With a congregational vote regarding dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) looming in March, members of the leadership team of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (MPPC) have indicated a willingness to give up their homes to meet the $8.89 million price tag sought by the Presbytery of San Francisco to grant a release to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
In the first of a series of messages regarding the state of MPPC, its future and the joy that can be received in the unknown on Sunday, Feb. 2 Menlo Park Senior Pastor John Ortberg spoke of how God provides “immeasurably more” than people can even ask for or understand as he spoke of what lies ahead for the congregation in preparation for the March 2 vote.
Referring to Menlo Park as a “Jesus church” that offers an invitation to follow Christ, Ortberg acknowledged that the congregation has been through a volatile and contentious season, especially since its session unanimously voted in June 2013 to recommend dismissal from the PCUSA. It’s a move that Ortberg explained as necessary for MPPC to effectively reach thousands in the Bay Area who need Jesus in their lives.
John Ortberg
For the good of the church
For that dismissal to take place, the church will have to make a payment of $8.89 million to the presbytery. Members of the church leadership team have stepped up to do their part, offering to allow the homes they live in be sold to help offset the finances needed to pay the dismissal settlement.
Ortberg indicated that he and his wife Nancy could move out of the home they live in, owned by the Church of the Pioneers Foundation (COPF), which manages nine homes that provide residences for Menlo Park’s pastors and senior staff members and their families. That would allow the Foundation to sell or mortgage the house, or use its value to help pay the price tag needed to receive dismissal.
“We have 10 years of memories in that house; we love it,” Ortberg said. “The first time we ever looked at that house … Nancy looked at it and said, ‘I want to live here until I die, and when I die I want to be buried in the back yard.’”
Ortberg told his wife she would not like the idea but asked her to pray about it. Her immediate response to his suggestion was, “Oh, I don’t even have to pray about it. … Of course, let’s do it.”
The pastor said it had been good for he and his wife to think about things they have been holding on to a little too tightly, choosing instead to be willing to let them go for a greater good.
Noting that the church has about $2.5 million in contributions that can be used without tapping reserves, Ortberg said selling the home he and his wife live in could get the congregation more than halfway toward the amount needed.
He added that the Church of the Pioneers Foundation has “voluntarily and quite generously committed to contribute further funds that are needed to help make the agreed upon payment. And the upshot to all this is that we will be able to make the $8.89 million payment without going into debt and without cutting any staff.”
Not alone in such an endeavor
Noting that he had experienced and seen God at work in the process, Ortberg said three members of the leadership team had approached him with a willingness to take similar action to help raise the funds needed.
Teaching Pastor and Multisite Leader Scotty Scruggs and Campus Pastor Charley Scandlyn both said they would move out of their houses if it would help, and Director of Human Resources and Support Services Grace Griffin offered to work without a salary.
“I told them all we don’t have to do that,” Ortberg said. “I want to tell you something, for a church to have people on its staff who have that level of commitment to this congregation and its well-being … I will never forget that day. That’s a wonderful gift that God has given to us. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen something like that.”
Ortberg implored the congregation to make this situation in the life of the church a spiritual journey rather than merely looking at it as a decision or opportunity to express an opinion on one issue or another.
“We are the body of Christ,” he said. “If you’re a member ask God, ‘God, what are you saying to me through this? God, what are you asking of me? God, what do you have for us?’ Too much is at stake here, guys. Then on March 2 at 9:30 (a.m.) we need every member to be studied up, and to be prayed up, and come and vote because we have a mission. We’re not a club. We’re not a human-powered organization. It matters. This matters. There are eternal issues at stake.”
Only one option makes sense
Ortberg pointed out that there is great concern that the settlement sought by the Presbytery of San Francisco is too high and that maybe the congregation should simply stay in the denomination. Just staying, he said, is not an option as the elders determined in their unanimous vote to leave the PCUSA.
So what are the options?
Ortberg said going to court was not the route to take, that public litigation “would be a bad witness for the church, it’s not good for the bride of Jesus. It’s not what God is calling us to do, and nobody wanted to do that.”
Another option would be simply handing the campus and all the church assets over to the presbytery and starting anew elsewhere. But, Ortberg explained, that would be a bad financial decision and would be too wrenching an experience to put the congregation through if it was not forced to make such a move.
Staying in the denomination or being an independent church also were mentioned as options, but Ortberg explained that the presbytery could appoint an Administrative Commission to take over the church governance and leadership (remove the ordained pastors and elders) if it determined the congregation was not in compliance with the denomination’s polity.
