A well-known Cleveland-area bishop has now spoken publicly about his past ministry connection to Prophet Israel Ford, five days after Ford’s public introduction of a second wife turned a local church announcement into a national church debate.
Bishop R.A. Vernon, founder and senior pastor of The Word Church, addressed the Ford controversy in a video highlighted by Joy105 on Friday, October 30, 2026. According to Joy105’s description of the video, Vernon said he allowed Ford and his first wife, Lydia Ford, to use one of The Word Church’s buildings for several years, but he had no knowledge that Ford had a second wife.
Vernon also said he personally called Ford after his own name became connected to the controversy, and he explained why he felt it was necessary to address their previous ministry relationship in public.
“I don’t play with my family, wife, or name,” Vernon said, according to Joy105’s description.
The Gospel Report has not reviewed a full transcript of Vernon’s remarks, and this article reports his position as described by Joy105. What follows is based on that description, on Vernon’s church biography, and on the previously reported facts of the Ford announcement itself.
A name pulled into someone else’s story
The central point of Vernon’s response, as described, is distance. He is not presenting himself as a defender of Ford’s arrangement, nor as a critic delivering a theological ruling on it. He is drawing a line around his own name and his own church, and saying that a past act of hospitality should not be read as approval of, or involvement in, what Ford later announced.
That distinction matters in a story that has moved very fast online. Since Sunday, October 25, clips, commentary videos and social media posts have linked a growing list of names to the Ford family, sometimes on the basis of a shared stage, a shared building or a past appearance together. Vernon appears to be the first senior pastor of a large, established church to step forward and put his own version of such a connection on the record.
According to Joy105’s description, Vernon said the Fords used a Word Church building for several years. The description does not name which building, does not give dates for that arrangement, and does not say what ministry the Fords were doing there. Those details have not been independently verified, and this article does not fill them in.
What Vernon is reported to have said clearly is that the second wife was not part of what he knew. In his account, the ministry relationship he knew was with Ford and Lydia Ford. The public announcement of a second wife, Shakayla Ford, was new information to him, in the same way it was new information to much of the wider church public on October 25.
Vernon also said he called Ford directly once his name was drawn into the discussion. That detail is significant, because it suggests his public statement came after a private conversation, not instead of one. Joy105’s description does not report what Ford said in that call, and no response from Ford to Vernon’s statement was included in the material reviewed for this article.
Who Bishop R.A. Vernon is
Vernon is not a peripheral figure in Ohio church life. According to The Word Church’s own website, Dr. R.A. Vernon is the founder and senior pastor of the church, which is based in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland. The church describes him as a faith leader in Cleveland whose ministry reaches a national audience through social and digital media.
He is also the co-founder of The Vernon Family Foundation and R.A. Vernon Ministries, and the founder of The Shepherds Connection, a network of senior pastors and their spouses to whom he provides leadership counsel and ministry development. The church’s biography notes his theological training at Ashland Theological Seminary, including a Doctor of Ministry with a concentration in church growth, and says he is married to Victory Vernon, with whom he has five children.
That profile helps explain why his name carried weight once it entered the Ford conversation. When a pastor who leads a large church and mentors other pastors is linked, even indirectly, to a controversy, silence can itself be read as a position. Vernon’s decision to speak, as described by Joy105, appears designed to prevent that reading: to state plainly what the connection was, and what it was not.
It is also worth noting what Vernon did not do, at least in the account available so far. He did not, according to Joy105’s description, announce any disciplinary action, claim authority over Ford’s church, or present himself as a judge of Ford’s ministry. His statement, as reported, is personal and institutional at the same time: it protects his family name, and it protects his church’s name, by separating both from an arrangement he says he did not know about.
What happened on October 25
To understand why Vernon felt he had to speak, it helps to recall how quickly the Ford story moved.
On Sunday, October 25, 2026, at LifeWorks Church in Wickliffe, Ohio, a church Ford co-founded, Ford publicly introduced a second wife to his congregation. The introduction was made not by Ford alone, but by his first wife and co-pastor, Lydia Ford, who presented Shakayla Ford, formerly Shakayla Talley and a minister in the church, as her husband’s second wife and as her own sister in marriage.
Lydia Ford told the congregation that she and her husband are living in what she described as a polygynous marriage, a form of polygamy in which one man has more than one wife. Shakayla Ford then addressed the congregation, and video clips from the service spread rapidly online.
By Monday, October 26, the story was being covered by Christian and entertainment outlets across the United States. Ford posted a video of the moment on Facebook and introduced Shakayla Ford to a wider audience in his own words.
“I would like to introduce to the world, my second wife, Shakayla Ford!!!” he wrote, according to multiple outlets that quoted the post.
In the same post, he challenged the teaching that a man should have only one wife, writing: “As a nation we have been taught that a man should have one wife only. This is unbiblical.”
Ford cited Exodus 21:10, a passage setting out obligations for a man who takes another wife, and has pointed in coverage of his argument to Old Testament figures who had more than one wife. Critics responded by citing 1 Timothy 3:2, which states that a church overseer must be the husband of one wife.
