Alabama church released
for $105,000 contribution
By John H. Adams, The Layman, August 25, 2008
First Presbyterian Church of Opelika, Ala. The Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley voted on August 21 to permit First Presbyterian Church of Opelika, Ala., to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The 122-member congregation agreed to give the presbytery $105,000 for a clear title to its property.
The Rev. Scott Bowen, pastor of the church, said the congregation had a celebration service on Sunday.
Long dissatisfied with the direction of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the congregation voted 78-7 in August 2007 to seek dismissal from PCUSA. Bowen said negotiations with the presbytery began in February 2008. “We give the presbytery credit,” he said. “They were gracious all the way. They were honest with us and very respectful of us.”
He acknowledged that the $105,000 – roughly $860 per member – was high, but said the congregation “had this money available to us. This is something we wouldn’t have been able to afford four years ago. We are now able to continue our ministry uninterrupted.” Bowen said the congregation had not paid per capita requests in more than 20 years.
Bowen was called to the Opelika church in February 2007 after graduation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. Before seminary, he served in youth ministry at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, a 1,900-member congregation that has also left the PCUSA to join the EPC. Bowen said he was not called to lead the church out of the denomination.
“There wasn’t any conversation about that when they called me,” he said. “But right after the PUP report [by the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity], they asked me, ‘What do you think of the denomination?’ I said, ‘Honestly, I’ve got real problems with it.”
Asked what he expects to happen at the church, Bowen said, “Right now, we’re just excited. For the first time really in recent history we have a network of like-minded churches to resource and be resourced by. The Lord has been faithful. We are going about the business of proclaiming Christ.”
The terms of the presbytery-First Presbyterian agreement included:
- The congregation paid the $105,000 at the presbytery meeting on August 21.
- The presbytery gave the congregation a quit claim deed to the property.
- Both parties signed a mutual release agreement to eliminate the possibility of claims by one against the other.
- The presbytery stipulated that “FPC-Opelika is leaving the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley in good standing and in good order and in accordance with proper procedures of the PCUSA.”
- The congregation retained the name First Presbyterian Church but agreed to “reflect its identification with … the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.”
- The congregation agreed to make all records available to the presbytery for the purpose of copying records it may deem necessary.