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 GREENSBORO -- The pastor at Greensboro’s historic Shiloh Baptist cannot return to the church’s pulpit until at least August after a judge ruled Friday the church’s governing council had the right to suspend the Rev. F. Willis Johnson Jr. for 90 days.

The dispute is over the way Johnson is running the church — right down to whether he has prayer with grieving families before a funeral.

“There is no celebrating going on,” said church trustee Camille Payton, an attorney and one of the plaintiffs. “We see ourselves as not having won, but having done what’s best for Shiloh and what’s best to put us in a position to keep making good decisions for Shiloh.”

Johnson said the case was about money and control.

“This was not about church, it was not about God or the spiritual consciousness of a community,” Johnson said shortly after the ruling. “I believe that there was a contingency of people who were desperate and demonic enough to take it to whatever degree, and the effort it needed to take ... for their desire, their whims and their wants.”

Shiloh, once the seat of strategy for Greensboro’s civil rights movement, is well-known for contentious battles with pastors. It has had four pastors in the past decade.

When the Rev. Gregory Headen left in 1996 after three years, it split the church of about 400.

“I had no intentions to going to court with them as a plaintiff or a defendant,” said another former Shiloh pastor, the Rev. Anthony Cozart Sr., who left in 2005 after two years. “I chose to resign because I saw no end to it. I have a high regard for God’s church — and I speak out of love for this church.”

The suit, filed by the plaintiffs attorney Ronald Barbee, claims Johnson was suspended in April for:

• Causing “division and dissension” in the church.
• Demanding benefits not in his contract, such as the purchase of a new car.
• Threatening to “physically retaliate” against members.

“Our church is modeled after a democratic government and a pastor cannot run our church like a dictatorship,” Payton said.

A temporary restraining order was sought after he “abused, vilified, humiliated and chastised the members and leaders of the church who participated in the suspension,” the paperwork said.

The judge at that hearing allowed Johnson to continue preaching until the case could be heard.

The seven listed plaintiffs also allege in court paperwork that Johnson, who was hired in September 2007, “absconded with the proceeds” from his installation ceremony and misrepresented himself as the church’s CEO

“It’s a harsh allegation that is unfounded and untrue,” Johnson said of the money allegations. “How do you abscond with a gift that’s designated to you? It was done before witness of people in the sanctuary.”

Johnson said a handful of people are intent on seeing him gone.

“The reality is you obviously have a dysfunctional church and the only solution there ever seems to be is to accost and address the pastoral leadership,” Johnson said.

In her written opinion, Superior Court Judge Catherine Eagles acknowledged “there are many allegations in the complaint which are likely inappropriate for a court to determine.”

Yet, she went on to say, the question for the court is not whether Johnson breached his contract, “but whether the church has acted within its bylaws in suspending the defendant. It has.”

Shiloh’s bylaws give authority to the church council to discipline the pastor with a 90-day suspension.

The church will decide during that time whether he stays.

“All our members are going to pray and look for guidance from God on what’s the right thing for Shiloh and for Rev. Johnson,” Payton said.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com