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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9 comments:
And now the Wall Street Journal is on the case - Banned From Church.
Nice link Steve. Thanks for posting.
It would be intresting if you called Pastor Burrick to discuss this case. Karolyn Caskey was NEVER a member of Allen Baptist Church! She was simply someone who had sporadically attended Allen Baptist a few weeks out of the year when she was not at her home in Florida (where she resides most of the year).
It's ironic how quickly exaggerated facts can spread and how slow the truth takes to come around.
Don't you think that life and time change people? I hope they'll find their "way home" after reading your post.
Anonymous --
Not sure what you mean. Who finds their way home Burrick or Caskey or ...?
After reading your post, I realized that Maria Mitchell was right while saying "Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
I know this is years after the fact, but to the "anonymous" person who is speculating on the situation, maybe you need to learn the facts. I know Karolyn. She is my grandmother. I bailed her out of jail the day she got arrested. And I would like you to know that she is a permanent resident in MI. Not some one who "sporadically" attended the Allen Baptist Church. She has a home in FL which she is at from Nov. - April. I can assure you she was a dedicated member there. She even anonymously paid for Pastor Burrick's cable so his kids could have tv. She also put the sound system in the church and donated 10% of her pension. She FAITHFULLY attended as did I when I was younger. Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday evenings. Does that sound sporadic to you? It doesn't to me. That sounds like dedication and commitment. So, before you go speculating and coming to your own conclusions, learn the facts!!
Rachel --
Hi and welcome. I'm glad you addressed the Anonymous poster. If there is anything you would like to ad to my short article, an important detail you think I missed or any followup about what has happened to the situation in the 5 years since I wrote it. Please feel free to post here. Or if Ms. Caskey or yourself have a blog/facebook page... which covers this feel free to link.
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