Two more churches leave local Baptist association

By Rose Hooper and Lynn Hotaling

East Sylva and Black Mountain are the latest congregations to leave Tuckaseigee Baptist Association after its executive committee's July closed session decision to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, which limits the office of pastor to men. To date, five churches have voted to leave the 173-year-old organization.

East Sylva Pastor Charles Dean, who has been an outspoken critic of the association's actions since July's executive committee meeting, did not participate in the closed session that resulted in the endorsement of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

His church's 89-0 vote Sunday to leave the association was an "historic moment," Dean said.

"We are happy to be free Baptists," he said. "I feel like our forefathers must have felt when they signed the Declaration of Independence declaring their freedom."

Freedom is an "old Baptist principle," Dean said.

"There comes a time when you have to separate to find the freedom and liberty that you desire," he said. "For us, that time had come."

Though the issue of women in the pulpit precipitated his church's withdrawal from the association, Dean said autonomy was the main reason East Sylva left.

"It's not about women preachers or women deacons or translations of the Bible," Dean said. "What it boils down to is somebody else telling us what to do and what to believe."

Black Mountain's Sept. 18 decision to withdraw from the association was also unanimous, though three members abstained.

In a letter to the association, Black Mountain's congregation told the association they "felt there were more important issues to focus on, like leading souls to Christ, instead of the problems that are causing division." Church members also emphasized their belief "that each church should have the right to govern its own affairs."

Efforts of some Southern Baptists to bar women from the pulpit spread to Jackson County after Cullowhee Baptist, Jackson County's oldest Baptist congregation, called a woman as co-pastor in January, prompting the association's credentials committee to recommend Cullowhee's removal from the association.

Controversy flared in April with a recommendation from the TBA credentials committee not to seat Cullowhee's delegates at the association's annual meeting in October. Matters came to a head in July with the executive committee's affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

Cullowhee Baptist left the association within weeks of that decision, citing Baptists' long-standing doctrine of local church autonomy and their desire to put the matter to rest.

"All of us can do more for the kingdom of God in peace than in conflict," said Jeffrey Vickery, who co-pastors Cullowhee with his wife, Tonya.

Sylva First Baptist, which had publicly supported Cullowhee's right to choose a woman pastor since the issue first surfaced, withdrew from the association two weeks ago as did Tuckasegee Baptist, the county's fourth-oldest congregation.

Recent withdrawals could impact the association's finances. Longtime TBA treasurer Jesse Flake, who resigned that post in February after 15 years, said that Sylva, East Sylva and Cullowhee have historically been among the association's top donors, and Sylva was the top contributor during the past five years.

Together the three accounted for some 30 percent ($63,995) of the association's total revenue over the past five years, Flake said.

The five churches that have withdrawn from the association ' Cullowhee ($10,135), Sylva ($43,500), East Sylva ($9,360), Tuckasegee ($3,884) and Black Mountain ($1,900) ' contributed 34 percent ($69,779) of the TBA's five-year total revenue of $209,784, Flake said.

Clemmey Queen, who became the association's moderator after the August resignation of the Rev. Mike Dellinger, said TBA is not suffering financially as a result of the withdrawals.

"People are worried about the finances, but finances are already coming in to replace these churches' contributions," Queen said.

Several Baptist churches in the county that were not TBA members are now interested in joining the association, Queen said, though he declined to name prospective members.

"We'll be all right in our Tuckaseigee Baptist Association," Queen said when asked about the effect of the five churches' withdrawal. That sentiment was echoed by the Rev. Claude Conard, TBA's interim director of missions.

"Our association is doing just fine," Conard said.

When a TBA member church withdraws from the association, any of its members who hold TBA office are no longer eligible to serve, Conard said.

As a result, Black Mountain's withdrawal also means the departure of members Amanda Dills, the association's youth director, and her father, Leonard Dills, a member of the TBA executive committee.

"I think it's sad that this happened," said Amanda Dills, a Western Carolina University senior and former Miss Asheville. "I hate confusion and don't like being in the middle of it. I think I can concentrate my efforts better through my church."

Her father said he is not pleased with the association's position on women.

"If we took the women out of our church, it would fold tomorrow," Leonard Dills said Tuesday.

TBA has also lost its historian, Joyce Crowder, who has held various positions with the association during the past 12 years. Crowder, who belongs to TBA member church Little Savannah, said she stepped down because of the association's stance on women.

"At this point, being a woman, I am terribly disappointed in the association," said Crowder. "I believe Christian people should be working for God's glory only, not to praise themselves."

Though TBA officials Conard and Queen said they didn't know of any other pending departures, Deitz Memorial Baptist will vote on the matter this Sunday, said the Rev. Robert Blanton, pastor, and will probably vote to leave the association.

"The basis of our actions is that we don't subscribe to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement," said Blanton, a former TBA moderator. "A second point is that we feel the autonomy of the local church is threatened.

"Third is that the association's focus has shifted, and we're not aligned with that focus. In the past we've worked for unity of purpose to do the things together that we could not do separately. Now (the association is) more interested in fussing than in doing Kingdom work, and we want to separate ourselves from the fussing," Blanton said.

Founded in 1829, TBA included about three-fourths of Jackson County's Baptist congregations before the recent spate of withdrawals.

Its initial constitution stated the Baptist concept that each church is independent in power, according to "The History of Jackson County." However, a union was desirable "to promote concord and brotherly love by endeavoring to keep up the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace," the history book states.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, TBA efforts centered around education, establishing high schools in Macon and Jackson counties and creating the Sylva Collegiate Institute in 1900.

Historically, the association has focused on providing "a vehicle or channel through which churches can work together on mission and evangelism efforts and projects in Jackson County, throughout the country and around the world," said the Rev. John Reid of Sylva, a former TBA director of missions.

Back to Archive: 09/26/02.