WILLIAM SHISHKO, pastor of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Franklin Square, Long Island, NY will address the theme: "WHEN IS IT RIGHT TO LEAVE A CHURCH?"Many people today leave one church after another over petty and trivial matters. Others who have genuinely reasonable concerns over the church to which they belong often leave far too hastily without the benefit of wise counsel or a proper degree of patience in order to witness improvements begin to develop. Still others flee from a church due to their own heresy, sin or pride. On the other end of the spectrum, many have a dogged determination to remain in whatever church, fellowship or denomination they belong to for sentimental reasons, or in fear of offending family and loved ones, or perhaps even mere laziness, in spite of the fact that their leadership has become utterly corrupt in their teachings and practices or morals. Some in this latter category of refusal to depart from a church may have devolved along with their leadership down into corruption and see no reason to leave. Others hold steadfast as members in their theologically, spiritually and morally bankrupt churches with the infinitely more noble (albeit at times naive or misguided) purposes of remaining as an agent of reformation and a voice of Truth, or because they have a theological conviction which forbids them to leave their particular church or religious group for any reason... but WHEN IS IT *RIGHT* TO LEAVE A CHURCH?
Today Pastor Shishko seeks to answer this vital and controversial question biblically, in addition to the obvious questions that flow from it: "When is it *WRONG* to leave a church?" and "When *MUST* a Christian leave a church?"
During Pastor Shishko's time ministering to the Franklin Square congregation the church has been blessed with significant numerical growth, and has overseen the formation of two mission churches, one in Mount Vernon, NY and the other in Bohemia, NY. Pastor Shishko has been privileged to serve on various presbytery committees, and also on the OPC denominational Committees on Coordination, Ecumenicity, Home Missions, and Christian Education. Along with his regular pastoral duties he currently serves as one of the instructors for the Ministerial Training Institute, OPC. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Taylors, SC, where he teaches in the department of Applied Theology. He has written numerous articles for the OPC publications NEW HORIZONS and ORDAINED SERVANT, as well as magazines such as The Banner of Truth . His public ministries have taken him to various foreign mission fields, including Suriname, Cyprus, Egypt, Uganda, China, Eritrea, and Wales, and his conference ministries have been carried out in a number of states in our own nation. In addition to these, he continues to make use of his radio training by producing and hosting a variety of programs that are periodically aired in the metropolitan New York area.
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