Therefore, while the price tag was steeper than anticipated, Menlo Park’s elders opted to accept the amount and send the dismissal vote to the MPPC membership because of a belief in the importance to have clear ownership of the church property and a freedom to pursue the mission God has for the church.
God is in control
As he began to wind down his remarks, Ortberg referenced a prayer from Paul found in Ephesians 3:14-17, 20-21 that pointed out how God is in control and able to do immeasurably more than man can ask. He admitted that not being in control is a good thing.
“I am learning what a good thing it is not to be able to control outcomes,” he said. “I cannot control how this vote will come out. I can’t control what articles might get written about in the press. I can’t control what kind of issues people might decide they want to try to focus on. … The chance to trust God in the middle of not knowing is the best … because we’re not in control of anything, we’re not. We don’t know what the outcomes of particular circumstances (are). Only God knows that.”
Suggesting that the opportunity before Menlo Park to trust, love and be generous is one of the greatest moments of his life, Ortberg said he would not trade going through the dismissal experience for anything, calling it an energizing experience.
He then issued a challenge related to the spirit the money should be given in if the congregation votes to seek dismissal under the proposed financial terms. He referenced a teaching from Jesus that said if someone asks for your shirt, you also give your cloak, leading him to speak of God loving the cheerful giver and saying, “Ultimately, when we give we’re trusting God. We’re letting go.
“So we’re going to pray through this process, if the vote goes forward, ‘God use this money in amazing ways to extend your kingdom, to bless this presbytery, to bless the world beyond it in ways that delight and surprise us, and honor Jesus that none of us even imagines right now. If we give this money, when we give it, we’re going to give it with joy.”
Trusting God to do ‘immeasurably more’
In closing, Ortberg asked those in attendance to kneel in prayer, committing to make the remainder of February a spiritual journey to trust God.
He read the final two verses of the third chapter of Ephesians, where Paul wrote, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen.”
“God is the god of the immeasurably more,” Ortberg said. “We want to be the church that believes our God can do immeasurably more.”
Ortberg asked that people take cards with the prayer written on them, learn it and commit themselves to living it in their daily lives, returning on March 2 and making that prayer their final words said together before the vote for dismissal.
“And then we’re just going to trust God,” Ortberg said.
25 Comments. Leave new
Could the difference between the motivations of these pastors, staff members, and their families on one side; and those of San Francisco Presbytery officials on the other side, be more striking? Shame on those who perpetrated the trust clause, and shame on those using it to take millions of dollars from a congregation that is following its conscience to serve God.
These Presbyteries are folllowing the lead of our Government, “get what you can, where you can, and in what way you can; then be as wreckless as you want, with money you never dreamed would be yours, and was NEVER given for the use you – the Presbytery – intend.
the PCUSA disgraces itself more with each passing day….how they can even pretend to be serving God and not mamman is beyond me….the whole world sees them for what they are.
Is this misguided and so called sacraficial act supposed to make this ill informed scriptural basis for leaving make us like them more for their seditious act? Try again. Good luck.
Rev. Clark,
Are you, then, planning to sell your house and use the total proceeds to contribute to the PCUSA’s funds to help presbyteries pay the court costs of defending the Book of Order’s property trust clause against those congregations that disaffiliate from the denomination rather than pay exorbitant dismissal fees that said congregations can ill afford?
And for that matter, if these congregations’ decisions to separate from the PCUSA are “seditious acts” made on an “ill informed scriptural basis”, then does that likewise apply to the Protestant churches during the Reformation? Do you even know what the Scriptural basis for separation from a higher governing ecclesiastical body is, or are you just touting your own foolish opinion? And if, in your judgment, there is no Scriptural basis for separation from a higher governing ecclesiastical body, are you planning to abjure Protestantism altogether and be reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church?
Here’s the sad truth. The PC{USA} is going away. Governing bodies are using these moments to build up their finances to the point where they can keep the bureaucracy running for a couple more generations. A bureaucracy exists to perpetuate itself. The day will come when it can’t be done with contributing members, so gather the money and the property now.
PCUSA is already brain dead. It’s time to pull the plug, and let the leaches flow down the drain.
Sounds like “if rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it”. Church leadership has,and still is, allowing PCUSA to be hijacked.
This sad, money grabbing practice of the presbytery, is simply another act of selfishness on the part of judicatories that care only about $$ and control. The PCUSA is dying and no one in higher governing bodies care. As a retired PCUSA pastor, I am so very sad.
