High-ranking Harvest Bible Chapel pastor resigns

A Harvest Bible Chapel pastor resigned Thursday.

After taking a leave of absence, Assistant Senior Pastor Rick Donald announced his resignation.

In the resignation letter, Donald asked the church for forgiveness for his "sin and failures."

“I see how the fear of man and pride has specifically operated in me at times, with decisions made and not made. ... I have sought the Lord in repentance and have known His great forgiveness and cleansing, and now I am humbly asking the church for their forgiveness,” he wrote.

Last month, after crude comments were released to the public, the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel – a Chicago-area megachurch with a location in Crystal Lake – expedited the termination of founder and Senior Pastor James MacDonald.

Audio clips released by WLS-AM radio host Mancow Muller revealed MacDonald talking about putting child pornography on the computer of the CEO of Christianity Today and joking about former Moody Radio host Julie Roys, who the church sued for defamation in October after she wrote stories on mismanagement within the megachurch, according to a report from the Daily Herald.

The church also is facing financial turmoil. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability suspended the church’s accreditation.

“Our church elders and new leadership team are doing all we can to regain their certification based on their list of requirements,” according to a statement on the church’s website dated Friday.

The Crystal Lake campus, 580 Tracy Trail, began in 2001 as a Harvest church plant and transitioned to an extension campus in 2007, according to the Crystal Lake Harvest Bible Chapel’s website.