DECATUR, Ga. — The Georgia Baptist State Convention (GBSC) has ended its 148-year-old relationship with First Baptist Church, Decatur, Ga., over the congregation’s 2007 vote to hire a woman as senior pastor. Julie Pennington-Russell has been pastor of First, Decatur, Ga., since August 2007. Pennington-Russell read a letter at the end of both worship services Nov. 15 from Robert White, executive director of the 1.3 million-member state convention. It informed her that messengers to the group’s recent annual meeting took action to declare them “not a cooperating church,” because “a woman is serving as senior pastor.”
White said funds received from the 2,700-member church during 2009 will be returned. Last year the GBSC, one of the oldest and largest of 42 state and regional organizations affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), changed policies to decline funds sent by churches “not in cooperation and harmony with the approved work and purpose” of the convention. Leaders recommending the change said it came “as a result of questions raised regarding First Baptist Church of Decatur, who has a woman as senior pastor.”
The SBC amended the Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement in 2000 to declare, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
Meeting in their 188th annual session Nov. 9–10 at First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., messengers to this year’s Georgia Baptist Convention adopted a budget $4.1 million smaller than the previous year’s spending plan. The state convention has eliminated 27 positions since January, about 13 percent of its total staff. (TAB)
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