Church

probably have canceled this year’s pageant anyway.

“For three to four months every year, the pageant became the primary emphasis that exacted a toll on the larger calling of the church to offer and experience a broader array of ministry opportunities all year long,” church leaders wrote to the South Florida Sun Sentinel in response to a request for comment.

A South Florida tradition

The pageant normally ran for between 14 and 19 performances in early to mid-December, telling the Christmas story through eye-popping performances blending traditional costumes and storytelling (often complete with live camels) with more modern Christian worship music, carols and other performances. Hundreds of volunteers labored for months to bring the pageant to life.

But the church said the pageant’s attendance had declined over the past decade while still requiring a large number of volunteers to support it. Church leadership decided the event became a major drain on church resources.

“After much deliberation and prayer, church leadership believed it was time to end the pageant and instead focus on being a church with year-round Bible study and active small groups, community outreach, local and global missions, and bold preaching,” the church said in a statement.

Welch was not available for an interview. Romney Rogers, a church trustee and attorney who also is a former Fort Lauderdale city commissioner, provided the church’s statement Friday.

‘Not a little squabble’

But disaffected members won’t stand for the church’s direction. They created a website and now view themselves as the church’s advocacy group. They hired a parliamentarian to navigate through the church’s bylaws and register their complaints in a formal, legal fashion. They say they’ve gathered the signatures of more than 200 members to call a special meeting to start the process of removing Welch and the nine-member board of trustees that supports him.

They say it’s not just about the pageant, but also about worries there could be more unpopular changes to come. Among Advocacy Group members’ concerns is whether the church would sell off any of its valuable downtown property, but Rogers said there were no such plans.

Deanna Weilhouwer, who oversaw ticket sales for the pageant for 24 years, disputed the church’s account of dwindling interest in the event, calling it “an absolute fabrication.” Over the last few years, the pageant was responsible for roughly a third of the church’s annual revenue, she estimated.

Her husband, Dan, chairman of the Advocacy Group, said its members’ concerns about the church’s direction and fiscal responsibility have been ignored. “This is not a little squabble,” he said.

Advocacy Group member Brian Keno, a prominent local jeweler, was escorted out of the church a week ago when he stood up after the end of a Sunday morning service to announce the meeting to remove church leaders.

“People are quitting the church,” Keno said in an interview Thursday. “Membership is dwindling. It’s our belief membership is dwindling for a reason.”

But it’s unclear how much the church’s conflict has affected membership. The pandemic has made shrinking attendance a reality for churches across the country, and members who leave any church don’t always formally withdraw. There’s no reliable way to tell whether parishioners have stopped attending because of COVID or because they have joined other churches.

Getting police to step in

The intensity of the conflict reached a peak at one of the recent services.

Keno said he deliberately waited until the early Nov. 8 service was over to make his announcement. “I didn’t disrupt anything,” he said. But the church saw it differently.

Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Laurenia Fahie, who was working an off-duty shift at the church, filed an official report saying the dissenters had promised before the service that they would only distribute information about the meeting, not make a public announcement.

Tensions escalated between services.

Keno’s wife, Collette, attended the 11 a.m. service with several teenagers sitting across from her. Concerned that the teenagers might disrupt the service, church security asked the Kenos’ 15-yearold daughter to leave. Collette Keno objected, sparking a confrontation in the sanctuary.

“I gestured to [Keno] to keep it down and come with us to the vestibule where we could talk,” Fahie wrote. Once in the church lobby, Keno tried to get past Fahie and back into the sanctuary, according to Fahie’s report. A video of the incident shows Fahie walking Keno out the door.

Rogers, the trustee and attorney, tried to intervene in the dispute but ended up trying to stop Brian Keno from recording video with his phone, according to Fahie’s report and Keno’s video.

The Kenos ultimately left the church building.

Vetting the rules

Church leaders say the parishioners’ meeting violates established procedure for removing a pastor. The church’s rules say the process of firing the head pastor starts with a majority of trustees, with church members approving the decision after the fact. The Advocacy Group members say the members, too, have the authority to initiate the pastor’s removal.

The meeting was scheduled for the end of a Sunday service at the church, but the organizers say their memberships were suspended and no longer are allowed on the property.

The church has tried to enlist the aid of a formal mediation by Peacemaker Ministries, which attempts to resolve conflicts without involving secular authorities. But both sides have acknowledged the possibility of legal action in front of a secular authority may be asked to resolve the dispute.