Pastor John-Paul Miller’s Fried Chicken Shop Service Ends in Disaster

Disgraced pastor John-Paul Miller has abandoned his embattled strip-mall church amid angry protests—only to be turned away from a makeshift replacement venue at a fried chicken restaurant.

Miller once preached to thousands at a megachurch. Now, he leads Mercy Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where no more than 50 people attend services inside a cheaply refurbished former nail salon in a run-down shopping strip.

Persistent demonstrations outside the property have since driven Miller to relocate to a nearby fast-food restaurant in an effort to hold services away from the protesters.

The 47-year-old pastor has faced mounting controversy since his wife, Mica, 30, was found dead on April 27, 2024—just days after filing for divorce.

Much of Miller’s congregation disappeared after he was accused of driving his wife to suicide and abusing her during their marriage. Miller denied the allegations and has not been charged in connection with her death.

The allegations did, however, precede federal charges accusing Miller of cyberstalking his wife. He has pleaded not guilty.

Protests at his new church intensified following the recent release of the Netflix documentary Death of the Pastor’s Wife.

Despite stringent security measures, including armed guards, Miller was nowhere to be found at Mercy Church on Sunday, September 27.

Protest organizers waited outside for hours before receiving a tip that Miller and dozens of church members had moved to a chicken restaurant five miles away in Surfside Beach.

The protesters soon moved to a traffic island between US 17 and a side street opposite Southern Chicken, where they resumed their heckling. Miller, his latest wife Suzie Skinner, 51, and the other church members were then expelled from the restaurant.

Southern Chicken confirmed that Miller and his congregation had been asked to leave, although the restaurant did not say whether the protests prompted the decision.

‘We did not support him. We had him escorted out,’ worker Chantell Dowell wrote online. She declined to provide further details when contacted by the Daily Mail.

Customers with reservations reportedly called the restaurant that day to ask whether Miller was present, saying they would make alternative plans if he was there.

Miller also called police about the protesters at the chicken restaurant, claiming they had followed him from the church and were stalking and harassing him.

Sam Rickman, one of the protest leaders and a close friend of Mica who belonged to Miller’s former Solid Rock Church until her death, mocked the disgraced pastor.

‘If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding?’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘He probably thinks that maybe this Sunday they’ll be done, maybe they finally got it out of their system. But bro, we’re planning on being there until you go to prison.’

‘We have a friend who’s gone, and we have a lot of questions that haven’t been answered yet,’ he added.

Mica was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Lumbee River State Park in North Carolina, after calling 911 to tell her family where to find her.

Miller is increasingly becoming a pariah in Myrtle Beach and surrounding towns since the charges and documentary, with many businesses refusing to serve him.

He and Suzie were last week kicked out of Travinia Italian Kitchen in Myrtle Beach after customers and staff complained that the sight of the pair offended them.

General manager Ashley Thomas told the Daily Mail that Miller dared staff to call police on him and only left after Suzie dragged him out.

A scathing one-star review appeared on Travinia’s TripAdvisor page from a ‘John M’ later that evening that staff believe was left by Miller.

Thomas explained that after the documentary was released multiple tables would get up and leave when he arrived.

‘They would say things like, “I can’t believe you’re letting him eat here,” or “I’m not sitting here having dinner and staring at that guy,”‘ Thomas said.

‘Nobody wants to wait on him, and I’m not gonna force anyone to. So we just decided it would just probably be for the best that he does not come in here.’

Miller and Suzie were spotted at a Myrtle Beach Pelicans minor league baseball game on September 2, dressed casually and trying to blend in.

But when they tried to enjoy a post-game drink at nearby Uncle Tito’s bar in Murrells Inlet – about 10 miles from Miller’s home – they were jeered by other patrons.

One local said ‘everyone in the bar started yelling… and (the Millers) put their heads down and got the hell outta there real quick.’

Suzie is accused of having a long-running affair with Miller before Mica’s death. Her own late husband drowned in a swimming pool in 2021 – allegedly after discovering her betrayal.

Mercy Church is Miller’s attempt at a rebrand after the fallout from Mica’s death doomed its previous incarnation, Solid Rock Church, which had hundreds of followers.

Miller’s humble new venue, measuring just 1,120sq ft and so narrow it could only fit rows of seven chairs, was acquired for $155,000 in cash.

Miller is accused of a shocking alleged campaign of harassment against Mica in the leadup to her death.

He faces up to five years in prison for federal cyberstalking charges and two years for making false statements to investigators, plus a fine of up to $250,000.

He pleaded not guilty and will go on trial in January.

Mica filed for divorce from Miller in October 2023, before they reconciled in February 2024, then again on April 15, 2024, just before her death.

Miller is also fighting separate civil claims, accused in a lawsuit last July of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1998 while working at his father’s church in Myrtle Beach when he was 19.

Days later, a second woman, known as ‘Jane Doe #2’, sued him and his father for sexual abuse between 1999 and 2001 starting when she was 14.

Miller has denied both claims.