Oasis of Praise Pastor Allan Kendrick, whose grandson Brandon Kendrick was charged with killing five people last year at the pastor’s home, has resigned from the church after 41 years and accepted a retirement package.

“I’m just tired,” Kendrick said in an interview with AL.com. He and his wife, Gay, co-lead pastors, have stepped down. “My wife’s tired.”

The McCalla church on Wednesday night approved a $100,000 retirement package for the Kendricks. Kendrick said he has been on leave of absence from the church and hasn’t preached since Dec. 18.

“I never took my full salary, never took a housing (allowance),” he said. “I paid for all my housing out of the partial salary that I took.”

Kendrick, 73, said today he has been the target of what he claims are relentless and mostly false social media accusations against him by people who believe he is responsible in some way for the murders that happened at his home on July 18. He and his wife had raised their grandson, Brandon, since age 12 because the boy’s father died and his mother was on drugs, he said.

Brandon Allan Kendrick II, 32, is charged with five counts of capital murder. Charging documents against Brandon Kendrick say he shot his wife, Kelse Kendrick, 24, in the head with a handgun. Four children were also fatally shot: Kaleb Kendrick, 6, Kynli Kendrick, 2, Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, 8.

“When this happened, I started getting accused of being responsible for the five murders that took place,” he said. “They claimed I stood and watched it.”

Kendrick said his grandson was mentally ill and “it was only by the grace of God that my wife and I” were not killed also. He said his wife took the gun out of Brandon’s hand and as she did so, the gun went off, narrowly missing her, he said.

Kelse Kendrick, her husband Brandon, and their two children lived in a garage apartment behind the pastor’s home in the West Blocton area in Bibb County. Kelce and the children had earlier been at the home of Bill Morrow, Kelse Kendrick’s grandfather, for a pool party to celebrate Colton’s upcoming 9th birthday.

After the murders happened in July, a group of critics of Kendrick started a Facebook page the following week which has been a forum for criticism of the pastor and the church. He said people he has never met have accused him of wrongdoing. He said he has received numerous threatening phone calls.

“I started immediately getting harassed on Facebook,” Kendrick said. “This stuff was just going on and on and on,” he said of accusations against him.

Kendrick said that many people blamed him for the murders and accused him of providing the murder weapon.

“I was accused of buying it,” Kendrick said. “My grandson’s wife had bought a gun. She was working at Dollar General some at night. I told her not to do it. She did anyway. About two weeks before all that happened, she brought me the gun and said he didn’t need (to have access to) it. I said, ‘I told you that.’ I told her I’m going to hide it, put it up here in the closet. I set it right back behind this shelf right here. I didn’t know she came back and got it.”

Kendrick said he wasn’t allowed to grieve the death of his great-grandchildren and the other victims.

“All that tragedy and then bam,” he said. “I was threatened, my family was threatened if we came to the funeral, so we didn’t go to the funeral. We had no closure with that. I’ve just been under a lot.”

Kendrick became pastor of what was then known as Shades Crest Church of God in 1983, with only four members. The name changed to Pocahontas Road Church of God and then, in the late 1990s, Oasis of Praise.

Kendrick, who retired from U.S. Steel and construction work to be a full-time pastor, said he personally led the construction of the current church building and the one that preceded it, while overseeing growth to more than 1,200 members, with attendance of 600 to 700 on Sundays at its peak. Many former members have stepped forward to level allegations against him, he said.

“I’ve been through hell and back in my 41 years there,” Kendrick said.

The Church of God, a denomination based in Cleveland, Tenn., hired an investigator to look into allegations against him on social media raised by participants in the Facebook group, he said. He was accused of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and of covering up sexual abuse, he said. He denies those accusations. If there is a continued investigation, he will surrender his preaching license, he said.

“If they call for a hearing, I’m just going to turn my license in,” Kendrick said.

Rather than face a potential church trial, Kendrick said he decided to retire.

By Friday morning, the pictures of Kendrick and his wife had been removed from the church’s staff page.

Associate Pastor Patrick Cooper referred questions about Kendrick’s retirement to executives at the Alabama Church of God office, who have not returned calls requesting comment on the investigation.

“I gave my whole life to the ministry,” Kendrick said. “A lot of people have been saved.”

Kendrick said his reputation has been damaged to the extent that he doesn’t think he would be allowed or invited to preach anywhere else, even if he kept his preaching credentials.

“I’m gone,” Kendrick said. “I won’t be back.”