Under Construction

Controversies in the Presbyterian Church have been going on for centuries.
Short version | Last 50 years | Last 2 millenniums at donsnotes

Short Version:
When I joined Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church (LCPC) 30 years ago there were 2 main Presbyterian Denominations in the USA. PC USA with about 3 million members and the Presbyterian Church in America with about 300,000 members.

The Organization of PC USA consists of Sessions in each Church, Presbyteries (the Elizabeth Presbytery we belong to, serves 47 congregations), Synods a group of 3 or more Presbyteries and General Assembly which is the main national governing body.
  General Assembly consists of commissioners elected by Presbyteries and meets bi-annually, where denomination-wide policies are created or modified by vote.

During the last 30 years there has been growing concern from the more conservative churches, like LCPC, about social justice initiatives adopted by the General Assembly, which covered a range of topics including: stewardship of God's creation, world hunger, homelessness, and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) issues.

New denominations were formed for churches who wanted a more conservative denomination. They included (Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) and A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO).

This concern at LCPC reached a head in 2014 when General Assembly (GA) voted to approve same-sex marriage (at the discretion of individual churches).
They also voted to divest themselves from stock in three multinational corporations that allegedly sell products to Israel to help promote violence in Palestinian territories.
These two issues gained national attention in the media.

Pushed by more conservative members, many of whom were large doners, LCPC's Session voted to initiate a process for disaffiliation from PCUSA.

Session produced a long document identifying a number of reasons other than same-sex mariage for leaving.

In 2015 the members voted 82% to 15% to leave PC USA and join ECO.

Last 50 years

1960s-90s:
Disagreements heated up in the 60's over involvement in the Civil Rights issues, in the 70's over ordination of women, in the 90's over the issues of ordination of gays and in the 21st century over same-sex marriages and many other social issues.

1973:
A large conservative group broke away (over issues like women's ordination and the inerrancy of the Bible) and formed the Presbyterian Church in America.

1983:
United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) merged to form the Presbyterian Church (USA). At the time of the merger, the churches had a combined membership of 3,121,238.

1991:
After 4 years of work the Special Committee to Study Human Sexuality published a 200-page report "Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice".

This report which proposed relaxed views of pre-marital sex, homosexuality and other contentious issues created a lot of controversy and seems to have best succeeded at offending almost everyone.

It was voted down 534 to 31.
The delegates voted to continue to abide by church positions on homosexuality, adopted in 1978 and 1979. While saying that gays and lesbians are "fully welcome" as members, they prohibit practicing homosexuals from being ordained as ministers or elders.
See more at PCUSA issues.

1990-2010:
The General Assembly of PC(USA) adopted several social justice initiatives, which covered a range of topics including: stewardship of God's creation, world hunger, homelessness, and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) issues.

Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church (LCPC) got complaints and lost a few members over this period.

2002:
More than 800 laity, pastors, deacons, and elders gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for the first National Celebration of Confessing Churches. Participating churches affirm that Christ is the only way of salvation, that the Bible is infallible in its teachings, and that sexual relations are exclusively for marriage.

More than 1,300 of the denomination's 11,000 congregations have adopted such declarations and become part of a loosely knit Confessing Church Movement.

I asked Rev. McConnell what we were doing. He said, we subscribed to their principles, but were not joining the movement.

2000-
Fundamentalist/Evangelical/Conservative churches started leaving PC (USA) for more conservative denominations (Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO), Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), ...), so the conservative side lost their support in the General Assembly (GA).

1985-2000 - Mainly general membership decline seen by most mainline churches.

2001-present - Disaffiliation of whole congregations starts.

Half the 10,000 congregations in PC USA have less than 100 members, most with no full time pastor.

Sources: Membership, 2001 to 2012 | pcusa.org and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - Wikipedia
(There were over 4.25 Million members in 1965 before the Evangelical PC and Presbyterian Church in America broke off)
See Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - Who's joining the exodus?

The decline is a trend in mainline churches over the last several decades. The National Council of Churches 2012 yearbook reported declines from 2011 of 0.15% (Southern Baptist Convention), 0.4% (Catholic), 1.2% (United Methodist), 2.7% (Episcopal), 3.45% (Presbyterian USA), 3.95% (National Baptist Convention), 5.9% (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
In 1970 the mainline churches claimed more than 30 percent of American adults, today they are claiming approximately 15 percent. Source Wikipedia.
Increases were posted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Assemblies of God, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

2011:
PC(USA) allows Partnered Gay and Lesbian ministers.

2012:
A motion at the General Assembly meeting to change the definition of marriage as between "two people" was narrowly defeated by a vote of 308-338-2.
It was apparent it would pass at the next GA meeting.

From what I've heard the pastors and session (A body of elected elders governing the local church) got numerous complaints.
Session started looking into the process for leaving (dismissal from) the PCUSA.

2013:
Liberty Corner Church took several actions in anticipation of leaving PC USA.

Inactive members (20%) were removed from the rolls to improve the chances of getting a quorum in a vote on dismissal. See history.

