Why pastor Scott Sauls' discipline raises questions about PCA denomination accountability

Former and current staff at Christ Presbyterian Church wanted a true third-party evaluation into workplace issues and instead got an internal denomination committee.

This shepherding committee is a function of the Nashville Presbytery — the regional authority for churches in Middle Tennessee affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) — which has sought to balance both the discipline and care for Christ Presbyterian senior pastor Rev. Scott Sauls.

As a result, the outcome hasn’t lived up to what former and current Christ Presbyterian staff originally requested and has raised questions about the larger system of denominational accountability. Nor is it the first time these issues have arisen with this presbytery.

Christ Presbyterian declined to comment for this story. The Nashville Presbytery did not return a request for comment.

Sauls currently is working toward a potential full restoration at Christ Presbyterian, a prominent multi-site congregation with its flagship campus located at the Nashville/Brentwood line. In May, the church placed Sauls on indefinite leave and the Nashville Presbytery indefinitely suspended him.

The presbytery's involvement in Sauls' case started nine months prior, when groups of former and current staff at Christ Presbyterian wrote letters to the church’s elders requesting a third-party evaluation.

“This underscores the necessity of an expert third party both to evaluate the extent of the damage and to outline how other churches have addressed and recovered from similar leadership challenges,” said the group of current staff in a letter dated Aug. 17, 2022, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained.

The Aug. 17 letter said 22 of 30 non-pastoral staff positions have experienced turnover since May 2021 and the median tenure among those positions is 11 months. “These issues exist both in the past and in the present and will continue until systems of accountability are more effective and less perfunctory,” the letter added.

Another letter dated Aug. 9, 2022, from former Christ Presbyterian staff, similarly described a “negative culture” and said that previous attempts to request a third-party review were unsuccessful.

For example, a year prior a “Care Commission” comprised of Christ Presbyterian elders “was asked to rescind its motion” to send a request for a third-party assessment to the session, which is the church’s highest level of elder authority.

“Despite this effort and numerous other individual requests, this proposal for an independent, unbiased expert to hear from former staff as well as current staff has been dismissed,” said the Aug. 9 letter, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained.

Also, the letter suggested using certain consultants with expertise in church trauma and who have zero ties to Christ Presbyterian or the Nashville Presbytery.

“We had deep love for our work, our coworkers, and the congregation while we were there and we still desire true transparency and health for the staff and congregation of CPC,” said the Aug. 9 letter.

'Meeting the conditions'

The August 2022 letters prompted Christ Presbyterian’s elders to invite the Nashville Presbytery to help adjudicate the situation, leading to the shepherding committee inquiry and eventually the disciplinary action against Sauls.

As part of its inquiry, the shepherding committee interviewed former Christ Presbyterian staff. Still to this day, the presbytery or church haven’t disclosed official findings from the inquiry to Christ Presbyterian members or staff, despite those staff participating in the process.

Also, during the inquiry process, shepherding committee chair Ian Sears abruptly resigned. Sears’ replacement, Tom Darnell, is also chair of the presbytery’s new Committee for the Care and Oversight of Scott Sauls.

Last month, the special oversight group extended an invitation to former Christ Presbyterian staff to meet with Sauls one-on-one, according to copies of emails The Tennessean obtained.

“Scott has met or is in the process of meeting the conditions as set forth by NP (Nashville Presbytery) as evidence of his repentance which are required of him before any considerations of recommending to the NP the lifting of his indefinite suspension,” said the special oversight group.

‘Pastorally’ vs. ‘judicially’

Thirteen years before the Nashville Presbytery took up Sauls’ case, it investigated complaints against the Rev. George Grant, the pastor of Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin.

Ultimately, the presbytery’s inquiry into Grant and its handling of his discipline were “incomplete and internally inconsistent,” said the PCA Standing Judicial Commission in a 2009 ruling. The original complainant against Grant appealed a presbytery-level decision, leading to a case with the PCA Standing Judicial Commission, which is the denomination’s highest court.

The PCA has a more formal structure, including church courts to hear discipline cases among pastors.

“When you see a presbytery actually hold a pastor accountable on their own initiative, that is so rare,” the Rev. Jeff Hutchinson, a Connecticut pastor and former PCA Standing Judicial Commission member when it ruled in the Grant case, said in an interview. Hutchinson, now a pastor in a different Presbyterian denomination, has become vocal advocate for abuse reform in the PCA.

In another situation, the PCA Standing Judicial Commission ruled against the Nashville Presbytery for how it handled discipline with the Rev. Jim Bachmann, former pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Green Hills. When a church court recommended a verdict and censure against Bachmann, presbytery voting elders affirmed the verdict but rejected the censure. So, Bachmann appealed and eventually the PCA Standing Judicial Commission overturned the presbytery's action that differed from the lower church court recommendation.

But the Grant case bears uncanny resemblances to that of Sauls.

The Nashville Presbytery launched an inquiry into Grant in 2009 through the shepherding committee, which verbally presented its findings in an executive session. The committee didn’t provide a written report, nor did the presbytery from that meeting. In that executive session, the presbytery voting elders dismissed a complaint against Grant for determining there were “no chargeable offenses,” according to PCA Standing Judicial Commission records.

Later, the PCA Standing Judicial Commission criticized the presbytery for its lack of transparency. In defending its handling of Grant’s case, the Nashville Presbytery said it was acting “pastorally” rather than “judicially.”

“The duty to proceed pastorally does not relieve the Presbytery of its responsibility to act Judicially as well,” said the PCA Standing Judicial Commission in its 2009 ruling. “The two responsibilities are parallel and complementary, not contradictory and mutually exclusive.”

In Sauls’ case, the presbytery discussed the shepherding committee’s inquiry and statement of facts in an executive session in May, according to an email from the presbytery’s new, special oversight group for Sauls to former Christ Presbyterian staff.

“We are not at liberty to state what Scott’s confession was due to the nature of an executive session,” said the special oversight group in its email, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained. Sauls’ confession in that executive session possibly differs from a different, public account that Sauls described in a video, which the church played for its members and posted a transcript online.

To Hutchinson, it further underscores the original request.

“Honesty, integrity and humility before the lord would require that presbyteries make use of third-party investigations,” Hutchinson said. “Not to do so is essentially declaring that we know better than anyone else.”

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Scott Sauls' discipline raises questions about Nashville Presbytery