First Presbyterian Church in Boulder, Colo., has joined the inauspicious million dollar club, after agreeing to pay the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks more than a $2 million “tithe” so it could be dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) with its property.
Click on the chart to make it larger and easier to read.
At its Oct. 23 meeting, the presbytery approved a dismissal agreement, in which the congregation agreed to pay the presbytery $2.290 million, plus 2015 per capita. The 1,546 member congregation was dismissed to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Since its formation in 2012, ECO has received more than 300 formerly PCUSA congregations.
“After more than a full year of reflective and investigative discernment, the Administrative Commission (AC) is, with sadness, unanimously recommending to presbytery that First Presbyterian Church (FPC) of Boulder, Colorado be dismissed from its historic identity as a chartered church of the PCUSA,” read the AC’s executive report.
Explaining the issue of the $2-million-plus price tag in its formula for payment, the AC wrote “We firmly believe a tithe and a gift are the appropriate guidelines for use in this situation. Accordingly, we will recommend gifting FPC with 90% of the total assets of the church to support and encourage the congregation’s further ministry and mission in Boulder. Correspondingly, we will recommend a total of 10%, equivalent to a tithe, to be retained by the presbytery for the further ministry and mission of the presbytery.”
The $2.290 million payment includes a $1.890-million “dismissal payment” and $400,000 to purchase what is referred to as the “Windsor Property.”
Click on the chart to make it larger and easier to read.
In May of 2015, the presbytery set a $2.890 million price tag for leaving, while the church submitted a counter-proposal in June of $1,571,361.20. It wasn’t until Oct. 6 that the $2.290 million price was agreed upon by both sides.
According to the agreement, the congregation must also place a “commemorative plaque” — paid for by the presbytery — in its chapel “to honor the people’s and location’s historical connection to the PCUSA.” The language of the plaque will be written by the AC in conjunction with the church’s Engagement Team.
The agreement also “strongly encourages” the church to change its name since it is “a new church with a new identity and because the name should reflect the new nature of the congregation.” As long as the church continues to use the name First Presbyterian Church, the agreement states that it must include with that identity “An ECO congregation” or similar wording.
FPC’s session voted in 2014 to seek dismissal from the PCUSA, and the presbytery formed the AC in August of the same year. Following months of listening sessions, an advisory vote was taken in March of 2015, wherein the congregation voted 893 to 97 to seek dismissal. Of the 1,027 ballots counted, 37 were undecided.
The session’s recommendation
In May of 2014, the FPC-Boulder session released its “Report of Session’s Study of Our Denominational Affiliation.”
The report stated that a 16-month period of prayer and study led the session “to the strong conviction and unanimous recommendation that we seek dismissal from the PCUSA and affiliate with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. We know that embracing this new denomination will come as a great encouragement to many of you, but it will also carry with it some sadness as we leave the PCUSA after decades of affiliation.”
Areas of concern included theological identity, simplified polity, property ownership and leadership development.
The Layman maintains a chart of “Churches that are seeking to leave or have left the PCUSA for another Reformed body,” which is updated often. As of Nov. 5, the chart contains 556 churches that have been dismissed or are in the process of dismissal. The chart indicates that congregations have paid a total of $44,983,475.62 to PCUSA presbyteries for the privilege of leaving the denomination in recent years.
FPC-Boulder discernment resources
Report of Session’s Study of Our Denominational Affiliation
Framing Our Denominational Concerns
Summary Statements of Session’s Discernment
12 Comments. Leave new
These departures, and the associated payments, seem like big news. I do not see where PCUSA reports the developments on its website. I think that it should.
I have no doubt that in States where the trust clause is recognized that the churches are paying for the ones where it’s not. This has the louisville sluggers finger prints all over it!
“Correspondingly, we will recommend a total of 10%, equivalent to a tithe, to be retained by the presbytery for the further ministry and mission of the presbytery.”
This is code for “to pay our salaries”
If you look at all the media platforms of the PCUSA, Presbyterians Today, PNS, Outlook, their website one would not expect to hear such type of news. The fact that the denomination is in the process of implosion, collapse is not really news. All know it. and there is the inherent media bias. A liberal religious denomination chooses and empowers those media vehicles which tend to reflect their world view. Again,common sense.
It is the 2nd and 3rd knock-off affects of the great collapse that makes news, the PMA/1001 scandals, cash-flow crunch at Louisville, Stated Clerk, PMA head jumping the ship, and the general chaos that is the contemporary PCUSA. And on that front, the PCUSA remains the gift that keeps on giving.
Your chart of the million dollar club is missing at least one name. Christ Presbyterian of Edina Minnesota paid about $1.2 million for their release from the Twin Cities Area Presbytery of the PCUSA by my recollection.
“I would rather pay a million dollars than be associated with you.”
It’s gotta make the denomination proud.
Thank you, Minnesotan. Someone else sent us those details and we have added it the chart.
When you factor in renovation, upkeep costs with these buildings, we’re paying way too much. The presbyteries, along with their conjoined legal sharks, are ripping us off. These legal, monetary ramblings have little to do with what’s morally, ethically or Biblically right. I could almost imagine Solomon or Abraham ordering the apostate, lazy, parasites at some presbyteries to pay the local denominations two fold. After all, the local denominations worked for generations to pay for ‘their’ buildings, upkeep, etc.
I think you meant “local congregation”, not “local denomination”.
PMA/1001 scandals are??
THX.
And how will tithe to Presbytery enhance the ministry of FPC-Boulder? It won’t – it will slow them down for awhile, but they will recover. And how will the tithe to Presbytery help the Presbytery?- It will allow the Presbytery and PCUSA to live a little longer as hundreds of churches leave the denomination in order to be faithful to Scripture & unencumbered by the worldliness of the PCUSA.
You’ll note that many of these congregations are located in California. We are especially hard-hit by the (no longer) ‘Gracious Dismissal’ policies due to the enormous increase in the value of our property coupled with a steep decline in membership/attendance as our state leads the nation into a post-Christian future. Deferred maintenance of our buildings is not taken into account. Is it fair? Hardly. Would I have left our congregation had it voted to remain in the PCUSA? Yes. As stated in an old Kung Fu episode, “It is better to lose a finger than an entire hand.”