By Bob Allen
A Kentucky Baptist Convention committee voted Oct. 9 to sever ties with Crescent Hill Baptist Church over the historic Louisville congregation’s welcoming and affirming stance toward gays.
According to a news release, the decision by a credentials committee will come as a recommendation at the upcoming KBC annual meeting Nov. 11 in Bowling Green, Ky.
The action is in response to a statement on the Crescent Hill Baptist Church website describing a decision reached in 2013 “to be open to grant ordination, hire or perform wedding ceremonies for LGBTQ individuals.”
“In other words, sexual identity or orientation will not be a factor in determining whether the church will ordain, hire or perform a wedding ceremony,” the statement says.
Kevin Smith, chairman of the credentials committee, said after a series of private discussions between leaders of the KBC and Crescent Hill the committee determined the congregation is no longer “in friendly cooperation” with the statewide affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“We’re grieved by Crescent Hill’s departure from biblical teaching and Baptist beliefs,” said Paul Chitwood, KBC executive director. “We’re prayerful that they will return to the truth of Scripture on this issue and seek to be restored.”
Jason Crosby, minister of preaching, pastoral care and administration at Crescent Hill, said “as a born and bred Kentuckian and Baptist, this decision saddens me.”
“However, I am glad to serve a Baptist church in Kentucky that is striving to communicate to all people, whether they be LGBTQ or KBC folks, that there is room for them at God’s table where love and grace abound,” said Crosby, who began serving at Crescent Hill in 2008.
Organized in 1908, Crescent Hill Baptist Church dedicated its current building at the corner of Frankfort and Birchwood avenues in 1926 to coincide with the opening of nearby Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
For many years the church and seminary shared ties of mutual support lending Crescent Hill the reputation as Louisville’s “seminary church.” For decades the congregation flourished with help from student volunteers and part-time employees.
That all changed with the “conservative resurgence” in Southern Baptist and Kentucky Baptist life. Over the years fewer and fewer students, faculty and staff shared the congregation’s moderate views toward Bible interpretation, women in ministry and other issues.
During the 1980s about 60 seminary faculty and staff were members of Crescent Hill Baptist Church. By 2000 the number of seminary employees had dwindled to five. The congregation voted to loosen ties to the Southern Baptist Convention but not sever them completely so as not to jeopardize those few members’ jobs.
Crescent Hill members were involved in organizing the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991. In 2009 the congregation joined the Alliance of Baptists, an older and smaller SBC breakaway group with more progressive theological and social views.
In 2012 the church entered an 18-month period of “discernment” about homosexuality, ultimately voting to become a “welcoming and affirming” congregation fully accepting of gays. In October 2013 Crescent Hill joined the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, a group of like-minded churches and organizations formed in 1993.
On Oct. 25, Crescent Hill will host an “assembly of the injured” led by AWAB Executive Director Robin Lunn on the need for churches to establish “safe places” for people who feel they have been harmed by church teachings or actions regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.
Chip Hutcheson, president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said anyone opposing the committee’s recommendation to sever ties with Crescent Hill will get an opportunity to speak Nov. 11 at Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green.
“People will be allowed to speak for and against it, and then there will be a vote of the convention messengers,” Hutcheson said.
Chitwood, however, offered little doubt that he believes the motion will pass.
“We’re thankful that Kentucky Baptists remain grounded in the Bible as our culture continues to rush headlong toward chaos with regard to human sexuality and gay marriage,” he said. “Our love for all people, including those who practice homosexuality, requires us to speak the truth about sin even when we are speaking it to one another.”