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How a Georgia pastor practiced what he preached by accepting LGBTQ members into his Southern Baptist church
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Georgia church defies Southern Baptist Convention, accepts gay members
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KENNESAW, Ga. Two weeks after being kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention, Towne View Baptist Church celebrated its 32nd anniversary by formally accepting members the SBC believes they should have turned away.
One by one, Pastor Jim Conrad introduced seven new members, which in the Baptist tradition have to be approved by a majority of the congregation. He didn’t mention that Brockton Bates and his partner Skyler were gay nor that another new member was transgender. He didn’t have to. His church knew who they were accepting and had spent the last two years coming to terms with the fact that inclusion for Towne View had to look different than what was required to remain in the SBC, whose bylaws state that “churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.”
Georgia church defies Southern Baptist Convention, accepts gay members
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Pastor Jim Conrad said the Southern Baptist Convention cutting ties with his church will open a new chapter for the Kennesaw congregation. (Image courtesy Towne View Baptist Church)
The Southern Baptist Convention cut ties with a Kennesaw church over its decision to accept LGBTQ members, but the church is sticking by its new policy and receiving acclaim from across the U.S.
“If three to five percent of the population – somehow in God’s wisdom – is not straight or cisgender, then we should celebrate them as they are and invite them to follow Jesus and join us in this journey,” Pastor Jim Conrad of Towne View Baptist Church told Project Q Atlanta.