WMU barred from Baptist association building

By Lynn Hotaling and Rose Hooper

Association WMU co-leader Nelda Reid said she received the news from the Rev. Claude Conard, TBA interim director of missions.

Conard told her that the association's executive committee voted in October to bar WMU meetings at the association building as long as WMU leaders were members of churches that no longer belonged to the association, said Reid, a member of East Sylva Baptist Church.

Six local Baptist churches - Cullowhee, Sylva First, East Sylva, Tuckasegee, Black Mountain and Deitz Memorial - have withdrawn from the TBA in recent months.

Members of the association's WMU voted in September that the auxiliary organization would allow membership from non-TBA churches as well as TBA member churches.

"The WMU will continue to work with all the churches in the way we have been trained to do," said Reid, co-leader since July and a WMU member for 15 years. "It doesn't matter to us if the churches are (association) members or not. In the long run, we'll be OK."

While WMU co-leader Sarah Davis of Sylva First Baptist said she "regrets that the TBA has chosen to take this action," she echoed Reid with regard to the mission group's future.

"WMU will continue to function as we have previously with our focus on doing, promoting and teaching missions," Davis said. "We are an inclusive organization. I see the change as geographical only."

WMU's next mission study will be at Lovedale Baptist on Sunday, Dec. 8, and its next leadership team meeting will be at East Sylva on the second Sunday in January.

When area churches began resigning from the TBA, the association WMU "struggled" with whether to keep an open membership, Davis said.

"We labored over it as to whether we should resign or what we should do," she said. "At our September meeting we took a vote, and all but one member voted to include all churches in our WMU membership."

Reid and Davis called a meeting of the WMU leadership team Nov. 17 at Sylva First Baptist to inform the group about the association's decision. About two-thirds of the leadership team was present, Davis said.

Davis said her fellow officers were "hurt" by the association's decision and said she and Reid offered to resign as leaders so the group could go back to the association building if that was the wish of the leadership team.

"The others didn't want that," Davis said.

Of the dozen or so members of the TBA leadership team, only three - Davis, Reid and Mary Broughton of Sylva First - are from churches that have left the TBA, said Davis, who estimated membership in the associational WMU to be between 65 and 70. Average attendance at mission study is about 30, she said. Generally speaking, the majority of mission study attendees are from churches still in the TBA, Davis said.

In addition to East Sylva and Sylva First Baptist, individual churches represented on the WMU leadership team include Lovedale, Locust Field, Jarrett Memorial, Hamburg and Cashiers Baptist, Davis said.

WMU is an auxiliary group to the TBA and, as such, can make decisions independently of the association, Davis said.

Conard confirmed that he called Reid to tell her the association WMU could not meet at the TBA headquarters as long as its leaders were from non-member churches, but referred The Herald to Hamburg Baptist Church Pastor Matt Ledbetter for additional comment on the matter.

An association's WMU should be made up of members of "cooperating churches," Ledbetter said.

He explained that the Tuckaseigee Baptist Association is made up of "cooperating churches" and termed the six churches that have withdrawn from the TBA "non-cooperating churches."

"The WMU call themselves an auxiliary, but there are still association guidelines they have to follow," Ledbetter said. "The WMU voted to keep officers from non-cooperating churches, and the Pastor's Conference recommended they no longer have access to the association newsletter or building because some of their officers are members of non-cooperating churches."

Ledbetter, who is president of the Pastor's Conference, indicated last week that his church's WMU plans to withdraw from the association's WMU.

"In my opinion, for the WMU to use the building and have access to the newsletter, they need to have officers from cooperating churches," Ledbetter said.

The association's building and grounds committee agreed with the Pastor's Conference recommendation as did Moderator Clemmy Queen of Speedwell Baptist and Assistant Moderator Art Fowler of Cashiers Baptist, Ledbetter said.

The executive committee passed guidelines for use of the building and grounds, Ledbetter said. A vote specifically about the WMU using the building was not necessary because it was part of the by-laws that groups who use the association building need to be members of cooperating churches.

The association's move to block the WMU from the TBA building is the latest round in a controversy that has simmered since May.

Cullowhee Baptist and Sylva First Baptist withdrew from the association in August after the TBA credentials committee recommended that delegates from the two churches not be seated at the association's annual meeting.

Cullowhee was criticized for calling a woman, Tonya Vickery, as co-pastor. Sylva First was targeted for passing a resolution supporting Cullowhee and stating that Jesus - not the Bible - is the final authority on faith and practice.

Tuckasegee, East Sylva, Black Mountain and Deitz Memorial withdrew soon after. Among the reasons given by their pastors were the autonomy of local churches and being tired of the fighting within the association.

Ledbetter maintains that despite the loss of six churches the TBA is "stronger than ever and better than ever."

Financial contributions are up, and the October annual meeting was a successful one, he said.

"We're trying to put the past in the past, and we wish everyone else would do the same," Ledbetter said.

Back to Archive: 11/21/02.