Epilogue (part ii)

Maundy Thursday

Michael Downing was/is a spoiled brat. His personal immaturity and professional inexperience combined to create temper tantrums that didn’t go unnoticed by a congregation already reeling from the Smith/Altman/Petty scandal. Nudged on by his wife, Nancy, Michael’s obsession with “being the boss” bordered on maniacal. This particularly affected—in a negative way—his relationship with the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. Michael became increasingly insistent upon salary and benefits befitting his senior pastor status, and it really didn’t matter to him that he was pressing these issues while the Administrative Council was attempting to put Trinity’s criminally abused finances back in order.

Housing ironically became the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. When the Downing family first arrived in Las Vegas they had the church pay premium for a rental (this interestingly enough was another of Rick Altman’s insider deals) while they looked over the housing market. Again, a mark of prestige among United Methodist clergy is to own their own homes, a practice wholly in contradiction to the disciplinary requirement of being itinerate. Because Trinity’s parsonage was regarded as housing for the associate pastor, it had fallen into disrepair that even the renovation required following the Cox trashing didn’t completely correct. The Downings finally settled on a new home built by one of Michael’s new “buds” (Downing’s recruitment of new members was always underscored by some sort of personal advantage) and he hit the finance committee with a maximum housing allowance to pay the mortgage.

When a methamphetamine lab was busted across the street from the parsonage, I once again found myself having to fend for my family’s welfare. The property was a liability to the church, and it seemed logical that what was good for the goose should also be good for the gander. I approached Michael and the S-PRC with the idea of selling the parsonage and allowing the associate to also utilize the conference’s prescribed housing allowance to purchase a home. Everyone was in agreement that this would be the way to proceed until Tom Mattick got involved. As District Superintendent, Mattick (himself a homeowner) chose to arbitrarily enforce a technicality that every parish must have a parsonage. I’m sure that he never anticipated Trinity’s response.

Since it was being forced to provide a parsonage, the S-PRC, Board of Trustees, and Administrative Council decided that it should be of a quality suitable for the senior pastor. Downing, of course, had no intentions of giving up his new house, and countered with a proposal that the church purchase a new house directly across the street from his. To say the least, I and the rest of the congregation was flabbergasted! Michael was convincing even the unconvinced that he would stop at nothing in his quest for absolute control over Trinity. In spite of Downing’s wishes, the Administrative Council formed an ad hoc committee to search for a new parsonage, and the one they settled on was truly amazing! With four bedrooms and a three-car garage, the Ampere property selected would be unsurpassed in comparison to any parsonage in the conference. And because Downing wouldn’t budge on the issue of owning his own house, guess who moved into the new parsonage?

An already agitated Downing became a mean-spirited, angry little boy in a man’s body as the Trinity congregation used the new parsonage as an expression of the parity they intended for its two pastors. Whether or not it conformed to disciplinary polity, Trinity wanted an equitable co-pastorate. Indeed, as Michael’s temper tantrums became more vindictively aimed at those who dared challenge his seniority (that, as I have already explained, was only nominal) there was a growing sentiment—especially on the S-PRC—that Trinity really only needed (and could only afford) one pastor. Being his own worst enemy in so many ways, Downing became understandably infuriated as a significant portion of the congregation began for the first time to voice out loud that they wanted the Bishop to appoint him elsewhere and to retain me as their sole pastor.