GAYLORD (MI)
Herald Times
July 15, 2019
By Arielle Breen
The Gaylord Grace Baptist Church founding pastor is eaving after 33 years in the region’s ministry.
An announcement on the church’s website shows Jon Jenkins resigned as pastor of Grace Baptist Church July 7 to take a position as pastor at a North Carolina Baptist church.
“As the founder and visionary of Grace, Pastor Jenkins’ leadership has guided our church family through storms, trials, challenges, deaths and hardships — but also through prosperity, new life, expansions and a level of growth rarely seen in such a rural area,” reads part of the church’s announcement.
This move comes after months of attention over accusations and criminal sexual conduct cases that have surfaced with ties to the church and its school dating back about 17 years.
In a previous Herald Times story, Jenkins commented on instances of abuse or alleged abuse involving former teachers. Jenkins said he had reported two of the school’s former teachers to police for sexual abuse of students years ago.
Jenkins said he reported former teacher Aaron Willand to Michigan State Police, and later, another former teacher to the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department.
Willand was convicted in Washington state of raping a child and child molestation in 2006. The survivor, now an adult, is also seeking charges in Otsego County for abuse she said also occurred in Michigan. Willand has not been charged in Michigan.
Jenkins said he also reported former teacher David Beckner to the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department in 2011. Eight criminal sexual conduct charges have been officially filed by Otsego County courts against Beckner. The case was bound over to Otsego County’s 46th Circuit Court Thursday.
The sheriff’s department showed no records of Grace Baptist reporting either former teacher to police.
Herald Times’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for Michigan State Police reports filed by Grace Baptist show no police reports filed by Grace Baptist with any references to Aaron Willand or David Beckner.
Clark Martin, a former congregation member and volunteer bus driver, was convicted of criminal sexual conduct against a former Grace Baptist student in 2002 and 2003. According to Otsego County court records from that case, Martin had also molested another youth, a 12-year-old boy, in St. Clair County in 1966.
Martin also pleaded guilty in May to criminal sexual conduct charges for allegedly molesting a teen boy in 1991 and 1992.
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