South Carolina Baptist Convention messengers voted Nov. 10 to disaffiliate with Augusta Heights Baptist Church of Greenville after the church’s pastor performed a same-sex marriage ceremony.
Dwight Easler, chairman of the SCBC Executive Board, presented the motion to messengers “with a burdened and heavy heart” and said the convention “must lovingly and without apology stand together for the word of God in order to call sinners to repentance.”
The motion called for Augusta Heights Church to be “disaffiliated from the South Carolina Baptist Convention until such a time when they express corporate repentance and return to a biblical view of marriage and sexuality that is in agreement with the principles of God’s word as summarized in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.”
The motion was adopted unanimously without discussion.
The Oct. 10 same-sex marriage service did not take place at the church, but Augusta Heights’ pastor Greg Dover performed the ceremony with the approval of his deacons.
The church was dismissed from Greenville Baptist Association on Oct. 22.
SCBC Executive Board chairman Dwight Easler addresses messengers. (SCBC photo)
Easler told messengers he contacted Dover about the issue. Easler said the church cited the absence of a marriage policy and soul freedom as reasons not to reverse its actions.
“We believe this action by the pastor and the subsequent inaction of the church to correct this policy through an expression of repentance and returning to a biblical view of marriage and sexuality is evidence that they are sadly and tragically no longer in friendly cooperation with this convention,” Easler told messengers.
“We believe that the Gospel is for the gay person and the straight person, the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the young and the old,” said Easler. “However, we believe that no man can come to the Gospel without the acknowledgement of sin and confession and faith in Christ.”
After the motion was approved, Easler led messengers in a prayer. “Lord, we’re brokenhearted that we have come to this place,” he said. “We pray for revival in all our churches, we pray for revival in Augusta Heights, we pray for souls to be saved. We pray for the darkness to be impacted in our communities.”