Among the troublesome trends in Baptist life is the growing use of the Internet as a tool for airing grievances arising from church conflict.
Church conflicts -- especially those related to the congregation's satisfaction with the pastor -- are nothing new. The rising tide of "pastoral authority" in some circles has caused natural consternation for churches that are accustomed to congregational church government and a freedom of access to church records, especially finances.
What is new in the arena of church conflict is that dissident groups who are unable to gain a hearing within the church have begun using websites or blogs to ratchet up the pressure on the stonewalling pastor and those who enable him.
For some reason, this has been particularly true in the state of Tennessee. When Steve Gaines followed the long-tenured Adrian Rogers at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, near Memphis, it took less than a year for serious conflict to arise. Opponents charged that Gaines was being paid half-a-million dollars in salary per year (the actual numbers remain secret) and had intimidated church members. Unable to redress the issue within internal church channels, they contacted local media and started an opposition website. Even Baptist Press took notice, as did bloggers. Gaines remains in the saddle, though still under fire.
At Germantown Baptist Church in Germantown, pastor Steve Shaw's determination to institute the rule of elders led to deep conflict. Opponents started a website (www.savegbc.com, now defunct) to air their concerns, and Shaw ultimately resigned.
The latest newsmaker is Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, home of the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters. Pastor Jerry Sutton, a prominent leader among conservative kingpins within the Convention, has come under fire for spending more than $4,000 of church funds on a wedding reception for his daughter, improperly meeting with representatives of a resort hotel who wanted to buy some of the church’s property, being autocratic in his leadership style and attempting to keep church members in the dark about his finances.
A website arose to voice concerns, but it reportedly "crashed" and has not returned, though cached copies of the homepage and the group's concerns can still be found.
My purpose in writing this is not to pass judgment in any of the situations, though I have little sympathy for autocratic pastors.
I'm writing, I suppose, to bemoan the state of any church which has become so dysfunctional that its members and staff cannot work out their differences, but feel compelled to raise the conflict exponentially by broadcasting it on the Internet.
Traditional Baptist polity calls for transparency and integrity and congregational involvement. When secretive salaries and back-room deals and the election of a power-elite to run the church become the norm, conflict becomes inevitable and folks who once could ask questions at a monthly church business meeting now feel that they have to start a website.
Everything surrounding such conflicts, of course, brings harm to the cause of Christ, rather than advancing the kingdom of God. People on both sides of the issues, no doubt, will claim to have Christ on their side and accuse the other of doing the damage.
Ultimately, leadership must come from the pastor, but it must be servant leadership, leadership that comes from paying dues of love and care and concern for the church, rather than from position or precepts.
I'm convinced that we have too many "leadership" conferences for pastors, and not enough "servanthood" conferences.
Within the church, you can't truly have one without the other.
5 comments:
Your observation about Baptist polity is so on point. Although the church does not belong to any one of us, it is essential that it does not appear to belong to some more than others. The congregational system of government has served us well for more than a century and a half. It is the reason why so many Southern Baptists refer to their church as "my church". That statement marks the critical point in the life of every Christian and by extension the life of every church-- and its decline.
The cure for these ills which exist not only in the individual church but at the convention, seminary, and agency levels is total openness and transparency. When something is controversial, put it to a vote of the people and let everyone have their say. I cannot count the times I may have been on the losing side of a church vote because I never found myself a loser or viewed someone else as winners. But the one thing I know for certain is that giving everyone the opportunity to speak their mind with and about a clear set of facts is the most freeing thing imaginable and from observation of the past experience of the great Southern Baptist Convention, surely the Godly approach.
Thank you
Jerry Grace
Clinton, Mississippi
As a blogger, I fight an ongoing batle with the temptation to use the medium inappropriately. Using it to make personal attacks and to nurture vendettas is certainly inappropriate.
I suppose that we could make the point that such use of blogs and websites as you mention is just the logical technological extension of the customary church practice of conducting the real business of church not in the official business meeting but in the church parking lot or over the telephone.
The difference is that using the internet airs the church's dirty laundry in public and that clearly harms the church's witness.
As you say, though, it's too bad that church relationships become so dysfunctional that disputes cannot be handled in better ways.
I may have become Exhibit A for small congregations in these matters as things went down hill for me shortly after I almost solely promoted an appearance at my church in Feb.l 2002 featuring DAvid Currie, Kat Allen, former Bama Baptist statepaper associate editor Mark Baggett. I think Jim Evans was in the audience for the event that talked about the challenge of local church congregations as they decided what they were gonna do about the last 25 years of SBC history.
It flared back up in January of 06 when I challenged the Pastor in his SS Class to say what he thought about his former professor Paul Simmons and the allegations Timothy George was making about him in an abortion Pamphlet sponsored by Richard Land's ERLC.
Ithought maybe the father of Sons at Yale Div, UVA and Duke could handle such a question, but he responded by saying the politics of the SBC would no longer be discussed in that church.
Young deacon chair was a member of the class, andfrom that convictional question on Paul Simmons I was gagged in the Class; voted off the church property just four short monthslater.
Latest isposted on my blog in a post about the Community Revival.
I am not blameless by any stretch of the imagination in this matter; but I don't think I have done anythingclose to warrant theresponse I have gotten from the church where my Mother was baptized in 1936
Great post! I pondered pointing out that the local church is headquarters in Baptist life rather than any denominational office. However, in Southern Baptist life it may be pretty accurate to say that the headquarters of the SBC is in Nashville.
It's a terrible thing when dirty laundry goes public. I don't understand the polity of megachurches or how individual church members are allowed to voice dissenting viewpoints.
I wonder how the SBC conflict would have turned out, however, if blogging had been an option.
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