For more information on resources you or your church could use while discerning your future in the PCUSA, contact an attorney competent in both Presbyterian Church (USA) ecclesiastical law as well as property and trust laws in your state. The Christian Legal Society is a reliable resource for references.
The information below should not be construed in any way as legal advice. This information was last updated in 2017 and is not currently being kept current. This page is considered archival.
PLC’s Church Property Disputes: State Interpretational Approaches and Key Cases
Churches that are seeking to leave or have left the PCUSA for another Reformed body: Updated 8/31/17 (PDF file of the chart can be accessed here)
Click on the screen below to go to the video series by Lloyd Lunceford, wherein he gives helpful counsel about church property issues.
Analysis
The relationship of the local church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) 2015— Spanish translation available by clicking here. (Download Word document here.)
The PCUSA 2014: How we got here updated 7/24/14 by Carmen Fowler LaBerge
Timeline of ‘How we got here’ updated 3/27/15 (pdf file available here.)
The Altered Identity of the PCUSA Updated 9/6/13 (download pdf)
Believers in unbelieving churches: What should be done by Christian people who are in a modernist church? Written by Dr. J. Gresham Machen
At what cost unity? by Dr. James C. Goodloe IV, executive director of The Foundation for Reformed Theology
The Church One and Holy, by Dr. James C. Goodloe IV, executive director of The Foundation for Reformed Theology
Can Two Faiths Embrace One Future
Five Solas: Reformation faith and the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Chart: ‘Five Solas’ of Reformed Faith versus PCUSA
Legal issues: Ecclesiastical and civil
Time Requirements for Remedial and Disciplinary Cases: PCUSA Book of Order, The Rules of Discipline (flow chart)
Presbyterian Lay Committee’s Legal Resource Databank (legal documents; updated (1/5/17)
Presbytery Separation-Dismissal Policies
- Presbytery dismissal policies: The good, the bad and the ugly, by Lloyd J. Lunceford
- Presbytery dismissal policies ‘do great harm to local churches’ by Lloyd J. Lunceford
Beware of the reverter clause in dismissal process
Why my pastor’s pension is not at risk!
Is our former ‘southern’ church property safe?
A Guide to Church Property Law, second edition
GAPJC decision in Wilbur Tom, David Hawbecker and Thomas Conrad, vs., Presbytery of San Francisco
- GAPJC declares presbyteries must consider property values when dismissing congregations
- Tightening the screws on conservatives at every conceivable turn
- Church Property Disputes: A Resource for Those Representing Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Presbyteries and True Churches in the Civil Courts
- Processes for use by presbyteries in responding to congregations seeking to withdraw
Per-capita resource: Responding Faithfully — Making Decisions about Financial Support of PCUSA Governing Bodies in Times of Disorder
PCUSA resource:Legal Resource Manual for Presbyterian Church (USA) Middle Governing Bodies and Churches, third edition (2010)
PCUSA resource: Negotiation and church conflict
Corporate charter and bylaws of Presbyterian Church (USA), filed and recorded in 1986.
Denominational comparisons
Biblical discernment regarding denominational affiliation
Comparison of basic beliefs and view points of three Presbyterian denominations (EPC, ECO, EPC- updated 2/6/14)
13 differences between the PCA and the PCUSA
Changing from the PCUSA to ECO? How can I learn more?
Examples of church discernment processes
Below are links to position papers and summaries of the discernment process for congregations that have made — or are making — a decision to leave the PCUSA.
College Hill Presbyterian Church denominational resources page
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church denominational issues resources
Irvine Presbyterian Church discernment archive
First Presbyterian Church of Omak: The Folder and Deep Discernment
Why stay?
Why choose the PCUSA? prepared by the Presbyterian Mission Agency (April 2013)
Why Stay video Part 1: A video from Tropical Florida Presbytery and
Part 2 A series of Why Stay videos from Olympia Presbytery
Appeal by denominational leaders for churches to re-think leaving
7 Comments. Leave new
How do you pull up churches who have left the PCUSA and who they are now affliated with.. It use to be under the discern bar but doesn’ t seem to be anymore.
After 50 years as a Teaching Elder (Pastor) in the PCUSA, I left the PCUSA and joined the EPC last month. Happy to be out and sad for what has happened to the PCUSA; yet it did it to itself without a blush of shame. How very, very sad.
FYI, a few months after settling with New Covenant, a suit FPC Houston said wasn’t about leaving the PCUSA, FPC announced they’re leaving the demomination. In other words, they lied when they said they’d honor the earlier vote that fell short of the 2/3rds requirement.
I support your leave taking.
Truth, Rev. Wood. Thank you.
Leaving the PCUSA is one thing, now what??? If a church leaves the PCUSA for another denomination, what is the plan to multiply asap. If those churches that left the PC USA would have stayed and networked over the years, the PCUSA would be
in better shape than now. Divide and conquer is the satanic strategy, thus, we are and will be all losers.
I see you are still at it. I have read your newsletter since the 70’s, when you sent the “ain’t it awful” paper to many in my church. It provoked much discussion and dissension, and did not build up the body of Christ. I have been retired for 16 years, and thought your paper had matured. Same old, same old. Strategies to leave the church and save your property. I am sad for what you have done to the health and mission of the church that continues to be the target of your attacks. You are not Presbyterians USA. Stop speaking to the churches that are!