Park Street Church voted in favor of Senior Minister Mark Booker on Sunday by 350 votes to 173, with 20 abstentions.
Boston’s prominent evangelical church was rocked by controversy as ministers, elders, staff and lay leaders disagreed over a series of decisions – as well as the decision-making process – within the church. ‘220-year-old Congregational church. In the end the whole congregation was thrown into the dispute. The conflict became public when a group of more than 75 members requested a special meeting to consider the firing of an associate minister who said he had “serious concerns” about Booker’s spiritual direction, citing “conflicting patterns with biblical qualifications.”
The conflict has raised questions about checks and balances and the sustainability of congregationalism amid growing disagreements over leadership. Congregationalism is the preferred polity of many evangelicals, including those in Baptist, nondenominational, and Stone-Campbell churches.
The Park Street congregation’s regular meeting Sunday was billed as a referendum on church leadership. Critics proposed a series of bylaw amendments that they said would add much-needed limits on the power of church leaders and named an alternative slate of older candidates.
Booker, who was called to lead the Church in 2020, proposed a non-binding vote to affirm his continued leadership at Park Street. Elders approved the ballot measure, adding it to the agenda, as CT reported last week.
“It is clear that there has been a breakdown of trust at the elders, ministers and staff level,” Booker told the congregation during the eventful six-hour meeting Sunday. “This breakdown of trust between the leadership of this church has also spilled over into the congregation, causing deep pain for all of us, and we all bear with it in one way or another. THE Christianity today The article revealed these breaks to a wider audience. And I understand that this is and has been destabilizing for our community.
Booker called CT’s reporting on division within the church an “overly simplistic binary” and called it disappointing.
Twenty-one staff members also wrote an email saying they were frustrated by CT’s reporting and “upset by the way it characterizes our church.”
In his speech at the annual meeting, Booker said he and many others were responsible for the “fences” that had come down in his community. But he asked the congregation to confirm his calling as senior minister despite his mistakes.
“The question that I believe you will be asked in a few minutes is whether you want me to grow as I lead you among you,” Booker said.
Booker’s wife, Mandy Booker, was given a few minutes to speak in defense of her husband’s character. She said the allegations against him “paint an impressionistic picture” of a “callous, power-hungry man” but are based “almost entirely on imputations of motives and disagreements over leadership decisions.”
Those who know Booker best, she said, know that characterization is false.
“Mark is a pastor through and through,” she told the congregation. “He lives and breathes Jesus. »
Other Park Street leaders also spoke at the meeting to take responsibility for the division that threatens to divide the Church. Leslie Liu said that a few weeks ago she read Amos 6:12, which says, “You have turned righteousness into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,” and she wept on Park Street.
“This is what I see in our church, bitterness and poison, where there should have been righteousness and justice,” Liu said. “Our congregation is divided. The small groups are divided. The committees are divided. The staff is divided. And I don’t think I need to tell you that the board has been divided for some time now. You can tell by what you see here. When you see signs of disease on the outside of the fruit, you know something is wrong inside.
Liu said that after three or four more complaints against Booker, the elders should have called for an independent investigation to determine whether he abused his spiritual authority. She, however, asked the congregation to turn to God in this time of crisis.
“Have you ever been sick without really knowing what was making you sick? » said Liu. “We know we are sinners, but now we see it openly. Let’s go to the head doctor for the surgery we need.
The prolonged meeting was contentious and at times chaotic. People shouted at the moderator to give members more or less time and latitude to speak. There were disputes over parliamentary procedure and the proper way to count registered votes.
One MP opposed the non-binding vote, calling it “meaningless”, citing a parliamentary procedure guide.
“If we want to take a vote, we can take a vote,” Karolyn Park said, “but let it be binding because we are the congregation with final human authority. We deserve to have our voices heard.
The congregation voted by paper ballot, passing their votes down the rows to place in a collection basket.
When the ballots were counted and the results announced — 67 percent for Booker, 33 percent against — the church remained silent except for the shifting of a few bodies and the shifting of a few feet.
The assertive senior minister said no one was happy with the outcome and moving forward would require “a lot of grace”. He asked the congregation to engage in repair work in the coming months and years. He promised that he would be a shepherd to the entire Church, even to those who voted against him.
“I have felt for some time that we – the staff, the elders and the congregation – are on the cusp of God’s deeper work,” Booker said. “We can’t do this while we’re fighting. We can do this by healing together.
Not everyone was happy with the result. Michael Balboni, the former associate minister who filed the complaint against Booker, accused the leaders of choosing power over love.
“The 60 or 65 percent who won today, you didn’t win. You didn’t win. Because love has not won, and when love is overcome by power, we all lose and Jesus is vilified and our church reproaches us,” Balboni said at the meeting. “We all go home broken.”
Some members of the congregation complained that Balboni was off-topic and asked the moderator to stop him, while others shouted, “Let him speak!”
The former minister said the glory of God had departed from the congregation, referencing 1 Samuel 4:21. However, he added, the conflict is not over.
“This is my last word. I will not give up. And I won’t give in. Until there is a fair process that allows us to hear what happened to me, what happened to other ministers, I will not stop,” Balboni said.
The Park Street clerk approved a petition to call a special meeting in April to review the elder’s decisions to dismiss Balboni’s accusations against Booker.
On Sunday, however, the congregation confirmed Booker and elected the five officers and six elders chosen by the nominating committee. The alternative list of candidates presented by petition were all lost. The congregation also rejected the five proposed amendments to the statutes.
Some Park Street members who spoke to CT after the meeting said the meeting was discouraging and that they wished there had never been a vote on Booker’s leadership.
“Personally, I find it regrettable that this vote took place. It drew a line in the sand,” said Victor Sheen, a member for more than 20 years. “He does not have the mandate, even if he has the majority. But I hope there can be healing.
Others said they were glad the congregation had a chance to vote and Booker was confirmed. They believe this will help the congregation to soon be able to put all this controversy behind them.
“The congregation has affirmed its belief that Mark will continue the work of reconciliation and repair,” Elizabeth Lohnes, former church communications director, said in an email to CT. “I look forward to seeing a move towards a thriving work environment for all.” »
One member who joined the organization in 2022 said he was impressed by Booker’s leadership during the sometimes painful meeting.
Booker “played his role in leading the entire congregation in a posture of love and grace,” Hanno van der Bijl said in an email. “He listened well while trying to bring everyone together. He is a broken and sinful person like the rest of us, and he acknowledged and apologized for his mistakes.
Members hope the confirmation vote could mark the start of a new chapter for the historic evangelical church.
“Although it was truly difficult, leaving space in the meeting for both sides to agree was an important step in resolving the conflict and moving forward as a congregation united in our love for Jesus,” wrote Laurel Sweeney, who also joined the church in 2022. “I have greatly enjoyed and benefited from Marc’s talented preaching. I am grateful that the majority of the congregation has asserted its leadership and that we can begin a healing process.
