Editor's Note: This article will be reissued later in two parts and in an abbreviated version.
GILROY, Calif. (ABP) — Michael Stewart of California, a Baptist associational director who has crossed swords publicly with national Southern Baptist leaders, has been removed as a missionary of the North American Mission Board.
A NAMB spokesman said the “rare” dismissal is unrelated to Stewart's recent accusations that the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee interfered in a church-property dispute in Los Lomas, Calif. Instead, spokesman Marty King blamed it on a “deteriorating relationship” between Stewart and NAMB. In addition, he said, Stewart has been critical of the SBC agency, based in Alpharetta, Ga.
Stewart also has been in a long-running dispute with NAMB trustee Ron Wilson, a Los Angeles-area pastor. Wilson serves on NAMB's missionary personnel committee, which terminated Stewart's missionary status June 12.
A transcript of a May 30 meeting between Stewart and NAMB officials, obtained by Associated Baptist Press, reveals those officials were very concerned about Stewart's relationship with Wilson, a former NAMB chairman, who had lodged the complaints that prompted the showdown meeting with Stewart at the agency's Atlanta-area headquarters.
“What about your relationship with Ron Wilson, who happens to be a trustee?” asked trustee Terry Fox, chair of the missionary personnel committee, after all the agenda items had been addressed. “It would be important to get that resolved. I would encourage you to do that,” Fox said, according to the transcript.
Stewart said he understood the underlying message. “I was told at the May meeting that I had to get along with Ron Wilson if I was going to continue as a missionary,” Stewart told Associated Baptist Press.
Wilson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Thousand Oaks, Calif., did not participate in the May 30 meeting, which included several NAMB administrators and two trustees — one of them Fox, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan.
But Wilson told ABP he did attend the June 11 meeting of the trustees' missionary personnel committee, led by Fox, and that he voted to dismiss Stewart.
Wilson declined to discuss the reasons for Stewart's termination. “I'm not going to go into any kind of detail,” he said. “The [North American Mission] Board made a statement as to the deteriorating relationship between Mike and the board.”
Stewart remains director of missions for the Central Coast Baptist Association, his ultimate employer. And the California Southern Baptist Convention, which also funds Stewart's position, issued a statement of support. But Stewart's salary supplement and insurance coverage from NAMB have been eliminated — an estimated $25,000.
“What is of most concern for our family is that our youngest son is under the care of a cardiologist for a congenital heart condition,” Stewart wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “Affordable insurance that is of high enough quality to treat him will be difficult to obtain.”
Wilson acknowledged he brought the original allegations against Stewart to the missionary personnel committee in 2004. “The original thing was that people in his association made some complaints to me as a trustee,” he told ABP.
The allegations — which came from Charles Callis of San Jose, a pastor in the association and friend of Wilson's — were that Stewart made “derogatory” statements about the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message,” the SBC's conservative doctrinal statement which all SBC missionaries are required to affirm, and that Stewart tried to “take over” San Tomas Baptist Church, a troubled congregation in the association.
About 300 of the country's 900-plus associational directors are funded in a three-way partnership between NAMB, state conventions and local associations. So NAMB, according to its protocol for partnerships, asked the California Southern Baptist Convention to look into the charges in December 2004. The convention in turn contacted Stewart's employer, Central Coast Baptist Association, a group of 105 churches in the pricey Monterey Bay area.
The Gilroy-based association formed an investigative committee. According to the committee's report, released in late 2005, Stewart opposed an attempt by Callis in 2001 to require each church in the Central Coast Baptist Association to adopt the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message” as its official statement of faith. Stewart said such an associational action would violate local-church autonomy and decimate the association, since only two of its churches had affirmed the 2000 statement. Callis' motion failed 148-2.
Stewart got involved in the controversy at San Tomas Baptist Church in 2001 because Mike Nichols, the pastor, had sold off $900,000 worth of church property and given the proceeds to himself and family members, the investigative committee concluded.
In a 2001 meeting that included Stewart and numerous pastors from the association, it was decided to recruit volunteers to join San Tomas “for a period of time to try to help the church get back on its feet and grow.” About 35 individuals — but not Stewart — presented themselves for membership in San Tomas Baptist in January 2002, but they were rejected by the pastor and his supporters, the investigation said. “The doors were locked and they were not allowed to attend the services.”
However, Stewart and the association helped three San Tomas members file a lawsuit that, on the eve of trial, produced a settlement ousting the pastor and regaining control of most of the church's assets.
“The committee concluded that all allegations against Dr. Stewart are totally without merit,” said the committee's report. “Dr. Stewart is in complete agreement with the [2000 “Baptist Faith and Message”] and did nothing unethical regarding the San Tomas Church.”
But the associational committee did not stop with clearing Stewart. It also asked Ron Wilson and the North American Mission Board to repent for making false accusations.
Wilson refused, saying he had done nothing wrong.
NAMB did not apologize either. But in a crucial letter to the association's moderator Oct. 12, 2005, NAMB's Eduardo Docampo said that, after the association's investigation, “the matter was closed and remains closed.”
