Confessing Church congregation votes to leave PCUSA for EPC
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 26, 2003
A Warsaw, Ind., congregation has become the fourth since December 2001 to vote to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and to affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a growing and more orthodox Presbyterian denomination.
The congregation voted 315-10 on Sept. 21 to ask the Presbytery of Wabash Valley for permission to make the change. Normally, presbyteries spend several months considering such a request before making a decision, including whether a departing congregation gets to keep its property.
The 721-member Warsaw congregation is a part of the Confessing Church Movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA), as were the other three congregations that have already left the denomination to affiliate with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
In two cases, presbyteries required congregations to pay six-figure settlements before they could take the exit ramp. In the other case, the presbytery confiscated the church property and ousted the church staff without negotiations.
Church law does give presbyteries wide discretion in how they respond to a congregation’s request to leave the denomination. They can, for example, allow a church to transfer to another denomination with its property without having to pay an exit fee.
Doug Lemon, 33, one of the Wabash elders who is serving as the spokesman for the church’s dissolution request, told The Layman Online that the congregation’s leaders and its members spent considerable time trying to come to grip with denominational issues.
“This congregation has for several years been increasingly aware of and concerned about some of the conflicts that have affected the denomination,” Lemon said. In particular, he cited General Assembly approval of partial-birth and late-term abortions, Christological debates, attacks on Biblical authority and the ongoing debate over the denomination’s constitutional “fidelity-chastity” ordination standard.
“We had a thorough congregational discussion preceding that vote, including one Sunday school class in particular about denominational issues,” Lemon said. “That was a class that explored what it means to be a Presbyterian. We took an in-depth look at the history of Presbyterians, the early Christian church, the Reformation and Presbyterian denominations up to today.”
“We focused on the issues the church is facing today, the church’s commitment to the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture, the importance of unwavering Christology,” he added. “We were encouraged by the outcome of the denominationwide vote on Amendment 01-A in 2001 and by the rise of the Confessing Church Movement and hoped that would be the source of regaining lost ground.”
But, Lemon said, the actions by the 215th General Assembly were discouraging, including its reaffirmation of support for aborting children just prior to healthy delivery. And he said the Warsaw congregation was not eager for yet another debate and vote on whether to ordain practicing homosexuals.
“Our session in particular has been increasingly concerned about our congregation’s continued affiliation with the denomination,” Lemon said. “We had a churchwide survey this past winter to take the temperature of the congregation. The responses demonstrated overwhelming concerns by our congregation about the denomination and a strong sense that this was a congregation that did not see itself remaining a part of the PCUSA the next five years.”
After that survey, the session “tacitly” approved a task force of lay members to explore options, Lemon said. That task force recommended going to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Lemon described First Presbyterian in Warsaw as “an old congregation. Our church has been here forever. It is a church that has historically been a traditional, very evangelical church, a Christ-centered church that attempts to honor God. Demographically, we are diverse in terms of age and background, but strongly united in its theology and its spiritual approach. That unity has been strained somewhat over the last couple of years, in part over denominational issues. We’ve lost some members who felt they couldn’t continue in the denomination.”
Lemon is a second-generation member of the congregation. His father, Tom Lemon, is also an elder, and the two are law partners.
Tom Lemon served as a commissioner to the 215th General Assembly and currently serves as moderator of the presbytery.
“If you talk to our members today, they would say this is a process clearly led by the Holy Spirit,” Doug Lemon said. “The result of that vote were not announced with clanging cymbals and shouts of hurrah, but with a sober sense of relief and a confidence in the rightness of this call.”
Lemon also said that “one of the things that has characterized this movement is a certain and abiding sense of regret. As convicted as we are that God is calling us, this is not a step we are taking cheerfully or lightheartedly. We realize this church has been a covenantal relationship; it’s been a mutually nurturing and strengthening relationship for many years — one that shouldn’t be dismissed just out of hand.”
“We are not a church that’s leaving our denomination saying shame on you, shame on you, get away from us,” he concluded.