Georgia church could face ouster

                                                                                                                  Vol. XII, No. 9, October 1999

Oakhurst Baptist Church, Decatur, GA, will become the first congregation removed from the fellowship of the Georgia Baptist Convention in its 177-year history if messengers to the annual meeting Nov.15-16 in Macon approve a recommendation adopted by the convention's executive committee during its Sept. 14 meeting. With just one audible dissent, the committee voted to recommend withdrawal from fellowship with the 86-year-old congregation known for its extensive social ministries in a racially and economically diverse community.

The vote on Oakhurst was the anticipated result of a constitutional amendment, approved by messengers to the 1998 annual meeting in Columbus, stating that membership for "a cooperating church does not include (one) which knowingly takes, or has taken, any action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior." That action provided a process whereby concerns would come to the GBC executive director for exploration and recommendation.

Two churches, Oakhurst and Virginia-Highland in Atlanta, received inquiries from J. Robert White, executive director, and Gerald Harris, state convention president and pastor of Marietta's Eastside Baptist Church. White told committee members that a written response from the Virginia-Highland church was expected in October and that a report will be made at the next executive committee meeting scheduled prior to the GBC annual meeting in Macon. In recommending the removal of the Oakhurst congregation Harris expressed brokenheartedness and compared the action to "sending a child away from home." However, Harris said while he admired much about Oakhurst's ministries, their position on homosexuality was "clearly outside the parameters established by our Convention."

Following a meeting Harris and White held with Lanny Peters, pastor of Oakhurst, the congregation adopted unanimously a lengthy written response. The statement affirmed that while members of the congregation have different opinions about homosexuality, and "have wrestled with the question of human sexuality...as one of the most difficult and volatile issues Christians face," Oakhurst is "a welcoming and affirming place in which lesbian and gay Christians are embraced as full members of our congregation." The document adopted in church conference last June also states the church covenant was adapted in 1997 to read "...We reject any status in this fellowship in terms of church office, possessions, education, race, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental ability, physical ability, or other distinctions."

White said a positive vote in November would mean Oakhurst could not send voting messengers to annual convention meetings and that mission gifts from the congregation would no longer be accepted.