I am frequently asked by friends and other contacts for clarity on what happened at the church I serve in the last year or two. I have had the same conversation with many callers and correspondents, and I thought it would be helpful to put together a general summary that could be linked to when getting these requests. This is a fairly sanitized version, and that is on purpose. From the beginning of last year, I and our elders have remained steadfast in our commitment not to name the parties involved or practice the kind of slander and gossip that was used against us. We hope to treat others the way we wish to be treated and not the way we have been treated by some.
Late last year (2024) our congregation voted, twice, to withdraw from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. That decision was communicated to the Presbytery to which we belonged, and in February (2025), I was released as a minister in good standing and my membership was transferred from the Presbytery to our local Session. Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church became Reformation Presbyterian Church. You might say we have become “less orthodox,” albeit only in name and denomination, not in doctrine or life.
In some ways, this decision had been coming for a long time. In other ways, my head is still spinning, and I have not fully come to terms with it. If you asked me in early 2024, as some did, whether our church would leave the OPC and join a denomination like the CREC, my answer would have been: “Maybe, eventually, but not anytime soon.” I could not have imagined it would happen by the end of the same year.
Gregg Strawbridge was the first Reformed minister I met, and I will forever be grateful for his kindness and friendship. My theology was more influenced by “Federal Vision” and CREC ministers that I realized, long before I met anyone in the OPC or began to serve as a minister in that denomination. I was identified as “Federal Vision” and “theonomic” by a friend in the PCA before I joined the OPC, but those words did not mean much to me at the time. In retrospect, I understand why he said what he did, but I was not then sufficiently acquainted with the categories and controversies. My children remember me warning them about “Federal Vision” in the first couple of years we were in the OPC. Little did we know that we already held a theology that many would identify with that label.
It was not until 2020 that I really began digging deeply into the literature and controversy around Federal Vision and began to understand the issues more explicitly. I was aware of increasing clarity in my own theology, especially around the issues of covenant, union with Christ, and the sacraments. The more I read, the more I came to understand that I already held, albeit sometimes inconsistently, positions that had long been associated with the much maligned “Federal Vision.”
In 2022 I wrote a paper in my doctoral program on the history of paedo-communion in the western Church, and I presented that paper at an ETS regional conference in March of 2023. Also in 2022, I was contacted by a couple of CREC churches asking if I would candidate for them. I declined to do so, though I communicated the offer to our local Session and pointed out this would be a convenient time for them to make a change if they thought it would be helpful to our congregation. They wanted me to stay, and I was happy to do so. I also spoke at the Bahnsen Conference in November 2022, and immediately after I wrote an essay for Kuyperian Commentary in gratitude for Doug Wilson. All of these events, in combination with my recommendation of resources like Canon Plus for our congregation, put me on the radar as someone who would later be identified as “Moscow-friendly.”
In 2023 we had two couples in the church, independently and several months apart, express concerns that I was “Federal Vision.” I met with them and tried to work through the issues, and one of the couples met with the elders as well. Ultimately, they decided to leave. It was amicable, not bitter or divisive, but they were convinced that “Federal Vision” is heresy, and the fact I would not denounce (and actually engaged in conferences and friendships with) men like Doug Wilson, Uri Brito, and Rich Lusk convinced them that I was not to be trusted. Both couples had been under my ministry for several years, and they knew what I taught concerning justification and the sacraments. One of them alleged that my teaching had changed over the years, and I am sure in many ways it has, but the elders reviewed the specific claims they made and did not find them credible. My teaching became more clear over the eight years we spent in the OPC, but the substance of the theology remained consistent.
In January 2024 two OPC ministers from another part of the country sent a packet of information about me to six ministers in our Presbytery warning that I was a “FV problem in the OPC.” They did so without communicating with me about their concerns, though I knew and had even seen one of those men six months before. They would later confirm that the goal of their communication was to share information that might be helpful in conducting an investigation into me. One of the men who received the packet contacted me, and when he confirmed I did not know about it, he labelled it gossip. Nothing official was done by the Presbytery, but a wider campaign of gossip, slander, and pressure began. I was contacted by an OPC minister in another Presbytery and counseled to leave the OPC because “we don’t believe what you believe” and my views were not welcome. The majority of men who communicated with me were very supportive and pleaded with us not to leave, but the isolation and opposition of this secret campaign made life very difficult for all of last year.
Our congregation had already been, for a long time, a “CREC-friendly” church, welcoming visitors from the CREC and some who became members who either had prior experience in or contact with the CREC. As the congregation saw how I was being treated and that no charges were forthcoming, which would have given opportunity to formally and publicly clear my name, there was a groundswell of support for leaving the OPC and joining the CREC. Even then, our Session remained committed to staying in the OPC, at least for a time. This was largely due to the fact we were actively involved in a church plant that we hoped would be supported by the OPC and our Presbytery. But when one of our ruling elders unexpectedly left the congregation, transferring to another OP congregation, and our intern also decided to leave because he recognized the momentum to leave the OPC, we were left with no reason to remain.
Last Fall our Session received a petition signed by half of the communicant members requesting a congregational meeting to vote to withdraw from the OPC. That request was relayed to Presbytery, and the two votes were held in November and December. The votes were 133-4 to withdraw and 136-1 to join the CREC. We are now in the process of being sponsored by a congregation in Anselm Presbytery to become a Candidate Church in the CREC. That matter will be taken up at their meeting in October. As of February, I am no longer a minister in the OPC. If you asked me last year at this time whether this would be the case, I would have said it was not possible. But in God’s providence, here we are. I am thankful our congregation is strong, healthy, united, and growing.
We are not yet part of the CREC, and I do not presume on that process. Maybe they will decide not to accept us. Denominations should be careful not to accept and endorse just anyone who comes along claiming to be reformed. But our Session is committed to Reformed theology and presbyterian ecclesiology, so remaining independent is not an option for us. We are no longer in the OPC, but we remain committed to the theology, piety, and ecclesiology that led us there many years ago.
I thank God for the OPC and am grateful to still have many friends within her ranks. They are good, godly men and women with whom I would have been happy to serve for the rest of my life. The OPC is a good church, one with a strong track record of upholding the faith and fighting for orthodoxy. We still pray for her every Lord’s Day from the pulpit and hope to cooperate in worship, friendship, and missions as often as we are given the opportunity. God’s providence led us out of the OPC but not away from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith that we share. I pray the Lord will continue to strengthen, bless, and multiply the congregations of the OPC and establish many other faithful, Bible-believing, gospel preaching, and reformed churches, not only in our state and country but throughout the world.
I wrote several articles last year that give more context to the situation.
FV and Non-Falsifiable Accusations
Emails, Leverage, and the Error of Being “Moscow-Friendly”