After his ouster from an Ohio megachurch for alleged bullying and “harsh” leadership, Tim Armstrong has been tapped to lead the relaunch of a Florida megachurch campus.
Corey Abney, lead pastor of 6,000-member Bell Shoals Church in the Tampa Bay area, recently announced the relaunch of its Riverview Campus set for next spring. Abney said in a video for the campus’s September 11 worship service that Armstrong had agreed to pastor the relaunched campus.
“We will pause campus operations in Riverview after September with the goal of relaunching the campus with a new vision and a new facility on April 9, 2023, which is Easter Sunday,” Abney said in the video.
“Now, a campus relaunch like the one I’m proposing in Riverview will require a campus pastor with vision, experience and wisdom, and in God’s kindness he has provided the person to lead us forward who possesses all of these qualities,” Abney continued, referring to Armstrong.
He added Armstrong has church planting experience and “will also give leadership to our multi-site vision and execution for all of Bell Shoals.”
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Armstrong has been transitional pastor at the Riverview Campus for the last few months. It’s unclear when his role as the permanent campus pastor was to start. Bell Shoals leadership did not respond when The Roys Report (TRR) asked to clarify.
Armstrong joined the staff at Bell Shoals months after being forced to resign in August 2021 from The Chapel in Akron, Ohio, TRR previously reported.
An independent probe commissioned by The Chapel found Armstrong had a harsh leadership style and “pattern of sin.” Armstrong has not admitted wrongdoing or apologized since the findings were announced.
Both Armstrong and Abney are members of Cedarville University’s board of trustees. Abney is listed as the board secretary in Cedarville’s current academic catalog. Both men’s terms are set to expire in June 2023.
Neither Cedarville nor Bell Shoals has responded to TRR’s multiple requests for comment on the Chapel inquiry.
At an all-church celebration on September 18, Abney described Riverview’s relaunch as one of five new campuses the church intends to launch in West-Central Florida over the next seven years.
Bell Shoals currently has three English-speaking campuses in Apollo Beach, Brandon, and Riverview. A fourth, Spanish-speaking congregation meets at the Brandon campus, too. Bell Shoals’ former fifth campus in Palm River was closed this past spring.
In the September 11 video, Abney said the lease is up this month on Riverview Campus’s current location. Rent is set to increase if the church renews, he continued. But the campus can’t expand there, he said, and the site is far from Riverview’s fastest-growing neighborhoods.
Wherever the campus moves to, Abney said, it will have to have space to expand and be able to “reach as many Riverview individuals and families as possible, which means we need a location closer to the highest pockets of growth.”
Sarah Einselen is an award-winning writer and editor based in Texas.
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6 Responses
“Biblical restoration.” Best wishes to the congregants and especially to the employees and volunteers who end up working for/with Mr. Armstrong.
I thought Paul explained the ‘leadership style’ to have: Philippians 2:1-4.
He’s toxic. Radioactive. You don’t let men like this anywhere near leadership.
Julie had an interesting article about Tim Keller, q.v,
“Tim Keller: Megachurches are “Poor Places for Formation” & Have “Addictive Dependence” on Founders”
https://julieroys.com/tim-keller-megachurches-poor-places-formation/
This looks like another megachurch problem. However, this type of pastor is not limited to large churches they can all have characteristics found in the following article. ????
“Fourteen Symptoms of Toxic Church Leaders”
https://churchanswers.com/blog/fourteen-symptoms-toxic-church-leaders/
If someone doesn’t sit on the back of the pew after falling as Richard Baxter commented then they will fall again. The church is doing this fallen pastor a disservice and also the congregation he will be involved with. One has to ask why they would desire to have Pastor Armstrong in their church? Is it only about results?
People, people, people… when will we learn that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Tim has a pattern… and for those of us as far back as 1999 at Crossroads church in Mansfield, Ohio that were hurt by Tim (with no apologies or remorse from Tim), it’s interesting how he continues to be hired by a church.
When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.
Praying for the people at the Florida church campus.