Q - This entire ordeal started because you guys don't like the 11:01 service and the contemporary music in that service. Isn't that what this is all about? |
A - While it is true that the majority of the plaintiffs on the lawsuit do not attend the 11:01 service, the main complaint that most of them have about it is the excessive funds that are being used to implement it. The spending for this service has greatly exceeded the budgeted amount. If this service is reaching the lost and they want a more contemporary service, we have no problem with this. |
Q - How can you possibly justify going to a secular court to resolve an internal church dispute in clear violation of scripture? |
A - In the days when the scripture in question was written, there were church courts in existence to hear disputes between Christians thus keeping the dispute out of the secular courts. These church courts no longer exist under the SBC umbrella. Thus, when the present day church leadership refuses to allow a member access to information that they have a right to see, the only course of legal action is in a secular court. This is unfortunate but it could have been avoided if the Senior Pastor would have followed the law in the first place. |
Q - I am very upset that you sued ME as a member of the church when you named the church as a defendant? Why did you do this? |
A - The main purpose of the lawsuit was to see the financial records of the church which the Senior Pastor refused to allow to be inspected. A lawsuit has to name a defendant in addition to the "corporation" being sued. In this case, we had to sue the "corporation" which is the church along with certain church leaders. This is how the law works unfortunately. |
Q - What gives you the right to inspect my personal giving information? Jerry Sutton stated that your group wanted to see my personal giving information. That is none of your business! |
A - Nothing could be further from the truth. Our group never wanted to see personal giving information, only total receipts. This is just another "spin" by Jerry Sutton from the pulpit no less! |
Q - Brother Jerry said that you wanted to see my personal counseling information. How is that any of your business? |
A - This was another "untruth" told by Jerry Sutton from the pulpit to gain support in his favor. No personal giving or counseling information was ever what we were after. |
Q - But your lawsuit asked for "All Church Records". To me that means all financial, giving, and counseling records? Why did your lawsuit state this? |
A - Legal documents and the legal process unfortunately have to cast a wide net in order to help head off the upcoming legal challenges from the defense that are sure to follow. Our attorney suggested that the lawsuit be stated in this way so that we would have the best chance of getting the church financial information that we had a right to see. As stated above, seeing any personal information was never a goal of this lawsuit. In fact, this personal information is protected by law. We knew this and Jerry knew this. Instead, he tried to use this to incite the membership against the plaintiffs. |
Q - Is this entire issue because you guys are used to running the church and now you don't have the power that you used to have with the younger crowd growing in the church? |
A - This question has no merit. The reason that we are pursuing this lawsuit is we want fiscal accountability, good stewardship, and a congregation controlled church. Being a mainly older crowd, we have seen the church go from a congregation led church to a staff led church. It is our opinion that the decisions in the church should reside with the membership and not the staff. Indeed, this prevents power from resting with a few individuals which can lead to corruption and abuse. |
Q - You have had your lawsuit, nothing was found to be wrong concerning the pastor, and it was thrown out. Why do you keep pursuing this? |
A - The judge did not throw out the portion of the lawsuit dealing with the records. She also did not rule on if the Senior Pastor or the staff have or have not done anything wrong. She only stated that she did not find any obvious misconduct and that she did not have jurisdiction to remove the pastor or get involved in day to day church matters. HOWEVER, she did rule that the membership has a right to review church financial information and this is why she allowed us to review the financial records. As of this date we still have not received all of the financial records that have been requested. We will not stop until we receive all of the records that we, as members of this non-profit corporation known as Two Rivers Baptist Church, have a right to see. |
