SBTC Removes Pastor, Part 2

If you haven’t already done so, please read the Baptist Press story here:

Read part one of this post.

If the BP report was accurate, I would have a completely different opinion on the action taken. I personally interviewed Randy Haney, pastor of Faith Harbour, at 3:30 on the afternoon of December 21st. With his permission, I humbly submit the following information to the trustees, executive board, staff, and members of the SBTC. If I am in error, I would welcome your correction according to Matthew 18.

On Monday, December 19th, Haney received a phone call from the pastor at FBC, Galena Park [also Executive VP of the SBTC] casually saying, “Can a couple of guys and I meet with you tomorrow? I’d like to visit with you about how your ministry is going…”

The Executive Committee rallied at the Golden Corral, along with a couple of SBTC staffers to ‘prepare’ for the confrontation. The nine men then went to The Harbour to meet with Haney at 5pm and accuse him of starting a new gay church in Baytown.

When Haney asked how the SBTC heard such an outlandish report, Biles replied, “One of our convention pastors contacted me and told me the news.”

“I assured them that I was not starting a new church and gave them a brief history of my relationship with Wendy Bailey”, said Haney, “I met her when she was the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baytown. I was interested in getting to know her and her family because of our mutual support of the Baytown Little Theater… Our families did some things together and she approached me one day, about 6 months ago, about trying to reach out to the gay, lesbian community of Baytown. I also teach school at Sterling High School and see this community in our school on a daily basis. I was interested in talking with her and thus began the idea to start a new ministry.”

“In November”, Haney continued, “we met with about 6 people to discuss a strategy for starting a ministry that would not be directly affiliated with any church. After several planning sessions we decided to have a worship service at The Harbour, the coffeehouse/ music venue where Faith Harbour meets. That meeting took place on December 22, two days after the meeting with the credentials committee. After this brief discussion the committee was still interested in why I was starting a new church. We argued most of the night over the fact that I was not starting a new church. They quoted from my blog site some things that Wendy had written, but none of these comments stated that we were starting a new church.”

They also quoted from a website that piggybacked on The Harbour’s site. Wendy had started a website [eklektos.theharbourbaytown.com], but no one could link to that website from The Harbour [http://www.theharbourbaytown.com/].

[continue to Part 3]