Source:
Ft. Worth Star Telegram,
Baptist Press 
The Southern Baptist Convention voted Tuesday to sever all ties with an historic Ft. Worth Baptist church that has allowed gay and lesbian members in its congregation.
Delegates at the denomination’s annual convention being held in Louisville, KY voted to end the denomination’s 127-year relationship with Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth Star Telegram reports.
The problem, according to a member of the denomination’s executive committee, is that the Ft. Worth church was “allowing members and also people in leadership that were homosexual.”
In 2007, members of the Broadway Baptist debated among themselves whether to allow portraits of gay couples to appear in a church directory prepared to celebrate the church's 125th birthday.
The church eventually decided last year to publish a directory that would include photos of all members – including gay couples – in “candid, small and large group pictures” but not include yearbook-style portraits that had been originally proposed.
Too gay-friendly? Southern Baptists think so, kick out Ft. Worth church [contd.]
But even that compromise was too much for the delegates (who are called “messengers”) at the denomination’s annual convention. A “messenger” at least year’s SBC convention offered a motion to declare Broadway Baptist as not "in friendly cooperation" with the denomination.
In response, the denomination’s executive committee launched an “investigation” of Broadway and discovered, to its apparent horror, that two openly gay members were serving on church committees.
The executive committee recommended that this year’s convention pass the excommunication motion. It passed nearly unanimously on a floor, according to Baptist Press.
Stephen Wilson, a member of the executive committee, told the Baptist Press that it’s OK for SBC churches to “minister” to “homosexuals”, but not to welcome LGBT people into an SBC congregation.
“In Broadway’s case … the church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals,” Wilson told Baptist Press.
Tuesday’s vote severed the relationship between Broadway and the convention. It also affirmed “that the church’s messengers not be seated,” according to Roger Oldham, vice president for convention relations with the executive committee.
SBC churches are autonomous and in charge of their own affairs, although the national convention does coordinate missions and relief organizations.
Oldham explained, “Tomorrow when everybody wakes up, Broadway Baptist Church is still a Baptist church. The only difference now is that it … can’t participate in matters that it has historically been a part of.”
The vote was a disappointment to leaders at Broadway, according to a statement from Kathy Madeja, chairwoman of the board of deacons, the Star-Telegram reports.
“We do not believe Broadway has taken any action which would justify its being deemed not in friendly cooperation with the SBC,” Madeja said. “It is unfortunate that the Southern Baptist Convention decided otherwise and severed its affiliation with Broadway Baptist Church.”
Broadway Baptist’s lead pastor left the church after after the debate about the commemorative directory. A new pastor has been hired who will assume the post in July.
In a February letter to the SBC executive committee, the church’s new leadership said, “Broadway has never taken any church action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior. Broadway Baptist Church considers itself to be in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and has every intention of remaining so.”
The letter, written by Broadway minister Rev Jorene Taylor Swift also stated, “We are not a church where homosexuality is a defining issue. While we extend Christian hospitality to everyone – including homosexuals – we do not endorse, approve, or affirm homosexual behavior.”
Wilson insisted, however, that the church’s actions ran counter to what it claimed in the letter, according to the denomination’s news service.
David Lowrie, a pastor from First Baptist Church in Canyon, Texas and president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said that Broadway had failed to establish a ministry to help people with “unhealthy lifestyles” – an apparent reference to a so-called “ex-gay” type group.
“They needed to actually express those convictions in some practical way,” he told Baptist Press. “They, for whatever reason, weren’t able to do that…. I felt that there were things that they could have done to minister to those within their church fellowship that struggled with those issues and other issues.”
The decision does not affect Broadway’s affiliation with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, according to the Star Telegram. Its executive director, Randall Everett, said he was disappointed that Broadway and the Southern Baptist Convention could not reach an agreement.
“Our prayers are with the church and its new pastor as they seek God’s leadership for the future,” Everett said in a statement.
Source: SBC ceases relationship with Texas church | Baptist Press
Broadway Baptist kicked out of Southern Baptist Convention | Ft. Worth Star Telegram