God's Faithful Providences in Arkansas: An Addendum to the "Jonesboro 7" Series
Seven men disagreed with their Session on the selection of a pastor. The Session indicted and censured them, the MNA Committee tried to close the church. But God preserved a witness in Jonesboro.
Seven heads of households from a PCA church plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas met with their temporary Session. They explained to their elders at that meeting their desire to consider candidates for pastor other than the current church planter (and a member of the temporary Session). The men were shocked by the temporary Session’s response. The temporary Session’s actions would likewise shock and scandalize many from across the PCA. You can read about the travails and vindication of the Jonesboro 7 here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.
The Principle of Non-Intrusion
In the Fall of 1834, wealthy and powerful Lord Kinnoul selected Mr Robert Young to serve as pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in Auchterarder, Scotland of which Lord Kinnoul was the patron. The congregation had the opportunity of sitting under Young’s ministry for a period of time. When the moment came for the congregation to determine whether to approve the man to be their pastor, the congregation decidedly rejected him:
only two individuals, Michael Tod and Peter Clark, could be found to express approbation by signing the call. Five-sixths of the congregation, on the other hand, came forward solemnly to protest against his settlement [installation].1
The congregation requested their patron, Lord Kinnoul, select another man to serve as minister. But Lord Kinnoul refused and took the matter to the civil courts.
On what was very likely a cold day, March 8, 1838 a Scottish court issued a judgment against that Auchterarder congregation, which stated in effect, “in the settlement of pastors, the Church [presbytery] must have no regard to the feelings of the congregation.”
The little congregation appealed, but on May 2, 1839 the appeals court ruled the opinion of the congregation was “considered of no value in any way…” regarding the selection of a pastor.2
There were numerous similar cases in the Scottish Kirk at this time; the civil courts determined regarding the selection of ministers: “No regard was to be paid to any opinions or feelings of the parishioners.”3
But the people of God continued to protest to the Scottish presbyteries, insisting they should have the right of approving a minister. When the church courts refused to heed their pleas, the people vacated the church buildings and formed new congregations; they would not accept a minister forced upon them by the civil government or the presbytery. The intrusion of the government and church courts into the selection of a congregation’s minister is deeply offensive to the principles of biblical church polity.
Thomas Brown summarizes:
During the whole of the Church’s history it had been held that the call of the people was essential before a minister could be settled. The congregation must invite before the Presbytery could ordain. Here were cases, however, one after another, in which the parishioners were virtually unanimous in their opposition to the presentee. Was the call, then, to be treated as a mockery?…Was it to be tolerated that, the members of Christian congregations must submit to have obnoxious presentees forced on them?4
This led to what is called “The Great Disruption” of 1843 in which several hundred ministers departed from the Kirk of Scotland, being committed to the principle that neither the civil government (e.g., an aristocratic patron) nor the church courts may “intrude” upon a congregation’s right to select her own minister. They formed the Free Church of Scotland.
This “non-intrusion principle” is now universally accepted as vital to presbyterianism.
The ‘Non-Intrusion Principle’ & the PCA?
The principle underlying the Great Disruption of 1843 is at the core of the PCA’s Book of Church Order (see the article I wrote at PCAPolity.com for more on this). A congregation’s right to select her own minister is nearly absolute. No church court may force a minister upon a congregation without its consent, not even a temporary Session.5
This makes what happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas all the more remarkable and scandalous.
Following that meeting with seven heads of households, the temporary Session (largely comprised of elders from wealthy and influential IPC Memphis) investigated, indicted, and summoned the seven men for trial because they objected to the Session’s preferred course of action: to have one of the Session’s own number considered first for the position of pastor.
During the trial, however, no evidence was presented of the men’s guilt. Nonetheless, IPC Memphis Ruling Elder David Caldwell did testify at trial that he had a feeling the Ninth Commandment was violated by the Jonesboro 7.6 Ordinarily, feelings are not admitted into evidence in the courts of the PCA. But in this case, the PCA General Assembly’s Judicial Commission (SJC) noted the “basic principles of due process” required by the PCA Constitution were violated by that temporary Session.7
RE David Caldwell was later elected to be the Moderator of Covenant Presbytery in 2024. As moderator, his role is to ensure meetings and debate are conducted in accordance with the PCA Constitution.
