Middle Georgia church dispute leads to a lawsuit filed by the pastor
A church dispute between the pastor of the New Corinth Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Gordon and deacons he had removed from the church in 2023 has prompted a federal lawsuit against the city and the police chief, court records from Thursday show.
Pastor Larry Thomas, Deacon Eddie Lowe Jr. and Deacon Alfred Lingo have sued the city of Gordon, Police Chief Michael Hall and his former assistant, Andrew Hester, after a meeting that occurred on June 11, 2023, in which they allege that the defendants let former deacons of the church wrongfully take ownership of the church and disrupt a service in the process, according to the lawsuit.
Throughout the lawsuit, the removed deacons were referred to as the “opposing faction.”
Before the 2023 incident, Wilkinson County Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson issued a judgment in a prior lawsuit that established that the former deacons were properly removed, according to court records. The prior lawsuit was filed in 2022 by the former deacons against Thomas and Lowe after they allegedly “engaged in criminal behavior” and were removed from their positions, with Lowe allegedly brandishing a gun at the former deacons. But Burleson ruled that Thomas and Lowe were wrongfully removed, according to court records.
The former deacons were stripped of their positions after filing the lawsuit, but it is unclear as to why.
Following the events of June 11, 2023, Hall and Hester were placed on paid leave and were being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to other local news media. They were being investigated for allegedly failing to uphold a court order that allowed Thomas to hold services on Sundays between 12 and 1:30 p.m., court records show. Hester then resigned.
Hall, Hester and the city of Gordon are being accused of inverse condemnation for allowing the former deacons to take control of the church without compensation, and violating the 1st Amendment, which protects Thomas and the congregation’s right to the free exercise of religion, the lawsuit said.
Thomas, Lowe and Lingo are requesting damages and a jury trial.
The attorney for the city of Gordon has not responded to requests for comment prior to publication.
What happened in 2023 incident?
After the judge issued an order that established the former deacons were properly removed by Thomas, they “continued to disrupt Plaintiffs’ services,” according to the lawsuit.
The church then suspended eight more deacons to provide a “cool down” period, according to the lawsuit.
The suspended members worked alongside the former deacons and joined their efforts to remove Thomas, Lowe and Lingo from leadership, the lawsuit claimed. The former deacons planned to conduct “a highly-contentious meeting” at the church, to which the Gordon Police Department was enlisted “in an attempt to legitimize and provide the muscle for their efforts,” the lawsuit claimed.
On the day of the incident, Hall, Hester and another police officer showed up over an hour before the Sunday services were about to begin, telling Thomas that the church would not be holding their service, according to the lawsuit.
Then, around 11 a.m., Hester allegedly announced to roughly 66 people who assembled at the church on behalf of the former deacons and the suspended members that the “Police Department was going to resolve this Church dispute right there and then, that he was going to personally serve as the moderator, that they were going to have a Church meeting and that they were going to vote to remove Plaintiffs and elect whomever they wanted to run the Church,” the lawsuit said.
“The legally removed Deacons, the Suspended Members and their non-member supporters, which included children under the age of twelve, voted to remove Plaintiffs from the Church,” the lawsuit said.
Hester had allegedly stood on the porch of the church, allowing the mob to break the locks off the church’s door, stream inside and conduct their own service, “after which they marched down Green Street chanting that they were victorious, that they got their Church back, and that the court could not tell them what to do,” the lawsuit said.
A lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument, and the city of Gordon, Hester and Hall have not filed a legal reply to the accusation.
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
