How the Gospel Reconciled a Pastoral Feud

In 2015, a seemingly straightforward EFCA ministry license meeting grew tense when EFCA pastor Andrew Woods questioned Benjamin Vrbicek’s commitment to premillennialism. Now, nearly a decade later, the two EFCA pastors sat down—as friends—to revisit that conflict and the fruit the Lord grew from it. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

Benjamin Vrbicek: I would describe you, Andrew, as ambushing me during my licensing meeting. You asked me a series of questions that were totally appropriate but the sequence and what you were collecting was not opaque to me: my view of creation, Israel in the church and other things like that, leading to historic premillennialism, which I was saying I held and you were saying I didn't. As a tense argument broke out back and forth, Peter Johnson, leading the meeting, said, “Andrew, he’s saying he’s historic premillennial. He’s written it. We have to take him at his word.” So, I leave the room, and you talk about me. After 30 minutes, I come back, and the council tells me, “We're going to approve you for licensure. But you got one ‘no’ vote.” It wasn't a mystery to me who voted “no.” I assumed it was you. And it was. I remember it significantly because for five years I had to think, “What do I believe?”  

Andrew Woods: To me, the Free Church had taken a stand that we are premillennial, so I couldn't understand why we would come off that stand. You know, why would we? Why would we invite people who we disagree with after we've taken a stand for generations on it? I felt like we're going to see people slipping into our denomination who have a bent towards non-premillennialism. They're going to vote against what I think is right and what traditionally the Free Church has been.  

Benjamin: What did you think about the logic going around at the time—that we're big on the gospel, evangelical theology and majoring on the majors, but premillennialism is the one inconsistency? Was that compelling to you at all? 

Andrew: It's compelling to me now. Because it's been recognized as a minor, not a major. But by virtue of it being in the Free Church Statement of Faith, the Free Church says this is a major. My whole life premillennialism has been a major. Now people are coming along and saying it's a minor, and I'm going, “Well, it was major to the people in 1950. Why is it not a major to us now?” So, through my own reading and study, it took a little while to move this from a major category to a secondary category. 

Benjamin: And that’s what we voted to do [in 2019].  

Andrew: Yeah. It was a big paradigm shift. 

The 2019 EFCA national conference voted to change “premillennial” to “glorious” in Article 9 of the Statement of Faith. In this Article we affirm the following: “We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.” 

Benjamin: Do you remember anything about my licensure? 

Andrew: I do. I remember when Peter said, “He's historic premillennial. He's written that he's historic premillennial.” If I didn't say it out loud, I'm sure in my mind I said, “Yeah, but he's not going to be for long.” 

[Laughs] 

Benjamin: That’s what you said! So, I took four and a half years doing local church ministry to prepare for ordination. When I heard the 2019 vote to change the Statement of Faith was coming, I thought maybe I should delay my ordination. 

Andrew: At that point did you think you were not premillennial? 

Benjamin: I was starting to own it. I was conflicted at first but then I became convinced. When it came time for our October Eastern District conference—and there were a lot of jokes made about this— they added my ordination council as the preconference event. It felt like a gladiatorial ordination in a Roman Colosseum. I was fine with that and appreciated the compliment buried within their choice to highlight my ordination, but it did not have the obscure ordination in some church basement that most of these have. So, I gave my defense of amillennialism, and there were people in the room that clearly disagreed with me, but it wasn't adversarial.  

Andrew: In the summer of 2019, our church was considering leaving [the EFCA]. We took the EFCA Statement of Faith change seriously. So, I was in the process of asking the question, “What other denomination would we go to?” 

Benjamin: That’s a heavy question.  

Andrew: If you had asked me June of 2019, I would have said, “We're leaving.” But when we got your paper, I read it, and I'm like, “Well, this guy is getting ordained.” It was a good paper. So, I didn’t want to ordain someone who's amillennial, but that wasn’t up to me. The Free Church said we must ordain someone who's amillennial if they're qualified. I felt like I would have to vote for you, and I didn't want to vote for you. Because you're amillennial. But as a member of the committee, I felt like I couldn’t vote against you. That didn't seem fair to me. The only thing I could come up with was to not go, and that way I wouldn’t hurt my conscience. But, shortly after your ordination council, I concluded that [premillennialism] was a secondary issue. And my church should not be leaving the denomination over this. I remember later wishing I was at your ordination. 

Benjamin: You were on a trajectory, even as I was.  

Andrew: Yeah, in October, I thought I made the right decision not to go. But by winter, when my understanding had changed, I was disappointed that I missed it. 

Benjamin: I hear you trying to be as faithful at every step as you could with your church and with your history. I don't begrudge that at all. 

Later, Benjamin and Andrew sat together with other pastors to review the ordination paper of a potential candidate.  

Benjamin: When we came to Article 9 of the Statement of Faith, you're to my left, and we have to lean forward to look at each other. The ordination candidate is in the middle. Somewhere during the interview, I interject. He has the 2008 Statement of Faith, the pre-2019 version. I want to ask the question, “Why did you do that?” I hear my words are coming out very charged as I’m talking. I want to sound neutral, because we're just here to serve, to ordain people and ask thoughtful questions. I'm essentially saying, though, “Why did you choose the old Statement of Faith? Why are you trying to offend me?” I think everyone in the room heard the frustration in my voice. Immediately, they said, “I don't even think we knew that was in there. I'm so sorry."  

Andrew: None of us in the room realized it was the wrong Statement of Faith in his paper.  

Benjamin: I didn’t realize I was still amped about feeling excluded and wanting to belong. And then Andrew leans forward and says, “Hey, let's just pause for a minute. Benjamin. I'm glad you're here. I'm sorry. Even if I've excluded you. I'm sorry I didn't come to your ordination. I want you to feel like you belong, and I've played a part in not helping you feel included. I know you belong, because you take things seriously. You’re a gospel pastor, and I'm thankful you’re in our denomination. Please forgive me.” I was blown away, because I had experienced you as the guy who didn't vote for me and didn't come to my ordination. I felt received by the denomination. I felt loved by you. I hope I just said, “I receive your forgiveness, and I'm sorry for whatever part I played in being adversarial as well. Please forgive me, too.”  

Andrew: I didn't go to your ordination and always felt bad about that. I had seen you four to six times, and I was like, “This guy's great. I wish I could be his friend.” But there was still an unspoken tension between us. I just felt compelled in that moment to fix what was broken. We all heard the hurt in your voice, that you were being excluded. Later on in the hallway, I sought you out and said, “Seriously, that wasn't just for the lights and the recording.” I don't know if you remember this, but I gave you a hug. I rarely hug people. It was probably a weird scene. But I said, “You're a part of the Free Church and an important part of this district. And I want to be your friend." 

Benjamin: I felt that, and it's been fun just going forward. At the Theology Refresher [a conference in EFCA East], I walked into the room and was like, ‘Oh, where should I sit? There's 50 pastors,’ and then I think, ‘Oh, there's my friend Andrew. I'm going to go find Andrew and sit with him.’ 

Andrew: There was a break between us. That moment in the council fixed it. I was not an adversary to you anymore.  

Benjamin: The Lord pushed us to a place that He wanted us to go. We both just struggled to know how to get there. And I’m so glad He did. The Lord certainly loves to use the gospel to not only bring us to Him but also to each other.