(RNS) — A tiny slip of paper with handwritten notes might have cost the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America his job.
During a recording of a Gospel Coalition podcast, Bryan Chapell, the stated clerk of the PCA, held up a small piece of paper that named people he said had been troublemakers in the church and said that many of their lives had been ruined.
The Rev. Bryan Chapell holds up a list of names during a May 20, 2025, appearance on The Gospel Coalition’s “Gospelbound” podcast. (Video screen grab)
“Those are the names of the scandalizers, the people who have invested hours every day attacking others for their supposed lack of faithfulness, for their compromise; whose identity comes from scandalizing others,” he said in the podcast, which was being video-recorded. “And every name on that list has either left his family, left the faith, or taken his life. Every name on that list.”
Chapell appeared unaware that the names on the list were visible. Viewers were able to pause the recording, which was posted on May 20, and make out the names. The list went viral in PCA circles online and led to an ethics complaint against Chapell.
The podcast, in which Chapell discussed his new book on church unity, was taken down, and Chapell apologized. He also said his comments regarding the people on the list were wrong.
“With deep regret for harm done to others, I am issuing a public apology for not taking proper care to protect the reputation of others,” he wrote on the Gospel Coalition website.
A long-time pastor, author, and speaker, Chapell is the head of Unlimited Grace Media, based in Duluth, Georgia, and head of the PCA administrative committee. Founded in 1973, the PCA has an estimated 400,000 members and an outsize influence among evangelicals, in part because of its ties to the Gospel Coalition and the work of the late Tim Keller, a long-time PCA pastor and best-selling author.
Chapell apologized again on Thursday (May 29), saying he “brought unwarranted disrepute upon persons identified in the screenshot” and that he planned to step down.
“Therefore, at the upcoming called meeting of the administrative committee, I will ask for approval of my retirement as stated clerk,” he said in a statement posted by the PCA’s online magazine. “I give thanks for my Savior whose provision for sinners such as I is according to his grace rather than my deserving.”
The committee will discuss Chapell’s resignation at its meeting this week.
Chapell was involved in a controversy last year involving The New York Times columnist and author David French. French had been invited to speak on an “anti-polarization” panel at the PCA’s annual meeting, but the panel was canceled because of opposition to French’s inclusion.
In announcing the cancellation, Chapell said it was caused by comments made by a panelist — not naming French in the process.
“Had I known some of the ways that the panelist has expressed himself or been understood in past writings, I would have made a different choice for the purposes of this seminar,” Chapell wrote.
