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It could go down as a landmark event in church history, similar to Luther's protest at Wittenberg or King Henry VIII's headstrong decision to pull England out of the Roman church. When Deborah Lyons, in a moment of Waiting to Exhale-style rage, trashed and set fire to a $700,000 waterfront home in Florida that she discovered her husband, Henry, owned with his alleged mistress, Bernice Edwards, the stage was set for a very public reformation in the National Baptist Convention USA.

The National Baptist Convention (NBC) is the nation's largest African-American denomination, with more than 30,000 churches. But its influence is even more widespread. As Robert M. Franklin, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, wrote in Emergemagazine: "[The NBC] has had a major impact on every dimension of African-American Christianity, including our music, preaching, political activism and basic sense of autonomy." Martin Luther King Jr. preached his first sermon in a National Baptist church; Aretha Franklin sang her first solo in one. Politicians flock to NBC meetings when they want to reach the black community.

Henry J. Lyons, of course, is the former NBC president whose administration was cut short by a surreal chain of scandalous events involving money, sex, politics, race, and a justifiably ticked-off spouse who later recanted her grievance, blamed it on her own alcoholism, and faithfully stood by her husband despite the compelling evidence against him.

In July 1997, after Deborah Lyons's fiery outburst, authorities began unearthing secret bank accounts kept by her husband and a disturbing pattern of misdeeds in which he used his clout as NBC president to underwrite a surreptitious life of excess with other women.

Two months later, a movement of disgruntled ministers demanded the president's resignation at the convention's annual session in Denver. But amazingly, following speeches from a contrite Lyons and his allies, a majority of delegates voted not to remove him from office. The vote, however, could not spare the St. Petersburg preacher from his fate in the state and federal courts. He resigned his presidency in March of this year. Today Henry Lyons, 57, sits in a Florida prison, concurrently serving five and a half years on state charges of racketeering and grand theft, and four years on federal charges of fraud and tax evasion.

In September William J. Shaw, the pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia, beat out 10 other candidates to become the new National Baptist leader at the annual session in Tampa, Florida. Many people see Shaw, a stern-yet-gentle-looking man, as just the kind of reform-minded leader the convention needs to reclaim its place as a vital institution. After his victory, Shaw called for 40 days of prayer and fasting, and he put a halt to all non-essential spending until a financial audit could be done. "Today we begin shaping a renewed, Christ-centered convention that grounds everything we do in the preaching, teaching, and healing ministry of Jesus," Shaw told NBC members. "With God's help, our convention will stand as a powerful and respected force for good work, justice, and righteousness in the nation."

Next month, the NBC board and key delegates gather in Nashville for their mid-winter meeting. There Shaw will name his new officers and begin work to restore purpose and credibility to the NBC. It will not be easy.

The Lyons scandal has cast a shadow of suspicion and shame over the once-sturdy name of the National Baptists. The group has long been considered the king of black denominations in America, with an estimated 7 to 8.5 million members. In the wake of Henry Lyons, that figure seems preposterously inflated. Money from member churches is way down, as local pastors wait to see where the convention is heading.

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December 6 1999, Vol. 43, No. 14