EPC Church Charged for Sharing Information with MinistryWatch
Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church. (Photo via Google)
A congregation in western Pennsylvania is continuing its fight to leave the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) because of disagreements over “certain theological, social, and religious issues,” but the presbytery has now indicted the pastor and the elders and scheduled a trial for Nov. 23.
After MinistryWatch published an article about the EPC, the administrative commission (AC) of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies filed additional charges and an indictment against Pastor Nate Devlin and the Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church session (or board of elders). The trial could result in punishment ranging from admonition to excommunication.
Devlin is accused of contempt for refusing to comply with actions ordered by the AC, of slander in his social media posts calling the presbytery “tyrannical,” and of an intent to sow division and disparage the EPC when he forwarded communications to MinistryWatch to aid our reporting. (MinistryWatch received a lead about the story and reached out to Devlin for more details).
The complaint cites Devlin’s sharing of an email from the AC with MinistryWatch as “improper and a breach of the principles of I Corinthians 6.”
MinistryWatch inquired how Devlin had violated 1 Corinthians 6, and AC representative Roger Rumer replied with a lengthy letter the commission sent to the presbytery’s churches explaining the ongoing charges against and interactions with Beverly Heights.
In the letter, the AC reiterated Devlin’s alleged violation of 1 Corinthians 6:1 as “unbecoming a pastor of the church of Jesus Christ,” but provided no explanation of how Devlin’s actions violated the verse.
The session and Devlin maintain their innocence and are preparing to plead not guilty at the trial.
Membership roll controversy
A major sticking point in Beverly Heights’ exit from the EPC is a difference in opinion about the rolls of active members who are eligible to participate in the church dismissal vote.
Beverly Heights believes that both the EPC Book of Government and its corporate governing documents allow it to determine the membership of its body.
However, the presbytery believes it has authority to evaluate the membership rolls based on “numerous reports from people who asserted they had been mistreated by [the Beverly Heights] session.”
The AC claims it carried out an audit of the Beverly Heights’ session minutes and found that 20 persons should have their membership reactivated because they were “improperly removed.”
But the church disagrees, saying it followed the proper procedures when removing inactive members from the rolls. Only active members are allowed to vote at a congregational meeting, Devlin said.
To verify the accuracy of its actions with regard to members, the elders sent scenarios of church members expressing their intent to no longer worship at Beverly Heights to the AC, which confirmed the actions taken by the session, either removing the members from the rolls or moving them to inactive status.
However, when the AC learned the names of some of the members in the scenarios, the church believes they changed their opinion about the advice they had provided.
Controversy over view of the Lord’s Supper
Also related to the membership controversy, Beverly Heights has filed a complaint with the EPC General Assembly against the Presbytery of the Alleghenies for unbiblical teaching about the sacraments. Recently, the elders reached out to a church member who has declined to take Communion for 10 months.
Instead of a response from the member, on Oct. 31, the AC sent an email telling the session that “while the Lord’s Table is indeed a precious sacrament, taking communion or declining to take communion is a personal matter, between each person and God.”
“Participation in the Lord’s Table is decidedly not a matter of personal preference, nor is the decision only a personal matter between each person and God,” Beverly Heights wrote back. “The Lord’s Supper is a public ordinance, instituted by Christ, and given for the health and spiritual sustenance of the believer. It is, in fact, part of a believer’s public profession of faith” The message added that the AC assertion violates Scripture, the Westminster Standards and the EPC Constitution.
The church also argued that the AC was inserting itself and interfering with the work of the session in its pastoral care for and nurturing of its members.
Civil lawsuit
Because it is also a nonprofit corporation in Pennsylvania, the church sought relief from the civil courts. In its original complaint, it stated, “Beverly Heights Church believes … that the sole reason that the Presbytery, through the [AC], has sought to add these individuals to the membership rolls of Beverly Heights Church is that these individuals are sympathetic to the EPC and will vote against Beverly Heights Church’s withdrawal therefrom.”
In March, the church and presbytery believed they had reached a mediated settlement agreement for which Beverly Heights sought enforcement. On Nov. 6, the court denied the church’s motion to enforce the settlement agreement.
The church plans to “evaluate all legal and ecclesial protections available to [it] to help safeguard the interests of the congregation and secure a legitimate dismissal vote with session-approved rolls.”
The AC’s letter admonished the church for engaging the civil courts. “Filing a civil lawsuit against the Presbytery to try and bypass the EPC’s judicial system is costly, divisive, and risks subjecting the church to secular civil order, rather than church order,” the AC’s letter said.
“Seeking to redefine the Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church as primarily a secular corporation governed by secular statutes for non-profit corporations when that corporation was created to serve the congregation as a church is disingenuous at best,” it added.
Based on the EPC’s Book of Government, the AC has ordered the church to call a final dismissal vote meeting by Dec. 7.
“Should you fail to call the meeting, the Presbytery will do so,” and likely will use the membership roll it has declared valid. MinistryWatch asked for the citation in the Book of Government that allows the presbytery to conduct the congregational meeting itself, but Rumer did not provide one.
Based on the discrepancy between presbytery-approved and church-approved membership rolls, Beverly Heights sought and was granted a stay of the AC’s actions through Nov. 24, Devlin said.
“While we cannot claim infallibility in what we have done or will do as an Administrative Commission, we can affirm we have been doing our best to try to serve our brothers and sisters at Beverly Heights by following the same Constitution of the EPC which the members of Beverly Heights voted to follow many years ago,” the administrative commission’s letter said.
“This session has endured so much because they love this church, love the people, and love Jesus. They are willing to suffer for the name of Christ so that the Gospel can be proclaimed in this community that is lost,” Devlin told MinistryWatch.
This story has been republished with permission from MinistryWatch.
Kim Roberts is a freelance writer who holds a Juris Doctorate from Baylor University. She has home schooled her three children and is happily married to her husband of 25 years.