Eastminster Presbyterian Church has broken with North America’s largest Presbyterian denomination to affiliate with a smaller denomination that it says is more faithful to Scripture. (Editor’s Note: This is the church that Frank Kik, one time faculty for Gordon-Conwell DMin program, later faculty at RTS Charlotte served as pastor for 18 years)

Eastminster’s break with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been years in the making, and follows a vote by the majority of the denomination’s congregations in May to remove language from their constitution requiring that ordained officers be either faithful in marriage between a man and a woman or be chaste as a single person, said the Rev. Kermit Oppriecht, associate pastor at Eastminster.

The change could be interpreted to allow homosexuals to be ordained, but, according to the Bible, homosexual behavior is sinful, Oppriecht said.

Eastminster has “a high view of Scripture,” Oppriecht said.

“The modus operandi is that the Bible is the word of God … and the sentiment was that the denomination on the national level was moving away from those standards.”

He said that culminated in a decision this summer by Eastminster’s elders to look at disaffiliating with the denomination. In a vote last Sunday, the congregation overwhelmingly approved the break on a vote of 657-20.

By a similar vote it decided to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a smaller but growing denomination among the numerous Presbyterian denominations in the United States.

“I was just amazed by the support of our congregation,” said Deb Hilscher, an elder at Eastminster. “It really moved me.”

She said that a couple of the elders were not completely comfortable with the decision — one remains undecided, while the other plans to stay with Eastminster despite the vote.

“We’re blessed to have an elder board that works well together,” Hilscher said.

The church does not have a permanent pastor, and its interim senior pastor, Dave McKechnie, was traveling in Israel at the time of the vote. McKechnie plans to stay with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) but also is requesting to fulfill his contract to Eastminster into March 2012, Oppriecht said.

Changing churches
Even before last Sunday’s vote, “people have voted with their feet,” leaving Eastminster because of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’ s drift, Oppriecht said.

With 2,302 members on its rolls, Eastminster had been the largest church in the Presbytery of Southern Kansas, its district governing body in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But it is far from the first to break with the denomination.

The Presbyterian News Service estimated earlier this year that 100 congregations had left the denomination in the past five years, and the Presbyterian Lay Committee says that at least four congregations, including Eastminster, have left this month.

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