Disagreements Have Divided Churches Over The Centuries

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SEPARATE WAYS
Disagreements have divided churches through the centuries
By Robin Miller
rmiller@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6343
Look back to the first fork in the road, a road so rough with dirt and rocks that their feet were surely hardened by callouses through their thin sandals.

Better their feet than their hearts, for their mission was to spread the word of Christ, to bring followers into the first Christian church.

But then a disagreement ensued. A new member joined, making the twosome a threesome, and sides were taken. So two went one way while one went the other.

Which is, in a nutshell, the story of Paul and Barnabas.

“And that really is the first church split,” the Rev. Lee Weems says. “We can look all the way back to the New Testament and see this has been going on through time in our church history.”

Weems is the associate pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. And at more than 125 years old, even Emmanuel hasn’t been immune to a split — a disagreement caused church members there to leave in 1920 to form their own.

That new church is now Calvary Baptist Church on Jackson Street Extension.

“They started out on the corner of Jackson and Bolton,” Weems says. “That was really where the edge of the city was at the time. But they needed room to expand, and if they had stayed at their first location, they couldn’t have expanded as they have.”

Weems’ tenure at Emmanuel, of course, didn’t begin until long after the split. But he’s heard the stories, and he always harks back to that first split in the New Testament.

Paul and Barnabas worked together as missionaries. But then came Barnabas’ cousin Mark, who would author the Gospel of Mark. Paul didn’t agree with Mark on some things.

So, Barnabas and Mark went one direction, Paul the other.

“Paul later confirmed what Mark was saying,” Weems says.

But the split had occurred, just as it does in churches today. Disagreements lead to bitterness and frustration. But the splits can also lead to new church growth.

“Members of a congregation may want to worship a different way, and when they split, they’ll attract new members who want to worship that way, too,” Weems says. “Church splits have a lot to do with human nature, but it can sometimes be productive if people work together — if they think about what they’ve learned from this and what they can do to make it better in the future.”

Talk of church splits has been in the news lately with the controversy at Donahue Family Church, a congregation, as Herb Dickerson sees it, that may split into three.

Dickerson is director of the North Rapides Baptist Association, the Central Louisiana Baptist Association and the Lee Heights Baptist Association.

He’s seen many congregations split over the years.

“And in the case of Donahue, I see one part of the congregation going with Keith Dickens, another with Glen Whatley and another part of it staying with the elders in the church’s original location,” Dickerson says.

Again, the split isn’t anything unusual. There have also been splits at First Baptist Church of Pineville in recent years.

“And there was a split at Holloway Baptist Church,” Dickerson says. “Part of the congregation left and formed Unity Baptist on Highway 28 East. They’re not large churches, but they’re healthy, medium-sized congregations.

“Historically, a congregation that breaks off from another grows fast. A church will usually reach its peak in the size of its congregation at 20 years.”

Which is why some churches fade away while new ones grow. But not all splits have to be the result of a disagreement.

“Churches also split by forming mission congregations,” Dickerson says. “Northside Baptist Church in Pineville has formed Calvary Baptist of Ball. It’s a mission.

“Northside is located on Military Highway in Pineville, behind the old Wal-Mart building. It’s in a commercial district, and it has no room to grow.”

Church members still meet at Northside.

“But I see them eventually moving out to Calvary in Ball,” Dickerson says.

Missions are formed in stages, becoming churches when they are able to handle their own finances. Before that, they are sponsored by their mother churches.

“And that’s what we call them — mother churches,” Dickerson says. “It’s like parents and children, and it’s also how our Baptist associations are able to grow.”

In the end, some split congregations reconcile, as was the case with Paul and Mark. The congregations don’t become one church again, but they sometimes work together.

“It takes two to argue,” Weems says. “It’s like life. If one person holds on to the bitterness of an argument, while the other person has moved on with life, who has the problem? I hope that in whatever happens there will be a greater sensitivity.”

Town Talk Wraps Up The Donahue Story

From here:

Membership, money issues face Donahue
By Billy Gunn
bgunn@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6378

Now that the storm has passed and their young, charismatic and headstrong pastor is gone for good, leaders and members of Donahue Family Church in Pineville are trying to mend emotional and spiritual wounds.

