By Robert Dilday
A Virginia Baptist association’s March vote not to oust a church for ordaining a gay minister has prompted a number of members to leave or consider doing so, renewing suggestions that the congregation at the center of the controversy should voluntarily withdraw for the good of the whole.
About a quarter of Richmond Baptist Association’s churches have either ended ties or threatened to leave in the seven weeks since messengers narrowly voted to retain the membership of Ginter Park Baptist Church.
Meanwhile, Ginter Park Pastor Mandy England Cole said in an open letter May 5 she hopes the association will “commit to continued fellowship and dialogue in hopes of discerning together what the future of the RBA holds.”
In the letter distributed to RBA leadership and the staff of each affiliated church, Cole disputed claims by some that the crisis “rests squarely upon the shoulders” of Ginter Park and, that if the church “simply left the association, we could save it.”
Last September Ginter Park ordained Brandon Scott McGuire, a gay church member who feels called to minister to persons with disabilities and special needs and to their families.
The Baptist General Association of Virginia severed ties with the nearly century-old church in November. But at a called meeting March 19, after more than an hour of discussion, the local association voted 176-158 to endorse a committee’s recommendation to “embrace Ginter Park Baptist Church as a sister church” without endorsing its views on homosexuality.
Reaction to the vote has placed the association in a “serious situation,” said director of missions Michael Robinson, the association’s top executive. Five of the RBA’s original 69 congregations have withdrawn membership and another 11 are “seriously reviewing” their affiliation, he said.
Those 16 congregations collectively represent about $250,000 in contributions, Robinson said — nearly 40 percent of the association’s annual budget of $626,000. The bulk of the budget funds three inner-city ministries and Camp Alkulana, a residential summer camp in the Allegheny Mountains for inner-city children and youths.
“We’re looking at churches which represent not only dollars but also volunteers at the mission centers and Alkulana,” Robinson added. “They represent in excess of 13,000 members” — anywhere from a fourth to a third of the association’s total church membership, he said.
In April, RBA leaders cancelled the association’s annual spring meeting. They had planned to launch an association-wide focus on Operation Inasmuch, a national initiative which encourages churches to engage in acts of service in their communities. Robinson said so few churches were planning to attend that it would have made for a poor launch and jeopardized the initiative.
On April 30, Robinson, joined by the RBA’s moderator and finance committee chair and the directors of the three ministry centers, met with Cole and three other Ginter Park leaders to discuss the situation.
In an account of the meeting printed in the church newsletter, Cole said the RBA leaders “stopped just short of asking us to leave the association for the sake of the ministry centers and Camp Alkulana.”
Robinson said May 6 he initiated the meeting “to share with [Ginter Park leaders] the impact of [the vote] and to let them know the serious situation we find ourselves in.”
“Since this whole event had centered around an issue they had brought to the floor, we thought they would be interested in knowing the impact,” he said. “They had remained in the association because they said they were interested in the association and how it would move forward. And we wanted to see what can be done in a helpful way.”
Robinson said he has been engaged in several conversations “all over the association,” and describes the 65-year-old ministry as “deeply threatened.”
In her open letter, Cole said Ginter Park leaders hoped the March vote would prompt the association to engage in the same kind of discernment process that led the church not to unanimity on the issue but unity despite different interpretations of Scripture.
She suggested that all churches postpone any changes in their affiliation or support of the association “so that Camp Alkulana and the centers are not held ransom while we argue.”
“What if instead of talking about one another, we sat down and talked with one another?” she asked. “What if we all committed ourselves to refrain from changing the level of our connection and support of the RBA for one year while we focused on collectively addressing the challenges and discord between us?”