The temporary Session found the men guilty, censured them, and barred them from the Lord’s Table as well as participation in congregational meetings, which also meant they could not vote on the call of a pastor (as some SJC judges noted during their review of the Session’s actions).
When the men appealed their decision to Covenant Presbytery, the temporary Session resigned and recommended the MNA Committee of Covenant Presbytery close the little church plant in Jonesboro, calling its culture toxic.
What was it that made the congregation toxic? Was it that seven households objected to the man whom the temporary Session - a group of men largely from IPC Memphis who did not live in Jonesboro - wanted to offer to the congregation?8
It is unclear what made the church plant’s culture toxic. But you can imagine the impact that label had on the members of Christ Redeemer PCA church plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Faithful elders across the denomination are working to further perfect and refine our polity in hopes that the abuse of process endured by the Jonesboro 7 and others is not repeated.
The Cost to the Church
The Jonesboro 7 and their families represented upward of 40% of the congregation. The temporary Session understandably did not inform the rest of the congregation of the investigation, indictment, and trial of the Jonesboro 7, yet nonetheless a cloud settled over the congregation for some time as a result.
When the judgment of the temporary Session was finally announced and notice of appeal was given, the little congregation was in utter disarray. You can get a sense of the pain and hurt felt by the congregation at this meeting where some members of the temporary Session explain their decision to resign and recommend the church plant be terminated by Covenant Presbytery.
Indeed, the Jonesboro 7 persevered through the abuse of process by the temporary Session and the erroneous decisions of Covenant Presbytery and were ultimately vindicated by the PCA General Assembly. But not all the members of the church plant persevered through the congregation’s difficulties, which the temporary Session brought upon them.
While the biblical polity of the PCA prevailed and vindicated the Jonesboro 7 against the usurpations by a temporary Session of elders largely from IPC Memphis, there have still been costs.
A number of the church plant’s members and regular attenders were so shocked by the abuse of process and the bad report that was given to Covenant Presbytery by the former members of the Session that they have left the visible church entirely.
This reality should confront us with the gravity of church discipline. The cost to this one congregation should make us tremble before engaging in church discipline; if we get it wrong, there are dreadful consequences for the people of God even if a broader court corrects our errors.
Last week, Covenant Presbytery took up the Jonesboro matter again; this time with the hope of reconciliation between members of the Jonesboro congregation and the original Session. This is very good news. It would be a wonderful testimony if the Presbytery not only reconciled with the Jonesboro 7, but also with those who left the visible church following the abuse by the original temporary Session largely from IPC Memphis.
While the actions of that temporary Session have been nullified by the PCA General Assembly, there are nonetheless lingering personal, relational, and spiritual consequences due to the way judicial process was “abused” by the temporary Session.9 To enter judicial process is a profoundly grave matter and ought not be done without solemnly considering the potential ramifications of such an action.
Judicial process ought not be commenced lightly. Our Constitution ordinarily requires a “strong presumption of guilt” (emphasis added; BCO 31-2) before beginning process and reminds us the “power which Christ has given the Church is for building up, and not for destruction. It is to be exercised as under a dispensation of mercy and not of wrath” (BCO 27-4). This should cause any church court to exercise much caution and patience before entering into judicial process.
Likewise, any indictment must not simply be based on feelings or general impressions, but should include if at all possible specifics such as “the times, places and circumstances” of the alleged offense (BCO 32-5). In this infamous case, however, the temporary Session declined to cite any specifics, and we have seen the calamitous result of the Session’s erroneous application of the PCA Constitution, which the Session’s members all vowed to uphold.
One final warning against engaging lightly in judicial process is contained in the indictment itself. Every indictment must begin, “In the Name of the Presbyterian Church in America,” which reminds the court the members are acting on behalf of Christ’s bride, Christ’s body. Church discipline is acting in the name of the Church and to defend the “honor and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King and Head thereof” (BCO 31-4).
What was the issue that brought judicial process against the Jonesboro 7? The men wanted to consider pastoral candidates other than the member of the Session the rest of the Session wanted to put before the congregation. Was the “honor and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ” really assaulted by this desire of the Jonesboro 7?
The temporary Session concluded yes.
Covenant Presbytery concluded the Session did not err in its judgment.
Mercifully the PCA General Assembly’s Judicial Commission unanimously declared the honor and majesty of Christ were not assaulted by these men. But there was nonetheless a cost:
What witness was borne to the members of the community of Jonesboro about Christ by the temporary Session for asserting that questioning the Session’s preferred pastoral candidate was an affront to the honor of Christ?
What witness has been borne to Christ by Covenant Presbytery, which sustained the outrageous abuse by the temporary Session of elders largely from IPC Memphis?
What witness is born by Covenant Presbytery to the members of their churches that Presbytery sustained an indictment against seven of Christ’s lambs that contained no specific allegation of sin?
Yet also consider: what opportunity there is before Covenant Presbytery at this time to testify to the power of the gospel if the members of the former Session and the Presbytery can indeed reconcile publicly with the Jonesboro 7 and others harmed by the temporary Session’s actions. That is, after all, according to TE Ed Norton, “what Christians do. We openly and readily confess.” TE Ed Norton noted, “There’s never health in any body of believers unless there is confession and repentance.”
TE Ed Norton seemed to anticipate the glorious testimony that could be offered by reconciliation, so he promised the congregation if the judicial commission overturned the convictions of the Jonesboro 7: “you would find me coming back.”10
Let us pray TE Norton’s wise counsel will be heeded and that that beautiful, gospel flourishing may be seen in the relationships that were damaged. This is, after all, what the gospel enables.
The Remarkable Providences of God
We have already considered a number of the ways God gloriously sustained the little congregation in Jonesboro. One of the ways was the speech of TE Don Erwin (summarized here). TE Erwin had gotten his dates mixed up and planned to leave presbytery early, but instead stayed past lunch. And it was TE Erwin’s speech that seemed to convince Covenant Presbytery not to heed the advice of its influential MNA Committee, but to give the little church plant more time and a new Session. Apart from Don Erwin, perhaps the little church plant would no longer exist.
Consider three more of God’s remarkable providences to preserve and prosper His church in Jonesboro.
James Kessler Sends an Email
On June 20, 2013 TE James Kessler emailed his colleagues who were members of the so-called “National Partnership” urging them to be present in the General Assembly for a crucial procedural vote at 11:30 that morning. TE Kessler hoped to re-arrange the order in which the Assembly would consider candidates for the Standing Judicial Commission. The goal was to have RE E.J. Nusbaum’s SJC nomination voted on before TE Dominic Aquila’s nomination. Both men are from the same presbytery, so only one of them could serve on the SJC. And once one was elected, the other would be disqualified from serving on the SJC. This procedural move ended TE Aquila’s 25 years on the SJC, but it created new ways for him to serve the people of God.
There is, of course, little remarkable about arranging the procedural vote in this way. Because of RE Nusbaum’s prior election that day, TE Aquila was disqualified from serving on the SJC even in a different class. Nonetheless, TE Kessler’s email from ten years ago contributed to enabling Aquila to serve as an advisor to church courts and as a representative for many accused parties on all sides of the PCA.
Paul Sagan Makes an Introduction
News of what was happening in Jonesboro eventually reached veteran church planter TE Paul Sagan who pastors Covenant Presbyterian in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Sensing that something was not right, he put TE Aquila in contact with the Jonesboro 7, and TE Aquila agreed to advise and later serve as their representative or perhaps even “canonical lawyer” (as was alluded to in Covenant Presbytery’s Supplemental Brief to the SJC).
As a result TE Aquila was able to represent the men during their hearing before the SJC, a hearing that resulted in the men’s complete vindication of the charges leveled against them by that Session of elders largely from IPC Memphis.
It is indeed a remarkable series of providences. If Paul Sagan had not made an introduction and if the National Partnership had not succeeded in their procedural effort to have TE Aquila disqualified from serving on the SJC, perhaps the Jonesboro 7 would have given up when they were censured by the temporary Session, and simply left the PCA to start a new church “down the street”, just as IPC Memphis RE Matt Olson suggested at their trial that they should have done.11
A Student Gets Lost…and Found
Last year a young man and foreign student studying at a university in Jonesboro wanted to learn more about America and Americans. The janitor at the school told him that in order to do that, he’d need to visit a church.
One Lord’s Day, that young man was looking for the church to which the janitor had directed him, but he got lost along the way. So he entered the meeting place of Christ Redeemer PCA. He came late. He sat in the back. The men in the congregation took note of this stranger; they welcomed him. After the worship service concluded, they talked with him and invited him back.
He came back the next week. And he kept coming back.
The man had encountered something, someone Whom he had never met in his homeland: He had encountered Christ the Redeemer among that small group worshiping in Jonesboro. He recognized the religion in which he was reared with its five pillars and its endless rituals could never make him right with God or soothe his guilty conscience.
But at Christ Redeemer PCA, he had encountered the God who had come down and done everything necessary to make him righteous and “purify his conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). That man was found by God at Christ Redeemer PCA. That man has given up hope of returning to his country without facing threat of certain death for coming to Christ; he has given up everything to follow Christ. On Nov. 12, 2023, he was baptized into Christ and received into membership at Christ Redeemer PCA.
Why was all this possible? Because TE James Kessler sent an email and won a procedural vote and TE Dominic Aquila was able to take the case of the Jonesboro 7 to the SJC. Because Paul Sagan heard the plight of the Jonesboro 7, he was able to introduce them to TE Aquila. Because TE Don Erwin got his dates mixed up and made a speech that carried the day at Presbytery.
Because of all this there was still a gospel-centered church in Jonesboro where Christ was clearly and faithfully being proclaimed by TE Bill Berry, and that is where the foreign student wandered in last year.
And as a result of these small providences, that foreign student has been brought to Christ and he is now part of the family and household of the living God.
Through all the trials and hardships of that little church plant, God has prevailed and God has preserved for himself a faithful witness in Jonesboro.
A Faithful Witness
If you would like to partner financially with the congregation in this glorious work, please visit their website: https://www.christredeemer.org.
As mentioned earlier, large sabbatical, severance, and legal/lease expenses were incurred by the previous temporary Session prior to its resignation, the effects of which still challenge the little church plant. But God continues to provide and work, because it is not a church that belongs to any Session; the Church belongs to Christ and He continues to do wondrous things in Jonesboro.
The congregation of Christ Redeemer PCA continues to grow. New members are being received and Christ is gathering people to Himself in that city through the ministry of Christ Redeemer PCA’s members and pastor, TE Bill Berry.
We praise God for the faithfulness He has shown and the daily new mercies he manifests in His people. Let us pray all the elders in every court of the PCA will act with faithfulness and integrity in all their ministry before the face of God.
Rev Thomas Brown, Annals of the Disruption, p. 21. https://archive.org/details/annalsofdisrupti1892brow/page/21/mode/1up?view=theater
ibid.
op. cit., p. 22.
op. cit. pp. 24-25.
The only exception to this might be the “assistant pastor,” but assistant pastors, at least in theory do not have authority in the congregation. TE Adam Parker has written more on this tension.
read excerpts from his testimony here:
https://rfbwcf.substack.com/p/trial-at-ipc-memphis-for-the-jonesboro
Min50GA, p. 862.
In this series I have emphasized that the elders were largely from IPC Memphis. All but one of the elders on the Session were members of or pastors at IPC Memphis. The only exception was TE Jeff Wreyford, the man whom the Temporary Session insisted should be “offered to the congregation as a candidate to serve as its pastor.”
Min50GA, p. 863.
read excerpts from his testimony here:
https://rfbwcf.substack.com/p/trial-at-ipc-memphis-for-the-jonesboro
Ryan, what a valuable series of reports for the health of the PCA. Sunlight is the best disinfectant they say. We are to be children of the light and to walk in the light. I pray that the brothers who the church courts have had their actions reversed will see the error of their ways and repent, confess and be reconciled, hopefully making restitution as well.
It is a good reminder to me that we can all assume our way is the right way, therefore others are in sin if they differ! The connection to the Great Disruption I had not thought of, and the reminders of God's providences, even in apparent defeats are a real blessing. Thank you.