The Christian Post reported on October 26 that Ford told his congregation he has been living with two wives for the past three years. That figure is attributed to reports of the service. The Gospel Report has not independently verified a marriage date or a legal marriage record for the second union, and this article does not claim one. Polygyny is illegal in the United States, as the Christian Post noted, and no legal documents have been cited in the coverage reviewed here.
The week between the announcement and Vernon’s response
Between October 25 and October 30, the Ford story did not stand still. The couple spoke publicly about their arrangement in an interview on Larry Reid Live, published on October 27, in which Ford, Lydia Ford and Shakayla Ford appeared together. Reports of that interview said Ford discussed the possibility of a third wife, saying he could go as far as he could afford, and that any further wife would need the approval of both Lydia Ford and Shakayla Ford.
Those remarks, as reported, are Ford’s own account of his position, not a confirmed plan, and they are mentioned here only to show the direction the public conversation was moving before Vernon spoke. By the time Vernon’s video surfaced, the debate had widened well beyond the original Sunday service, and a growing number of pastors, commentators and former associates were being asked, directly or by implication, where they stood.
Vernon’s response fits that moment. He is not entering the debate about polygamy in general, at least not in the description available. He is answering a narrower question that many church leaders face when a controversy touches someone they once hosted, platformed or worked alongside: did you know, and do you endorse this?
His reported answer to both questions is no. He did not know about a second wife, and the building arrangement, in his account, was hospitality to a ministry couple, not an endorsement of a polygynous marriage he says he had no knowledge of.
Why a building matters in this story
Church buildings carry meaning beyond bricks and rooms. When one ministry uses another church’s building, congregations often read that as trust, fellowship and a shared standing. That is why Vernon addressed it directly, rather than letting the connection stand unexplained.
If a pastor lends a building to another ministry for years, members of both congregations may reasonably assume the two leaders are close, aligned and aware of each other’s lives. Vernon is, in effect, correcting that assumption. A long building arrangement, he is saying, does not mean he knew everything about Ford’s household, and it does not mean The Word Church shares Ford’s teaching on marriage.
That correction also protects the people in his own congregation. Members of The Word Church who heard Vernon’s name mentioned in connection with the Ford story now have his own words to refer to, rather than only commentary from others. For a senior pastor, that is often the practical reason to speak publicly: to give his own church a clear account before speculation fills the gap.
At the same time, the limits of the available account should be kept in view. Joy105’s description is a summary of a video, not a transcript, and it does not include Vernon’s full remarks, the setting in which he made them, or any questions he was answering. Independent confirmation of the building arrangement, its dates and its terms has not been published in the sources reviewed for this article. Readers should therefore treat the building detail as Vernon’s account, as reported by Joy105, rather than as a document-verified fact.
What remains unanswered
Several questions remain open after Vernon’s statement, and none of them should be answered by speculation.
First, Ford has not, in the material reviewed here, publicly responded to Vernon’s statement. Whether he will do so, and what he would say about the building arrangement or about the phone call Vernon describes, is unknown.
Second, the full scope of the past ministry relationship between Vernon and the Fords has not been set out in detail. Joy105’s description mentions a building used for several years and a previous ministry relationship, but it does not describe joint services, ordinations, coverings or any formal affiliation. No such affiliation should be assumed from a building arrangement alone.
Third, the wider theological debate that Ford’s announcement started has not been settled by Vernon’s statement, and Vernon does not appear to have tried to settle it. The question of how churches interpret Exodus 21:10 alongside 1 Timothy 3:2, and what standard applies to a pastor in a polygynous marriage, remains a live disagreement among pastors and commentators, with strongly held views on both sides.
Finally, the legal position remains as it was on October 26: polygyny is illegal in the United States, no legal marriage record for a second union has been verified in the coverage reviewed, and this article describes Ford’s arrangement strictly as a religious announcement and as the family’s own description of their household, not as a verified legal marriage.
A story that is still widening
Vernon’s intervention is best understood as a new chapter in a story that is still widening, rather than as its conclusion. The original announcement on October 25 introduced a second wife. The days that followed brought interviews, commentary and claims from family members and other channels. Now, a senior pastor whose church once hosted the Fords has publicly defined the limits of his own connection to them.
That pattern is likely to continue. As more pastors who know Ford, have hosted him, or have appeared alongside him are named online, more of them may feel compelled to say what they knew and when they knew it. Each such statement will add a piece to the public record, but each will also need to be weighed on its own terms: who is speaking, what they actually said, and what has been independently verified.
For now, the verified core of this latest development is narrow, and it should stay narrow. Bishop R.A. Vernon, founder and senior pastor of The Word Church near Cleveland, has spoken out following Ford’s announcement. According to Joy105’s description, he said he let Ford and Lydia Ford use a Word Church building for several years, that he had no knowledge of a second wife, that he called Ford after his name became connected to the controversy, and that he spoke publicly because he does not play with his family, his wife, or his name.
Everything beyond that, including the full text of his remarks and any response from Ford, will have to wait for fuller reporting. Until then, Vernon’s statement stands as what it is: a prominent pastor drawing a clear line between past hospitality and present controversy, and asking to be judged on his own words rather than on someone else’s announcement.
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