Letter to Chuck Taylor from a Concerned BBC Member

Response from Chuck Taylor to a Concerned BBC Member's letter below.

Josh,

I received an email from a “concerned member of Bellevue” and I believe you posted it on your blog site. I thought I would email you my response as well.

Dear Concerned Bellevue Member,

I know you are sincere in your comments and truly grieved in your heart. When one member of the body hurts we all hurt. It grieves me to know how you feel but my answers to your questions will not change your mind. We are all grieved by the things going on in our beloved Church but for very different reasons. You don’t understand why I don’t see what you see and I don’t understand why you don’t see what I see. You state that you have lost confidence in the Pastor Search Committee and that grieves me. When I think of the 9 people I had the privilege of serving with on that committee, they were the most humble, Christ-centered, servants of God I have ever been associated with. They gave up 8 months of their lives to seek God’s man for our Church. I guess when you say you lost confidence in the Search Committee because of the man we called, you’re also saying you lost confidence in Dr. Rogers since he said he knew all along Bro. Steve was the man. You refer to the search as “hush, hush, rush, rush”. It was “hush, hush” because we wanted to keep the rumor mill down at Bellevue and the Churches we were visiting. As you can see from recent events, the rumor mill is very strong at Bellevue. We were also following the same protocol used by the Search Committee that called Dr. Rogers 32 years before. To this day they won’t tell you where they went and who they looked at. As for “rush, rush”, there was no rush. We waited on God for 8 months until He revealed His will and, Scripture teaches, when God reveals His will you respond immediately. Was it a rush to give the congregation only one week notice he was coming to preach in view of a call? Maybe but we discussed the chain of events and their timing with Dr. Rogers and he was in agreement. Also, don’t forget one of the committee members was the previous Associate Pastor of Bellevue for 25 years and he was in agreement as well.

Another issue that grieves me greatly is your insinuations about John and Pat Caldwell. You obviously don’t know either one of them! They have served our Lord and Bellevue Baptist Church so humbly, faithfully and sacrificially. Your questioning their character is a perfect example of how evil this campaign is. All I can say with civility about that is you should be ashamed of yourself!

You are right a Church shouldn’t blindly follow the leadership of a Pastor but, according to scripture, it is unwise to oppose his leadership on grounds of personal preferences. If the Pastor was teaching heresy or had moral failures or was lazy and not fulfilling his calling, then you have a scriptural reason for opposition. But even then, you don’t go into the public arena and voice your concerns. That just gives the enemy the opportunity to discredit the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ before a lost and dying world. The issues you have with Bro. Steve are either based on your personal preferences or misinformation. Let me give you the truth about some of the accusations swirling around.

Lie #1, He has been accused of credit card abuse – A lie – Chip Freeman, the head of our Church Finance Office, reported to the Deacons there has never been any misuse of a credit card by Bro. Steve. Chip is the only one who would know if there was or not and he said absolutely not.

Lie #2, He has been accused of saying he had a dream about stopping a member of Bellevue from saying Amen – A lie – He told our Associate Pastor he woke up thinking about this gentleman that says Amen a lot and asked that he talk with him to tone it down some because it was distracting. Our Associate Pastor in turn talked with two other Staff members who knew him and asked that they go to him. Somewhere in that exchange they said he had a dream. If you want to know how Pastor Steve feels about dreams, read his comments about dreams in his daily devotional book for February 2^nd.

Lie #3, He didn’t like the way Bellevue worshipped and set out to change it to be like Gardendale. This lie came from a 3 minute clip out of a 50 minute video of Bro. Steve telling Gardendale goodbye. If you watch that video in its entirety, you’ll see how much Gardendale loved their Pastor and he loved them. If he was a conniving, money hungry, angry person like some Bellevue members have made him out to be, Gardendale wouldn’t have loved him so much and hurt when he left. Yes he preferred their format at Gardendale to ours at Bellevue but why should that be a surprise to you?

Lie #4, His income is excessive, some say $500,000, others say twice as much as Dr. Rogers. I have first hand knowledge of this and it’s not close to that.

You ask about the covenant relationship between Bro. Steve and Jamie. Yes, the Search Committee was told about it and it was no surprise to us. My personal opinion is God put those two together like He put Adrian Rogers and Jim Whitmire together or Billy Graham and George Beverly Shea. It’s very common for a Pastor to serve with the same Minister of Music throughout his ministry.

A lot has been made about 4 of us climbing over a fence to go talk to a leader in this opposition. It happened on the Monday (during daylight hours) before the Friday night meeting. We went out of love and concern for him and our Church. Matt. 5:23 is the scriptural basis for what we did. If he wants an audience with the leadership of the Church, he had the Pastor, Associate Pastor, Chairman of the Deacons and another Deacon leader on his doorstep. I repeat, we went out of love and concern for him and our Church. We tried to set up a meeting with him on that Wednesday night but he backed out saying he couldn’t get his group together. We had all the Chairmen and several members of the Pastor Search Committee, 2006 Finance Committee, 2005 Finance Committee and Board of Directors ready to meet with him but he said he could get his group together so he declined the meeting. If we knew then what we know now we would never have climbed over the fence and we regret any embarrassment that may have caused our Church but we didn’t have the benefit of hindsight at the time.