Docampo, then-strategy coordinator for the western region, said NAMB was not investigating Stewart. The idea that there was “some movement to dismiss” Stewart was “not true,” Docampo said. He also responded to the association's concerns that Wilson was himself investigating Stewart, using his role as a trustee to intimidate Baptists in the association. Docampo said Wilson was not authorized to speak for the board.
Docampo concluded his letter with the assurance that “neither I personally nor NAMB has any disputes of any kind with the CCBA.”
The controversy was far from over, however.
A month later, at the California Southern Baptist Convention in November 2005, the association's investigative committee challenged Wilson for interfering in associational affairs and refusing to repent. Without naming Wilson, the committee convinced messengers not to allow “the one challenged messenger” to participate in the convention meeting.
Historians told ABP it was the first time in U.S. Baptist history that an individual — not a church — was excluded from a state convention meeting.
By December 2005, NAMB was again looking into the allegations against Stewart — concerning San Tomas Church and the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message.” On Feb. 13, Stewart was told to meet with NAMB vice president Harry Lewis, Fox and others to “clarify” those issues, which had been closed four months before.
Marty King, the NAMB spokesman, told ABP July 6 that Stewart's case, although closed in October, had been reopened. “The relationship over the last few months is what precipitated it,” he said. “NAMB had received concerns from others in California, including pastors, including some in his association, about some of his actions and activities,” King said.
After several months of trying unsuccessfully to get all the parties together for a face-to-face meeting, Lewis e-mailed Stewart April 11 to confirm a meeting for May 30 in Alpharetta. “If you choose not to accept this invitation, I will assume that you no longer wish to be a North American Mission Board-appointed missionary at this point,” Lewis wrote.
Stewart said he was “startled” and “perplexed” to learn that his termination was now on the table. At the association's insistence, he said, he took his attorney and a local pastor to the meeting. The issues of the SBC's doctrinal statement, San Tomas and Ron Wilson were discussed, but no resolution was reached.
The meeting transcript includes no mention an intent to dismiss Stewart.
That came June 26 in a phone call from a NAMB personnel officer, Peter Kendrick, informing Stewart that the trustee personnel committee — which included Wilson and Fox — had voted June 12 to remove his missionary endorsement and defund his position.
Stewart told ABP the NAMB vote bears the marks of Wilson's wrath.
“I think this has everything to do with Ron Wilson not being seated at the state convention,” Stewart said. “They are taking it out on me.”
“He said that? Really?” replied Wilson to ABP. “I don't think that the North American Mission Board's action has anything to do with the actions he pulled at the California Southern Baptist Convention.”
Wilson said the California convention “made accusations against an unnamed person [Wilson] who was not even given an opportunity to defend himself, but that didn't have anything to do with the North American Mission Board. He could not be more incorrect on that.”
NAMB's King declined to give details about Stewart's dismissal. “Because of the personnel nature of the issue, I'm just not able to go into that,” he said. “The funding was withdrawn due to a deteriorating relationship with Dr. Stewart,” King said, adding that Stewart had been making negative comments about NAMB in churches of the association.
One local pastor said NAMB's explanation is believable.
“Mike [Stewart] is very caustic in his discussions about NAMB,” said Jack Clegg, pastor of First Baptist Church of Morgan Hill, Calif., who said he has seen Stewart's “one-sided” slide show against NAMB. “Mike's been told: 'This is going to get you in trouble, so you better make sure this is a hill worth dying on.'”
Stewart said the accusation that he spoke negatively about NAMB likely came from a presentation he made to other associational directors Jan. 10. “I said NAMB's factual data on church growth was not good and the missionary count was inflated,” Stewart told ABP.
Those same statistics contributed to the forced resignation of NAMB president Bob Reccord a month later. Stewart, a theological conservative, said those statistics have not been popular with the SBC's conservative leaders. “If our [denominational] problems were theological 20 years ago, we should see a rebound. But the data shows we're in decline in everything.”
Clegg said Stewart also is not shy about showing up when a church in his association is in turmoil. Two such disputes have resulted in lawsuits, he said.
Clegg acknowledged he has talked to Ron Wilson about Stewart. But he added, “I have no axe to grind.” He said he was scheduled to have lunch with Stewart the next day. “I'm trying to do something that's not easy for me, and that's to be a peacemaker.”
“But when you have this much smoke, there's probably fire,” Clegg said. “I just don't know who started the fire.”
NAMB spokesman King declined to say what role Ron Wilson had in Stewart's dismissal. “Ron Wilson is one trustee and one member of the personnel committee,” King said. “He certainly seems to take his responsibility as a trustee very seriously.”
For the last two decades, Ron Wilson has been one of the most vocal and visible trustees in Baptist life, serving on two of the SBC's most influential boards — the International Mission Board (then known as the Foreign Mission Board) and now the North American Mission Board.
