There appears to be problems in the Rocky Mountain District of the United Pentecostal Church, involving Samuel Keith Riley, pastor of the United Pentecostal Church of Rock Springs in Wyoming (aka Revival Center of Rock Springs). The situation also involves UPCI ministers Matthew Pearce (Arthur Matthew Pearce, Jr.) and Steven Carnahan, both officials of the District. (Carnahan is pastor of the Abundant Life Church in Gillette and Pearce is pastor of Pentecostals of Rawlins – now Rawlins Family Church) All are ordained ministers in the organization and the Rock Springs church is an affiliated church (meaning they have a legal affiliation with them).
TROUBLING ACCUSATIONS
According to the article linked to at the end of this section, Jeff Ramaj claims the following of pastor Keith Riley, “The examples of false doctrine preached by Riley are legion, but the messages listed here were among the most frequent. As we began to resist his false doctrine, Riley’s favorite saying was that one cannot come against a man of God without being killed by Jesus.”
Ramaj has accused the Rocky Mountain District of not investigating this church/pastor and stated that their inaction led to a lawsuit which was filed in January 2016. The law office of Lemich Law Center, particularly Jon Aimone, appears to have been hired to contact the parties involved prior to the actual lawsuit. After it was filed, Riley allegedly ignored a judge’s order compelling discovery, and the District failed in an attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed.
At an August 2017 court hearing, “The judge entered partial default judgment in our court case and sent our attorney to the church to get the documents we requested.” As a result, documents and computers were seized and they have allegedly uncovered evidence “to show that the Rileys diverted monies from the general fund to their own personal enrichment”. It is further alleged that “There is evidence that inculpates Matthew Pearce and Steve Carnahan in Riley’s actions.” Ramaj also claims, “In 2015 and 2016, the W2 that was submitted to the IRS for Samuel Keith Riley said that he was paid just under $24,000. Church records and bank records show that he was paid tens of thousands of dollars more than that each year—the difference in 2015 is more than $34,000.”
The article also alleges that a former ordained UPCI minister from Montana, Kenneth Hogue, “embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the District and was not prosecuted.” Hogue used to be a presbyter as well as the District Secretary and was pastor of the United Pentecostal Church (aka Grace and Truth UPC) in Butte. He also was the District Foreign (Global) Missions Director and served on the Global Missions Board. His wife, Teresa, also served in the District. His name is last seen in the 2016 UPCI Directory, indicating that 2015 was probably his final year.
Ramaj calls for Keith Riley’s license to be revoked and for both Carnahan and Pearce to resign. These are serious and troubling accusations. Are they true or false? Time will tell. Meanwhile there is a public battle going on. In the linked article below you will find additional information on Ramaj’s accusations.
OPINION: For The Last Two Years, We Members Of The United Pentecostal Church Of Rock Springs Have Been Begging For Help by Jeff Ramaj- October 30, 2017
August 30, 2019 Update: According to a press release from the Montana Department of Justice, on August 29, “The pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Butte appeared today on wire fraud charges and admitted to embezzling $288,757 from the organization over a four-year period, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.
“Kenneth Emmett Hogue, 66, of Butte, pleaded guilty to wire fraud as charged in an information during an initial appearance. Hogue faces a maximum 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.” He has a sentencing date on December 12, 2019. See also Butte pastor to plead guilty to embezzling from United Pentecostal Church. Kenneth Hogue had been elected secretary and treasurer of the Rocky Mountain District in April of 2012. A $5,000 bank transfer transaction made in May 2015 is what triggered an investigation. In March 2018 he admitted his scheme to the FBI.
On December 19, 2019, Kenneth Hogue was sentenced “to five years of probation and ordered to pay $288,757 for embezzling from the church organization over a four-year period.”
A PUBLIC BATTLE
Jeff Ramaj and others were (and may still be) having home and other meetings according to The Pentecostals of Rock Springs Facebook Page (no longer available). Their first service was held in August 2016 at 1695 Sunset Drive, Suite 104. You can see a few pictures of Ramaj at a service there. It appears that Ramaj is the pastor and it involves a small number of people.
Tanua Riley, Keith’s wife, publicly accused Ramaj of stealing the image for Revival Center of Rock Springs via this Facebook account. (Her main account is here.- This has since been closed down.) I find no reason to disbelieve her as that could easily be proven. She also appears to accuse him or someone else of not supporting their children.
The public feud includes an accusation by Ramaj that even though the organization has one, an area pastor (assuming Riley) claimed that the United Pentecostal Church didn’t have a retirement fund, so the church needed to pay him money for retirement.
Ramaj made it clear on the Page that it was not associated with the one operated by the Rileys, stating The Pentecostals of Rock Springs “in no way endorse or promote the pastor and his families unchristlike behavior. We do however keep those few who remain there in our prayers. Our prayers are that the truth will be revealed and the church will be renewed.”
