New Presbyterian church organized

By: Brian McCauley, bmccauley@miconews.com

The Rev. Kirk Johnston and about 20 congregation members patiently waited in the foyer of the First Presbyterian Church in Paola on Wednesday as the clock's hands inched closer and closer to noon.

Just one day earlier, Johnston was told by an administrative commission of the Heartland Presbytery that the church's session, a group of leaders elected by the congregation, was going to be replaced.

“The administrative commission will assume original jurisdiction on 14 November 2007 at 12 p.m.,” the clerk pro-tem of the commission wrote in an e-mail sent Tuesday to the session's clerk.

Anxious eyes kept a close watch on the church's entrance Wednesday, but the noon deadline passed, and no one from the Heartland Presbytery based in Kansas City, Mo., showed up.

The day marked another step in a process that began back in June, when more than 70 percent of the church's voting congregation members asked to be dismissed with property from the Presbyterian Church (USA) so they could join the conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church and remain at their current location at 110 E. Peoria St. The vote was 229 to 83 in favor of dismissal.

The administrative commission denied that request in September, and both sides have been attempting to find common ground ever since. The session had agreed to take on the church's debt, but the Heartland Presbytery would not allow the group to take the building.

Despite the lack of a physical presence on Wednesday, the Heartland Presbytery's decision to dissolve the session and take control of the church pushed the congregation members looking to realign with the EPC to make a decision to leave without pursuing legal action.

“We've done everything we can, but we're not willing to fight this in court. For us, this was about the truth of God, and the minute it became solely about property, we knew we'd rather be wronged,” Johnston said. “We're trying to base our decision on what would honor Jesus.”

Jim Zakoura, member of the administrative commission and First Presbyterian Church in Osawatomie, said the session was asked to resign, but there is still great respect for those congregation members, and they were told they could remain as elders.

Mike Gibson, a 37-year member of the church and three-time member of the session, said planning for a new church already has begun. The Lighthouse Presbyterian Church, as it has been named, will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. Sunday at Evergreen Events in Paola, Gibson said.

The leaders of the new church are inviting any member of the current congregation to join them as well as anyone else in the community looking for a place to worship.

“We've offered positions to all our staff members,” Gibson said.

Johnston insists that he will not resign as a PC (USA) pastor, but he has been invited to give the sermon on Sunday at Evergreen Events as a guest pastor.

Wednesday afternoon, Johnston received another e-mail from the Heartland Presbytery stating that he had been placed on administrative leave effective at 5 p.m. that night. The leave offers Johnston pay and pension benefits as long as he no longer performs any pastoral and ministerial functions “in any worshipping community within the bounds of the Heartland Presbytery.”

Johnston responded by saying he was disappointed the news was not delivered in person, and he still planned to participate in the Kingdom Kids meeting with more than 100 children at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

“If the presbytery thinks they can muzzle my voice for Christ with money, then they'd better prepare to just fire me,” Johnston said.

Zakoura said there will be a pastor filling in at the First Presbyterian Church while Johnston is on leave, and Sunday services as well as all the church programs will continue.

“It has been a great church in the community for over 100 years, and it will continue to be a great church for another 100 years,” Zakoura said.

The possibility of losing staff members doesn't make Zakoura worry about the stability of the church because he said there is still a strong congregation that wants to remain with the PC (USA).

Zakoura expects Sunday services, Wednesday night children programming, Sunday school, preschool, the thrift shop and other services to carry on.

Johnston and the church's elders have pushed for the dismissal because of what they say is a deterioration in the core values of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which is the largest Presbyterian denomination with about 2.3 million members.

Several other PC (USA) congregations across the country have cited the same deterioration of values as the reasoning behind their interest in realigning with the EPC, which has about 70,000 members.