| BAPTISTS TODAY
News Release www.baptiststoday.org |
May 6 2005
MACON, Ga. — At the conclusion of morning worship on Sunday, April 17, pastor Jim Dant asked the congregation of Highland Hills Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., to pray for two long-time members who were considering leaving the church.
Neither is unhappy with the congregation or moving out of the area. In fact, both hold significant leadership roles and have family members deeply involved.
But Chris Fuller, campus minister at Mercer University, and Neil Heath, campus minister at Middle Georgia and Macon State colleges, are among about a dozen Georgia Baptist collegiate ministry personnel that have aligned — or are being urged to align —with churches more clearly supportive of the fundamentalist-controlled Southern and Georgia Baptist Conventions.
Neither would speak to Baptists Today about their church-membership situations. Both cited a directive from the Georgia Baptist Convention that employees are not permitted to speak with media on any subject and should refer all inquiries to the convention’s communications office.
Nearly one-third of the state convention’s collegiate ministry staff has changed church memberships recently including two leaving First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga., and two leaving Milledge Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Ga.
Rhonda Abbott was one of three campus ministers at the University of Georgia whose membership in Milledge Avenue was brought into question last year. Milledge Avenue minimally supported the Southern Baptist Convention and designated most state convention funding to the UGA Baptist Student Union.
Abbott, who resigned last fall and currently serves as associate coordinator for missions for the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, said her supervisor Joe Graham told the three Athens campus ministers that they needed to change churches.
“The insinuation was ‘or else’,” said Abbott. Although Graham would not confirm that refusing to change churches would result in dismissal, she added, “I don’t know how else to read it.”
Neither Graham nor GBC Executive Bob White, nor the convention’s communications office, responded to requests from Baptists Today to explain the convention’s efforts or to clarify criterion used to determine acceptable churches in which staff can be members. The convention’s personnel manual only states: “All employees (sic) shall be filled with individuals who are active Southern Baptists…”
Ironically, the pastor of Highland Hills Church in Macon received a letter from the Georgia Baptist Convention recently commending his congregation for having one of the fasting-growing Sunday schools in the state.
“Many of Georgia’s 3,500-plus Georgia Baptist Convention churches are experiencing growth,” wrote GBC Sunday school specialist Steve Parr. “However, your church stands out as one of the best!”
A certificate signed by Parr and White was enclosed with the letter that thanked Dant for his “outstanding leadership.” It was dated May 3, less than three weeks after the congregation learned that Fuller and Heath were under pressure to leave the church.
“Even a greater irony with our church is that we have vehemently defended our members’ rights to support SBC and GBC causes,” said Dant. “The church has consistently promoted GBC and SBC offerings and has had our members who are convention workers to speak in support of state missions.”
Highland Hills members are free to determine whether their individual offerings support SBC and GBC causes or the mission efforts of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Dant said the approximately $2,400 earmarked for the GBC this year is an increase over the previous year’s contributions.
He also noted that the church hosted an associational event about five years ago at which GBC executive Bob White was the speaker. And White’s daughter, he said, worked at the church for three years while a student at Mercer.
Dant said he thought the church had maintained a good relationship with the GBC despite strong disagreements many members had with some recent convention actions such as the firing of Bill Neal as editor of The Christian Index and the affirmation of the controversial 2000 revision of the Baptist Faith and Message,
However, church members were shocked and angry to learn that Fuller and Heath, two long-time members, were being pressured to leave their church family, he said. “Even those members who are most supportive of SBC and GBC causes are very upset and feel betrayed,” said Dant.
Now the church is appointing a denominational relations committee to bring a recommendation to the congregation in early August as a possible response to the convention’s actions, he said. “But no one, I’ve heard, is pleased with what has taken place.”
GBC leaders have taken a more heavy-handed approach to supervising staff in recent years that some former employees describe as intimidating. The first page of the GBC personnel manual that went into effect in 1999 advises that “[E]mployment relationships … can be terminated at any time ‘for good cause, for bad cause, or for no cause at all’.”
This “employment-at-will” statement precedes the convention’s “purpose statement” on the second page of the personnel manual that affirms: “The Georgia Baptist Convention is a living partnership of churches growing in grace, strengthening one another in faith and working together in obedience to the Great Commandment and Great Commission of Jesus Christ.”
The manual was part of a major reorganization that took staff employment decisions away from the 100-member GBC executive committee. The executive director now has sole authority to hire and fire staff.
(Editor’s note: John Pierce is a member of Highland Hills Baptist Church and was an 18-year employee of the Georgia Baptist Convention, including 13 years as a campus minister, before voluntarily leaving in 2000 to become executive editor of the independent news journal Baptists Today.)