Who Cares?

To the Chairman of the Tennessee/Alabama Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and to the Minister and his Works Comniittee.

Gentlemen:

    If you review the records of the fall meeting of 1998 you will find that at that time I sought to come under care of the Presbytery for the purpose of one day being ordained in the ARP I have to admit that at the time I was elated to have what I thought was a select gathering of godly men examining me for the first step toward a future of serving the Lord in the role of a pastor. However, because of the way that you, collectively, have handled, or failed to handle, the situation of the church at York, I must by conscience and biblical principle end my relationship with you.

    As you may remember, the main purpose of a presbytery is the enactment of oversight and discipline. It is to serve as a court of appeals when the local session cannot bring justice. In these you failed the pastor and congregation of the church in York. You failed miserably. I witnessed how you allowed personal bias and parliamentary procedure to supercede the clear teaching of the Word of God in the areas of authority, discipline, church government, and the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical courts. Your focus was clearly not on the purity of the church or you would have, first, confronted the pastor of York for not exercising discipline immediately against his antagonist and pledging your support for whatever repercussions may come. Then, when he decided to do what was right, you fought against him and constantly connived to dissolve his position as pastor.

    All of this was going on for nearly two years without any formal charges brought against the pastor! Then to my surprise, the prodigal elder brings a lawsuit against the pastor of York and the presbytery to protect himself from discipline. He shamefully brought Caesar into the affairs of the church! At this point there should have been no doubt in anyone's mind who it was that truly was “troubling Israel." At this point, you should have promised swift judgment if the antagonist did not withdraw the civil authorities from our business. At this point, if the leadership did not act righteously, there should have been an outcry from the rest of the presbyters for justice. But nothing happened.

    The presbytery at one point told the elder to be reconciled to his pastor, the pastor that he didn't like, the pastor that he wanted to get rid of but without any charges. He told you, “no” and you did nothing. There were some godly men among you who protested against the evil that was going on. But they were ignored and out voted even though they appealed to the Scriptures that you as a body are supposed to uphold. The biblical standard was replaced by Robert's Rules of Order and democratic vote. How can such a thing happen in the church?

    You must think that you are smarter than God when it comes to handling the affairs of His people. That would be indicative of the way you handled the crises at York church.

    Here at home, I work as a carpenter, a 'tent maker", dreaming of the day that I will become a pastor. In our Presbyterian form of government that will mean that I will be under the authority and protection of a group of men comprised of the pastors and elders from a selected region of the denomination. These past events have determined that that presbytery will not be you. Your actions have annulled your reason for existence as a corpus- to oversee, protect, and discipline. And in turn, so have they annulled any obligation I have made to you.

    How could I ever trust you to back me up as a pastor if someone in the church suddenly doesn't like me any- more? just recently I was changing my two year old son. Before I had fastened his diaper on he reached back to his lower posterior and said "butt'. As a dad I was rather happy with the ongoing development of my child's noetic structure. My son now recognizes his derriere from, say, a hole in the ground. Of course, we use a colloquial phrase regarding this distinction between that part of our anatomy and a man made orifice for the securing of fenceposts to judge common sense. I'm not sure you as a body could tell the difference.

    So, I will seek out another group of men who love God more than their affiliations, who do things decently and in order without violating Scripture, and who understand what it means to oversee, protect, and discipline. Men who have the common sense to do what God commands.

    I understand that at some point, those under your 'care" receive. a compli- mentary Bible. I would suggest that you include with it your list of exceptions to church discipline and oversight. This would help future niinisters-to-be, within your denomination, to decide beforehand if they want to be affiliated with you, and so avoid the confusion and waste of time that I have experienced with you.

    Since there are some good men among you and this is an open letter that they may read, I would encourage them to question how is it that they can remain confident of your protection and authority now and in the future. I chose this format to notify you of my decision since your crime against the church was not done in a corner and that my departure from your number will also be open to the public.

    I do hope that you repent of your sin, but until you do, to quote the immortal George Castanza, 'I... am breaking up... with you.' And just between you and me Mr. Kidd, feel free to highlight any part of this letter as you desire, before you pass it out at the next meeting.