The other side of Pastor Michael K. Evans

When I saw the name come up on my cell phone, I prepared myself for some bad news.  The first words out of the caller’s mouth was, “What’s Mike Evans’ father’s name?”

I said, Otis. 

He said, damn!

He then told me about the front page article in this week’s ‘Chester Spirit’ - Family claims popular pastor fleeced Dad on money and property. The call ended with us agreeing that something ain’t right. The claims don’t seem to reflect Michael’s character at all.

What he told me was on my mind all day and it was close to midnight before I got back to Chester and found a paper to read the article for myself. 

Before getting the paper, I shared with a close friend how troubled I was at what I heard and how I hoped the story wasn’t as it seemed. I know the Evans family too well and couldn’t imagine Mike would do those things. But I also told her that with Mike’s mom dying a couple years ago, the whole family dynamic may have changed. 

I was hoping to find holes in the article along with blatant contradictions based on my long association with the family. But, the article was well written and seemingly fact based with interviews and a paper trail of legal documents. 

The one line that stands out was when Mike’s brother Gregory laughed when his dad first presented him with the accusations against Mike. Greg was probably thinking just like me - “Not Mike.”

Mike’s mom and dad were practically my mom and dad since 2nd grade when Mike and I were attending Media Friends School. We went to Archmere Acedemy together and looked forward to finally playing on the same varsity basketball team before I decided to do my 11th and 12th years at Chester High. 


Mike was the best man at my wedding. 

As many childhood friends do as we get older, Mike and I have not been in touch as much as we’d like, and in the past few years I spent more time with his parents than him.

In fact, I did a story on Mike’s mom in my ‘Chester Spotlight’ that highlighted her amazing feat of having traveled to every continent on the globe - The Traveling Granny.

The Evans family are one of the only families that I know to have maintained the practice of having family meetings for as long as I’ve known them. They communicate everything between each other which makes this story so hard to accept. 

I haven’t talked to Mike lately but I can only imagine that he and his father had long discussions about the family properties. Mike is a very smart man and may have discovered that by incorporating the properties under his church could be advantageous to his father for tax purposes, or otherwise. Maybe 92 year old dad didn’t understand or agree. 

If Mike forced his way illegally, that would be unfortunate. Based on the article, whatever Mike’s intentions were are not in his favor.

I still love Mike like a brother, as I do his other brothers Otis, Jr., Greg, Rick, and his dad, Otis, Sr.

I believe they will work it out.