Purpose Statement:

The purpose of the website is to provide members of Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee with a greater degree of visibility of the government of our church. Our sincere desire is to honor Jesus Christ, Truth Himself, through an improved measure of accountability within His church.

Background:

Savingbellevue.com was created after numerous unsuccessful attempts to biblically resolve a dispute between a group of members of the church and some of the church's leadership.  Principles of Matthew 18 were followed, first going individually to the offender, then by taking one or two witnesses to address the offender.  In each case the offender failed to acknowledge the offense, and would not allow the accuser (a deacon of the church) to bring the offense before the deacon body.  As a result, the only practical remaining way to complete the instructions of Matthew 18 in taking the issue before the church body was to create this website.  It is regrettable that non-members will also have access to the issues as they are brought before the church, but with almost 30,000 members of record, any other means of bringing the issue before them was impractical.  By failing to allow the dispute to be directly addressed through the full deacon body of the church, the leadership of Bellevue Baptist Church has caused the dispute to be addressed in a broader public domain.  We regret the consequences of their actions.