News & Views - Praise for Presbytery Vote!!

I have great news—the Presbytery of the Cascades approved our request to be released from the PCUSA and transferred to the EPC!!! Thank you for your prayers.

Because we are the largest church in the Presbytery of the Cascades, we knew there would be people objecting to our departure. We had sensed there would be a lot of questions, and there were. The floor debate lasted for over an hour. We were concerned that some people would try to make amendments that would derail our request. They did try, but all amendments were voted down. After a significant amount of discussion the voice vote was taken, and it was almost unanimous with only a few voting “no”. I went home Saturday afternoon praising God for the positive vote.

This vote is the culmination of many years of work. For years we have seen the PCUSA moving away from our core beliefs in the Lordship of Christ and the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. After many years of working towards renewal in our denomination, several of us were at a Presbyterian Coalition Conference in Orlando in 2001 and in unity came to the conclusion it was time for us to move on. Concern about the direction the denomination was heading consumed a lot of our Session’s time. Being released from the denomination will allow us to be set free to devote more energies to the mission of our church connecting people to Jesus. Church leadership can spend their time thinking more about how we can make a greater impact in our community serving the needs of people who are hurting and reaching more people for Jesus Christ.

I want to thank the many people who have committed countless hours in research, attended numerous meetings here and all over the country, agonized in prayer, written reports, and worked hard to accomplish this process. I thank the congregation for supporting their work, praying earnestly, attending information meetings, and then giving an overwhelming positive advisory vote for the final proposal for dismissal. We are especially grateful to the Presbytery Resolution Team who met many times with our Denomination Discussion Team and worked with understanding and grace and presented the proposal so well to the Presbytery for the final vote. We appreciate the voting delegates at the meeting of the Presbytery last Saturday who responded in the most gracious manner. Truly, God has guided us along this long path, and to him belongs the praise and glory.

Ken Mulder deserves special thanks for leading this process. He has given up time with his family to travel great distances for meetings and has been the greatest resource and inspiration to me and all those who have worked with him. Thank you so much, Ken. I hope I don’t miss anyone, but these are people who we want to thank for serving on ad hoc committees and teams in these recent years and are also rejoicing for this historic moment: Jim Blanchard, Al Hahn, Will Merkel, Dennis Kviz, Dave Stewart, Sally Nofziger, Ray Veillet, Rachel Hansen, Dave Robertson, Barbara Feil, Laurel Blanchard, Bryce Schroeder, Colin Kuskie, Kathy Kuskie, Rick Waldinger, Barbara Peterson, Lee Thomas, Jim Steinfeld, Patti Dilworth, Dean Rowley, John Merkel, Mike Bjorem, and also Ron Olson who was passionate in his leadership as Elder of Denominational Strategy until he entered into the presence of the Lord February 21, 2006. These folks deserve your thanks for working long and hard to lead us in this process.

We are now in a 90-day transition period. Pray that no one will appeal this decision to the Synod level or interrupt the process. During this period we have many steps to take and a lot of work to implement all the things that are in the joint agreement. There will be additional communication later about changing to EPC. Any questions or concerns may be directed to Ken Mulder or me or any member of the Sunset Discussion Team.

Let us rejoice that God has answered our prayers. At the same time, we still want to support and pray for those pastors, ministries, and churches remaining in the PCUSA who are doing God’s work.

With thanksgiving,

Pastor Ron

P.S. This Sunday I am giving the final message from Jeremiah. If there was ever a week to bring a friend, this is it.