VIRGINIA
Richmond Times-Dispatch

BY NED OLIVER Richmond Times-Dispatch

Three days before the trial of its former pastor is scheduled to begin, the Richmond Outreach Center announced that it’s changing its name to Celebration Church and Outreach Ministry and is hiring a new transitional pastor.

The South Richmond church posted on its Facebook page Friday that it has hired Robert Rhoden, who has a history working with struggling and scandal-touched churches.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Rhoden served in 2013 as the transitional pastor at Calvary Assembly, whose congregation shrank from 5,000 members to about 650 after a series of crises that included a pastor caught in an extramarital affair and a heavy debt load.

“Dr. Rhoden has the integrity, experience and faith to lead our church and make a lasting difference in Richmond for generations to come,” David Lynn, Chairman of the Richmond Outreach Center’s board, said in a…