Posted on 09/21/2014 4:17:55 PM PDT by Gamecock
Yet another megachurch has announced that it will spend millions to officially separate itself from Presbyterian Church (USA), a denomination that has, in recent years, experienced turmoil over what critics decry as an increasingly liberal theology.
Nearly 89 percent of the congregation at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, voted in October 2013 to leave the denomination and to join the more theologically conservative Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians — a decision that carries with it a hefty price tag.
The church will need to pay $7.8 million in order to officially leave Presbyterian Church (USA) and keep its property, the Christian Post reported.
Leaders at Highland Park must raise and pay the sum, which is based in part on the fair market value of the property, by Nov. 4, 2014.
The settlement comes after the church filed a lawsuit against Grace Presbytery, a governing body of Presbyterian churches in Texas, seeking the split.
But rather than head to court, Highland Park decided to settle, coming to an agreement following contention and debate over how it would terminate the relationship.
“At that time Grace Presbytery had already approved their end of the settlement, so when [the church] voted to approve the settlement it was binding,” Highland Park communications director Zach House told the Post. ”The primary reason was that after a lengthy process of discerning God’s direction on these issues, the session felt that settling was wise and was what our church was being called to do at this time.”
According to a statement from Presbyterian Church (USA), the $7.8 million sum allows for “a release of [Highland Park's] obligations under the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s trust clause and ecclesiastical dismissal from the denomination.”
The denomination’s trust clause essentially calls for church property to be held in a trust to benefit Presbyterian Church (USA) as a whole. When disputes arise, congregations are generally forced to pay a lump sum in order to exit agreements with the denomination and retain their properties.
Despite the large price tag — which reportedly accounts for just 11 percent of the church’s assets — both sides seem content with the final agreement.
“We give thanks to God for this moment and trust that this settlement serves as a witness across the PC(USA) that the trust clause is an integral part of our constitution and will be taken seriously by Grace Presbytery,” Rev. Janet DeVries, general presbyter of Grace Presbytery, said in a statement. “We are pleased to have been able to mediate this situation and avoid a court trial.”
This news comes months after Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California, another megachurch once associated with Presbyterian Church (USA), voted to officially leave the denomination over similar issues.
Officials there made the tough choice despite facing a $8.89 million cost for the church’s property and membership fees, Religion News Service reported at the time.
In a document published by Menlo Park last year, leaders described their reasons for seeking a split with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), noting that the church’s “evangelical identity around who Jesus is and our understanding of the authority of scripture are increasingly out of alignment” with the denomination as a whole.
Specifically, the church expressed concern that many Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders do not believe in the deity of Jesus, nor do they embrace salvation through Christ. These are central tenets of most mainstream Christian churches, leading to a difficult ideological splintering.
The document cited a 2011 survey of pastors in the denomination who were asked for their level of agreement with the following statement: “Only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.”
While 41 percent said they agreed or strong agreed with the statement, 45 percent said they disagreed or strongly disagreed — something Menlo Park leaders lamented.
Exactly.
Not really. The denomination owned the property and the congregation decided to buy it when they left the denomination rather than build a new building.
Churches which outgrow their building sell all the time and move to a larger structure.
The corrupted church trying to keep members in line by making them pay vast sums of money to leave. Like a Berlin wall or something.
The denomination owned the property because the deed was turned over as membership fee. The denomination was holding them for ransom.
Then, I totally understand why they are livid about having to pay again. PCUSA is very lucky they are settling it out of court. The local congregation has grounds to make it very ugly if they paid for the church.
Hasn't been for a LONG time. The church in which I grew up left in 1973 when the PCA was originally formed and was known as the National Presbyterian Church.
PCUSA is truly lost.
Hoss
Highland Park is fairly liberal after a split some 20 years ago - they finally choked on ordination of practicing homosexuals, but had no problem with the denomination’s women preachers or abortion stands. That’s one reason they went ECO rather than Evangelical Presbyterian.
It’s a big money church - Caroline Hunt Schoellkopf (H.L. Hunt’s daughter), Ross Perot and his family, Trammel Crowe and his family for a few well known names (and a lot of very rich folks who aren’t household names). So they have members who could probably write a check out of their petty cash accounts.
However, as hard as they may try they will never get Born Again Christians to submit to evil.
Had a convo last Sunday with a long time member of our Methodist Church. We live in a very conservative area. We agreed that when the bishops decide to allow gay marriage.....we’re gone. But she seemed to think the church would split from TPTB.
Wrong. The building was paid for by the members and titled in the local church. About 30 years ago, when its denomination merged into the northern church, a clause was added to the denomination's rules which said that the local congregation held the property in trust for the denomination. Highland Park claimed that no trust was established under Texas law (although it could be argued that they did, in fact accede to the the clause when they voted against leaving in the early 1990s after the merger but before the clause became binding.
No, by historical and confessional standards, many of these church leaders really are not Christian at all.
No, see my post 30. Deed remained in the name of the local church.
The congregation should sue to get their donations transferred to the new church.
PCUSA is quickly bleeding off its membership at an ever-increasing rate that is now at 5% a year. There goes another 4,000+ members!
In 1984 they had 3.1 million members. In 2013, 1.76 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian_Church_%28U.S.A.%29
PCA does just that.
Did the Southern mainline presbyterian church have a similar rule when the PCA split from them?
They shouldn’t have to pay the money to leave.
About the only thing that can be taken seriously these days by the PCUSA.
I know that in the SBC it is frequently the denomination that signs for the loan to build the church. The congregation then makes the payments. Don’t know about PCUSA.
Agreed. But the law in Texas isn’t settled - a local Episcopal church paid about $1.2 million to leave (and affirmation of sole responsibility for debt of $6.8 million) in 2006 with the facts substantially similar, except the Episcopal church property wasn’t nearly as valuable as the Highland Park property. (Annual giving at the Episcopal church was about $3.8 million at the time, Highland Park is about $8 million a year.)
The biggest problem, as I saw it, for Highland Park is that they did have a vote on pulling out with their property during a window when that was allowed, and a majority of about 43% carried the day to stay with the denomination. So it isn’t like they stumbled into the situation.
Interesting. Although I don’t see how a church congregation would have to owe them anything to stop being members.
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