What is our Pastor’s vision for Bellevue? Win souls to Jesus and strengthen the Body of Christ. Maybe you haven’t noticed what is happening at Bellevue People are getting saved and growing in the Lord. It’s remarkable that some want to discredit or disregard the growth we’re experiencing: Worship services are packed, Sunday School is growing again, Women’s ministry is growing, I2 is huge and the soon to begin Thursday morning men’s Bible study already has 600 men signed up for it. All falls within the vision of Winning Souls to Jesus and strengthening the Body of Christ. How can you find fault with this?

I am sure you and I love Bellevue equally but we must remember it is not OUR Church. The Church belongs solely to the One who died for it and He has the right to put whoever He wants as the under-shepherd of His flock. I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt, Brother Steve is the one God gave to us for this time. If I knew who you were, I don’t even know if you’re a brother or a sister in Christ since you sent this to me anonymously, I’d pray with you about all this. I believe God will bring good out of this if we stay pure and focused on Him. That is my hearts desire and I believe yours as well.

Chuck

The following letter comes to me from a concerned Bellevue Member whose veracity would be unquestioned in the church and whose reputation is completely unimpeachable. This person's reasons for not signing is that the person does not want to quench any flow of private information coming to this person as this person continues to seek the truth. I respect that position and will honor this person's request. I find no fault in such a request, only shame that we have come to the point where it needs to be made.

Dear Mr. Taylor:

I have been an active member of Bellevue for over 25 years. I loved Dr. Adrian Rogers but I knew his retirement would bring changes and change can be a good thing. I prayed for the pastor's search committee and looked forward to the day we would once again have a pastor. I believe most of us were excited about Steve Gaines coming and welcomed him with open arms ready to love and accept him as our own. I was concerned about the way his coming was announced but I had confidence in the committee. We were a grieving church. We had gone thru Dr. Roger's heart attacks, retirement, colon cancer and untimely death. We needed someone to put their arms around us and help us heal. That did not happen. Almost from the beginning I had a check in my spirit about the things that were happening at church. It was not just the changes but the attitude and the arrogance of those changes.

I have checked four commentaries regarding the responsibilities of the pastor and the church in response to the pastor. I used the same scriptures you have used in email correspondence to others. It is not an implicit obedience, or absolute submission that is required, but only so far as is agreeable to the mind and will of God revealed in his WORD and when ministerial instructions are agreeable to the written word, they must obey them. They have rule over the people; their office, though not magisterial, yet is truly authoritative. They have no authority to lord it over the people; but to lead them in the ways of God, by informing and instructing them, explaining the word of God to them. They are not to make laws of their own, but the people must search the scriptures and receive them not as the word of men but as the word of that work effectually in those that believe. THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE FOLLOW LEADERSHIP BLINDLY.

Because I no longer have confidence in our pastor's search committee and many of our church leadership there are several questions I would like you to answer.

Why was there so much secrecy around Dr. Gaines coming? Why were the deacons and staff not told before the news was given to The Commercial Appeal?

If Dr. Gaines was a strong candidate from the beginning, why was Pat Caldwell on the search committee? Her son-in-law was on staff at Gardendale and is now on staff at Bellevue. What is his position and did you know of his coming from the beginning? It is interesting that her husband John is one of the fence jumpers.

Why was the church not informed of his coming in time to question Steve Gaines and why were we not given a biographical sketch?

Why was his coming such a hush hush and rush rush?

Why was his church protected more than ours?

Did the search committee know his leadership style was like a CEO and he would make decisions without congregational approval?

WHY WAS THE CHURCH BODY NOT TOLD OF THE COVENANT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STEVE GAINES AND JAMIE PARKER YOU REFERRED TO IN DEACONS MEETING? We had no idea that the hiring of Steve Gaines would mean the firing of Dr. Jim Whitmire. Did you consider his children and grandchildren and the effect it would have on these families?

In what context did Dr. Rogers use the term follow and swallow?

What is Biblical about threats and intimidation to members who ask questions and attend a meeting regarding a church they love?

What information does Mark Sharp and others have that Dr. Gaines, Mark Doughterty, John Caldwell and yourself would break the law by climbing a fence with a no trespassing sign? Did you compare the fence jumping incident as no more than an EE visit?

Why did Dr. Gaines redecorate Dr. Roger's office when it had been redone shortly before his retirement? How much money was spent and who authorized it?

Did the pulpit committee inquire of Steve Gaines what his vision for Bellevue would be as pastor? What did you know of his vision and why didn't you inform the church before you asked us to vote on a decision that had already been made?

By the way what is a covenant relationship between two men?

This is an integrity issue and I would appreciate your prompt response.

A concerned Bellevue member