Telltale Tidings 5: "Railroaded!"

Tabernacle Baptist Church (Hickory, NC)

Dear Reader,

This has been a long time in coming!  Through this series of Telltale posts, it is NOT my intention to seek revenge against any individuals or our former church, or even to vent frustration about negative situations.  God said "Vengeance is Mine..." (Romans 12:19).  Most people follow an accepted practice of quietly leaving a church or ministry without "making waves" or saying anything.  Saying nothing would be the easy thing to do.  When nothing is said, underlying and important issues are never dealt with!  While I venture to say that many will never see these posts, I nonetheless wish to document what has taken place.  Why?  Romans 8:28 coupled with Alexander the Coppersmith (2 Tim. 4:14-16) and Diotrephes (3 Joh 1:9-11).  God gave us these situations and I have come to desire to use them for HIM!

Through all of the challenges with people at our former church family, namely the pastor, we can say that we're VERY thankful and blessed that that LORD has opened and continues to open our eyes.  Most of all from studying a number of Scriptures, we have learned details of the design that the Creator has for His people and how they should function as an assembly, in contrast to how most groups of believers operate with a hierarchy that includes a "board" of deacons, a CEO (pastor), and other aspects that clearly show that they function as a business.  The confidence that Bible knowledge has given us has brought us to the point that we now have less and less fear of man when it comes to sharing Bible truth about His church.  In addition, through years of both good and bad experiences at home and in meetings, Heather and I have learned (and are learning) to be extremely grateful for all that the LORD brings our way!

By placing these "adventures" in a blog post...

1. It is our way of "moving on," putting 8+ years of a lording pastor home church situation behind us, a church that graciously served as both home and ministry base for more than 20 years as our work began and grew.  It was all the more difficult to leave this place where I attended high school 7th - 12th grades, where my Christian growth began...especially with the annual school camps at the Wilds Christian Camp. That was where I dedicated my life to the LORD.  Tabernacle is where Heather and I met during a revival meeting when her mom dragged her up to me and said, "My daughter knows all the Bible Time songs!  She can play for you this week!"  Seven weeks later, we were engaged at Carson Memorial Baptist in King's Mountain during a VBS closing program!  A year and a half later, we were married by Pastor Phil Vos and her dad at Tabernacle in 1993. This church was where we held our first big conference, which took place the night of Pastor Vos' memorial service.  In short, we've had quite a bit of history here and it was extremely difficult for us to leave about 20 years of service as missionaries based out of that church.

2. Most importantly, it is our way of helping anyone who desires Biblical truth--to know the Scriptures and to be warned of overbearing, "lording" pastors or other self-assertive individuals, a leadership--rather lordership--that commonly exists in the modern church hierarchical structure which places fallible men "over" God's "heritage," an arrangement that is clearly warned against (1 Peter 5:3).

In this next to last post I'm sharing documentary evidence: First, I am sharing a link (below) to the letter that I wrote to church leadership in response to their request to meet with me regarding what we believe about a pastor.  (Since this writing is about 4 years after the fact, my recollection is that no one ever even acknowledged receipt of the letter and neither was it brought up for discussion.)  Due to the telltale, about-face behavior of  Jesse the treasurer (See part 1) in demanding that a meeting with church leadership take place BEFORE we left for Virginia that year (2017), I decided that the best way to communicate with all involved was by expressing in writing what the Scripture actually says concerning men who shepherd God's people.  This was done instead of an in-person meeting with church hierarchy, especially to avoid potential "gotcha" questions/accusations as I had previously experienced in meetings with the pastor on occasion: (media to be added soon)

After months of trying to find out the details of what took place at a business meeting about us, I finally received this letter from Scott Hooks.

Letter detailing our removal from the church missions family (note the highlighted reference to "biblical authority")

From reading the above letter, you can see the words "his position on biblical authority."  I can forthrightly and truthfully say that Biblical authority was NEVER discussed.  Actually, the deacons and Scott Hooks wanted to meet with me and discuss "what I believe about a pastor."  In the statement Dr. Payne read in the business meeting during which some friends told us that we were railroaded, they deceptively changed the wording to "biblical authority."  This wording took the focus off of the actual subject of the pastor and placed it on us and our differences with church belief.

