dear fellow brothers and sisters,we like you have a situation in our church,where,in my opinion, the pastor is out of control.we as a church have no say, no discussion in what is happening at our church.but i believe God is bigger than the little man behind the pulpit.if we are faithfull,he will bring us thru this.i believe that the congregation should be in control of the church and staff.i believe that as church family we should be able to diagree in love,not be threatened,as i and others have been.i personally have decided to be a thorn at every business meeting,i have sought legal advice in this matter.the pastor and his klan can make it tough but as long as no laws are broken they can not make you leave.i would recomend not being without a recorder when speaking too are being spoken too with these poeple.
Forgiveness and church healing would follow confession of half-truths and a total disregard for the truth, accompanied by a promise to never repeat these evils.
Southern Baptist Churches DO have business meetings. Some even on a scheduled basis--what POSSIBLE harm could come from allowing these members with concerns to be heard? We just want to understand. j
I just stumbled upon this petition. All I can say to those who have formed this petition is "shame on you." If you don't agree with something and you can't be submissive to the Biblical authority of your local church. MOVE ON.Again, I just stumbled upon this and was appauled that a local congregation would be acting this way. Seriously? A petition on the internet for Pete's sake? It makes me sad for the Kingdom. What type of witness are you to those outside your walls? Let alone those who are on the inside. The damage will be great. Very sad. Rememeber...they will recognise you by your love for one another. And sadly...by your lack thereof. You folks need some serious prayer and reconciliation to take place. I don't know you, but I will pray for you.
I believe that God is calling me to fast and to pray for Bellevue Baptist. I will be starting a fast on Thursday, May 3rd, the National Day of Prayer. I invite you to join me however you can for as long as you can. Let's ask God to help Bellevue to overcome, heal and to get back to doing His work. God bless and help us.
Why should our leadership fear anything church member has to say in a business meeting? If they always operate above board, there is never anything to fear.
In his doctoral dissertation, Dr. Gaines wrote about Herschel Hobbs, who was one of the most dominant and influential figures of the Southern Baptist Convention during the 20th century. Hobbs was among the strongest proponents of Baptist freedoms, namely the all-but-forgotten principles of Soul Competency and the Priesthood of the Believer. Based on those principles, Hobbs was committed to congregational rule of the church. In his book, "You Are Chosen", Dr Hobbs wrote, "The decisions of the local congregation on ecclesiastical [that is, “church”] matters are the 'consensus of the competent.'" Expounding on the thought of E. Y. Mullins, Hobbs believed that the democratic proceedings of the local Baptist church’s business meetings were/are supernatural. You might respond, “Well, all I heard was a lot of fightin’ and fussin’.” Ah, but according to Hobbs, if we believe in the competency of the individual soul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, consensus can be reached (sometimes rather miraculously), then we can trust that the corporate decisions of the local Baptist congregation are beyond human – they’re Spirit led and Spirit inspired. If he were able to weigh-in, Dr. Hobbs would support regular open and honest business meetings and so do I.
I thought the meeting would of course be continued since a motion of some type was being made? No offense to leadership but these people are asking for something very logical.
What in the world did we have to celebrate at the business meeting? Perhaps, a celebration of our prideful leadership unwilling to take responsibility for the suffering of our Beloved Bellevue Family over the last year? If our Pastor and his associates wanted to bring healing to BBC, it would not have taken a business meeting to do it. I remain steadfast in prayer for my church. I beg our leadership to humble themselves before God and truly seek his grace, wisdom, and guidance to bring our church family back to unity. The March 25th meeting was wickedly prideful, deliberately, deceiving in nature and content, orchestrated by our leadership to answer their own questions, and intended to weed out those that were willing to stand in the gap for truth. It won't surprise me if any day now, we find that BBC and Steve Gaines have added another minister to the payroll...a Minister of Marketing and maybe even a Minister of Risk Management. Isn't that what the Fortune 500's do? Another business meeting is an excellent idea.
We HAD an open meeting and the majority prevailed....but I don't see any remarks in opposition to yours, so I presume this one will be stricken also. But I would invite the initiator of this petition to respond to me personally and tell me what part of the following opinion is untruthful in your eyes:
If Dr. Adrian Rogers were alive today and in retirement, this uprising against Steve Gaines undoubtedly would have not been tolerated for even two days. And Dr. Rogers would have probably not have been supportive of Dr Gaines' so patiently affording his opponents a multitude of sounding boards --including microphones in the congregational meeting-- to allow them to repeatedly air their grievances and promote their agenda. .But a pastor with 1 year's tenure is always more tentative than a pastor with 30 years tenure, and we are blessed to have a man of God who leads with a tolerant and humble and self-inspecting heart as he grows into the position where God has placed him!
Dr. Gaines' "mistakes" in matters of the heart (being overzealous in attempting to speak face to face with a disgruntled member, and being overly compassionate toward a former sinner) would have been forgiven by Dr. Rogers as quickly as they were forgiven by our (also compassionate and zealous) Lord...the moment they were earnestly repented for --perhaps admonished, but forgiven by Dr. Rogers, and tossed by the Lord into the sea of forgetfulness. The finance committee comprised of men well-known to and respected by Dr. Rogers would have made their reports and there would have been no bloggers creating and airing dirty laundry. So, it seems to me that it is not Brother Steve and the long-standing finance committee who are out of control, but a handful of rebels who refuse to respect and submit to God-ordained authority, and who feel they can now get away with causing mayhem and trying to assert control, in opposition to the vast majority of t
I agree with #'s 4,15,84,96,277,281,300,38 6(and others as well) Let's face it. Our church is very affluent. Could this be a judgement from the LORD? Have we forsaken our first LOVE?! Rev 2:4,5 Let us repent, fast,and seek the LORD, before our Lampstand is truly removed!
This is NOT a PRO-GAINES or ANTI-GAINES issue! We need everyone to sign this so things can try to be dealt with. Anyone that disagrees is trying to hide something.
