First Liberty is representing Pastor Chris Avell of Dad\u2019s Place, a church in Bryan, Ohio. He\u2019s facing 18 criminal charges for violating the city\u2019s zoning laws.<\/p>\n
The city is going after him because earlier this year Pastor Chris opened the church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He\u2019s seeking to serve homeless people.<\/p>\n
In November 2023, the city sent a letter ordering the church to stop allowing overnight guests or face criminal prosecution. This past Sunday\u2014on New Year\u2019s Eve\u2014police showed up at the church. They handed the Pastor a packet of multiple charges and violations.<\/p>\n
Our attorneys will be attending a court hearing next week, on January 11, to defend the Pastor and the church.<\/p>\n
Pastor Chris said he\u2019s willing to face those charges for the sake of the church\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was spiritually homeless and God provided a home for me. He\u2019s put a burden on my heart for the homeless,\u201d Pastor Chris said. \u201cMany of these people have been rejected by their families and cast aside by their communities. So, if the church isn\u2019t willing to lay down it\u2019s life for them, then who will? This is what we\u2019re called to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city would rather kick these folks to the curb in the cold outdoor months of December and early January than allow the church to remain open 24\/7 to those who need it the most,\u201d Dys said. \u201cIt\u2019s unconscionable. We\u2019re going to hold them accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t a homeless shelter, it\u2019s a church,\u201d said Pastor Chris in an\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0The Village Reporter.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cBut we have put in things people can use, like a shower and a small ability to do laundry. Some who found this to be a home for them have stuck around.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pastor says he began opening the building this way, because the local homeless shelter was often full, which led to the needs of many vulnerable people not being met. He says at least a hundred have been helped in some way by his church being opened 24\/7.<\/p>\n Read more at: firstliberty.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First Liberty is representing Pastor Chris Avell of Dad\u2019s Place, a church in Bryan, Ohio. He\u2019s facing 18 criminal charges for violating the city\u2019s zoning laws. The city is going after him because earlier this year Pastor Chris opened the church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He\u2019s seeking to serve homeless people. … Continue reading Ohio Pastor Charged for Opening Church Doors to the Homeless<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/watching-300x100-300x100-1.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8fAkI-6r9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24748,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24747\/revisions\/24748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setapartbytruth.org\/wordpress-watchman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}