25 October 2023
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“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]
Presbyterians Week Headlines
[1] Presbyterian Church in America Celebrates Fiftieth Anniversary
[2] Presbyterian Church in America Fiftieth Anniversary Address by Frank J. Smith
Additional Articles of Interest
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[1] Presbyterian Church in America Celebrates Fiftieth Anniversary
A special event was held this past weekend in the Tri-Cities, commemorating the establishment of a group of Presbyterian churches.
Fifty years ago, a new denomination was born, as numerous churches and ministers separated from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). Known informally as the Southern Presbyterian Church, the PCUS, by 1973, had become liberal in its theology. Concern over that liberalism prompted about five percent of the mainline denomination to withdraw and to form a new branch of the church, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).
The PCA began with 260 congregations and 41,000 members, virtually all of them in the South. Today, it has more than 1900 organized churches and missions and close to 400,000 members, spread throughout the United States and Canada. It is the largest conservative, Bible-believing Presbyterian denomination in the country.
Significantly, the denomination has continued to profess belief in the inerrancy, infallibility, and inspiration of the Bible; the virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary atonement, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ; salvation by faith alone and grace alone; and justification based upon the imputation of Christ’s righteousness alone. The PCA also maintains standard Biblical ethics, as witnessed by its commitment to traditional marriage and to preserving the life of unborn babies.
In June of this year, the PCA General Assembly celebrated its jubilee. Locally, the half-century milestone was marked by a service conducted on October 13th by Westminster Presbytery, the regional body of ministers and churches.
Covering southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee, Westminster Presbytery has long had a reputation for its staunch adherence to the standard Presbyterian doctrinal standards–the Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Larger Catechism, and Westminster Shorter Catechism.
The October 13th event was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 900 Watauga Street, Kingsport. Several of the founding fathers of the Presbytery spoke. A common theme was the crisis of conscience that each one faced, and the opposition and challenges that resulted from their resolve to separate.
Delivering the keynote address was Rev. Larry Ball, a retired minister who had served for a number of years as the Stated Clerk and who had enjoyed a long ministry in Kingsport. Mr. Ball recounted the history of the Presbytery, and also stressed the need to remember God’s acts lest future generations forget.
The other speakers were Rev. Pete Hurst, who in 1974 became the first pastor of the host congregation in Kingsport and also served in Alabama and Virginia; Rev. Sidney Anderson, who became a missionary in Nigeria and the Czech Republic; and Dr. Frank J. Smith, who was a ministerial candidate in 1973 (the first one in the PCA) and whose father was the first Stated Clerk of the Presbytery.
The evening was characterized by joy, reflection, poignancy, and anticipation of what the next fifty years might hold.
The entire service is available on the host congregation’s YouTube channel (“Westminster Kingsport”). For further information, contact Rev. Larry E. Ball at 423-292-5186.
[2] Presbyterian Church in America Fiftieth Anniversary Address by Frank J. Smith
Biographical Sketch
Frank J. Smith graduated from Covenant College, and received an M.Div. and later a Th.M. in church history from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. City University of New York awarded him a Ph.D. in American and religious history in 1992. In 2005, an honorary D.D. degree was conferred upon him by the Methodist Episcopal Church USA in conjunction with the National Clergy Council, in recognition of his work in interchurch relations and ecclesiastical journalism.
In 1979, after graduating from seminary, he interned for a year with Dr. Bill Iverson in northern New Jersey. And on May 25, 1980—seven years to the day of his becoming a ministerial candidate—he was ordained to the gospel ministry, to assist his father, Frank E. Smith, in his church planting effort. Six years later, they switched roles—the son became the senior pastor and the father became the associate pastor.
In 1996, Frank married a delightful British lady, Penny, who had had a distinguished career in Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force. She had been widowed, and when they married, he inherited a teenager, a son named Adrian.
