A Georgia church, kicked out of the SBC for allowing gay members, wants to make sure ‘everybody’s welcome’ – By Andrew J. Yawn (The American South) / April 4 2021
KENNESAW, Ga. — Two weeks after being kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Towne View Baptist Church celebrated its 32nd anniversary by formally accepting members the SBC believes they should have turned away.
One by one, Pastor Jim Conrad introduced seven new members, which in the Baptist tradition have to be approved by a majority of the congregation. He didn’t mention that Brockton Bates and his partner Skyler were gay nor that another new member was transgender. He didn’t have to. His church knew who they were accepting and had spent the last two years coming to terms with the fact that inclusion for Towne View had to look different than what was required to remain in the SBC, whose bylaws state that “churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.”
On February 23, the SBC Executive Committee voted to remove Towne View for affirming LGBTQ members, the culmination of a two-year inquiry.
“Essentially the SBC has decided that because we welcomed these folks into our family that we’re no longer welcome in their family, and we’re OK with that,” Conrad said. “What we decided is that when we say everybody’s welcome, that means everybody.”
