An email shared with Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church in their preperation to leave the EPC.

The purpose of the Good Future Report is to provide you with good, accurate information as well as to encourage you as we draw near the vote to leave the EPC on February 4th.  There is quite a bit of information to share, and some information is more pressing than others.  One subject that has made its way to the forefront of the discussion is possible denominational affiliations after the vote.  

There are several denominations for the Session and congregation to consider, but out of those possibilities, the conversation around the church has recently focused on the CREC.  There are some understandable reasons for this.  First, the CREC was introduced by Peter Chace in the Right Alignment Sunday School class.  Peter mentioned the CREC in the class for the purposes of information and transparency.  It was not meant to to suggest that any decisions have been made.  However, in the days following Peter’s class, there now seems to be a lot of rumors and bad information swirling around the congregation about the CREC and our potential place in it.  Some of that misinformation has gotten back to me and Session, and so this edition of the Good Future Report is my attempt to clarify some of the misconceptions and misinformation.  

The Vote to Leave the EPC Is Not a Vote to Join the CREC

The first thing that needs to be clarified is that the vote on February 4th is exclusively about leaving the EPC for independence.  The 4th is in no way a vote to enter a denomination, including the CREC.  If we leave the EPC, we will become an independent neighborhood church, kind of like the Bible Chapel or Northway Christian Community Church.  They are local churches unaffiliated with a denomination.  I believe a season of independence will be a healthy thing for our congregation.

Additionally, we should remember that denominations have their requirements too and the process to enter any denomination will take several years.  I am already familiar with the PCA and OPC, but I was less familiar with the CREC, which is partly why I and other leaders went to Moscow, ID to visit Christ Church, Moscow, and Pastor Doug Wilson, co-founder of the CREC.  In my conversation with Pastor Wilson, he informed me that it would be a minimum of two years before Beverly Heights would be ready to consider entrance into the CREC.  My point is, that there is a long time in front of us before we make any decision about a denomination, and so we simply should not equate our decision to leave the EPC with a decision about other denominations.        

Be Careful Not to Conflate

Another misunderstanding that is circulating is the conflation of personalities within the CREC with the denomination itself.  Pastor Doug Wilson and Dr. Peter Leithart are the two most well-known figures within the CREC.  Pastor Wilson leads Christ Church, Moscow, and Dr. Leithart is planting a church in north Birmingham but both men help to lead ministries outside of their local church.  Wilson is the founder of the Association of Christian Classical Schools, New St. Andrews College and Canon Publishing.  Dr. Leithart is the founder and President of the Theopolis Institute.  Both men have influence in the denomination but it would be a mistake to reduce the CREC to these two men.  Over the last several months I’ve had opportunities to network and speak with other CREC leaders to confirm that the CREC is a historically evangelical, confessional, reformed, and Presbyterian denomination with distinctives that arise from the church, not personalities.  Additionally, we should be cautious not to conflate nor reduce the CREC to whatever controversies we might read about online.  The CREC is not the same thing as Federal Vision; one is a denomination and the other is a theological statement written independently of a denomination, which brings me to my last point.

Live Not by Memes

There is a lot of bad, incomplete or outright inaccurate information on the internet about the CREC and its more prominent leaders.  The good news is that if you want to learn more about the CREC, you can read the primary sources.  I’d suggest avoiding secondary sources and never believe the memes.  Memes by definition play on emotions and can easily manipulate you; they do not convey information.  The distortion of the truth, slander, and defamation through memes, websites, and internet articles has gotten so bad that Christ Church, Moscow recently hired Clare Lock law firm, a top law firm in the nation specializing in defamation cases.  You can read more about that announcement here.  So, please do be careful if someone shares memes with you or the article by Vice or Slate Magazine, you are likely getting bad information.  In addition, Doug Wilson has on his blog a controversy library where you can read his first-hand responses to the accusations leveled against him or Christ Church.  

If you want accurate, first-hand information about the CREC, I recommend you visit the CREC website.  You might also consider this short introduction video about the denomination or this welcome video by Pastor Uri Brito, the denomination’s presiding minister (a.k.a. moderator), or this video giving a short history of the CREC.  Finally, the CREC has put out a pamphlet entitled, What to Expect in Our CREC Church, which you might find helpful.  If you want to learn more about my trip to Moscow, I wrote an article about it in November, which you can read here.   

Why I Am Interested in the CREC

Again, I want to reiterate that the vote on the 4th is not a vote to join the CREC.  But to be fully transparent, I do find the CREC attractive, for several reasons.  First, the CREC is a conservative, Presbyterian, confessional, reformed, historically evangelical (not modern evangelical) denomination that takes worship seriously and is pushing right in a world that is drifting left.  Second, the CREC structure is compelling.  There are no denominational or presbytery offices with administrative costs passed on to the local church, meaning no more per member asking.  Third, the CREC has governing documents but there is no denominational constitution because the constitution resides with the local church.  This means that ownership of the building resides with the congregation and is incontestable by the denomination.  Finally, there are no standing committees in the CREC, meaning the denomination can’t form an Administrative Commission to come in and ruin your church.  All disciplinary cases have to be prosecuted personally, meaning an accuser can’t hide behind a committee, the accuser must prosecute their own case, and if the accuser is unsuccessful in their prosecution, then the accuser is held responsible and disciplined for false charges.   

But, again, before we think about the CREC or any denominational affiliation, we must first deal with what is in front of us, which is leaving the EPC and pursuing God’s Good Future.  That is what the vote is about on February 4th, and that’s good news.