Two years later, they left New York and moved to the Atlanta area, as he continued to edit a newspaper covering the PCA and also prepared for publication the updated version of his history of the denomination. In 2000, he was installed as Pastor of Coeburn Presbyterian Church. In 2004, he left the PCA, becoming the pastor of a congregation in a micro-denomination up in Wisconsin. For the past fifteen years, he has served the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), first in the organization of a congregation in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, and then in an inner-city setting. Since 2010, he and his wife have ministered in “the Bluff,” the area of Atlanta notorious for heroin-dealing and prostitution-peddling.
In addition to authoring books on the history of the PCA, he co-edited Worship in the Presence of God; edited Tales From the City: Real Stories of Urban Christian Ministry; and edited Religion and Politics in America: An Encyclopedia of Church and State in American Life. In 2021, he wrote a book on race relations, Race, Church, and Society; and just two weeks ago published ’Til Death Us Do Part: Meditations on Courtship and Marriage. He is presently bringing to completion a biography of his father, entitled God’sMan from Brooklyn: The Story of a Twentieth-Century Minister.
Let me begin by expressing my thanks to Westminster Presbytery for inviting me to participate in this wonderful fiftieth anniversary observance.
In recounting the story of my father, Frank E. Smith, I would like to do so under three heads: Crisis, Courage, and Conviction.
The crisis had to do with the increasing disenchantment with the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). I remember how Dad would come back from presbytery meetings literally sick over what was being said and done.
He joined with other churchmen who came to understand that ecclesiastical separation—in this case, what was called discipline in reverse—was necessary.
The reasons for separation revolved around numerous factors, including the nature of the church; the proposed merger with the more-liberal United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.; gerrymandering of church courts; church property ownership; membership in ecumenical organizations such as the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches; toleration of heresy and deviation from fundamental doctrines, such as Christ’s virgin birth and substitutionary atonement, and the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible; situation ethics leading to lax morals; a lack of emphasis on evangelism in favor of social justice; experimental worship practices; and violations of the denominational Constitution.
But taking decisive action in response to that crisis would require courage. Many men from across the PCUS, including those who would form Westminster Presbytery, counted the cost and willingly paid it. In the case of my father, he was in a particularly vulnerable position. In 1970, he became an assistant pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Johnson City, Tennessee, with responsibility for ministering at one of the outpost chapels—first Keystone in a poor area of Johnson City, and then, in 1971, at Midway, located in a community midway between Johnson City and Jonesboro. He had taken that call at least partially because of the reputation of the senior pastor at First Church, Dr. Ferguson Wood, who in the 1950s, while pastor of the famed Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, had been a leader in what had at the time been championed by the Southern Presbyterian Journal as a Continuing Presbyterian Church movement. However, in 1973, Dr. Wood balked, based on his not believing that the time was ripe for leaving the old denomination. And that difference of opinion set up a conflict between the mother church and the daughter at Midway, since Frank and the elders who served at Midway Chapel became convinced that the time was right. In spring 1973, Frank E. Smith was one of two Tennessee ministers who, along with three congregations in Virginia, formed Westminster Presbytery.
In forming this new presbytery, Pastor Smith had sent a letter on April 30, 1973, to Holston Presbytery, saying that “in light of the official stand of our denomination, I respectfully ask that my name be removed from the roll of Holston Presbytery.” Officials of the Presbytery expressed “regret” that Dad and others were withdrawing, but did grant his request to remove his name from the Presbytery roll by divestiture without censure.
But no longer being considered as an ordained minister had consequences with respect to Pastor Smith’s local ministry. The Session of First Presbyterian Church voted unanimously to terminate his relationship as Pastor of the Midway Chapel effective May 23, 1973. Even though he would be paid through the end of June, he would be losing his and his family’s health insurance.