Interesting to compare the official PCUSA comparative statistics and trends for Menlo Park Pres
http://apps.pcusa.org/tenyeartrends/report/771/all_statistics.jsp
with say Rev Clark’s Warminster Pres
http://apps.pcusa.org/tenyeartrends/report/8108/all_statistics.jsp
Let goods and kindred go
This mortal life also
The body they may kill
God’s truth abideth still
His kingdom is forever.
Would the leader and staff of the PCUSA humble themselves for the sake of the Church in the same manner? Just asking.
In my reading of the past several years of the PCUSA’s published annual reports on the spending of all donations received as a denomination I come to the conclusion that about 88% is spent on clergy salaries, benefits, training, etc. and the operation, upkeep and expansion of buildings and properties. NO ROOM for Mission (Global, National or Local), Christian Education, Worship and the like……..all essentials for a healthy, growing denomination. Equally telling is that the denomination now has well under 1000 PCUSA foreign missionaries and of those only a small fraction that are in any roles of actual verbal proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
John Ortberg’s offer, while sounding good, helps little.
In lieu of staying in the house, John will get a housing allowance from the church to use as he sees fit. He’ll probably go out and buy a house he likes.
The net effect is that (1) the foundation will have fewer assets, (2) the church will spend more to provide housing for their senior pastor, and (3) among the principal actors (John, MPPC, foundation) they will have $2m of additional debt to service.
Net effect – collectively they will borrow $2m to pay off the SF Presbytery.
Don’t Give Up on God. One Sunday in the 90’s when I was a member and deacon at Menlo Pres (currently living in OR), I sat through two services just to hear the words of a song I pass onto you now. “God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me. He will be my Guide, hold me closely to His side with love and strength for each new day, He will make a way, He will make a way!”
I live on Long Island, NY and have participated in three studies based on John Ortberg’s material from Zondervan. I am also a former member of a Presbyterian Church that was established in the 1660’s and now is fully apostate, having a lesbian pastor and assistant pastor. Based on what I’ve experienced with Ortberg’s material, he’s right on, and Menlo Park is blessed to have him as the senior pastor! As a true leader and Chirstian pastor, Ortberg is following his Lord by leading his congregation out of an apostate denomination which no longer seeks and honors our Lord, Jesus Christ! Good For Menlo Park!!
Honestly, what is the SF Presbytery going to do with the money? (Money that belongs to GOD, by the way.) Clearly, this move to charge the Menlo Park church is spiteful and punitive. It has nothing to do with maintaining the integrity of the gospel, or furthering the Kingdom of God. It’s the liberal wing’s way of being the bratty little kid who takes his ball away from the playground and goes home in the middle of the game. If the SF Presbytery was truly missional, they would “send out” the Menlo Park church as missionaries, and provide them with all the means needed to accomplish their mission. Seriously, what will the SF Presbytery do with all that money? How are their actions honoring and pleasing to God? Do they really think Jesus would smile with approval for such a decision, knowing it was causing significant harm to the ministry Jesus built at Menlo Park Pres? It’s as if the SF Presbytery thinks God isn’t present in that place! Otherwise, why would they attempt to cripple them so? Nice way for Christians to treat their siblings. Maybe it’s time for Jesus to come through your offices with a whip and turn your tables, since you have turned the Presbytery into a den of thieves.
God will bless the stand of Menlo Park. He blessed our congregation when we left our former denomination over their lack of a stand on the word of God. We left our building to them and never looked back! Praise God!! Continue to stand for truth Menlo Park and continue to shine the light of Christ in the darkness that even invades the church!!
The people of San Francisco Presbytery are for the most part gay and lesbian activists.
I am glad our church is no longer part of them. They have taken the money and run.
God will punish them. It is only a matter of time. The faithful remnant and dear pastor Ortberg will lead us into an new era of faithfulness to the gospel. We will now be able to grow numerically and spiritually as we are no longer part of the devil’s camp.
Uh, Mark,
Did it occur to you they might use it to build a Christian church? To replace the building that has been taken over by a bunch of Biblolators.
-dlj.