The 2011 Belief Statement was updated to make a stronger case that the General Assembly was in conflict with our Beliefs/Misson. This would be the cornerstone of the leaders argument that we should leave. See Beliefs.

One elder told me they removed "Presbyterian" from our web page and started calling us "Liberty Corner Church" as part of this.
The official take on this now is that our web designer thought Liberty Corner Church looked better (simpler) than Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church. Another opinion,
"Maybe trying to look more contemporary. Lots of the newer churches have names that sound less formal/traditional—e.g. Liquid, Stonecrest, etc."
The sign out front still says Liberty Corner Presbyterian.

During this time there was some shuffling of session members. Only 5 of the original 9 original session members in the classes of 2014, 15 and 16 are left. 3 were replaced by 2013 members.

2014:
General Assembly (GA) voted to approve same-sex marriage (at the discretion of individual churches).
They also voted to divest themselves from stock in three multinational corporations that allegedly sell products to Israel to help promote violence in Palestinian territories.
These two issues gained national attention in the media.

On August 12th the Session held the first of 3 meetings to discuss the issues with PCUSA and General Assembly decisions with members of the congregation, but did not go into specifics.
The first meeting generally presented the issues voted on at GA. In addition to the two issues above there were several others many people felt were inconsistent with LCPC's beliefs.
The second meeting talked about the new belief statement and LCPC's mission and asked for comments.

On September 16 at a general church meeting, Session announced that they had voted to start the discernment process toward dismissal from PCUSA and had notified the Elizabeth Presbytery of this.

The main reason according to a statement by pastor Don Feurbach in the Bernardsville News is,
"These are a collection of decisions [by PC(USA)] - not on any single issue - that have been, and continue to be, disruptive to the life of the church, and are unrelated to what we believe should be the primary task of a church denomination - strengthening its local churches."

In a statement to the congregation the session said,
"This decision is based on a belief that moving to another Presbyterian or Reformed denomination will better support our congregation, its mission, and its unity, and is not merely a reaction to any one or two actions of the General Assembly."

In the same Bernardsville News Article, a church member sited several stances taken by the General Assembly as examples of the conflict,

• Allowing its ministers to perform same-sex marriages.
• Support for gun control legislation, including a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, armor-piercing handgun ammunition and .50-caliber rifles.
• Support for tax reform that promises a fairer tax system.
• Divesting $21 million in church funds from three U.S. companies that sold equipment or technology tied to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories - Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions.

The session lists the following general areas of contested resolutions:
" In the face of divided expert opinion, they have adopted particular and contested conclusions regarding climate science, economics, tax policy, national security policy, foreign and diplomatic affairs, and military tactics, to name just a few examples. "

See A Summary of Actions of the PCUSA General Assembly 2014
What You Need to Know about the PC(USA)'s 221st General Assembly - First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio

On September 28th Rev. Don Feuerbach preached on the subject.
Go to Sermon Messages on the our web site to hear it.

On December 14, another meeting with the congregation was held after church.
They addressed the gay marriage issue, which many think is what precipitated this whole activity. Several session members said they were not opposed to gay marriage, and it was the involvement political issues which was the primary concern.

It seems we are most likely to go to The Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO) although there are several other options under consideration.

At the December meeting Session said they had looked at 28 reformed denominations and narrowed it down to 6, with ECO the leading candidate.
Session is working on a document to elaborate this process.
Dennis Nau asked if we had any problems with the 10 basic core values of ECO. Jack Frost said No.
See:
ECO Core Values
ECO Essential Tenets & Confessional Standards

On September 13th Session met with a group from Presbytery where they each answered two questions:
1. Why do you want to leave?
2. Why now?

Notes under religion on my web site (donsnotes.com):

  A brief history of conflict in the Church, General Assembly & PC(USA) Issues and Liberty Corner Church's reaction

  The history of the Presbyterian Church

Why I finally quit attending:

See more at:
Denomination Affiliation (libertycorner.org/#/who-we-are/denomination-affiliation)
  Includes letters to the congregation and Informational Meeting Handouts.

Discernment-FAQ (libertycorner.org/#/who-we-are/discernment-faq ) - Whole FAQ

- The Presbytery of Elizabeth Process to Disaffiliate from PCUSA at Dunnellen Presbyterian 2nd edition 2011, current as of Oct. 2014
  A story of genuinely gracious dismissal by Jeff Wildrick, pastor of Dunellen PC - The Layman

  Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church considering deaffiliation - Bernardsville News
The Presbyterian Family Connections (break-ups and mergers 1706-1983)
Calling Presbyterians anti-Semitic a tactic to silence Israel critics | Communities Digital News
- PC(USA) Issues at donsnotes.com
Mainline Protestant - Wikipedia
Mainline Churches: Past, Present, Future, by William B. Bradshaw

Discerning to Stay - December, 2014 Presbyterians Today

Politics in the Pews: Anti-Trump Activism Is Reviving Protestant Churches at a Cost - WSJ Wall Street Journal, May 2018