The 71 members are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against church leaders last year alleging improper spending practices and seeking access to financial records.
The ouster attempt was proposed by embattled pastor Jerry Sutton and the deacon chair, Carlos Cobos.
Exactly 1,000 church members voted, according to a letter Cobos sent to the congregation after the vote. Of those voting, 663 voted to dismiss the plaintiffs, while 337 voted “no.” A two-thirds approval was required, Cobos said in the letter, but the motion fell four votes short — with 66.3 percent.
Last October, Sutton, who has served Two Rivers for more than two decades, easily won a churchwide vote of confidence in his leadership — 1,101-286. The plaintiffs had asked a local judge to stop the vote-of-confidence meeting, but she refused.
One month earlier, those church members filed the lawsuit charging Sutton with refusing to release church records to members and with using church funds on his daughter's wedding reception and other questionable expenses. Sutton has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The April 23 motion to dismiss the suit-filing members read: “Because of the continued violation of biblical standards clearly outlined in our constitution and bylaws, and because of the damage done to the witness, reputation, and welfare of Two Rivers Baptist Church, we, the pastor and deacon officers, in compliance with our church's bylaws, move that the plaintiffs be dismissed from church membership.”
The motion was presented to members in an April 23 letter, which noted that the plaintiffs could choose to repent before the May 4 vote, have a private meeting with two deacons, remove themselves from the lawsuit, and pledge not to be part of an appeal or any future lawsuits. The plaintiffs stood their ground, however, and remained in the lawsuit.
In the May 4 letter, Cobos acknowledged that “though Robert's Rules of Order states that those being disciplined are not entitled to vote, the deacon chairman made a decision before the beginning of the counting process to include the votes of the 71 plaintiffs.”
The plaintiffs' attorney, Mark Freeman, was allowed to observe the vote count, Cobos told Two Rivers members in the letter.
Freeman praised the deacons for their action. “We spent several hours together and counted and recounted the ballots,” he told the Tennessean newspaper May 5. “All the counting was done in good faith.”
Church member Peggy Lewis was one of the 71 who went to church May 4 expecting to be voted out. After hearing the results of the vote, she told the Tennessean, “I'm just praising Jesus. God is still on the throne.”
Two Rivers Baptist is one of the most prominent congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention, which is headquartered in Nashville. Many of the denomination's top leaders attend the church. Sutton, a one-time SBC first vice president, lost a three-way race for the SBC presidency in 2006.
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