Report on the 49th General Assembly

While not clearly a watershed Assembly, great strides were made to strengthen confessional integrity and biblical fidelity.

This year the Presbyterian Church in America met for her 49th General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala. Overall this Assembly was productive and we accomplished many of the items on my “wishlist” for the PCA. Here are a few of the highlights.

I. Worship & Election of the Moderator

Each year the Assembly begins with a service of worship in which the retiring moderator (i.e. last year’s moderator) customarily preaches a sermon. This year TE Roy Taylor delivered his address based on Matt. 16:5-12, (“The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”) in which he gave a lengthy history of the Pharisee and Sadducee movements. He warned against the extremes represented by each of those historic factions: we must neither withdraw from the culture nor acquiesce to the culture; we must neither subtract from the Word of God nor add to it. He urged the PCA not to become a rigid, ingrown, in-fighting, ineffectual denomination.

Following the close of the service, the Assembly reconvened for the purpose of elect…