 Presbytery seeks to oust two pastors at Hollywood Presbyterian By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, April 12, 2005 – Revised Wednesday, April 13, 2005 The Presbytery of the Pacific has taken steps to oust two ministers from Hollywood Presbyterian Church in California, one of the most prominent evangelical congregations in the United States.
Nonetheless, the committee – without specifying any reasons other than the "peace, purity and unity" of the congregation – is pressing for their resignations. The presbytery has scheduled a special meeting of the presbytery on May 3 to try to dissolve the pastors' relationship with the congregation. The presbytery will also be asked to appoint an administrative commission to take over the governance of the congregation. Combined, those two moves could severely undercut the evangelical ministry of Hollywood Presbyterian, a congregation that has had enormous impact on Christian ministries, including Billy Graham's.
But congregational reaction came without invitation. Meenan and Manock notified the elders that they had been targeted, and the elders spread the word. Thus, when four members of the Committee on Ministry, including its chairman, George Wilde, went to Hollywood Presbyterian on April 7 to meet with the session, 750 church members were there to greet them. The committee allowed members of the congregation to express their support for the two ministers before going into an executive session with the elders. But the ministers' supporters did not disperse. They remained in the sanctuary, singing hymns and offering prayers – and their singing could be heard in the closed-door meeting as elders and committee members engaged in an emotional and angry debate. But nothing was changed by the committee's discovery of the depth of support for Meenan and Manock. On Saturday, April 9, Wilde sent an e-mail to church leaders.
There has been some dissatisfaction with Meenan's leadership. A native of Belfast in Northern Ireland, Meenan is an unabashed evangelical who preaches at four Hollywood services on Sundays – ranging from traditional liturgy to a "warehouse" service for young people who are tuned in to contemporary Christian music. And his pulpit stretches far beyond Hollywood Presbyterian. He recently preached during a crusade in India in which 50,000 reportedly came to faith in Christ. This week, he was leading another evangelical tour in New Zealand and Australia. Meenan's style is to focus on teaching and preaching and leave the administrative details to others, including Manock, who functions as the church's executive pastor. A businessman was helping the church restructure its staff and cut expenses, but he resigned because of illness during 2004, a year in which the church ran up $840,000 in deficit-spending.
The elders have since considered a 2005 budget that includes a number of cuts and restructuring to bring spending in line with giving. One church leader – who, like others, asked not to be quoted by name because of the tenuous situation and possible legal action – said the church's problem was that its staff of 120 was supersized. Based on its holdings, including $8 million (book value) in property that is not used for church purposes, Hollywood Presbyterian is in no financial crisis. But when elders suggested that they might sell some of the property to wipe out the deficit – at a price considerably higher than the book value – presbytery leaders would not approve that idea. Hollywood Presbyterian has had a tradition of entrepreneurial evangelism that includes such luminaries as the late Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ, the largest campus ministry in the world; the late Henrietta Mears, who was recruited to teach at the church and mentored Bright and Graham before they began their ministries and eventually founded Gospel Light Press. Also, Hollywood gave birth to the Actors Co-op and Inter-Mission, outreach ministries in the entertainment industry. Meenan was preceded at Hollywood by a number of evangelical pastors who were noted for their Christ-centered, Biblically-grounded preaching and teaching, including Lloyd Ogilvie, who served as the chaplain to the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2003. Exactly how many members have complained – and why they complained – is not known. The Committee on Ministry has not revealed who they were or what they said. But one long-time elder told The Layman Online that he believes that about 30 to 40 people made complaints. Forty people would represent about 1.5 percent of the congregation. One person known to be opposed to Meenan is Sandra Mader, a long-term elder who is vice moderator of the presbytery and in line to become its next moderator. Formerly the stated clerk of the session at Hollywood, Mader was asked to relinquish that duty when she went off the session. She objected, but the session voted not to re-elect her stated clerk. The following is the full text of Wilde's e-mail letter to the session: Saturday evening, April 9, 2005 Dear Members of the Session at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, Grace and peace to you. I write to you on behalf of the full Committee of Ministry of the Presbytery of the Pacific to immediately communicate with you after our specially called meeting this afternoon. As promised in your called Session meeting last Thursday evening, we asked our Committee to meet so that we could report and reflect to them the issues and concerns you raised and asked us to share. We recognize that this is a very difficult and grievous time and that the Session felt strongly that the Committee on Ministry of the whole "hear" your expressed questions, issues and concerns. The members who met with you at Session reported to the larger committee for more than two hours. We endeavored to fairly and accurately reflect your concerns to the full committee. The specifics and in some cases verbatim words you articulated were shared. The Committee then continued in discussion and prayer about our course of action. I write this letter to you tonight so that you will have communication as quickly as possible from us. The Committee on Ministry unanimously has called for a Special Presbytery meeting on May 3rd for the purposes of putting the Administrative Commission in place and for the dissolving of the pastoral relationships of Revs. Alan Meenan and David Manock. We did not arrive at the confirmation of this decision lightly, but are acting on what we believe to be the imperative need and responsibility of the Committee on Ministry for the overall peace, purity and unity of the church and for the health and future of First Hollywood. We know that this decision will be met by some with further disappointment, hurt and with the continued consternation of your Session. The congregation may respond similarly. Undoubtedly this news will create heartache and anger in some. With the called meeting of the Presbytery, there will be a forum and opportunity for members to speak (we anticipate that specific time limits will be imposed and that the meeting will be conducted in an orderly way), as well as for Pastors Meenan and Manock to speak. As we did on Thursday night, it will be requested for Presbytery to go into Executive Session to discuss and then move out of Executive Session for a vote. We continue to be in prayer with you and for you during this difficult time. For the entire Committee on Ministry, George Wilde, chair |
|||||||||
Respond to this article |
|||||||||
| Home
· Archives
· The
Layman ·
PLC
Publications Presbyterian Lay Committee · Feedback · Links |
|||||||||
