A team from Menlo Park and from the Presbytery of San Francisco had been negotiating together to “determine the amount our dismissal will be,” Ortberg told the congregation, and came to the “price tag” last week.

With a price tag of more than $8.8 million, the congregation of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California will decide on March 2 whether it wants to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) to affiliate with ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.

During a short presentation at Sunday’s (Jan. 26) service, Senior Pastor John Ortberg informed his congregation of “some good news and some daunting news,” concerning their desire to leave the PCUSA. The good news: “We now have a firm date for a congregational vote that will be March 2.” The daunting news, he said, “is the price tag … $8,890,000 – that is considerably steeper than what we expected to have to pay.”

A team from Menlo Park and from the Presbytery of San Francisco had been negotiating together to “determine the amount our dismissal will be,” Ortberg told the congregation, and came to the “price tag” last week.

The session of Menlo Park voted unanimously on June 11, 2013, to recommend that the church seek dismissal from the PCUSA. The vote followed years of questioning, praying, fasting and studying the issue, according to Menlo Park’s “MPPC & denominational affiliation” web site.

“With a spirit of love in Christ for the PCUSA and the Presbytery of San Francisco, MPPC’s leadership is wholeheartedly recommending this course so that we can pursue God’s calling on the church as best we can,” the web site stated.

Ortberg began his presentation to the congregation by saying that “On the denominational front, a lot of you know that our elders have had a strong sense that to achieve the mission that God has given us, we need to seek dismissal from our current denomination and join a new Presbyterian denomination called ECO.”

He used his time Sunday to respond to what he called a “few significant questions.”

Isn’t there a cheaper way?

“No, there’s not,” Ortberg said. A negotiated settlement with the presbytery is the only means to seek dismissal from the denomination with the church’s property intact.

Ortberg said that some wondered if the church could get a lower amount if it filed a lawsuit in civil court.

“That would probably be financially unproductive … it would definitely be spiritually unproductive,” he said. “It would be a bad witness in the community to have that kind of litigation in the Church of Jesus.”

“We could say that it’s too high a price and stay in the denomination, but,” Ortberg said that the session feels that the “process itself, what we have gone through this past week, has simply underscored how important it is for us to be able to enter into the freedom of a value-adding affiliation.”

Is it worth the price?

On Friday, Jan. 24, “knowing the full dollar amount, our elders and ordained staff voted unanimously to move ahead with a vote and recommend to you — our congregation– that we seek dismissal.”

The reason is important, he said. “All of this is about a much greater vision. This is not about what we are trying to get away from. This is about what God is calling us to.”

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