There are many uncertainties, such as Donahue’s financial health and who remains in the church — the income for which is provided through members’ tithing.

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What is certain is that the Rev. Keith Dickens, 38, will abide by the membership’s vote on Sunday that removed him as pastor by a tally of 237 to 219.
On Wednesday, Dickens agreed under oath in 9th Judicial District Court to accept the members’ decision and not to contest the vote.

Dickens, appearing humbled and talking softly outside Judge John Davidson’s courtroom, said he would not pull church members who supported him and start another church in Central Louisiana.

The elders
Dickens openly defied the church’s Board of Elders by refusing to step down after the board fired him in October.

Refusing an order from the elders is not in line with biblical teachings, said Glen Whatley, the former administrator for Donahue’s private school, Cenla Christian Academy.

God spoke to Dickens through the elders, and Dickens “rose up against that authority,” Whatley said.

“God wanted to bring correction to his (Dickens’) life. … That was my issue with Keith — he did not submit to that authority,” Whatley said.

The elders either have refused comment for news stories about Donahue or have been inaccessible by telephone.

But the dispute between the elders and Dickens became public only after he fired Cenla Christian Academy football coaches in September.

By the time of the coaches’ firings, Dickens and other church officials had obligated the church to a $4.85 million purchase of Cowboy Town that closed on June 27.

Along with the purchase, the church either borrowed or had donated from an anonymous family $1 million — $800,000 of which was put down as a down payment. Dickens said late last month that the remaining $200,000 is deposited in an undisclosed bank.

The purchase of Cowboy Town — through which church leaders hoped to draw more members from all directions — was in addition to the $1.25 million construction of the Family Life Center that started this past spring. Six elders put up personal financial guarantees for that project.

According to transcripts of a June 6 church leadership meeting on Cowboy Town, Dickens discussed the pending purchase from Ken Moran, who bought the facility in 2004 at a bankruptcy auction for $2.9 million and offered to owner-finance the facility.

At the meeting, Dickens lauded the deal’s advantages to the church and said no one in the church leadership spoke out against the plan.

“And so I’ve asked you, who were leaders, if you didn’t contact me, that I would assume that you’re 100 percent for it,” Dickens said.

Dickens placed faith in God and not financial study that Cowboy Town would work.

“I’m not worried about money, and I’m not worried about transitioning of the people” who would have to travel miles from Pineville to attend services, Dickens said.

Donahue last week was relieved of some of the Cowboy Town obligations. Bradley Drell, attorney for the elders, said the terms of the purchase were changed from a “with-recourse” buy to one that has a “non-recourse” clause. That means that if the church cannot pay the $4.05 million it will owe on July 1, 2009, the property will revert back to Moran without Donahue owing anything else.

Followers and foes
Efforts leading into Sunday’s vote by the pro-Dickens faction included crafting a defense of allegations made by the elders. The elders’ allegations were numerous, including that Dickens gave himself an unauthorized $20,000 raise.

Anti-Dickens church members, according to numerous interviews, waged a telephone campaign leading to the Sunday vote, which was close and included allegations that not all who wanted to were allowed inside the church.

One of many who wanted inside but was barred at the door was Marilynn Casida of Boyce, who backed Dickens and would follow him anywhere.

Casida said that although she attended the church for more than a year, she hadn’t completed a class to officially become a member, which was a requirement to vote.

She came to Donahue and Dickens at a low point in her life.

“I loved his style of preaching,” Casida said. “It’s very uplifting. It builds you up instead of tearing you down. Instead of telling you you’re going to hell, he tells you how to get to heaven.”

Glen Whatley
After he was fired as Cenla Christian Academy’s administrator, Whatley held services in a downtown Alexandria hotel, attended by 200 to 300 who had gone to Donahue.

Whatley said he has not counseled those members on whether to return to Donahue, explaining that it’s their decision.

The elders also have offered Whatley his former job at the academy, but he has not made a decision on that.

He also said he does not know if he’d accept pastorship duties at Donahue if asked. Today, he said, he’d say no. But next week?

“I am open to pastoring,” Whatley said. “It seems God is speaking to me week to week.”