J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, speaks at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission s Caring Well Conference in Grapevine, Texas, on Oct. 3, 2019. | ERLC/Karen Race Photography
John Randy Leming Jr., a pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, Tennessee, whose past as a convicted rapist caused the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee to disfellowship his congregation last month, has resigned.
Leming, according to the Baptist and Reflector, announced his resignation on Feb. 28, five days after the SBC Executive Committee announced the church was being expelled for employing the pastor who confessed to two counts of statutory rape.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee voted on Tuesday to expel four of its member churches, ousting two for policies that “affirm homosexual behavior” and the others for employing pastors who are convicted sex offenders. “The last year has revealed areas of weakness in our beloved convention of churches,” J.D. Greear, the S.B.C. president, said in a fiery opening address to the committee on Monday night in Nashville. “Fissures.
Top leaders address divides in the denomination at the first in-person Executive Committee meeting in a year.
Kate Shellnutt| Image: Mark Humphrey / AP
At its first in-person meeting since the pandemic took off a year ago, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee decided to cut ties with two churches whose pastors had been convicted of sexual offenses as well as two LGBT-affirming churches. But it was leaders’ concerns over ongoing tensions within the denomination that stirred Southern Baptists during the two-day gathering at its Nashville headquarters.
“Southern Baptists in large part are ready to walk into the future. But we are spending a lot of time tolerating those who would rip us apart,” said SBC president and Executive Committee member J. D. Greear during remarks Monday night. “Brothers, let’s just call it: These things are demonic.”
The Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee voted Tuesday to oust four of its churches, two over policies deemed to be too inclusive of LGBTQ .