SIDE NOTES:  In re-reading the above letter. I notice the reference to having "withheld support pending presenting these findings to the congregation."  NOT ONE PERSON had let us know that the church was going to discontinue our support!  It stopped without any notification whatsoever, beforehand or at any point before we resigned. 

However, an intriguing situation happened one day when the treasurer Jesse Winstead abruptly called me into the school principal's office, which was not 'his' office.  He, along with Frank Ridley (why, I don't know) who was my high school basketball coach, informed me that we needed to find a mission board, referencing IRS regulations for church-based mission boards as the reason. However, the church had served as our mission agency for nearly 20 years with no issue.  Why now?  As it happened, Tabernacle was gaining more and more ties to Temple Baptist in Powell, TN.  Hooks spoke of Temple's pastor Clarence Sexton as "his pastor," and more and more "Crownies" (my term) were being brought in to replace school teachers who had been serving in the school for many years.  In addition, someone had brought in a financial advisor from Temple in Powell, TN.  (In my opinion, Jesse accidentally mentioned that the lady financial advisor was out of the church in Powell.)  Looking back, I understand more fully that the pastor was not up to telling me directly.  He apparently had the treasurer use the IRS as an excuse to start the official process of pushing us out, perhaps to make room for a new building (since "our spot" for parking our RV/home/office was at an old modular building).

Aside from conversations with Hooks (detailed in previous posts), I first began discussing "confidentially" our concerns about the direction of the church with Dr. Dennis Payne during breakfast at Bob Evans restaurant in Hickory.   At the time, I thought he as a doctor was a friend in whom I could trust, and he had been head of the deacon board.  Both he and one of the above signers, Dan Dixon, had been our Sunday school teachers.  (If you can't trust your Sunday school teacher, who can you trust??)  The other signer, Scott Schmidt, was a long time friend of our family, as he is the son-in-law of the previous pastor, Phil Vos, who was pastor of the church Heather and her parents attended back when they lived in TN.  Heather and I even attended Scott and Casie's wedding, so our friendship goes quite a ways back.  We still count them good friends, but it still intrigues us that not ONCE in all of the dialogue did we EVER hear from Scott, Dan, or any other deacon expressing Christian care.  It is extremely sad that it takes situations like this to expose who one's real friends are (or aren't)!  In short, we were slowly and gradually railroaded out of Tabernacle, our home church for more than 20 years!

Hooks came to the church from Crown College, after having earned a business degree from the University of TN at Knoxville and after serving 8 years as assistant to Clarence Sexton at Temple Baptist of Powell, TN.  Over time, it became clear that Hooks was seeking to replace all of the church and school staff and missionaries with folk who have an allegiance to Crown, or a "bow to the pastor" philosophy such as that of Hyles-Anderson College.  It is therefore no surprise that folk in the church or school ministry who had served many years in their roles were simply and unexpectedly ousted by this CEO/lording "pastor."

It is tragic and amazing to us the political wrangling like this that can and does go on in churches, Bible colleges, or even mission boards! I was later to learn that the notes of concern that I'd shared in a supposed-to-be-confidential meal with Dr. Payne were shared with Hooks! My trust had been misplaced. It is indeed sad when a person cannot trust people who are supposed to be trustworthy!

Recounting Part 1 of this series, "High Five," as things were coming to a head with decision to leave the church. A number of things were going on behind the scenes that we do not know to this day.  After informing Jesse the treasurer that I wouldn't be meeting with church leadership before we left NC for ministry in VA, I knew that it was time for us to leave Tabernacle.

Since this writing is much later (1/7/25) than the previous accounting, some things have faded from memory.  However, one event stands clear that will NEVER be forgotten...a part of the saga that involved the police!  (Continued Part 6: Surrounded By Police!)