As a result of this action by First Church’s Session, Frank E. Smith was removed from his pulpit, and another minister on staff of First Church was sent to preach in his place. As has been recorded elsewhere:
That mn not only had to contend several weeks with the people of the congregation who kept on asking him, “When are we going to get our preacher back?” One week the guest minister had to contend with a bird which had gotten into the building. This fine feathered friend swooped down on the congregation and made its presence known throughout the entire service by clanging its claws on the empty metal chairs in the balcony. The poor preacher never returned, and Mr. Smith was allowed back into his pulpit.
A front-page story in the June 20, 1973, edition of the Johnson City Press-Chronicle, titled “Midway Chapel Presbyterian Church given a free rein,” reported that the Session of First Presbyterian Church two days earlier had voted to give Midway “an opportunity to become self-supporting, but at the same time, leaves the door open for the return to the sponsoring church.” The article noted that a letter from Dr. Wood to the Midway officers “said the session has granted permission to those wishing to disassociate themselves with the Presbyterian Church in the United States,” thus allowing “the members so wishing to become members of the new church when it is organized.” First Presbyterian “will sign a one-year lease at no cost with the officers of the newly-formed church,” though First Church’s support of Midway would end July 1st. This arrangement would, according to the letter, give the “newly-formed church . . . every opportunity to prove its ability to sustain itself as a self-supporting church.”[1]
On July 1, 1973, Midway Chapel was formally organized into Midway Presbyterian Church—the first congregation organized by a presbytery of the Continuing Presbyterian Church movement. The service was conducted by a commission of Westminster Presbytery, consisting of Rev. Frank Chapo, Rev. Joe Morecraft, Rev. John Whitner, and Elder Fonso Sutherland.
So, there was a good outcome. But there was no guarantee that that would be the case when the decision to separate was made.
The courage on display was informed by conviction. Those who formed Westminster Presbytery were convinced of the truth of Scripture and the truth of the gospel. Their commitment to these foundational verities undergirded their determination to depart from a denomination deviating from orthodoxy.
There wasn’t much money in the beginning. At the first official meeting on April 24, 1973, the Treasurer (my father) reported that $11.00 had been received two weeks earlier, and that $2.00 had been spent on stamps, leaving a balance of $9.00; an offering added $72.35 to the coffers. But the shoestring nature of the operation must not obscure the large vision being cast. An Officers’ Retreat was held. The Presbytery erected a raft of committees, including Operation of Presbytery; Stewardship; Minister and His Work; Christian Education; Church Extension (later Mission to the United States); World Missions; and Camp and Conference. (Never underestimate the propensity of Presbyterians to establish committees!)
One manifestation of the concern for the wide spread of the gospel was the report of the Mission to the United States Committee, given by Rev. John Sartelle at the Presbytery meeting on November 17, 1973. The report called for eight-day evangelistic crusades in particular unreached areas of the region, utilizing a tent and a bus.
Those early days of Westminster Presbytery were exciting ones, as illustrated by the fact that numerous lay people attended the meetings of the court. It was during this time that the Presbytery’s doctrinal direction would be indelibly set. Each of the officers of the congregations was urged to read the Westminster Standards every year and reaffirm without reservation his receiving and adopting the Standards. On July 21, 1973, the Presbytery established the custom of preaching through the Westminster Confession of Faith, “the ministers of the presbytery alternating, preaching on one or part of one chapter of the Confession at each meeting of presbytery, until it is completed.” Even though the entire Confession has been preached through several times, this pattern continues to this day.
There were some amusing things, too. At the Presbytery meeting held at Midway Church on September 15, 1973, the court approved a three-man commission, which included Rev. Frank Chapo, to organize Frank Chapel over in North Carolina as a congregation. Rev. Paul Settle, a representative of the budding denomination, was visiting, and during his address, remarked, “I thought for a moment that you were trying to establish a commission to organize Frank Chapo—I thought, ‘It’s about time that guy got organized!”
