The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Michael Deckinga, Vice President for Advancement at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana, stands accused of distributing child pornography.
The chief fundraiser at a confessional Reformed seminary is facing federal charges of distributing child pornography, court documents confirm.
Mid-America Reformed Seminary Vice President for Advancement Michael Deckinga, 41, is being held at the Hammond, Indiana, city jail. He is awaiting an August 27 hearing before Magistrate Judge John E. Martin, according to a motion filed by public defender Peter L. Boyles.
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An indictment believed to detail Deckinga’s alleged crimes is under seal. An arrest warrant states Deckinga “committed violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2), distribution of child pornography,” between November 2024 and May 2025. No further details were disclosed.
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Deckinga was not a Mid-America graduate but earned a B.S. in history with minors in theology and business from Trinity Christian College, a Reformed school in Chicago. At the time of his hiring, Deckinga and his wife, Kim, resided in Beecher, Illinois with four children, whose ages in 2016 ranged from ten months to five years.
He was also said to be “chairman of the deacons” at Lynwood United Reformed Church in Lynwood, Illinois. The Rev. Nick Alons, Lynwood’s pastor, did not immediately respond to a phone message or email requesting comment.
Venema told the Christian Renewal publication in 2016, “Mike’s strengths are his familiarity with and enthusiastic commitment to Mid-America’s statement of its purpose as well as his understanding of how students who aspire to the gospel ministry need to be prepared academically and vocationally for this calling.”
Reached by phone at his home, Dirk Deckinga, Michael’s father, expressed astonishment at his son’s arrest.
“I really don’t think he did (it),” the elder Deckinga said. “But I don’t really know anything else about this. I’m just for a loss for words, and my wife and I . . . we just can’t believe it that this happened. We’re just waiting patiently for any information that we get from the lawyer.”
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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What a pooper !! He’ll never work in ministry again!