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GREENSBORO -- The state's five remaining Baptist colleges must give up funding from the State Baptist Convention of North Carolina in return for their freedom.
So say the nearly 3,000 delegates of the convention who gathered in Greensboro on Tuesday for their annual three-day meeting.



The schools — Chowan, Mars Hill, Wingate, Campbell and Gardner-Webb — had requested more autonomy in naming their own trustees. The convention's nominating committee currently has veto power over trustee candidates.



A second vote to change the ties between the convention and Baptist schools must be taken at the 2008 convention to make it official.



The delegates, called messengers, also voted Tuesday to no longer fellowship with Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, which places admitted homosexuals in leadership positions. It is the first church to be kicked out of the state's largest religious group after a 2006 vote defining "churches in friendly cooperation" with the convention.



"I hope we can agree God's love and grace are for all people," Nancy Walker, a church deacon at Myers Park and professed lesbian, said in an appeal before messengers overwhelmingly agreed to ask the church to leave.

"We say God is love, but what about God is holy and punishes sin?" said John Miller, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Concord.



Just as with the colleges Tuesday, messengers will discuss similar changes Wednesday in restructuring traditional ties with the Baptist Retirement Homes and the Woman's Missionary Union.



The financial fallout for the colleges is between 1.5 percent to 4 percent of their budgets, depending on the school, but most of the money given by the convention is used for student scholarships. After 2008, new students seeking Baptist scholarships will have to apply directly to the convention.



The leaders of the five schools said Tuesday they still want a relationship with the convention — that they would continue to promote Christian beliefs on campus and to look at Baptist churches as a pipeline to fill seats.



"We don't want any less of any of that," said Jerry Wallace, president of Campbell University.

During discussions, David Martin of First Baptist Church in Cary voiced disapproval in relinquishing any control over the trustee process.

"I am against giving what is ours away," Martin said. "That is not being good stewards of what God entrusted us. Do you realize how much you are letting go? Over a billion dollars that good Baptists have given" over the years.



Allan Blume, chairman of the board of directors, reminded messengers that the schools were affiliated with, but not founded by, the convention.

"There is nothing to give away, in that sense." Blume said.



Others questioned why the trustees want to distance themselves from the convention.

"The presidents asked us to trust them," said Rick Matthews of College Park Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. "I ask, why don't they trust this convention in the election of trustees?"



Also Tuesday, Rick Speas, pastor of Old Town Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, was elected president of the convention; Leland Kerr, director of missions in the Wilmington Baptist Association, first vice president; and Phil Ortega, pastor of Scotts Hill Baptist Church in Wilmington, second vice president.



All of the men ran without opposition.

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nmclaughlin @news-record.com