Roc Grants Former Pastor Severance

By Louis Llovio
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 12, 2013

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/roc-grants-former-pastor-severance/article_5b92aa98-1ff5-5e44-b47b-96d1066a0af4.html

The Richmond Outreach Center will continue to pay its former senior pastor his $115,000 annual salary and will allow him to live in the church’s parsonage for the next six months.

The church’s board of directors agreed on the severance package for Geronimo Aguilar, who faces child sexual abuse charges in Texas, “after much discussion and taking his family into consideration.”

Stephen C. Lewis, the South Richmond megachurch’s attorney, said the board felt that Aguilar’s years of service as the founder and head of the ROC merited the severance package.

“He was under an employment agreement, but I don’t think that was the reason for the severance. The reason was (because) people appreciate what he’s done and with what he’s got going on, people want to make sure his family was taken care of,” Lewis said.

“We certainly could have had no severance package at all, but the board thinks they are doing the right thing.”

Aguilar, who was arrested last month on charges of sexually abusing an 11-year old girl and her older sister for more than a year beginning in 1996, resigned from the church last week. He will be paid and allowed to remain in the half-million dollar South Richmond home until Dec. 10.

The church, which is tax exempt, will pay the property taxes on the home until then. Aguilar will be responsible for all utilities and household costs, the church said.

Aguilar’s annual salary was set at $115,930, according to Lewis, who said the compensation was based on pastoral salaries for other large churches.

The ROC says it serves 11,000 people per week through several ministries. About 2,000 people per week attend its Saturday services.

Lewis said the board could not comment on whether three other pastors who stepped down last week will receive severance. Aguilar’s brother Matthew Aguilar, along with Andrew Delgado and Jason Helmlinger all quit a week ago. Helmlinger is a former Henrico County police officer who now faces charges in Richmond for threatening a former ROC pastor, an Aguilar critic.

The decision to pay Aguilar for the next six months is one of several steps the ROC has taken in recent days as it looks to distance itself from the man who built the church and had been its face since 2001.

The board of directors has brought in Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, as an adviser. The board says it is in the early stages of looking for Aguilar’s replacement.

Right now, the church is being run by the board and an executive committee. Several pastors will handle pastoral duties for its Saturday service for the time being.

Director Billy Croxton said Saturday that the church is focused on continuing its mission.

“There are too many hurting people still in the city of Richmond, and we need to go get them,” he said. “There are too many people that need help: the drug addict, the child we pick up, the people that need groceries.”

Aguilar faces seven felonies in the Texas case, four of which carry sentences of up to life in prison.

Contact: LLLovio@timesdispatch.com