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PCA Pastor fails to steeplejack UCC church
Just a few short weeks ago, many of the members of the church were oblivious to the machinations being wrought by the pastor and some of his close allies. The pastor is a Covenant Seminary graduate. Located in St. Louis as part of the splintered Presbyterian Church in America (yes, the same denomination of IRD director Jim Tonkowich), Covenant Seminary is, shall we say, slightly less liberal in its theological perspectives than every United Church of Christ seminary. This in and of itself is not a bad thing - but it does call into question the wisdom of any UCC congregation selecting one of Covenant's graduates as their pastor. In almost every instance of this occurring, a takeover attempt follows. And this church has been no exception. I did not become aware of the takeover attempt until two weeks ago, when my co-author Rev. Sheldon Culver forwarded an email to me that shared with us information about what was happening in this church. The email reads in part as follows:
Now, for last night. You may have heard about 2nd Church coming up this Sunday and the following Sunday to vote out of UCC. We had a great meeting last night at Redville as a neutral site for many 2nd church people who for sure do NOT want to pull out of UCC. Wow what fire, sprit and energy! They were using your book as their "bible" for helping them through this take over. They discovered last night how dishonest their pastor, their (Covenant Sem) minister has been and is. He even appeared at our clergy group this past Wednesday and was met with good strong confrontation by several of our clergy. (I was at lectionary and didn't make that mtg.) YOUR BOOK HAS BEEN A GREAT HELP TO THEM TO SEE WHAT HAS & IS GOING ON. All of the steps are right there in the life of 2nd church in this take over. Forgive what will sound like a shameless promotion of our new book, Steeplejacking - which is referred to in the e-mail - but this site has long believed that there is a real value in researching, gathering, and disseminating information about the ongoing attacks that the church in America has been sustaining for three decades now. And even as we do so, others continue to belittle our efforts and our growing storehouse of credible, documented, anecdotal, lived, and experienced information. The book is just one byproduct of this philosophy - and that it has borne fruit this dramatically and this soon is something to be noted. And lest you think this is an isolated incidence this early on, let me share with you another report that came in last week:
The lay woman who spearheaded the effort has decided to write up an account of the church's experience over the last several years, using material from Steeplejacking as a template. While her case study won't change the turn of events at 3rd church, we are thinking of using that as a workshop at our annual meeting or at association meetings. I think the need to alert lay people well before a critical vote is taken is crucial - in my region especially, it will be easy this fall to get the discussion on the table at particular gatherings. I am promoting Steeplejacking as a community read, thinking that if people respond, the whole issue will crop up in many conversations in many situations. That it happens to be Steeplejacking that they are referring to here is less relevant than the recognition that the dedicated attempt to inform is bearing fruit. This is not a time for complacency - but for the redoubling of these efforts to inform and empower those who have come to suspect that their church is under attack. More about 2nd church and its failed take-over attempt: In the week preceding the vote a church meeting was held. Covenant partners from the surrounding area came to show their clear support of this church, and to remind all of the strong ties that bind us all together. Because of that, the President of 2nd church announced that only members of the church would be allowed to speak at the meeting. This made for an interesting dynamic, since as far as many of the members of the church knew the PCA Covenant Seminary pastor had never become a member of the congregation. Would he be allowed to speak? Well, apparently he would be. He got up and spoke at some length about one of this church's denominational seminaries - and mostly talking about how terrible things were there. When he finished speaking, one of the visitors - a UCC ordained minister and recent graduate of the seminary he had just heard slandered - stood up and asked if anyone was interested in hearing the truth about the seminary. While some were asking for him to do so, the President stood up and told this pastor to shut up. He said he wanted to speak, and others in the church were inviting and encouraging him to do so. At this point, the President came down herself, grabbed him by the arm, and threw him out of the church. When she came back, a member of the church asked why their own pastor was allowed to speak since he was not in fact a member of the church. The President said he was, and that he had joined at a recent council meeting. One of the typical tools used by these churches in a takeover attempt is the report of what is called the "Research Committee.' It is their job to `research' certain questions concerning the teachings of the denomination, and offer a report to the church before they take up their vote. Such a document was mailed to and circulated to the membership of the church. In that report, it was stated that the candidate for the open position of Conference Minister (that is, the governing judicatory office that relates directly to this congregation) was a lesbian. Now, I want to be very clear that such a revelation would in no way alter my opinion of or vote for any candidate in ministry. But that would clearly not be the case in this church. Such a revelation would effectively end that candidate's chances - if it were true. Not that it matters - but it is not true. I know the candidate personally. That anyone should have to make a public issue of this is a disgrace to the church. That a church would exploit the fears and latent homophobia so evident in the church today to attempt to discredit an otherwise gifted candidate is a scandal for which someone in authority should hold them accountable. But this revelation is more than that. It is continuing to build the case: they have no scruples when it comes to playing the divide and conquer game. Any means necessary can and will be used to foment dissent and disrupt what would otherwise be strong, covenantal bonds between partner congregations and their denominational leaders. These are not isolated incidences: a pastor being thrown out of a congregation when only wanting to tell the truth about a seminary that trained him for ministry after a slanderous screed is placed with malicious intent before a deliberating body; a good woman herself exploited by a research committee who did no research and yet felt empowered in their mission to destroy this church's covenantal bond with an outrageous and inflammatory lie. None of this is new. Typically following yet another story like this, I will hear from some who think that what we do here is exaggerate or distort, take things out of context or refer to isolated incidences that are not in fact patterns.
I want none of that this time. I want someone asking these questions:
PCA Pastor fails to steeplejack UCC church | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
PCA Pastor fails to steeplejack UCC church | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden)
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