Church leaves national group

One of south Louisiana’s largest Presbyterian churches is splitting with the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination.

Baton Rouge’s First Presbyterian Church announced in an e-mail Sunday that its members had voted 425-61 that morning to end a 25-year association with the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Also, First Presbyterian, a church of about 1,500 members with Sunday attendance of about 700, plans to continue financial support to the presbytery during a five-year transition period.

I gave up on the PCUSA some years ago. There are still some churches that are ok, and even some presbyteries, but the liberals are just biding their time until they can pick off the conservatives, one by one.

The fate of First Presbyterian Hollywood should serve as an example to those churches who think they are too big or too powerful to be taken down by the presbytery. (That liberal success story has resulted in a membership drop of about 1200 over the last 10 years (3200 to 2000), and attendance decline of about 600 over the last 5 years (about 1400 to about 800). A third of the money has gone away over the last 5 years (contibutions from about 4.5 million to under 3 million). (All numbers from official denominational sources).

Other ‘conservative’ PCUSA churches have also seen sharp declines. Peachtree attendance is about half of what it was 10 years ago. (Contributions are up, however). Highland Park has dropped from about 1800 attending to about 1400 attending since 2001; attendance has dropped about 10% over 10 years (but is slightly more than half of the number before the split); contributions are up. First Orlando attendance numbers are such that I question their credibility. Huge swings up and down from year to year, and then a nice round 2000 for the last 2 years.

I think they may be pushing conservatives out of the ministries and the liberal seminaries. I read a commentary on the Book of Daniel by Tremper Longman III (NIV commentary series). I recommend the commentary highly. Anyway, he said that he tried to become a pastor in a mainline denomination (he didn’t mention which one) and they simply wouldn’t ordain him because of his beliefs. Said it broke his heart as a young man to have the denomination he grew up in refuse him because he believed what they had taught him or somesuch, and then he spoke to a man they accepted to be a minister and the man mocked the idea that the Bible was true and other basic Christian beliefs.

I think maybe they do push conservatives out of ministries.

The liberals took over most of the seminaries starting in the 1930s (northern branch) and 1950s (southern). They have controlled the top of the organization for years, and as they gained control of presbyteries, they have begun to squeeze out conservative pastors. (They are patient- they are generally willing to wait until a old conservative retires).

It is similar to what is going on in the Methodist and Episcopal churches. The process is slightly different, due to the historical structure of the Presbyterian church.

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