I'm sorry to hear of the dissension at such an important church, but here is a story about what is happening at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church:

Church bans six dissident members - Faith and Values - The State

From the article, it sounds like the pastor and session are handling things in a proper manner. What else can a church do when a faction tries to undermine the decisions of its leadership?

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Rev. Toby L. Brown, pastor
Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church--in, but not of, the PC(USA)
Saxonburg, PA
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"The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which God is also highly exalted." --Jonathan Edwards

Wow, that sounds ugly. I was particularly distressed to read this:

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Tim Phillips
Pastor, Midlane Park Presbyterian Church (ARP)
Louisville, KY
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I wonder why Kennedy did not groom a successor? That certainly could have helped.

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Dewey D
Reformed Heritage Church (Independent at the moment)
San Fransicko, CA

For the session: Did the session even try the biblical forms of discipline before counting visible church members as "trespassers"?

For the six: As for a petition to other members to oust the Pastor, shouldn't they appeal to the session first, then the Presbytery?

Would that Presbyterianism stay away from the "Superstar Pastor" syndrome.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
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That is a shame. So much bitterness.

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Daniel
PCA
Memphis, TN

He probably should have called a co-pastor years ago. We are only left to speculate why this wise path (that many other great pastors have taken) was ignored or put off until too late.

-----Added 8/11/2009 at 12:19:56 EST-----

The article says that they self mailed this petition to members. That is clearly a violation of a membership covenant in a Presbyterian church. Not to mention that one of the leaders is not an ordained officer.

To me, it looks like sour grapes and backseat driving from some of the old power people.

We've never seen that before in a church, have we?

I'm not sure that grooming a successor would have been the answer. It might have helped in the transitional period, but even in presbyterianism the congregation needs to be the ones who call the pastor. Enacting a line of succession is not the way to go, imho.

For them all 1 Corinthians 6:5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! 7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? 8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!

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Bob, elder, RBC Louisville. 1689 LBCF

"... Of such also, or of those who make a credible profession of being such, all those particular churches consist, which constitute our Lord's visible kingdom. ... Consequently, all the subjects of His government must have spiritual dispositions, , and yield spiritual obedience- obedience proceeding from an enlightened understanding, an awakened conscience, and a renewed heart."- Abraham Booth 1788

Obviously there's two sides to the story and were getting it from a 3rd party non participant. The fact of the matter is whenever a leader takes over a already existing venue there's going to be friction about change. The issue is have both parties exercised compliance with God's Word and the Book of Church order?

What concerns me is the folks that have the grievance (as it appears in the article) have not approached the presbytery and the session has ruled that they are not permitted on property.

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John
Member
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.christpres.net

My fiancee's roommate is (was?) a member of Coral Ridge, and she recently got one of the letters outlining the dissidents' grievances. A lot of them seemed rather petty (he doesn't send all his kids to our private school, etc.).

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Scott Roper
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Winston-Salem, NC
scottandjenny.ws

Or that the Lord would raise up more pastors like Kennedy. When you are used to filet mignon every week its hard to stomach White Castles. (Not that this is the case here)

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I guess this isn't about anyone coming in and tearing down that statue of Jesus out front?

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Wow. A reoccurring theme. Our pastor ran into this complaint before if I remember correctly.

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Andrew DeShazo
Husband of Kathryn
Father of Phillip-Giles B. DeShazo
Deacon
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"From out of the depth of unbroken Infinfity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!" -Meher Baba, died 1969.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ, died 33 AD, ressurected three days later.

Is there anywhere I can get more information on Rev. W. Tullian Tchividjian? I know nil about him.

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Brian E
Attending Falls OPC
Menomonee Falls, WI

And how would we properly find out the answers to those two questions?

A secular journalist won't think to cover those bases, so the article doesn't say whether proper process was followed.

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

You are correct, Mr. Sparkman. I hope that my questions didn't seem to impute ill to either side. They were just genuine questions, and I do wonder at the actions of the parties involved.

You could try calling him or the church.

www.crpc.org/

Josh:

I took them as genuine questions from you, but did have the concern that some might read them as insinuations, when in fact we just don't know at this point, at least not from that article, whether proper process was followed or not.

I know too that everyone here will be praying that the Christ will be magnified and that there will be real peace and harmony in that congregation, to the glory of God.

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church chooses pastor -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Between Two Worlds: Tullian Who??

New City Church

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Matt
Reformed Baptist
Christ Community Church

It all looks so familiar. I still have copies of the "Petition to Terminate the Pastor' which was circulated around here a few years ago. "They" have since left - and driven out the pastor of their next church!

BTW, I still don't know whether they wanted to terminate my position or my self.

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Curt Lovelace
Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church (CBA)
Acton, Maine
Director, Lifework Forum
Sermons at SermonAudio.com/CBCActon
Blogging at Coffee with Curt

Ugh. It all sounds so very familiar; personally familiar. I, too, have copies of petitions, letters, and other stuff filed away.

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Lawrence Underwood, Jr.
Pastor - Providence Family Fellowship / Mobile, Alabama
1644/46 LBC
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I'm going to suggest that this thread be closed, and that speculation wait for actual facts to play out.

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Fred Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA (Katy, TX)
Christ Church Blog

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Closed.