NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–A vote to dismiss 71 dissident members of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., fell four votes shy of the two-thirds majority required by church bylaws.
In a special called business meeting May 4, church members voted 663-337 in support of a motion from the congregation’s deacon body to dismiss the members for “continued violation of biblical standards clearly outlined in our constitution and bylaws and … damage done to the witness, reputation, and welfare of Two Rivers Baptist Church.”
The motion to dismiss the dissidents from membership would have passed except for a decision by Two Rivers’ deacons to allow members of the dissident group to participate in the balloting.
“Though Robert’s Rules of Order states that those being disciplined are not entitled to vote, the deacon chairman made a decision before the beginning of the counting process to include the votes of the 71 plaintiffs,” deacon chairman Carlos Cobos said in a statement released after the vote.
The dissident church members have been embroiled in a feud with senior pastor Jerry Sutton and other church leaders since July 2007, when a church trustee was removed from membership. The group filed suit in September 2008, seeking access to detailed financial records.
A website launched by the dissident group listed eight concerns: “steady decline in membership,” “lack of accountability in finances,” “poor stewardship of God’s people,” “authoritarian style church management,” “rapid turnover rate of church staff in the past 10 years,” “lavish lifestyle and receptions,” “questionable allegations” and “serious communication issues.”
Statistics provided by the congregation as part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual church profile show that in 1997 Two Rivers’ total membership was 6,406, with average worship attendance of 1,963 and 167 baptisms. Total receipts were just over $5 million. In 2007, total membership was 6,900, average worship attendance 1,621 with baptisms of 106. Total receipts stood at almost $4.4 million in 2007.
Sutton has served the 45-year-old congregation church since 1986. This past October, he survived an attempt to oust him as pastor by a vote of 1,101 to 286.
In a Chancery Court hearing April 25, church leaders agreed to turn over more financial documents to the group.
The business session was to have been conducted without discussion because a meeting to discuss the issue had been held three days earlier, according to an April 23 letter sent by Sutton and Cobos to church members. When the May 4 meeting convened, however, the dissidents, along with dozens of their supporters, stood before the congregation at the front of the sanctuary.
One of those supporters, Carolyn Lehning, who is not a party to the lawsuit against church leaders, said she wanted church members to look the plaintiffs in the face before voting on their fate, according to a report in The Tennessean newspaper.
“They are not troublemakers,” she told The Tennessean after the meeting. “They’ve been faithful members of the church.”
When the dissident group began singing “Amazing Grace,” music piped in over the church’s sound system drowned out the singing, The Tennessean said.
The April 23 letter to church members closed with a request for prayer “that God would give our church the wisdom and courage to know and to carry out His will in a Christ-like manner, closing this difficult chapter and bringing healing to our church.”
The May 4 note announcing the vote results simply asked, “Please continue to pray for the TRBC family as we move forward.”
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Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor Mark Kelly. Statements from church leadership on the controversy have been posted on the church website at www.tworivers.org. The dissident group’s site is located at tworiversinfo.org.
