Menlo Park Presbyterian Church leaves Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

I’ve expected this (or perhaps just been hoping for this) for a while. With John Ortberg’s background, it never made sense to me that he’d be comfortable within the fold of the PCUSA.

Seen it so many times. Somebody plants a church or develops an evangelical church in a liberal denomination, then leaves it because it is a liberal denomination. The PCUSA has been liberal for decades. When I became a believer in 1974, they were predominantly liberal. Why do you even mess with such a group if you are conservative? Just doesn’t make sense to me — maybe a bad case of denial that finally goes away?

I’m not sure how PCUSA is organized that gives them ownership over property. James Boice brought Tenth Presb. in Phil. out with their property in 1979. He wrote of this experience in one of his published messages and called liberal denominations nothing more than “real estate holding organizations.”