that forever pain.
Elaine Herrin Onley is a member of MTM's Board of Trustees. She recently retired from her position as Director of College Relations with Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia. Her full story is recounted in her book, Crying On Sunday, published by Smyth & Helwys (1994).