Photo by ROSE BACA/neighborsgo staff photographer The Rev. Bryan Dunagan gives a sermon on his first day as senior pastor at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. Last year, the church decided to terminate its affiliation with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and join ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, a more conservative denomination.
Eighty-nine-year-old Gloria Box was one of the first people to show up to the home of Highland Park Presbyterian Church’s new pastor, the Rev. Bryan Dunagan, to help him unpack.
Just a few weeks later, Box, who’s been a member of the church since 1955, took muffins to Dunagan and his family to welcome them to the neighborhood.
She wasn’t the only one. Dunagan’s home was filled with pies and pastries from the church’s members in the weeks before his first sermon at the church. That hospitality resonated with Dunagan, who recently became only the seventh senior pastor in the church’s 88-year history.
“This community has been so gracious; they’ve tried to make it as easy as it can be for us,” Dunagan said.
The more-than-4,000-member church, founded in 1926, voted in late April to call Dunagan to be its new senior pastor. He follows the Rev. Joe Rightmyer, the church’s interim senior pastor, who stepped in after the Rev. Ron Scates resigned in May 2013 after serving as senior pastor for 13 years.
Born in Dallas, Dunagan said his new position feels like coming home. He preached in services at Highland Park Presbyterian for the first time Sunday.
As Dunagan transitions into his new role, Highland Park Presbyterian Church is transitioning into a new denomination.
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They’re suing the PCUSA over custody of their $30 million property. Good for them.
AMEN!
The choice of Bryan Dunagan as my successor is a wonderful pick by both the Lord and by the congregation of HPPC. I am Bryan’s greatest champion………cheering and praying him on…….that under his leadership HPPC will become an even more intentional disciple-making, globalized, Biblically orthodox, missions-driven, renaissance congregation for this 21st century world.
To set the record straight, though, the article erroneously says that I am retired. Nothing could be further from the truth. After finishing a year-long sabbatical at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, I am actively pursuing the Lord’s next call upon my life as a pastor……wherever He leads.
lol. Yeah good for them. Except….
1 Corinthians 6:7-8
“In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers at that.”
Chad…..you are not insinuating that Grace Presbytery has never brought suit over legal ownership of real estate….are you?
Come on, Chad. We all know the Bible is for leadership to quote to control the congregation, not for others to hold them accountable for their actions.