At the 2023 Annual Southern Baptist Convention, three churches appealed the decision made by the Credentials Committee to disfellowship them from the Southern Baptist Convention. The reason for the disfellowshipping refusal to cooperate with a sexual abuse allegation that the SBC was investigating. On the floor of the convention the messenger from Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida appeared contrite before the messengers, stating that the pastor with the allegations surrounding him was innocent but had resigned for the good of the church. In rebuttal, Dean Inserra, an SBC company man spoke before the messengers claiming that the pastor was running a shadow government on the church until the situation blew over with the SBC. Despite the conflicting accounts, the messengers deferred to the platform and voted 96.46% to disfellowship Freedom Church, a higher percentage than the other two feminist churches disfellowshipped. Evangelical Dark Web set out to find that truth interviewing multiple witnesses to unravel the complicated situation in Vero Beach, Florida.
At the meeting, Dean Inserra rebutted by accusing Freedom Church of lying in their testimony. Inserra claimed that Demsick was running a shadow government in the church until the situation with the Southern Baptist Convention blew over.
Multiple former members say at a minimum this is plausible. Some have claimed that Demsick is being retained as a “consultant pastor” which is a position invented for Carl Lentz type situations.
As it turns out, Richard Demsick is back at Freedom Church Vero Beach, a return that occurred in the beginning of October. Freedom Church also moved locations in October being expelled from their previous building which was owned by the Treasure Coast Baptist Association who leveraged the expulsion of Freedom Church from the SBC to evict them from their property.
On October 15 they would announce their last service at the building and from then on they have preached in a new location which they leased out. Demsick would preach barefoot amidst a JD Greear-esque set behind him.
It appears that Dean Inserra was incredibly accurate in his argument about Freedom Church Vero Beach. It took several a few months to be fully realized.
