Attendance at Jimmy Carter's church staggered after he stopped teaching Sunday school, deacon says

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Saturday, May 18, 2024

Longtime members of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter (C), pose with the first black pastor of their predominantly white church, the Rev. Tony Lowden, and his daughter, Tabitha (L), as well as another church member, Brandon B. Thomas (R). | Facebook

A deacon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where former President Jimmy Carter is a member, says attendance dropped after he stopped teaching Sunday school, and the church's hiring of its first woman lead pastor is an effort to bring people back to their pews.

Speaking in an interview with WALB News 10 Thursday, Maranatha Baptist Church Deacon Nelle Ariail, who has been a part of the church since 1982, said since Carter stopped teaching his popular Sunday school class in 2019 due to injury, attendance at the church has staggered amid declining membership.

"It's been a little hard on the church to have different pastors that didn't stay there long. But during the time that President Carter was teaching Sunday school, we had lots and lots of visitors every week." Ariail explained.

Without visitors, Plains has only 575 residents. The population has reportedly been getting older and smaller, and including Maranatha, it divides its allegiance between 11 churches, The Longview News-Journal reported last month.

Maranatha, a former congregation of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination whose guidelines oppose women serving as lead pastors, aggressively recruited the Rev. Ashley Guthas, a divorced mother of two, for the church's top job.

"A lot of churches are not OK with female Pastors, but we are, and we think she's going to be really good for us. She has a heart for the church and for loving people." Ariail said.

Guthas, a 2023 McAfee School of Theology graduate, previously served as associate minister to families with children and youth at Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta. She says she still feels "uneasy labeling myself as a pastor" and struggled with the idea for a long time before agreeing to take on the role.

"It has taken many years for me to let go of the theological views that insisted women could not lead. Many of you have offered words that have encouraged me in this calling, and you had no idea of the wrestling taking place inside of me," Guthas wrote to Northside Drive Baptist Church in March, less than a year after that church announced her hiring last August.

Northside highlighted her significant experience working with youth ministries in Methodist and Baptist churches and marketing at Chick-fil-A.

The Rev. Ashley Guthas has been hired as the first woman pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Ga. | Screenshot/Facebook/Fellowship Baptist Church, Americus, GA

Carter, who grew up as a third-generation Southern Baptist and was the first United States president to declare himself a born-again Christian, parted ways with the SBC in 2000, citing disagreement with the denomination's position on women and their role in the Church.

He continued to teach Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church and encouraged the church to send half its mission contribution to another Baptist church network, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

"I have seen an increasing inclination on the part of Southern Baptist Convention leaders to be more rigid on what is a Southern Baptist and exclusionary of accommodating those who differ from them," Carter said at the time. "In the last couple of years, this tendency of the Southern Baptist Convention leadership to ordain their creed on others has become more onerous for me and more difficult for me to accept."

Carter, 99, is the oldest living U.S. president and has been in hospice care for over a year. His wife, Rosalynn, died last November at age 96.

The same year he stopped teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, leaders hired The Rev. Tony Lowden as their first black lead pastor. Lowden didn't stay in that role as long as they hoped. He left the shrinking small town in 2021, according to The News-Journal. Since then, the church services have been led by a rotating cast of visiting preachers, according to The News-Journal.

Long-time church member Jane Williams, who plays piano and answers the church's phone, told the newspaper that fewer than 30 people attend the church every Sunday. Although there are more people listed as church members, some of those people haven't attended in decades.

Guthas officially resigned from Northside Drive Baptist Church on April 28 to start her role at Maranatha. She will preach her first sermon at the church on June 2.

"I ask for your prayers. Candidly, I seem to carry so many emotions within me regarding this calling," she told Northside congregants last month. "It is no small thing that a Baptist church, only recently separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, is calling a woman to be their pastor."

Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost