The action by the unhappy members at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church was the culmination of a feud between loyalists to an evangelical luminary, the Rev. D. James Kennedy, and his replacement as pastor, the Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, a grandson of the Rev. Billy Graham.
The new congregation met for its first service last Sunday, and organizers said more than 450 people attended. The people who formed the new congregation had lost a Sept. 20 vote to fire Tchividjian. Organizers of the still unnamed church said nearly all of their attendees had been among Coral Ridge's roughly 2,000 members.
Coral Ridge said it's not worried about maintaining its membership after the departures. About 200 people enrolled in a class for new members after Tchividjian took over in March.
Still, the move is a dramatic split. Kennedy's daughter, Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy, joined many longtime Coral Ridge members, including church elders, the organist, choir director and hundreds of choir members, in deserting the congregation they helped build.
Former Coral Ridge elder Jim Filosa joined the new church. He and his wife were disciplined by Coral Ridge for taking part in a campaign to remove Tchividjian.
"A year from today, if you call me, you're going to say to me, 'It was an interesting place at one time, but it's now up for sale,'" he said of his former church.
Bill Ashcraft, a Coral Ridge elder who is acting as a spokesman for Tchividjian, said the church was praying for those who left and that their the breakaway represents "a win-win situation."
"Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is going to grow," Ashcraft said. "And the other church ... is going to grow also. And God will be glorified at both."
Still, Aschraft said there had been hope the dissenters would return.
The feud at Coral Ridge appears mostly to be a matter of style, not substance.
Under the leadership of Kennedy, who died in 2007, the church was a forerunner to modern evangelical megachurches, a fiercely conservative voice on social issues including homosexuality and abortion, and a powerful political voice.
Tchividjian, 37, took over earlier this year. While he has shown no sign of theological differences with Kennedy, he has rejected politics as the most important force for change, and his sermons have not focused on divisive issues. Meantime, he cuts a far different image, forgoing the type of choir robe Kennedy wore during services, and sporting spiky hair, tan skin, and sometimes a scruffy beard.
The difference in approach prompted dissenters to circulate a petition urging Tchividjian's removal. Their letter called him "a disaster" who has shown "a complete lack of respect" and made "grievous missteps."
Tchividjian, the middle of seven children born to Stephan Tchividjian and Graham's eldest daughter, Gigi, has a long history with Coral Ridge. He attended Coral Ridge and its adjacent school as a young man, though he eventually dropped out.
Source: Matt Sedensky, The Associated Press
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My experience has been that when I am disturbed by people, places, and things that it's usually something inside me that needs fixing....that God is speaking to me about my relationship to Him.
As a Christian who happens to be a part of a Southern Baptist Church I used to feel threatened by any other denomination or that they were brand X and that we had the corner on the market.
What I have learned is that while I am to be proactive in my walk with the Lord, I must look inside of me when I am upset or disagree with my fellow church members, my fellow workers, my fellow man, or my suppossed enemies.
Whether you stayed at the church or you left, it is certain that the victory was won almost 2000 years ago. Try this version of the serenity prayer a man once shared with me.
"God grant me the serenity to accept the person I wish to change, the courage to change the person I can, and the wisdom to know that I AM THAT PERSON."
I need to pray this everyday....seems that I think I need to control God's people that He created.
--Cary Griggs
carygriggs1@yahoo.com
I wonder if Billy Gerham is happy with his grandson. One needs to wonder if this is part of an emerging church movement.