Written by Pastor Brandon Myers
After many months of prayerful, private correspondence with leaders of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church (see the first article and video for more details here), a group of concerned Chicagoland pastors (who initially wished to keep this matter private) shared with The Orchard Evangelical Free Church (EFC) that due to the Orchard EFC leader’s unwillingness to meet and address these grievous concerns privately a more public approach would be pursued. Out of love for and fear of the Lord, integrity of our gospel witness and love for the souls of those committed to Christ, and those we are trying to reach with the gospel of Christ in our nation and beyond, this serious matter cannot be ignored.
We invite you to join us for a free special event on Friday, June 30 at 7:00 p.m. in Arlington Heights where some of these same concerned pastors who reached out to The Orchard will address God’s Law and Gospel and LGBT. Registration is required. Click to register.
A second video with Pastor Dr. Lucas O’Neill helpfully addresses the objection “Is this really other churches’ business?”
In this third recorded video, a former pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church and current Chicagoland pastor Brandon Myers (of Christ The King Reformed Baptist Church in Niles) shares more background. Brandon served as a leading pastor of by far the largest campus of The Orchard EFC (in Arlington Heights) for nearly six years until 2020. This is the Orchard EFC campus where Thomas Hayes has been a member for decades. Brandon knew Orchard member Tom Hayes personally and had taught him from God’s Word many times. Brandon was very thrown off by Tom’s actions in 2021 and reached out to Tom directly as the video details (Brandon was called away from The Orchard EFC to serve his current church prior to all of these events).
Sadly, as the interview makes plain, Orchard EFC member Thomas Hayes clearly knew the right thing to do yet did not do it. Tom refused to meet to address his clear dishonor of the Lord as a Christian but also as a civil magistrate who is a servant of the Lord who should be promoting righteousness (Romans 13:4; 1 Peter 2:14). Pastor James Pittman and Pastor Brandon Myers address some of Brandon’s personal correspondences with Orchard Evangelical Free Church Member and Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes.
The interview in this recorded video also addresses a few claims of those who defended Orchard Evangelical Free Church Member Tom Hayes’s public support of sins and who ought to know better. The Lord clearly and repeatedly issues serious warnings and calls for repentance of and a fleeing from these specific sexual sins and idolatrous identities (and indeed all sins!).
Looking at the Lord’s character (Psalm 5:4-5) and the Lord’s clear call for what true followers of Christ ought to be marked by: being doers of the Word (James 1:22), being unstained from the world (James 1:27), and not having friendship with the world (James 4:4), Brandon and James unpack the inconsistency of The Orchard’s toleration of and even defense of their longtime member’s public support for and celebration of sins.
These are sins which undoubtedly cause great earthly and eternal harm and sow deep confusion in the hearts and minds of those who bear God’s image, are mutilating their bodies, perverting God’s good design and mocking His Lordship. These are our neighbors who desperately need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In His authoritative written Word the Lord declares
that love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth”
(1 Corinthians 13:6)
Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) of another generation once memorably said,
“Peace without truth is a false peace; it is the very peace of the devil. Unity without the gospel is a worthless unity; it is the very unity of hell. We ought to contend jealously for the truth and to fear the loss of truth more that the loss of peace. To maintain pure truth in the church, we should be ready to make any sacrifice, to hazard peace, to risk dissension and run the chance of division. Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.”
Compromising the truth of God’s law and gospel and being complicit with the spirit of the age abounds in our day. Sadly, many professing Christians, even pastors who ought to know better and stand strong without shame, are not immune from the pressures of the world. In some cases, those who profess Christ privately have given in to public cowardice and compromise even going so far as to reject what God declares definitively and repeatedly in Scripture. They justify their willingness to call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).
Every Christian who truly fears the Lord must humbly stand strong on the whole counsel of God’s Word and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Yes, it is costly. But no matter the cost without apology or qualification, we declare Christ alone is the Lord of all. True Christians declare their Lord has spoken and share the good and righteous law of God and His glorious gospel to sinners under God’s righteous and holy wrath. We lovingly urge them to flee to Jesus Christ and in His person and work to find full forgiveness for their sins, peace with God and eternal life by God’s grace alone. This alone is the only eternal refuge and lasting hope for every man and woman made in God’s image.
May Christ be praised as His truth goes forth without shame, apology, qualification or compromise in the Chicagoland area and to every nation.
Soli Deo Gloria.
