Internal strife consumes Shiloh Baptist
GREENSBORO — The secular troubles tearing at the heart of Shiloh Baptist Church are merely the latest upheaval at the historic church in the past 13 years.
As far back as 1997, consultants brought in to study the church’s dynamics spoke of congregational dysfunctions that emphasized legal remedies over spiritual principles.
Those reports outlined unevenly enforced rules and a “social club” environment with an emphasis on “un-Christlike problem-solving strategies.”
“Some of the observations and recommendations may be distasteful to you because they require some painful introspection and corrective steps,” wrote consultant Karen Wilson-Starks of Transleadership Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo.
The comments made back then could ring true today regarding the latest rift involving the Rev. F. Willis Johnson and some members of the congregation.
Starks’ report came after the acrimonious departure of the Rev. Gregory Headen, who took nearly half the Eugene Street congregation when he resigned in 1996.
Some members say that report is applicable today as Shiloh faces the prospect of losing its third pastor since then. They say little was learned by church leaders.
“They didn’t go by any of the suggestions she gave us,” Theodora Parker, a retired biology teacher who has attended Shiloh since the 1960s , said of church leadership.
But some members have another perspective.
“She said we should get together and talk, but when you can’t talk, you have to find another way,” said George Widemon , also a decades-long member who sat on the most recent pastoral search committee.
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Shiloh isn’t the only church with problems, but one in which fighting has become legendary — perhaps because of the church’s history as a leader in the civil rights movement and the extent to which its bylaws limit the traditional authority of a pastor.
The latest trouble involves a dispute between Shiloh’s governing council and Johnson. The council suspended him for 90 days because of how he was running the church.
Johnson and his supporters said the action was more about control and money than his pastoral work.
A judge recently upheld the suspension, so Johnson remains at arm’s length of his flock, including a couple in premarital counseling who had to find another pastor to do their wedding ceremony this month.
The church is paying a rotation of ministers $250 per Sunday to preach in Johnson’s place until the next church vote on whether to keep him as pastor.
Johnson, who makes $69,000 a year, has been unable to check on elderly church members because the judge’s ruling, for example, bars him from “carrying on any of the duties of the pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church.”
His work on a free summer lunch program for kids in the immediate vicinity won’t go anywhere this year either, he said.
“I did not come here blind to the fact that this was obviously a tough context for ministry, that it had a history,” Johnson, 34, said of his hiring. “And I did not come naïvely … that 'if anybody can change this thing, it’s me.’ I came because I was led, given all that was presented, to come to Shiloh.”
Widemon said he also remembers Johnson’s words about the church’s constitution, which outlines the roles of everyone from the deacons to the finance committee.
“He said, 'I don’t have no problem with it — every church needs one,’ ” Widemon said. “I brought him on that statement alone.”
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Church infighting isn’t new. In 1994, police were called to United Institutional Baptist Church to stop a fight after Sunday worship, which ended with the pastor leaving and members waiting for a locksmith to change the locks.
In 2004, a suit setting Hayes Memorial United Holy Church’s pastor against some of its several hundred members alleged in court filings that the then-pastor was “polarizing” the church.
Widemon said Johnson spoke of writing grants to help get a family life center built but became more wide-eyed about the things Shiloh Baptist could do for him, including the purchase of a car.
In the suit against Johnson, the plaintiffs accuse him of many of the same allegations that former pastor Tyrone Kilgoe faced in a lawsuit — from using the pulpit to embarrass church members to taking unreported “love offerings” from members without approval.
The latter, Widemon said, could cause the church problems with the IRS.
Other allegations include Johnson conducting church business without authority, such as approving an arrangement with the local cable station to televise Sunday services.
“I told him he was a disappointment, and I apologized to the church for being a part in bringing him to Shiloh,” Widemon said of the letter he later wrote to Johnson and the congregation.
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“We have been members of that church, many and most of us, for many, many years and it’s worse than a brother or sister fighting another,” said T.J. Warren , a former vice president of the trustee board who grew up at Shiloh Baptist.
Warren, who even hears jokes on the golf course about the ruckus at Shiloh, recently sat in court with Johnson.
“I think Reverend Johnson is one of the finest young men we’ve had at Shiloh Baptist Church,” Warren said. “I say young because Reverend Johnson is a young pastor. He has room for growth like anyone — there are some things he could do differently — but I don’t think that’s really the issue.
“There’s a group of people ... bound to build a family life center that’s going to cost $1 million-plus and Shiloh isn’t taking in the income,” Warren said. “To go out and talk about or even think about a family life center is unreasonable, and Reverend Johnson doesn’t think it’s the right time.”
When Shiloh’s divided membership asked a consultant for help with ways to heal the congregation a decade ago, Starks conducted surveys, interviewed members and reviewed documents.
She found favoritism in filling board positions, and church leaders and members who “appear to give greater weight to secular documents such as the constitution” than “the Bible or to spiritual disciplines such as prayer” and who have “a tendency to apply the law while forgetting the principles of grace.”
Her advice, among other things: increase spiritual development activities, and review and revise the nomination and election processes. She also suggested they “wisely select a new pastor.”
Two other pastors have left in turmoil since then. Johnson remains suspended.
Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: Rev. F. Willis Johnson Jr.
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