The Presbytery grew significantly over the next few years. However, in 1976, my father would face another crisis. Dissension within Midway Church regarding his pastorate led him to resign. But out of that crisis came opportunity. He showed courage when he and his beloved wife Melanie stepped out in faith by moving back to their native New York in order to plant a PCA congregation in Westchester County. He was sixty-two years old—a time when most men his age would be thinking about retirement—when he started the mission church.
A further crisis developed when after about a year and a half of funding by the PCA’s Mission to North America Committee, that funding was abruptly ended, due to MNA’s lack of financial resources. My folks were basically on their own. Nevertheless, they persevered, showing their courage and also their conviction that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, and that the fields of suburban New York were ripe unto harvest.
His vision for the establishment of a congregation in this Northern mission field culminated when Affirmation Presbyterian Church of Somers, New York, purchased its own building and worshipped in it less than two weeks before he died. At that first worship service, the congregation, by means of covenanting, pledged fealty to the doctrine and worship of the Westminster Standards. That covenant was the last document he would sign.
Dad served with distinction as a churchman. Throughout his thirty-eight year ministerial career, he was instrumental in the organization of three congregations (in Alabama, Tennessee, and New York). The first Stated Clerk of Westminster Presbytery, he was the Presbytery’s teaching elder representative on the General Assembly’s committee on presbytery boundaries. He was elected to a four-year term on the denomination’s Committee on Administration. And he headed the floor clerks at fifteen consecutive General Assemblies, from 1974 to 1988. He was also Moderator of Mid-Atlantic Presbytery for a year. Mom, too, was faithful as a churchwoman. She loyally supported her husband, including in the early days of Westminster Presbytery, as she was his unpaid secretary. But in all of the challenges and ups and downs of ministry, she was always the strong woman behind the good man. She habitually accompanied him to presbytery and General Assembly meetings, and, even after his death, was often in attendance, accompanying me. Dr. T. David Gordon famously remarked that Northeast Presbytery did not have a quorum unless she was present.
In 1978, another crisis arose, as Dad was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer was successfully treated, but then came back in early 1992. As a matter of fact, it was while Mom and Dad were on a cross-country train trip for their fiftieth anniversary that the symptoms developed. Even though suffering from the disease, he continued to minister, and even preached at the 1992 General Assembly—a sermon that had a tremendous impact on the commissioners. He finished his earthly journey with courage and with the conviction that his Redeemer lives. He passed away on July 24, 1993, at the age of seventy-eight years, seven months, and eight days.
Larry Ball also wanted me to say a few words about my own journey. I was privileged to be the first ministerial candidate of the PCA, being taken under care on May 25, 1973, in Coeburn, Virginia. (The second PCA candidate was Jim Jones, who was taken under care at that same meeting about a half hour after I was. Thus the PCA’s first two ministerial candidates were Smith and Jones.) I can still remember being asked questions about the first eleven chapters of Genesis and whether I believed in the virgin birth. And Joe Morecraft exhorted me not to be so busy about the Lord’s business that I forget about the King—advice I have always remembered but not always heeded. The impact on me from that spring evening half a century ago has remained long past the adjournment of the court and our contemplative journey home that night as we wound our way on mountain roads through the Appalachian darkness.
I am so grateful to the Lord for His grace in saving me and calling me into the gospel ministry. I am glad to have had at least a small part in the global twentieth-century reform movement which the Lord orchestrated, which included the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America and Westminster Presbytery. I am thankful for those who have encouraged me along the way and who have been patient with me, including my dear wife. And I also am much obliged for the inspiring example of my folks who, in dealing with crises, showed courage informed by conviction.
[1] On the front page of the second section of this edition of the newspaper was an article entitled, “The Presbyterian Church Discord: what are the major disagreement points?”, the second of a three-part story. Other news stories in the paper that day covered the developing scandal of Watergate. See Williams, History of First Presbyterian Church, Johnson City, Tennessee, pp. 322-324, for First Church’s perspective on the matter.
+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org
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