There are grave concerns regarding troubling conduct and ongoing issues involving Pastor Purasa Marpaung at the Rocky Mountain Indonesian SDA Church in Aurora, Colorado. The undersigned petitioners agree that guidance and support is urgently needed to resolve these matters.

              It has been witnessed on numerous occasions that the Pastor has undermined the church's core values through a lack of character, leadership, and relationship-building with the congregation.
This has created an uncomfortable environment for many long-standing and new members alike.

The following issues have been observed:

1. Abuse of Power

Pastor Purasa authorized the First Elder to provide a false recording of board meeting minutes documented for Oct, 4th 2023. No documentation stated there was a board meeting on Oct 4th 2023 as that date falls on a Wednesday and the board meetings usually fall on a Saturday night. (see attachment)

Pastor Purasa approved the First Elder to remove the Pathfinder Director from his position without seeking counsel from the Board Members for a fair decision.

No follow up regarding board members’ concerns on 9/9/23

• The Pastor had privately offered a secretary position to the current standing Youth Leader
in September 2023. The Youth Leader stated about his plan for resignation and would take the offer as the secretary as offered by the pastor during youth’s program. Elected positions must be considered collectively. Elected positions must be considered collectively.
Offering a position without seeking the counsel of the Board is not only against our
values, but against our agreed rules as a church board. When we heard this, we
immediately had questions as to why this act was appropriate but Pastor Purasa denied
acting on his own when other board members inquired. However, in this same Board Meeting, the Youth Leader had to stand and admit that these acts were true that the Youth Leader had agreed with pastor taking the Secretary Position.

• The Secretary Position is currently vacant. The current nominal Secretary has moved out of state. When this Secretary was nominated, she did not at that time live out-of-state but since moving many secretarial duties are handled by elders until a new election.
Contrary to the Pastor's claim that a remote secretary was approved. This is simply not
true.

• The current nominal secretary does not attend board meetings, record minutes, or provide reports, she is not in the board members platform communication-whatsaap messenger. Meetings at the very least should be attended virtually in this case, but the current nominal secretary has never attended a meeting virtually to share reports or record
minutes. This is handled by elders.

The current nominal secretary was not a member of a platform communication for all the board members.

2. Inappropriate Conduct

• Being an Indonesian-American Church, there are many cultural practices we are raised to know and respect. In a recent Board Meeting, due to disagreements that Pastor Purasa refused to acknowledge, emotions were running very high. Due to verbal disagreement in the meeting, the Pastor had aggressively claimed an Indonesian Curse at a Board Member. Due to to cultural honor and many Board Members being raised on cultural values, this immediately shocked the Board Members. Whether the Pastor is superstitious or not, cursing a member is completely inappropriate and for those of us who deeply respect our cultural history, this act was utterly disrespectful. There is no reason imaginable or acceptable to think that as a Spiritual Leader, it is right to shout a historical curse at a member.

3. Doctrinal Concerns

• In August 2023, the Pastor incorrectly stated during a sermon that "God has faith in us, not humans have faith in God.” When a member sought clarification, the Pastor
eventually apologized privately but did not address the congregation of this questionable teaching.

• At a memorial service in November 2023, the Pastor made the errant claim during his devotion that "Our
faith in Jesus never changed”. This statement caused confusion and feelings of displacement as if he has no faith in his own Church.

• The Pastor has provided contradictory guidance on appropriate Sabbath observance for children's sporting events versus attendance by disabled members. Many of our church members do home-health. This job requires 24hour care of disabled clients, and because of this, many members must bring their clients to church service. The Pastor has stated that it is okay for children to attend extracurricular school activities on the Sabbath but not okay to bring disabled clients to service because those members are working.

4. Dictatorial Leadership

• The Pastor pre-selects and appoints people to positions before elections, repeatedly
calling certain members to pressure them to become elders.

• On April 26, 2024, the Pastor unilaterally called an emergency meeting over board
opposition after a previous meeting incident, claiming to respond to a conference letter
but refusing to disclose if the conference actually recommended such a meeting.

5. Poor Communication and Marginalization

• Members have experienced marginalization, with the Pastor repeatedly disregarding and
denying proper counsel to resolve significant concerns.

• The Pastor has failed to address ongoing rumors of an inappropriate relationship between an elder and another member, refusing to discuss members' requests for the elder's removal despite the gravity of the allegations. A married elder having an affair with a separate married member is completely inappropriate and not withholding the values of our SDA beliefs. We do not want to condemn the elder in question, but we feel she should not be in a position of leadership within RMIASDAC.

6. Manipulation and Abuse

• The Pastor has deliberately twisted members' words, nearly inciting physical altercations. When near physical altercation start to arise, the Pastor will not intervene among members to prevent a physical altercation from starting nor has he attempted to calm everyone down.

• He has made denigrating comments about members' appearances and mental capacities, implying that because of who we are and how we look, we are being judged for coming to Church every sabbath by our Pastor. An example of this is that the Pastor once said that a church member and childhood friend was young, he was “So ugly, even the girls could throw up to see him.” There were a few people present when this comment was made -including the member’s wife.

• Pastor Purasa has commented to a founding member of RMIASDAC during small talk that another member had developmental delays, as if to joke. The founding member, who is a senior to Pastor Purasa found this comment to be very questionable of a Spiritual Leader even if it was just small talk.

• Pastor Purasa has commented publicly to a tattooed member that due to his appearance,
he could never set foot in a SDA church in Indonesia, implying that he would not be
accepted due to his appearance. This member is a senior to Pastor Purasa, and knows this is untrue - but to have this comment said so publicly in front of other members was astonishing as doubts started to arise on the spiritual leadership of Pastor Purasa.
Members present during this comment were deeply disappointed.

7. Lack of Spiritual Guidance

• The Pastor does not initiate revival services, weeks of prayer, or programs to enhance
spiritual beliefs and growth.

8. Divisive and Unprofessional Conduct

• During sermons, the Pastor has mocked those who disagree with his actions, creating a hostile environment.
• He has boasted about his connections within the conference, implying he can act with impunity.

9. Discrimination

• The Pastor discriminates against individuals based on their marital status, stating that
those married more than once cannot preach or become members.

In the last 12 years that Pastor Purasa has been the Spiritual Leader, the Rocky Mountain Indonesian American Seventh-Day Adventist Church has not grown in members. Many past members have left due to his lack of performance and decorum outside of church service.

Members for many years have tried to express their concerns to the Pastor but never have received proper address or response from him.

For all these reasons, it created an environment that feels unsafe, disrespectful, uncomfortable and contrary to the principles of our Seventh Day Adventist Faith and Belief. As dedicated members of both longstanding, new and even original founders of RMIASDAC we sign this petition to express how deeply saddened by the situation and request to replace Pastor Purasa Marpaung immediately for the sake of our spiritual well-being. 

We implore a thorough investigation into these matters and appropriate actions to restore a nurturing, inclusive church aligning with our shared SDA values and beliefs. Our intention is not condemnation, but constructive resolution through proper channels.