Wounded By a Pastor’s Fall, The Journey Megachurch Gets Back on Its Path

ST. LOUIS (RNS) — Darrin Patrick always told people he wasn’t perfect.

As founding pastor of The Journey church, Patrick would begin each year preaching about the 10 mistakes he’d made as pastor, says longtime church member Bob Oesch.

Oesch found that kind of honesty refreshing.

“Pastors don’t do that,” he said.

Patrick’s down-to-earth preaching style and transparency helped the church grow from a group of 100 people meeting at a community center to a megachurch of 3,000 meeting in six locations — until his mistakes caught up to him.

In 2016, Patrick, who was also a vice president of the Acts 29 church planting network, was fired from The Journey for what church officials said was misconduct, including “inappropriate meetings, conversations, and phone calls with two women” and a pattern of sinful conduct, including lying, abuse of power and lack of self-control.

The Journey’s former pastor is now on staff at a megachurch in Charleston, S.C. The Journey has moved on, said Oesch.

“My sense of The Journey is that things are calm, are organized, that our leadership is committed and that communication from church leaders has been very good lately,” he said.

Attendance is down 14 percent since the firing, according to the church.

“We didn’t have a formal process for people communicating reasons for leaving, but the consistent…