In the 1990s, Wilson proposed moving the IMB headquarters out of Richmond, Va., after Virginia Baptists voted to cut funding for the IMB. The board considered moving but declined. Later Wilson argued for the defunding of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Ruschlikon, Switzerland, which IMB did, creating a breach in the relationship between the SBC and European Baptists that still exists. The Ruschlikon controversy and other disputes led IMB president Keith Parks to resign. When some trustees tried to talk Parks into staying, Wilson argued to let him go.
In defending his allegations against Stewart, Wilson said it is his responsibility — as the NAMB trustee from California — to find out what the agency's missionaries are saying.
But officials of the Central Coast Association said Wilson was conducting his own investigation of Stewart in California and “pretending” to speak on behalf of NAMB. Wilson was using his NAMB role “as an intimidation factor” and was “interfering” in the affairs of the association, Ned Smithers, attorney for Stewart and the association, told NAMB officials during the May 30 meeting.
Fox replied that Wilson's actions should be expected when the association “issues a mandate” for “a pastor, who is a trustee of the North American Mission Board and not in the association,” to repent. “When you do that, you can expect that kind of reaction from Ron Wilson,” Fox said.
NAMB's attorney Randy Singer, also in the meeting, said he was stunned by the association's request for NAMB to repent. “That report was a slap at the North American Mission Board,” Singer said.
He added later: “I have got to tell you that, when I read the conclusion to that report and the letter that came with it, I was like 'Wow!' I don't think I've ever seen in Southern Baptist life, ever, an association take this kind of [action] … sending the [NAMB] president a letter saying we must apologize, and here is where you check to apologize. Ever.”
NAMB VP Lewis agreed the association's “requirement” of repentance is what kept Stewart's status “on the table rather than allowing it to be closed,” according to the transcript.
Dewey Squires, a pastor from the association, told the NAMB officials Stewart was not involved in the committee's investigation or report and could not be held responsible for its tone or content.
Neither was he a party in the San Tomas lawsuit, the association officials said.
Trustee Fox said Stewart's reported role in the San Tomas Church affair “has been a huge concern” of the personnel committee. “The idea of talking people into joining [from] one church to another, that doesn't sell,” the Kansas pastor said.
According to the transcript, Stewart said he encouraged the people who wanted to save the San Tomas Church, but he did not ask or encourage them to move their membership.
On the 2000 “Baptist Faith and Message,” Stewart said he abides by NAMB's policy, which requires missionaries to “maintain theological convictions consistent with” the 2000 statement.
Stewart said he did not oppose the doctrinal statement but only the “misuse” of it by those who wanted to make it a requirement for associational membership. Regardless, Central Coast's policy is “an associational issue,” Stewart said, not an issue of missionary employment.
Stewart recounted after the meeting: “After twice affirming that we were in compliance with NAMB policy on the BF&M 2000 and that the [San Tomas Church] was back on its feet and ready to call a new pastor, we asked what could we do to bring reconciliation to the relationship. That question was met with silence.”
As the meeting concluded, the NAMB participants said it was helpful and they agreed “to move forward” but would not say all issues were settled.
Twelve days later, Fox, Wilson and the other members of the personnel committee voted to dismiss Stewart.
Stewart said he was disappointed with the way NAMB started the investigation — relaying Wilson's allegations to the state convention without informing Stewart and giving him a chance to respond. Even when NAMB wrote Oct. 12 that the issue was “closed,” he continued, “never once did they say in that letter, 'We are thrilled that one of our missionaries is serving Christ and not guilty of these allegations.'”
Fermin Whittaker, executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention, told ABP the NAMB action would not interfere with the state convention's funding of Stewart or the association. Whittaker wrote to Stewart July 9 to “affirm your ministry” and “our commitment to stand in partnership with Central Coast Baptist Association.”
NAMB also will continue to fund joint ministries in the association, such as church planting, said King. “We are not withdrawing support from the association.” Neither would NAMB pressure the association to fire Stewart, he said.
However, Stewart said that, soon after his defunding, the association was told funding for a NAMB church starter would end Jan. 1.
Stewart said the association's churches “are all shocked” about the NAMB termination but “we're going to move on.”
He said his problems, as well as trustee turmoil at the International Mission Board, demonstrate “that the trustee system is broken in Southern Baptist life.” Anybody who opposes the SBC's powerbrokers is in jeopardy, he said.
“We need something like a missionary bill of rights to protect home and foreign missionaries, so there is a process that protects us from this kind of thing,” he concluded. “We just can't allow this to keep happening to missionaries of good conscience.”
Ron Wilson suggested Mike Stewart's saga is not over. “There's a much bigger story you ought to look into, and it's not about me,” Wilson told ABP. “There are some not-nice things going on” in the Central Coast Association, he said.
And he suggested that efforts to increase the profile of the “Baptist Faith and Message” won't stop with the Central Coast Baptist Association.
“If you can't make the 'Baptist Faith and Message' a test of fellowship, then what good is it?”
-30-
Read more:
Messy dispute in Calif. association likely to be aired at SBC meeting