PCA top officer’s resignation “effective immediately,” per denomination officials

The Presbyterian Church in America’s Administrative Committee on Friday accepted the immediate resignation of stated clerk Bryan Chapell—following a Thursday meeting prompted by Chapell’s public apology over his “scandalizers” list on The Gospel Coalition’s Gospelbound podcast.

The committee “gratefully received his repentance and apology” and recognized “the seriousness of the situation.” It also expressed regret for the fallout and thanked Chapell for decades of service.

The committee unanimously appointed John Bise as Chapell’s temporary replacement, pending the Theological Examination Committee’s review of his qualifications. The committee said it did not have time to nominate a full replacement for Chapell in time for the denomination’s General Assembly meeting, which is scheduled to begin June 23 in Chattanooga, Tenn., but plans to nominate someone before the 2026 meeting.

On the Gospelbound podcast last month, Chapell held up a Post-it note listing names of individuals he said were “scandalizers” who had all left their families, left the faith, or taken their own lives. Viewers then took screenshots of the list and shared the image across social media, prompting rebuttals that multiple people on the list are still living with their families and involved in the church.

Pastor Andy Webb’s name was on the list. While he is no longer with the PCA, he serves in North Carolina with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Webb said in a public statement that Chapell called him after the interview to apologize and that he forgave him. Carl Trueman, who writes for WORLD Opinions and whose name was also on the list, likewise received an apology from Chapell.

Doug Hart was close friends with an individual on the list, David Winecoff, who died in a mountain climbing accident in 1993. Hart filed a formal request for an investigation into Chapell, saying that he violated the Ninth Commandment’s prohibition on testifying falsely about one’s neighbor. He told WORLD on Friday that he thought both Chapell and the Administrative Committee made the right decision.

Before the Administrative Committee released its statement on Friday, a few pastors expressed support for Chapell. PCA teaching elder David F. Coffin Jr. said earlier this week that Chapell did not lie and that the individuals who took screenshots of the list and spread them around the internet committed greater wrong than Chapell.

“The fact is, on the evidence, I do not believe you lied,” Coffin wrote in the Aquila Report, an independent religious publication, earlier this week, relaying remarks he’d sent to Chapell. “Your departure, in these circumstances, will profoundly debilitate the office of the stated clerk, an office that you have adorned by your labors.”

Bise, who will serve temporarily as Chapell’s replacement, has decades of experience in church courts at all levels of the PCA, the Administrative Committee said. He served as the moderator of the PCA’s General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala., in 2022, and, according to the statement, he is currently a ruling elder at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Ala.