Karolyn Caskey was a long time member of Allen Baptist Church in Hillsdale Michigan She and many other members of the church were kicked out by a new paster, Jason Burrick. He excommunicated many of the long term members in February but these long term members refused to stop attending and early on their were arrests (see story).
The pastor graduate of Hyles Anderson College, which is a fundamentalists independent baptist college. The college has a long history of controversy (ex1, ex2) additionally is unaccredited. Jeri Bassenco of Blog on the Lillypad is covering this whole case extensively.
The core debate is whether Hyles Anderson is training its pastors to "steal" congregations. That is get a pastoral appointment to a church with weak or no outside leadership, kick out the old members and rebuild the church in a new way. This technique is what is controversial. Its often advocated under terms like "congregational renewal". More importantly it gets to the heart of the great debates that appear to be splitting the evangelical and fundamentalist community renewing the classic debate as to whether the church is broad or narrow, that is the issue of regenerate membership.
From organizational standpoint this case provides yet another of the countless examples of why church government should be a plurality of elders with the minister as an employee.
Other discussion pages related to Caskey:
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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2 comments:
And now the Wall Street Journal is on the case - Banned From Church.
Nice link Steve. Thanks for posting.
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