In March 2017, he also posted, “There are many unanswered questions as to why we left revival center and have filed a lawsuit against the pastor. Here is the short answer. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. -Ephesians 5:11 [other passages follow] …This is the apostate church of which revival center has become under the leadership of an ungodly man who worships money and himself. I once asked him if he was a self made man who worships his creator his reply “yes”. Supporting you pastor is a scriptually correct practice unless he is not in line with the word of God. I tried for over a year to help him but he refused to listen. Will you or will you blindly follow him on a path that leads to destruction? Choose this day whom you will serve.”
On October 13, 2017, Ramaj posted two pictures, allegedly of items seized from Revival Center of Rock Springs as a result of the lawsuit. He also commented that “the district is also working to resolve this matter.”
Keith Riley used to have a Twitter account but it has been removed. Google had a cached version which was only available temporarily. The website listed for the church, revivalcenterrs.org, is not available.
March 15, 2024 Note: Screenshots have been added to this post, links have been checked, and some revisions were made. Many links were no longer available as the Facebook Pages for The Pentecostals of Rock Springs and The Revival Center of Rock Springs were taken down at some point after we posted the article. Some profiles were also deleted.
UPCI Rocky Mountain District Trouble Part 2
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Pastor Riley was up to have his leg amputated and his wife started a prayer FB group of over 600 people, several states and other countries sending up prayers. The doc debred his foot 2x in one week. He told them that he would amputate the leg in 6 weeks. Pastor still has his foot.
Three months later he was hospitalized for 3 deadly infections, C-Diff MERSA, and Staph infection. About 2 weeks later he was rushed to hospital with kidneys shutting down. He was life lighted to Utah University. He was placed on 2 studies by permission of the wife and daughter.
Jeff said everything was secret but he just didn’t have access to the group. He kept posting lies in a Spiritual Warfare Group and asking people to pray that God would take him even though some complained about it. He had someone that had no idea about the
Rose study that his wife and daughter had put him in a Comatos state. He lied about the Dialysis. It was never out on him because prayers from all over the world began to take hold.
Sis. Riley happened to be in the groups and saw it. She took pucks of it all. She wrote the leader of the group and told her she needed to be careful praying against a man of God to die and she was blocked from the group. All the while posting on his personal page that he was praying for the Riley family and if anyone had anything to pray for.
He post abunvpch of garbage and plagiarism on his page. Long stuff nobody even wants to read. Nobody likes or comments.
He is a know it all or he wants people to think he is.
He should have never been allowed to be a board member like a couple more, the man odiferous one wife or wife of one husband….that fit at least 4 of them. That is Bible not man-made scripture.
He needs to be super careful, unless he turns from his hate he clearly shows, repents to this pastor, and turns from his wicked evil ways, then he is in danger of Hell Fire. God hates liars.
As I already shared with Carla on a different blog, as to your allegation that Ramaj posted on Facebook to pray for the pastor to die, send me a screen shot of the post in question and I will add it to the article.
Tanua Riley,
You are
Such
A shameless liar. Your ill prose and half-witted liar mentality are so consistent that I cannot help reaching out to your unfortunate congregation in Wyoming tonshare with them the truth about who you and Keith are.
“Truth will Prevail” or in this case Tanua Riley. If you ARE telling the truth, why hide behind a fake name? You have been asked to provide screenshots proving your accusations on multiple occasions, yet you haven’t done it, why? You are demanding that Jeff repent to “this pastor” I can only assume you mean Keith? I thought he resigned? “God hates liars” can you honestly say that you have been 100% truthful, and you have not exaggerated the circumstances of your husbands illness, or your daughters “life threatening” fall??
Gotta love someone calling out another about a fake screen name and yet they use one, too…..
Once upon a time there was a revolution in a small church, it all started when the people got fed up with being governed and abused, by their pastor who felt that their church was his personal piggy bank and the congregation were his personal subjects. Demanding more and more of their livelihood one by one they left. Until only a handful remained. They sought help from regional leadership, to no avail, they took legal action.
To get the attention of the national leadership. But it did little good.
The abuse continued and their grievances were never addressed
The only logical result was an outright rebellion against those who approved of and practiced this very behavior themselves. And so it began!
Using every divisive practice known to leadership they eventually managed to gather all of the dissenting factions together against the rebellious congregation. The people remained silent as the tyrants built their walls around them even going as far as corrupting the legal representatives in an effort to thwart justice.
Yet for all their efforts the remaining congregation refused to relent and to this day continues to oppose the corrupt and divisive tactics of these wicked and evil men. After many years countless battles and abuses
the resolve of the congregation to see justice served remains strong and unwavering.
The reason for our confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God – not by human wisdom but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.
some who consider us to be behaving according to human standards.For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, Therefore when We were planning to do this, We did not do so without thinking about what We were doing, did We? You people judge by outward appearances; We do not judge anyone. By their appearance.
Do you rulers really pronounce just decisions? Do you judge people fairly? No! You plan how to do what is unjust; you deal out violence in the earth. –
update: lawsuit over judgements against rileys. church turned over to the board of revival center. church at 3716 foothill blvd now the pentecostals of rock springs, an independent pentecostal church.