Hope Baptist betrays hope

This story involves an independent Baptist church, but many of you will readily recognize the pattern as being similar to what we also see in Southern Baptist churches: a lack of objective oversight, silencing of dissenters, and church members who “never had any doubts about their pastor.” Though Southern Baptist churches are part of a “denomination,” they profess the same sort of independence and display a similar lack of clergy accountability.

However, independence and unaccountability do not have to go hand-in-hand. Local church autonomy need not preclude clergy accountability.

Southern Baptists -- and other sorts of Baptists -- cooperate on all manner of endeavors. In order to foster clergy accountability and to further the safety of congregations, Baptists need to cooperatively fund a professionally-staffed review board to objectively assess clergy abuse reports and to provide assessment information to congregants.

What follows is excerpted from the Indianapolis Star: http://www.indystar.com/article/20090329/LOCAL18/903290404

Hope Baptist pastor Rev. Jerry Hillenburg accused of sexual harassment

Questions about role of hierarchy follow dramatic church confrontation

Jim Huneycutt's stomach was churning as he waited intently at his perch in the balcony for the pastor of Hope Baptist Church on Indianapolis' Far Westside to rise and move toward the pulpit.

The 34-year-old airplane mechanic was comfortable running the camera that recorded the church services. But what he was about to do -- publicly call out his pastor for wrongdoing in the middle of Sunday services -- was new ground.

Before the Rev. Jerry Hillenburg could take two steps toward his lectern after the offertory music, Huneycutt began a speech that would turn Sunday morning upside down at Hope Baptist.
"The truth comes out today," Huneycutt said to a suddenly hushed congregation. "Pastor Jerry has been accused of sexual harassment." In his hand, Huneycutt waved some papers. They were printouts of text messages the pastor had sent to the woman who was the source of the complaint. "The proof is right here."

Hillenburg … stood his ground and asked if anyone wanted to hear this man out. When no one spoke, he ordered the ushers to remove Huneycutt.

Hillbenburg went on to preach his sermon. He denies the sexual harassment claim. [That’s Rev. Hillenburg in the photo.]

The spectacle at Hope Baptist was part of a tumultuous March for three local congregations whose pastors were accused of sexual misconduct.

If the allegations were similar, the outcomes were not.

The Rev. Richard Winters, the rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, confessed to his bishop that he had engaged in a two-year extramarital affair with a member of his congregation. He resigned his position and received a five-year suspension from the priesthood. St. Paul's is the largest Episcopal congregation in Indiana.

The Rev. Jerry G. McCamey, pastor at Calvary Temple Indianapolis for the past 28 years, was dismissed after being found guilty of "moral failure involving sexual misconduct." Calvary is among the largest Pentecostal congregations in the state.

In both cases, denominational officials carried out their disciplinary moves in accordance with specific guidelines intended to protect both pastor and congregation.

But at Hope Baptist and the growing legion of independent congregations… there is no bishop ready to step in, no hierarchy waiting to conduct an investigation or hear an appeal, and no outside accountability.

Price of freedom

In traditional denominations, disputes that are not settled within the congregation are funneled through a structured judicial process with long-established rules…. Don Gifford, superintendent of the Indiana District of the Assemblies of God, said he sees the additional layers of a denomination or a fellowship as additional accountability for everyone.

The risk with being independent comes when the church is organized around the personality of a charismatic pastor who has much greater autonomy than his denominational brothers….

Accountability

Being independent doesn't have to mean an absence of accountability, said Chris Shore, the executive pastor at Grace [Community Church in Noblesville]…. Even at smaller churches, deacon boards can be set up, he said.

Leaders at Hope Baptist, including Hillenburg, said their board has autonomy.

But Huneycutt, a member at Hope church for four years, sees the board of deacons as anything but independent. And that meant the closest he thought he could come to accountability was to call local media and request their presence on the morning he made the public allegations.

Hillenburg, 49, said he did nothing wrong in his behavior….

But the woman has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and it was her complaint that Huneycutt referred to when he went before the congregation.

Deacon board chairman Bill Bruno said he and the deacons looked into the matter. He said they followed a church constitution and the Bible's guidelines for reviewing the case and found no credible proof of harassment.

Most of the church members never had any doubts about their pastor…..

Huneycutt said the decision to call out his pastor has had major repercussions that might have played out differently in a church with an outside hierarchy to review allegations. He and his wife, Tobey, were jeered as they left the church that morning three weeks ago…. [At this link, you can see a photo of Tobey Huneycutt, with her children, being escorted from the church.]

Huneycutt still thinks the friend who came to his family with the allegations of physical and verbal harassment was telling the truth and that his decision to speak up in church -- after the woman had spoken to the pastor and to the deacons -- was in line with the biblical principles….

[Rev. Hillenburg] has engaged Indianapolis public relations specialist Myra Borshoff Cook in the wake of the allegations.

Hope Baptist has scheduled a business meeting… to announce the pastor has been cleared. But Bruno said the meeting, which will be led by a lawyer, will include discussion about possible legal action against "the dissenters."

Huneycutt already has been informed through the mail that he and his wife are no longer members of the church.

Cast out of Hope, they've begun looking for a new church.
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For more on the comparison between clergy accountability mechanisms provided by the Indiana Episcopal and Assemblies of God churches in recent similar cases and the lack of oversight in this Baptist case, see also “Making the Best of a Pastor Scandal” in the Indianapolis Star.

Update 12/6/10: Ex-worker's sex-harassment suit targets pastor, Indianapolis Star