Hi David — Not sure what you mean by Biblolators. Sounds like you meant that to be derogatory, based on the phrase “taken over.” How do you suggest that a church can “take over” its own building when it’s been IN and USING the building for decades? Having served on various New Church Development teams for several years, I hardly think the SF Presbytery is going to plant new churches. There’s no healthy track record for them doing so, and frankly, I just don’t think they have the interest or it would be happening already. Other nearby denominations are planting anywhere from 5-10 new churches a year, and the SF Presbytery is not developing any new churches. Rather, they’re shutting them down — or losing them to ECO and EPC. Again, what are they going to do with all that money? My guess is that it’ll get used to pay salaries of Presbytery staff and employees, and also put into various accounts to help fund social justice efforts. But building new churches? I doubt it, and it makes me sad.
Page 14 of the Winter 2014 issue of The Layman chronicles ‘Churches that have left the PCUSA’ and has a column ‘details.’ Requirements for separation lists monies to be extracted from those choosing to leave the apostate PCUSA. Various wordings are used for the extortion: for ‘shared mission giving’, for ‘the mission budget’, and ‘presbytery mission budget’. The PCUSA had one and only one mission: to be faithful to the Word of God, Jesus Christ and his church. It has blatantly betrayed that mission.
Her current mission is found in the GA’s impending agenda (page 16, Carmen’s column): “Divestment from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions and a call to boycott same’ … Categorical divestment from for-profit prisons and fossil fuel companies who own extraction right to carbon deposits … ” I quote from Matthew 23:24 – “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” The PCUSA has forsaken the Reformed Faith. But wants to proclaim the way to invest in stocks and bonds. Seems to me ‘stocks and bonds’ were methods for helping sinners to come to their senses. May the PCUSA humble itself before God does!
First world view points and all ludicrous statements if one thinks about the pain and suffering in this world right now. Child soldiers in Uganda; sex slaves in Thailand; slavery in India; the list goes on and on. I’m ashamed of the spoiled rotten attitudes of the church. Cop on -I’d love to see such passionate arguments for the widow, the poor and forgotten coupled with action.
I attended MPPC for several years before I left the Bay Area back in 2008. It was both a joy and pleasure to attend church and hear John’s messages each Sunday.
It was clear then, as it is today, that John’s only purpose is to spread the love of Christ and the need for redemption and salvation to anyone in the Bay Area who is willing to accept Christ as their savior. This point alone should be the key to this entire issue above all others. If the SF Presbytery requires payment, then so be it. As John pointed out, God is infinitely greater than this situation, and the intentions behind it are clearly in line with the message John continues to preach.
I now live in Switzerland and I wish there was a church here with a tenth of the spirit and enthusiasm as MPPC. Be thankful for what you have and what John and his members have been able to do for MPPC. You should consider yourself fortunate to have a pastor like John and the membership of MPPC which has the courage to stand up for what is right and necessary to continue spreading Christ’s message.
May God bless John, his wife and family, the senior leadership of MPPC and the members who stand behind this effort. God willing, this will be a new chapter in spreading the Gospel and good news to those who desperately need it. My prayers and thoughts are with you all.
1 Timothy 6:12 – “Fight the good fight for the true faith!”
I have been associated with mppc for 10+ years for the great work and contribution they do in East Palo Alto. I can say from my heart I am so glad for their righteous stance in adhering to the Word of God. If we are not spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, His Redemption & Salvation plan for humanity, what’s our purpose? We have become a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol, salt good for nothing but to be trodden under the feet of men. MPPC let me encourage you by this, everything you fight for; justice, equality, compassion, and the truth all comes with a price otherwise it would have no value. To suffer for righteousness sake is the most honorable thing you can do for God’s kingdom. And it is through this suffering that God illuminates His Spirit and Presence in such a way that money, titles, influences, and no earthly powers could ever bring or do. For it was the apostle Paul who declared in the book of Corinthians “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I TAKE pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. The less money we have the more we depend on His provision, the less benefits we have the more we depend on His healing, and the less influences we have the more we depend on His favor! Selah. Wow, we can see an outpouring of God’s Spirit in your services like never before! So we conclude with this…Thank God for your Haters, for it is your Haters that make you Great in God. It’s the Haters that cause our spiritual man to grow and perform. It’s our Haters that keep us sharp and on the cutting edge in the Spirit! No need of fueling the fire anymore with remarks, let’s not allow the perpetrators to feed off of our emotions. But instead every time you think about what the SF Presbytery/PCUSA has done and is doing give God praise, glory, and honor b/c we know that ALL things are working together for the good of them who love God. Keep holding up the Word of God and Jesus’ blood stain banner. Our prayers are with you. Blessings