By Bob Allen
The pastor of a flagship Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church announced Oct. 19 he is resigning his pulpit, just short of nine months after telling the congregation he is battling cancer.
Guy Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., since September 2001, said recent months added urgency to thoughts of a ministry transition that he had already begun to entertain before learning in February he has multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell.
After treatment including chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant, he said, his cancer is in remission.
In a recent posting on a Caring Bridge site set up to allow church members and others to monitor his health status, Sayles said “re-mission” — in the sense of experiencing a new or renewed sense of mission — is a word he has been thinking about a lot.
“My experience with cancer has certainly made it necessary for me to think and pray, deeply and urgently, about the mission and purpose of my remaining life,” he wrote. “The gift of a physical remission brings with it the opportunity and responsibility of emotional/spiritual re-mission — of discerning and pursuing the role I can now play in pursuing God’s dreams for the world.”
In a letter read to the congregation Sunday morning, Sayles said he cannot fully embrace the discernment process while still serving as pastor. A few days earlier he submitted his resignation to the deacons, effective Jan. 11, 2015.
“I believe that I have given you the best gifts I have had to give, and I also believe that the next season of the church’s life, a season which is very bright with possibility, invites the talents and vision of a new pastor,” Sayles said. “That new pastor will step into a healthy, creative and vibrant community of faith. Our gifted and resourceful ministerial staff and a team of wise and committed lay leaders will continue to guide and care for the church.”
Sayles, 57, said it is the first time in his life that he is resigning a job without having another one lined up somewhere else. “Even though I am uncertain about what my next work will be, I am certain that my time as your pastor is ending,” he said.
“So, like Abraham and Sarah, I am setting out in response to what I believe to be God’s call without knowing where I am going,” he said. “I trust, as I have said to you across these years, that God will give me everything I need to live the life God is calling me to live.”
Sayles, a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a D. Min. from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, previously served congregations in Georgia, Maryland, Texas and Missouri. Prominent CBF pastorates include Kirkwood Baptist Church in St. Louis and Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.
He is a former member of the CBF Coordinating Council and in 2004 was named to a task force to explore ways for the organization to engage with the Baptist World Alliance, which voted to accept CBF as a member the previous year.
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