By
Matthew Everhard
Last month, Faith EPC of Brooksville sent ruling
elder Gwynn Blair and I as delegates to the 32nd annual General
Assembly of our denomination, the EPC, in Baton
Rouge Louisiana. Delightfully, this was the first time that I also
took my wife and children to the Assembly.
As an event, the G.A. was very well done. Worship
times were Christ-honoring and reverent. The preaching was outstanding this
year. Nothing compares to elders and their families singing gloriously to our
Risen Lord and sharing the Lord’s Table as an entire denomination.
Credit here goes to our Stated Clerk and Executive
Pastor, Jeff Jeremiah, and host pastor Gerrit Dawson and their staffs for
spearheading the event!
Our host church, First Presbyterian Church of Baton
Rouge, did an amazing job in hosting. We were fed “southern style.” I was
particularly impressed with the way that the host church and the EPC
headquarters prepared events for the children. It was wonderful to see my three
kids enjoy fellowship with other “P.K’s” (pastors’ kids).
Growing Pains
The EPC is growing quickly. In the past five years
we have doubled in size from 182 churches when I was ordained to our current
364 churches. This shows the fact that being a part of the EPC, a denomination
that is solidly Reformed in theology and amicable in spirit, is attractive to a
larger and larger number of churches.
Although a bit of our growth is attributable to
church planting (we pray for far more!) the majority of our growth has come
through disaffected churches departing from the increasingly liberal PCUSA. The
theology of the old mainline is regarded by many as a sinking Titanic of sorts,
rent asunder and foundering.
While this may seem as unqualified good news, the
“other side of the coin” is that the EPC is receiving many new churches that are
likely not as conservative as our own congregation. Almost all of these
churches, for instance, have women elders and quite a few have women pastors
(teaching elders) as well.
In our own Presbytery of Florida, for instance, we
have—in just two short years—abdicated our former position of
complementarianism (men elders only) in favor of accepting women elders and
pastors. This change is happening rapidly, and to the chagrin of the elders of
this particular local church.
How dramatically this shift impacts the EPC, only
time will tell. Having said that, let me point out a few other highlights of
the 32nd Assembly…
Missions
The EPC maintains a strong missionary passion. As a
denomination we send missionaries into the 10/40 window regularly—regarded as
the most dangerous places on earth. Our focus as a denomination is on reaching
and converting the Muslim world. While a daunting task, “someone has to do it.”
Let it be us!
We prayed for 37 of our missionaries in the GA.
This was a wonderful moment. I strongly encourage all members of Faith to
obtain one of our World Outreach missionary prayer flip-charts. My family
regularly prays for all of our missionaries in a year, and many of them are in
“sensitive areas” that cannot be disclosed. Our denomination has a plan called “Engage2025” to challenge each presbytery to plant a church in an unreached people
group within fifteen years.
More on Church Growth
The EPC has officially closed the New Wineskins and
National Non-Geographic Presbyteries that were formerly used to bring in new
churches under transition. Now, churches must come directly into established
geographic presbyteries. Anywhere between dozens and hundreds of churches will
be seeking to enter the EPC in the coming months, as the PCUSA continues its
pernicious slide into heresy. Only the Lord knows how many churches will enter
the EPC, and how many will enter a brand new denomination, just opened, called ECO (Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians).
In my view, the formation of ECO is a good thing—it
will serve as a “middleman” between the EPC and the liberal PCUSA. Hopefully,
the more conservative churches will come here and those less so will go to ECO
happily.
Church Planting
The EPC maintains a focus on being “missional” by
intending to plant dozens of new churches here in the US. During the
Assembly, many of our church planters were invited to pray to open and close
business meeting sessions. This brought church planting to the fore of our
denomination’s attention. As expected, each of the church planters had a
miraculous story of how God is moving in their midst! This was stirring to
listen to, as many pastors reported on growth with humility and tears. No
church planting story is ever the same. Hearing about these great moves of the
Lord’s hand only encouraged me to continue to press on as Faith
Church plants Providence Church
in Spring Hill.
Statement on Religious
Freedom
The EPC took a rather unprecedented move in making
a somewhat “political” statement during the assembly. The EPC rarely talks
politics (this is a nice feature of our denomination) but this time, the relevant
issues touched on abortion. We have always stood against abortion as an evil in
our culture. This year, we took a stand for religious freedom by officially
opposing some of the clauses in the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as
“Obamacare”). This document passed unanimously states in part:
It is the position of the Evangelical
Presbyterian Church that these regulations [mandates to cover abortifacent
drugs, abortion related procedures and services] constitute an
unprecedented overreach by the federal government and an infringement upon
religious liberty and rights of conscience guaranteed by the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Conclusion
To wrap up, though I continue to have some
misgivings about the quick growth of the EPC through transfer churches from a
much more liberal body, I am optimistic that the EPC remains a solid--if
imperfect--denomination. Our historical moorings to the Reformed faith, and
specifically the authority of Scripture, will see us through many storms of
changing times, if we continue to “hold fast the faith” by building on the
foundation of Jesus Christ. God help us.
Pastor Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Brooksville. Follow him on Twitter @matt_everhard or "friend" him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pastor.everhard
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