NASHVILLE — An early retirement package for Jerry Sutton as pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church, Nashville, was approved by the congregation July 27. The package will include one month’s salary for each of Sutton’s 22 years as the church’s pastor, to be paid over a five-and-a-half year period. The package also includes medical and long-term disability insurance until Sutton, 56, starts a new job or reaches the age of 62.
Sutton, in a July 24 letter to the congregation posted on the church Web site, told Two Rivers members he hoped they would approve the package. “Over the last 14 months, we have been involved in a conflict which does not appear will go away,” Sutton said in the letter. “An incredible amount of energy has been expended and consumed handling the conflict. Although we have won court cases and church votes, the conflict continues. Our people are weary, leaders are tired and those who love Two Rivers honestly want it to end. I do not believe that will happen as long as I am pastor at Two Rivers.”
The church has been embroiled in controversy over Sutton’s leadership since July 2007, when a church trustee was removed from membership. A group of about 50 current or former church members filed suit in September, seeking access to detailed financial records, and launched a Web site listing their grievances against the pastor.
In October 2007, church members voted 1,101 to 286 to affirm Sutton as pastor, and in January 2008 a judge dismissed the lawsuit but gave the plaintiffs access to records, including meeting minutes and financial documents.
On May 4 of this year, a vote to dismiss 71 church members fell four votes shy of passage, but that vote was reversed May 11 when the congregation voted to disallow ballots cast by the members who were the subject of that ouster motion.
Sutton, who has served the 45-year-old congregation church since 1986, is a former first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention (2005–2006) and has written three books.
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