 PCUSA 'irretrievably lost to apostasy' Longtime pastor leaves denomination to start church that will affiliate with EPC By Patrick Jean Staff Writer The Layman Online Monday, March 26, 2007 A St. Petersburg, Fla., church recently came close to disaffiliating from the Presbyterian Church (USA). Instead, its pastor, almost all of its staff and nearly half of its congregation have left to form what will be only the second Evangelical Presbyterian Church congregation in the Tampa Bay area.
Martin estimates 125 to 150 worshipers out of Northeast's 270-member congregation will either go to Cornerstone or leave Northeast because they're fed up with the PCUSA. The breaking point, Martin said, was the 217th General Assembly's approval in June 2006 of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity report to keep the current ordination standards in the denomination's constitution, but allow those who choose not to obey them to declare them to be non-essential. "The PUP report for us was the straw that broke the camel's back," he said, "because we believed that passage of that report showed that the denomination had now, what I like to say, officially descended into apostasy." He said the church session had been studying the report for six to seven months before the general assembly vote and continued its review afterward. Martin said he always told his congregation that if the PCUSA ever approved something that was contradictory to Scriptures, then he could no longer be a pastor in the denomination after almost 38 years of service. But he hung in there, he said, because he thought he could help renew the PCUSA. But now, Martin said, "The PCUSA, in my opinion, is irretrievably lost to apostasy. I don't think it can be reclaimed." In a letter to the editor, published March 16 on The Layman Online, Martin said the PCUSA is "unfaithful to God. It is unfaithful to his Word. It is unfaithful to God's people. It is unfaithful to the Gospel. It is unfaithful to the Great Commission." "God has left Louisville to its rebellion," Martin wrote. "The Glory has departed. It is no sin whatever to walk away from unrepentant unfaithfulness – far from it. The Bible calls for this (II Corinthians 6:14-17)." 'Ran into a buzzsaw' On Dec. 11, Northeast's session voted 15-1 to recommend that the congregation vote to leave the PCUSA for the smaller, more conservative EPC. A vote was scheduled Feb. 18. "Everybody was ideologically and Biblically on the same page," Martin said. "But it wasn't about ideology or theology for a lot of people. Unfortunately, it was about what to do about it. And that's where we ran into a buzzsaw of opposition."
Florida is a "hierarchical deference" state, meaning getting beyond the PCUSA Book of Order in pursuing property ownership in court would have been virtually impossible. "We knew we didn't have a prayer," Martin said. "Plus, I just have this 1st Corinthians 6 deal going on with lawsuits," he said. "I believe Christians should not carry their disputes – churches, at least, should not carry their disputes into the public square" unless they're defendants. Support for disaffiliation also eroded, Martin said, because the church leadership began to change around the same time:
"The genius of that, the beauty of it was that it was set in the beauty of commissioning," Martin said. "We just thought it was win-win on every front that we could think of. We thought it was incredibly good, gracious, conciliatory. As it turned out, though, it unfortunately didn't fix the problem of conflict." Martin hoped the resolution would end the politicking, but divisiveness and backbiting set in among factions in the church. Some branded him a quitter and a traitor. Others felt it was not important and should be ignored like other PCUSA congregations are doing. "We still felt it was the right thing to do," Martin said. "We still feel that what we did can be a model for other churches if it's done right." No 'gracious separation' Martin alleged there was pressure from Louisville on the Presbytery of Tampa Bay to encourage Northeast's pastor and elders "to get out of there, to just leave." Ten elders didn't want to leave until there was at least six months' severance for the departing pastor and staff - "dissolution without prejudice, so to speak," Martin said. The session met Jan. 29 with the Rev. Dr. Gerry Tyer, executive presbyter of Tampa Bay Presbytery, and two other presbytery officials. The session decided after the meeting, Martin said, to not have the Feb. 18 vote and to install a transition team from the session – among those who favored staying in the PCUSA and those who favored leaving – to negotiate severance and take it to the presbytery. Discussions started in February for severance for Martin and his staff. "Although it didn't give the whole loaf to anybody," he said, "it was what we thought was very, very, very fair as a starting point because it was an unusual agreement that included one or two components that you wouldn't usually see in a severance arrangement." Martin sought a longer-than-usual severance – one year – for himself and three staff members going with him to Cornerstone. He thought it was a "gracious separation," he said, in the spirit of commissioning and sending. The presbytery countered, he said, with:
"What they did was a gag order, in effect," he said. "They knew that our new church would be two miles down the street. They knew all about what we going to do – we were going to go into the EPC. "If I wanted to preach and teach," he said, "which is my call that God had put on my life 35-some-odd years ago, I couldn't do that as long as I was getting severance. Which is, in effect, to tell me, 'You can't take over at Cornerstone Church on March 18th.'" Martin likened it to the tale of Peter and John in Acts 4, who faced threats to keep them from preaching. Tyer, the executive presbyter, did not respond to requests from The Layman Online by phone and e-mail for comment. A congregational meeting was held March 11, with three presbytery representatives acting as moderators. People were upset to find out the stipulations of the severance package, Martin said. Dissolution was approved, but not the severance package. The session decided instead to go to the congregation for a "love gift" for Martin and his staff. A letter seeking donations went out last week, he said. There's no payroll yet at Cornerstone. Martin said he and his staff are living off their remaining paychecks from Northeast. 'Enormous potential for growth' Cornerstone is using rented facilities and donated furniture in a women's club. "We didn't leave with a paper clip," Martin said. "We left with nothing, and didn't ask for anything. We felt like if we were going to leave, we needed to make a clean break." The church has a phone number – (727) 258-0048 – and hopes to have its Web site up within weeks, Martin said. He said he took three staff members with him from Northeast: Barbara Schafer, director of congregational care, who has been with him nearly 19 years; Joan Hetzendorfer, executive secretary, who has been with him 10 years; and Bruce Reynolds, assistant to the pastor, who has been with him 4½ to five years. Martin said his ordination, which occurred in the 1970s through Western New York Presbytery of the former United Presbyterian Church in the USA, will be recognized by the EPC. Cornerstone will not be immediately admitted into the EPC, Martin said, because it did not pick up the entire Northeast congregation. Cornerstone will seek admission into the denomination after establishing a charter, he said. Martin said he wishes Northeast the best, and he and his staff will continue to assist in his old church's transition as needed. Northeast has a transition team of eight elders meeting weekly until an interim pastor and replacement staff are in place. A message left for them by The Layman Online was not returned. Martin preached his first Cornerstone service to 173 worshipers on March 18, focusing on the story of Abraham in Genesis 12 – the idea of leaving. "There are many themes that I find in those 12 verses," he said. "It's an incredible passage, very applicable to where we are. I don't want to focus on the past, I really don't. I think people are ready to move on." But time for healing is needed following the fracture of the Northeast congregation, Martin said, with life groups, men's breakfasts and women's Bible studies breaking up. "For our part of the equation of the separation," he said, "we wanted the Cornerstone community to just be loving on each other for a while, focusing on healing and letting go the past and moving on, 'cause God is doing a new thing in our midst." Martin is excited about that new thing. It's the first EPC church in heavily populated Pinellas County and the only EPC church in a 45-mile radius. "We just see enormous potential for growth," he said, "from people who are looking for an evangelical Presbyterian denomination. And we're going to be that." Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org. |
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