Presbyterian congregation leaves denomination, but it’s not PCUSA loss
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 17, 2005
Another congregation has dropped out of the Presbyterian Church – but this time it didn’t wind up in the loss column of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, a 2,000-member congregation, recently voted by a margin of 81 percent to 19 percent to leave the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. In 1991, the congregation voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In recent years, most of the congregations that left the PCUSA resettled in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which has 190 congregations and 72,000 members and is the third largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States.
The EPC is a growing evangelical denomination that adheres to the Westminster Confession, which was the creedal statement of all American Presbyterians until the mainline Presbyterians began expanding their Book of Confessions with the Confession of 1967. Today, the PCUSA recognizes 11 confessional statements.
Leaders of Forest Hill say they disagree with one of the core tenets of most Presbyterian denominations: They practice “believers’ baptism” for adults who were previously baptized as children. Most Presbyterian denominations prohibit second baptisms – a position that goes back to the disagreements between Anabaptists and Reformed Christians during the Reformation.
Forest Hill’s leaders also oppose the EPC’s prohibition against having lay people serve communion. Forest Hill was founded in 1954 as part of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which merged with the Northern branch of the church to become the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1983. Forest Hill moved in 1991 to the EPC, a theologically conservative church body whose motto is, “In essentials unity; in nonessentials, liberty.”
Forest Hill’s David ChadwickThe EPC was organized in 1982 by a handful of congregations whose members were concerned about the theological direction that the mainline denomination would take after reunion in 1983.
The senior pastor at Forest Hill is David Chadwick, a noted sports figure in North Carolina. Chadwick, a 1971 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was a member of the Tar Heels’ basketball team that went to the 1969 NCAA Final Four under coach Dean Smith. He is the author of The 12 LeadershipPrinciples of Dean Smith.
Chadwick played professional basketball in Europe for three years before earning a master’s degree in education at the University of Florida. In 1980, he received masters of divinity and doctor of divinity degrees from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.
He became pastor of Forest Hill in 1980 and the led the church into a period of rapid growth and church-planting, including the start of a congregation in Rock Hill, S.C., that receives its sermons via a DVD projected upon a large screen. Forest Hill dropped “Presbyterian” from its name several years ago and Chadwick calls it a “transdenominational” congregation.
Chadwick says Forest Hill may not remain independent, but that it will probably spend 12 to 18 months considering which – if any – denomination it might affiliate with.
Not all of the Forest Hill members feel comfortable about leaving the EPC. About 35-50 members have decided to start a new EPC congregation in Charlotte.
The spinoff group is meeting on Sundays in a cafeteria of a Christian school in Charlotte. Its leader, Knox Sherer, a Forest Hill member since 1982, says they want to have an affiliation and accountability to a larger church body.
The separation process, which was under way for months before the congregational vote on Sept. 18, has had some sharp edges.
The EPC’s Presbytery of North Carolina responded to a number of concerns raised by Chadwick and the Forest Hill session, including the issue of baptism. “For the Session and Pastor Chadwick to state that they didn’t know infant baptism was an essential part of Presbyterian doctrine is amazing. Every Presbyterian minister should know, and elders also should know, that the Reformed and Presbyterian understanding of the sacraments is a distinctive of our faith. Baptists separated from the Reformed churches over this very issue.”
However, the Forest Hill session said Chadwick “consistently stated over the years that when he was examined, he told the examiners at that time that he struggled with the emphasis of infant baptism rather than believer’s baptism and the doctrine of pre-destination. After expressing these struggles, he was approved as an EPC pastor.”
At one point in the months-long process of leaving the EPC, Chadwick referred to the denomination as “old wineskins.” Denominational officials took offense.
“Statements about the EPC as an ‘old wineskin’ are a reversal of previous praise of the EPC when Forest Hill joined the denomination in 1991,” they said. “At that time public statements were made about the importance of Presbyterian connectionalism and how the EPC was a good fit for Forest Hill. Of all the conservative Presbyterian bodies in the United States, the EPC is considered among the most progressive. We allow women church officers; we have charismatic churches; we encourage churches like Forest Hill to do creative outreach ministry. Some of our large and mid-size churches look very much like Forest Hill. Furthermore, EPC’s Book of Order has been amended almost annually to reflect needed change in structure, process and procedure in order to meet ministry and mission goals. This alone speaks of a system open to change and flexibility to accommodate new information, needs, priorities, direction and vision.”