Standing in the PCA

Rather than leave the PCA, take proactive and positive steps to strengthen the PCA

In my previous article, I explained why I am optimistic about the future faithfulness of the PCA as a confessionally Reformed denomination. 

In short, I believe we are at a crossroads; our current heavy discussions, difficult interactions, and passionate debates reflect that many issues formerly hidden under the surface are now being addressed in the courts of the PCA.

While I believe it would be easier for confessional and/or conservative churches and members of the PCA to simply leave this denomination, I believe that is the wrong course of action at this time (as I explain in the previous article).

Now is not the time to leave, but it is the time to take firm and clear actions aimed at promoting biblical and confessional integrity within the PCA. If the activities or perceived agenda of PCA agencies trouble you, if the actions of a church court disturb you, there are ample remedies other than leaving the PCA.

Here are some recommendations for how to continue as a part of the PCA even if you have serious concerns about her trajectory, leadership, and/or institutions.

IV. Standing Firm

A. Funding

We are a “grassroots” denomination. In order for the agencies, committees, and missionaries of the PCA to function, they must be voluntarily supported by the congregations of the PCA. So if you have serious concerns, one remedy in the meantime is to carefully hold back funding.

Is it disingenuous to be part of the PCA without funding her committees and agencies? No; that is the way the system is designed and is another way of holding the committees and agencies accountable. As the saying goes: “get woke, go broke.”

This is not a long-term solution nor is it a policy to be lightly adopted. But rather than leaving the PCA, consider simply withholding financial support for a time.

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B. Generously Support Missionaries and Outreach

            1. Targeted Support

Don’t just withhold funding; find missionaries whom you can support, who are part of the PCA, and who share the values or vision of your session.

For example, the small congregation I serve gives nearly $40,000 per year to individual missionaries and church plants. 

Instead of supporting committees and agencies, we carefully select missionaries and ministries who share our vision for the church, who are likewise devoted to the Westminster Standards, who uphold the historic Christian position on sexuality, who are not “woke,” and who have not been captivated by a Post-Modernist understanding of language and truth.

Yes, it would be easier for us to simply write a check to the Presbytery or General Assembly MNA, MTW, and/or RUF Committees and hope for the best. But instead, we invest time and effort to cultivate relationships with missionaries whom we believe will expound the whole counsel of God in all its timeless truth.

            2. Finding and Discerning Ministry Partners

This requires expending significant effort to get to know missionaries, but the efforts to build relationships are a blessing. I encourage other churches to do likewise rather than depart the PCA. But how can you get to know like-minded missionaries and outreach organizations? Here are some ideas:

You might send a delegation of Session to spend a day visiting the Twin Lakes Fellowship or the Reformation Worship Conference to meet church planters and others looking for ministry partnerships.

Perhaps you encourage members when vacationing to visit a church plant near their destination and meet with the minister there to see how you can encourage and possibly financially support conservative confessional outreach endeavors.

You might also develop a detailed questionnaire to help discern a missionary’s theological and confessional convictions.

This is all more costly, but it’s worth it. There are many faithful missionaries serving in the PCA; seek them out and support them. I urge you not to simply cut off all support for PCA missionaries because of reservations about the leadership.

C. Be Presbyterian Churchmen

Participate in the courts of the Church beyond the local level. Make the sacrifice to attend Presbytery and General Assembly (GA). Indeed, attending GA is expensive, but there are grants and scholarships available from various sources.

If you’re a TE (teaching elder), treat GA not as a time to “schedule your drinking”

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with your seminary buddies, but as a business meeting. Bring your REs (ruling elders) along and help them figure out what is going on and introduce them to some of your minister friends. Use this as a time to get to know your REs better and talk about the business of the Church. And pray together with them too. 

Many congregations do not send as many REs as they’re entitled to send. Before leaving the PCA, the sessions and congregations should ask themselves if they have participated in the church courts as much as possible. Now is a great time to start. Don’t leave without participating actively and fully in the Church courts.

We have seen over the last several years the results of a small, secretive, but well-organized group operating in the shadows. But imagine the benefit to the PCA if a large group of elders became engaged in the courts of the church and openly worked toward promoting faithfulness to the historic truths and the warm, biblical piety summarized in the Westminster Standards.

D. Speak Out

Before you leave the PCA and before you cut funding for missionaries, speak up about your concerns. Perhaps you’ll be criticized as not “beautiful” or “less healthy”

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  for raising questions about what you perceive as innovative practices or worldly philosophies in the PCA, but maybe you’ll be persuasive to the others and convince them to speak up with similar concerns.

Yes, I am aware people are already doing this. But are you doing it? Your congregation wants to hear from you. They are much less likely to read something written by someone they don’t know than something written by their pastor or their elder or their fellow church member. And the more people who speak up, who write, who raise concerns, the better.

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E. Note Where the Exits Are…and what they’re like

Are you sure the frustrations, concerns, and heartaches you have about or for the PCA won’t be replaced with different heartaches, concerns, and frustrations in a new denomination? Be sure you know what is going on in those denominations. Be sure you’re not simply after the ecclesiastical version of the “new car smell” or wanting to make a statement hastily.

The PCA remains at a crossroads. Deciding which direction to go will take time. But the fact that we have reached a crossroads is a good thing. It indicates the divisions that mostly remained out of sight except occasionally (e.g. during the 2010 proposed “Strategic Plan” or sometimes during the Review of Presbytery Records Report) are now staying in the forefront of the discussion.

We must not be discouraged by this, but rather see this unveiling as an opportunity to, by God’s grace, arrive at a resolution and determine whether the PCA will enter her next fifty years as a confessionally faithful, distinctively reformed communion or as yet another broadly evangelical, theologically progressive denomination.

I urge my fellow conservative and confessional elders (and their congregations) to remain in the PCA and participate fully in the work and life of the Church. If we do that, I believe we will see clear and decisive movement in the PCA toward peace and purity.

In my next article I will interact with some of the reasons I have heard people articulate in support of leaving the PCA.

…all we're asking is that the front line of militia fires two shots…

1. This will be an unpopular piece of advice in some areas. However, when given the choice of a church leaving the PCA because of concerns regarding philosophies and ideologies perceived as “woke” or “worldly” versus staying in the PCA and simply supporting different missionaries, what would you prefer?

2. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qiij5nupfsbopu9/AACa0fFcFqoKLhmyZnyIGy2La?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR399K0wI7tza47bfE9RdVsh4S0gl-kWCunGbSCxGtk669ZqK2_sY8UxHqE&preview=GA46+SCHEDULE.pdf

3. “ALL_NPP_Emails,” p. 347.

4. As an example of this, a member of the church I serve was gravely concerned by the secretive tactics employed by a faction within the PCA. He put his thoughts down in an article assessing their activities. This was the first time he had done something in that way and it reached the top spot for that week on The Aquila Report. His writing was a great encouragement to many. If you have concerns, share them.