November 6, 2000
Historic church leaving SBC
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___SAVANNAH, Ga. (ABP) --A founding church of the Southern Baptist Convention voted Oct. 15 to sever ties with the denomination, citing doctrinal differences.
___First Baptist Church of Savannah, Ga., took a 93 percent positive vote to end its 155-year relationship with Southern Baptists. A resolution cited differences over pastoral authority, autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of all believers and "orthodoxy" as a requirement for full participation in denominational life.
___The church was established in 1800. Its second pastor, William Bullein Johnson, is often described as the "father of the Southern Baptist Convention."
___While some historians say that is an overstatement, all acknowledge he was a major architect of the convention, which organized in 1845. He wrote the first constitution and was its first president and most important spokesman.
___"In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that the directions and goals of the Southern Baptist Convention have diverged from those envisioned by its founding fathers and from those of the members of First Baptist Church," according to the church resolution.
___During its 200-year history, the resolution says, the Savannah church "has strongly fostered religious education, congregational leadership, ecumenism, freedom of the individual, priesthood of all believers and soul competency."
___"An exhaustive study by church committees, affirmed by the diaconate, has demonstrated that the effectiveness of First Baptist Church for the foreseeable future is best served by dissolving the formal ties that bind it to the Southern Baptist Convention," the resolution states.
___While "informal relationships may continue," it closes, the church "formally dissolves its institutional ties with the Southern Baptist Convention."
___Senior Minister John Finley said in an interview that the vote was not prompted by any single event but "culminates a 21-year process of coming to terms with all the changes in the SBC."
___Finley said the vote was "doubly painful" because of the church's role in founding the SBC. "There was a sense we were sacrificing a large portion of our own history to do this. There was a lot of sadness in the room."
___But eventually it became an issue of "integrity and honesty," he said.
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