Robert Fuller never thought he would be without a church home, but he is.
For 50 years, Old Elam Missionary Baptist Church had been a part of his life. Now he's spending his Sundays picketing it. Fuller is one of the members of Old Elam at odds with the Rev. John Gilchrist over disclosure of church financial records and what Fuller describes as the pastor's intimidating management style.
"I wish it hadn't gotten to this point," Fuller said, "but it has and we're going to ride it out."Gilchrist denies he has done anything wrong. He blames a small group of outspoken members and former members.
More and more congregations are finding themselves divided. The issues range from administrative and financial, like those at Old Elam, to the ordination of women as bishops or the consecration of an openly gay Episcopalian bishop.
It was the gay bishop issue that drove Doug McCurry to leave Christ the Redeemer Episcopal Church and start the Legacy Anglican Church.
At Jerusalem Baptist, moving the church is what split the congregation. The Old Elam rift started soon after Gilchrist was hired four years ago by a church search committee.
It began with a few members being put off by how Gilchrist ran the church. Since then, there have been any number of conflicts with the pastor.
The police have been called to the church at least three times on Sunday to break up parishioners who got into shouting matches with Gilchrist detractors.
Fuller claims that Gilchrist has posted supporters at the door who have denied church members who disagree with him, including Fuller's wife, certain church services like the giving of sacrament. It's an accusation Gilchrist flatly denies.
The differences came to a head two years ago when some church members demanded Gilchrist open up the financial records. When he refused to do so, they took him to court. The case is still pending.
Fuller said Gilchrist has an obligation to answer to the congregation, but Gilchrist said he must answer first to God.
"The pastor is called by God," Gilchrist said. "God is the reason I am at Old Elam."
Leading a church is like commanding a military unit, the pastor said.
"A general has no value without his soldiers behind them," Gilchrist said. "The only way an army effectively functions is if the soldiers submit to the commands of the general."
But it's the congregation that chooses the pastor, said Fuller.
"Because you're a preacher doesn't make you right."
Jerusalem Baptist
Bishop B.E. McDonald was the pastor of Jerusalem Baptist Church in 2005 when he felt the time had come to move the church from its location on Tolvert Street. However, it would be McDonald who would be moving.
McDonald's choices didn't sit well with a segment of the congregation, and the disagreement resulted in incidents that forced the police to come to the church and maintain order.
After three consecutive weeks of conflict, McDonald decided it was time to leave Jerusalem Baptist. He has since started his own church, Temple Mount Christian Center at Forest Park in the old Forest Park Baptist Church building.
"People don't know their place in the church," McDonald said. "They read the Bible but don't want to follow it."
The Bible gives guidance on who is supposed to do what, McDonald said, and that includes letting the pastor lead.
"People are trying to make Christianity into a democracy, and it isn't," he said. "You have to have authority and you can't have authority if there aren't people under that authority."
Some at Jerusalem felt that McDonald overstepped his authority.
"This church is almost 130 years old and it takes a lot for a church to be around that long," said church member Jacynthia Paradise. "I don't think he respected that or the people that did -- and he should be accountable to those people."
McDonald disagrees, saying that because a congregation names a pastor and pays him doesn't mean it has the right to control him.
"God is the head of the church and the pastors are the undershepherds," he said. "The role of the pastor is to lead, guide, instruct and rebuke."
Christ the Redeemer
For other churches, the points of contention involve the bigger church body as a whole. Take, for instance, what has happened in the Episcopal church since 2003.
That was the year that the Episcopal Church USA ordained V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as a bishop in New Hampshire.
This led many people to leave the church, like Doug McCurry, who was the rector of Christ the Redeemer Church at the time.
McCurry left in 2005 and started a new church, the Legacy Anglican Church. He took a large part of the congregation with him.
Christ the Redeemer ceased having services earlier this year after Sunday attendance dwindled to fewer than a dozen.
McCurry pointed out that disputes over scripture and doctrine going as far back as the 1800s had created similar rifts in the Episcopal church. He said that the church's desire to embrace modern ways will continue to cause problems in the church.
"To ignore scripture is to invite trouble," he said.
Solutions
John Ed Mathison, senior pastor at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church, has not encountered the problems of other churches. Frazer is one of the biggest churches in the city.
But he recognized that there are things occurring today that churches struggle to deal with.
"I think technology plays a great part," he said. "It has allowed people to be more aware of what is happening around the world and, if the national church is doing things that you may not agree with, you might have to do something."
He said that churches might need to get a third party, someone from the outside the church, to mediate disputes.
Other ministers see other solutions.
McCurry said church members and officials involved in disputes should focus their hearts on God and not money or building issues or anything else. He expects the ministers to spearhead that revival.
Gilchrist agreed.
"We all need to pray and submit to the will of the Holy Spirit," he said. "Ask yourself if the things you're arguing about are really worth it."
McDonald said that it is time for people to put aside pride, ego and tradition and focus on the future.
"People need to know their place and stop trying to do their thing and do what God asks us to do," he said.
Fuller said he hopes a solution is found -- not just at Old Elam, but at all churches that are dealing with division and strife.
"It hurts my heart to be apart from the church that is my home, and it's sad whenever that happens," he said. "Somewhere along the line, people just lost their way, and for our sake, we need to find a way back."
By Darryn SimmonsMontgomery Advertiser
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