By Nick Rahaim, Monterey County Weekly. (Salinas, CA)
In face of the great cultural shift seen in the past decade, many churches that anchored the more conservative elements of society have liberalized their stances. And that’s caused many adherents dismay as churches leave behind a fundamentalist and literal interpretation of the Bible.
One of the largest and most conservative churches in Monterey County has chosen to go the other route, and become more conservative than before. First Presbyterian Church of Salinas changed its name Oct. 25 to Compass Church. The name change is meant to reflect the church’s split with the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) over the refusal to take a literal interpretation of the Bible.
“Why did we leave?” Pastor Mike Ladra asked his congregation in announcing the name change. “Because our denomination left original Christianity and we’re sticking with Jesus.”
Compass Church voted to split with the PCUSA in April 2014, with the congregation voting 892-8 in favor of severing ties. Around the same time, Presbyterian churches in Carmel and Morgan Hill split with the national body. All three joined what’s called ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians formed in 2012 as a theologically conservative offshoot.
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Given the pcusa today it looks like that this church at least got somewhat of a “gracious dismissal”.
I really hate it that this local church believes that it would be a good thing to abandon the Presbyterian “brand name,” even though it will continue its Presbyterian affiliation via ECO as well as its Presbyterian polity.
It seems that the PCUSA has so tarnished the word that some churches believe that it is in their interest, and in the interest of the Gospel ministry they are pursuing, not even to use the word Presbyterian as a public identifier.
I hope that one day the various evangelical versions of historic Presbyterianism will come to be seen as normative, and the word Presbyterian can be publicly used without fear that it will be automatically associated with whatever is left of the PCUSA.
What requirement is there for a church that is still in the PCUSA to reflect that in its name? In light of the turmoil in the denomination, and trends toward non-denominational community churches, I’ve wondered whether a church, in some circumstances, might get a boost by naming itself Anytown Community Church, with an asterisk afterward, and the notation, in very small letters, “Presbyterian.” For churches that just can’t break away, for some reason.
Of the two denominations evangelical PCUSA congregations are seeking to be dismissed to, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church is the easiest with regard to incorporate into congregational names (First Presbyterian Church is now First Evangelical Presbyterian Church). No congregation formed by or joining ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians has tried to incorporate the denomination name into their congregational name for good reason: what impression outsiders would have of a congregation named First ECO Church or First ECO Presbyterian Church.