By Bob Allen
An association of Southern Baptist churches’ decision to kick out its only predominantly black congregation had nothing to do with race, the association’s director of missions insisted Oct. 20.
“The issue is not about race,” DOM Mike Kemper said in describing the Oct. 12 vote by the Lawrence County Association of Baptists to remove Greater Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church from the list of participating churches. “It is about our strongly held conviction that the role of pastor is assigned to men as defined in I Timothy 3:1-7.”
In a statement Oct. 20, Kemper said leaders of the association reached out to the congregation after church members voted in June to call a woman, Shonda Reynolds-Christian, as pastor. They wanted to clarify that the action put the congregation outside the association’s foundational doctrinal guide, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, which states “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” and that the church could not remain a member of the association with a woman as pastor.
After an initial meeting in July, followed by numerous telephone conversations, consultation with the Tennessee Baptist Convention and legal counsel and a final meeting Oct. 11, Kemper said it grew obvious the two sides were at an impasse.
Based on a recommendation by the credentials committee, the association voted 73-4 with one abstaining ballot to withdraw fellowship from Greater Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church effective immediately during the association’s annual meeting Oct. 12 at Deerfield Baptist Church. Several Greater Tabernacle members were present for the vote, Kemper said, and they were treated with respect.
Planted in 1989, the church was sponsored by the association and two member churches. Property was purchased on the church’s behalf, and the association donated material, money and labor for its current building completed in 1992.
Common with such transactions, the property deed includes a “reversion clause” dictating: “If the congregation ever ceases to be affiliated with the Lawrence County Association of Baptists, the Tennessee Baptist Convention, or the Southern Baptist Convention, the real estate conveyed herein will revert to the Lawrence County Association of Baptists.”
Kemper said church members were notified as early as July that losing their property was a possible consequence if they held to their decision. For now disposition of the reversion clause has been referred to the association’s executive committee for “prayerful decision as soon as possible.”
Kemper, a former International Mission Board missionary who served as director of missions for Gibson Baptist Association before taking over Baptist work in Lawrence County in 2013, said he does not consider the action taken against the church as anti-women, because women have always provided service, leadership and ministries in the association and its churches.
Kemper termed the separation “indeed a sad happening,” but said in the end decisions made by the church “left us with no other options other than to do what we did.”
The Baptist and Reflector, news journal for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, defended the association’s handling of the matter in an editorial Oct. 16 headlined, “Actions really do have consequences.”
“In reality, the association did not ‘kick out’ anyone,” opined Editor Lonnie Wilkey. “The church basically ‘kicked’ itself out.”
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