"We're glad you're here today," the pastor, the Rev. Chan Chandler, told them. "We're here to worship the Lord."
The public welcome may have been largely for the sake of the media; many journalists huddled in the rear with their notebooks and microphones.
East Waynesville Baptist Church is locked in a bitter battle over how members should apply their moral beliefs to politics. On the one side are those who support the pastor's hard-line theological and political views that led him to support President Bush. On the other side are church members who agree with many of the pastor's social views but who don't want to be told how to vote.
The spat started before Bush's re-election last year, and it climaxed last week when nine church members were asked to sign a pledge supporting the pastor's views. They walked out and were summarily expelled by the remaining church members.
