FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) – Brett Younger, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 Fort Worth, Texas, survived a vote to fire him last month but is leavindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g the church anyway – to become associate professor of preachindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 Atlanta.

The promindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ent Texas Baptist congregation has been embroiled for months index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 a public controversy over homosexuality and other issues.

The congregation approved a compromise Feb. 24 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113tended to end controversy over whether gay couples index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 the church should be pictured alongside other families index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 a new church directory. Some members objected to havindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g those photos index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113cluded, sayindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g that would move from simply welcomindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g gay couples -- which Broadway has done quietly for years -- to actively affirmindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g their homosexuality.

Although the membership approved the compromise – which elimindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ated family and index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113dividual photos – the controversy ballooned index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113to a dispute over Younger's overall leadership. A group of disgruntled Broadway members later submitted a petition to force a vote declarindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g the church's pulpit vacant. Younger asked church leaders to schedule the vote, and members voted 499-237 againdex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113st firindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g their pastor of nearly seven years.

The two-thirds favorable vote was not enough to quell the controversy, however, and some members have left the church.

McAfee announced Younger's appoindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113tment April 17, effective July 1. He holds master's and doctoral degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Semindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ary and has been an index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113structor or visitindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g professor at Southern Semindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ary, Midwestern Baptist Semindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ary, Manhattan Christian College, and McAfee. He has been a pastor index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 Texas, Kentucky, Indiana and Kansas.

Younger told Associated Baptist Press his decision to leave was not spurred by the controversy at Broadway, however, but by a longtime desire to teach.

“I am honored by the index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113vitation to joindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 the McAfee School of Theology and I'm delighted to joindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 such an outstandindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g faculty,” Younger said index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 a news release. “I feel like the Spirit is leadindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g me to this new mindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113istry.

“I'm also sad at leavindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g Broadway, the church has taught me so much about followindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g Christ, and it is one of my hopes index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 this new mindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113istry I can teach young people to lead their congregations to be as faithful as Broadway has been.”

Broadway, founded index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 1882, is one of the most promindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ent churches index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 the Dallas-Fort Worth area and index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113 moderate Baptist life nationally. Prior to the 1980s, many students, professors and admindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113istrators at nearby Southwestern Baptist Theological Semindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ary were active Broadway members. Among its previous pastors is Cecil Sherman, the foundindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113g coordindex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113ator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. CBF's current moderator, Harriet Harral, is a longtime Broadway member.

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