The PCA at Fifty: A General Assembly Preview
Will the Fiftieth General Assembly be decisive for whether the PCA will be a "big tent" or the house of the living God?
The PCA turns a half century this year, and the 50th General Assembly meets in Memphis, Tenn. June 12-16. Numerous elders (e.g. TEs Jon Payne and the late Harry Reeder) have noted the fifty-year mark is a crucial milestone for faithfulness as a Church. Fittingly, the PCA has been engaged in a lengthy family discussion over the last few years over what sort of communion we will be.
Will the PCA be a “big tent” with wide latitude regarding what it means to be “Reformed” and “Presbyterian” (as in David Cassidy’s blog here) or will she be a house, with well-defined, clearly demarcated boundaries of what is in and out, as RE Brad Isbell articulates in his helpful overview?
The Scripture uses both analogies to describe the Church:
Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. (Isaiah 54:2–3)
That sounds like the design of the Church is to be a “big tent,” although perhaps without the clowns who normally populate such. But then again, in the New Covenant, we are exhorted not to long for a big tent:
“We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.” (Hebrews 13:10)
and
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4–5)
The PCA is nonetheless trending in the direction not of a “big tent,” but of a distinctively Reformed communion committed to the historic expression of Presbyterianism articulated in the Westminster Standards. In an interview with TE George Sayour, the legendary churchman TE O. Palmer Robertson reflected on this trajectory during his time in the PCA since 1973 and how the PCA has steadily moved in a more solidly Reformed direction.
I. The State of the PCA
The founding generation of the PCA envisioned her being a confessionally Reformed and Presbyterian faith communion:
…committed without reservation to the Reformed Faith as set forth in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. It is our conviction that the Reformed faith is not sectarian, but an authentic and valid expression of Biblical Christianity...We particularly wish to labor with other Christians committed to this theology.1
Over the last half-century, the PCA has indeed moved decidedly in that direction in terms of worship, polity, and piety. The founding generation of the PCA, largely educated in the institutions of the old PCUS, may not have had a rich theologically Reformed foundation, but it is clear they desired the new denomination to develop in that area and to raise up ministers who had such a foundation and could impart such commitments in the new denomination. Institutions such as Reformed Theological Seminary and fathers such as TE Morton Smith would instill in the first generation of men ordained in the PCA a love for the Reformed Faith and a desire for the nations to come to Christ to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
This progress has been slow and not without regression or exception. But the PCA is becoming more distinctively Reformed with each passing decade.
A. Review of 2022 Overtures
TE Scott Edburg along with RE Joshua Torrey have maintained a helpful spreadsheet tracking each of the 49th General Assembly’s overtures. What follows is a brief overview of some of the most significant results of the last year.
The Character Overtures (Overtures 15, 29 & 31)
To the 50th General Assembly will come a number of overtures approved by the presbyteries for final ratification. While the presbyteries approved Overtures 29 and 31, which both serve to strengthen character requirements for ordination, the presbyteries failed to approve Overture 15, which would have added this clear and concise statement to the Book of Church Order:
Men who describe themselves as homosexual, even those who describe themselves as homosexual and claim to practice celibacy by refraining from homosexual conduct, are disqualified from holding office in the Presbyterian Church in America.
While this amendment passed nearly 60% of PCA presbyteries, it failed to reach the necessary 2/3 majority to enable final ratification by the 50th Assembly. Even if Overtures 29 and 31 are ratified by this Assembly, there will still be no clear standard barring men dominated by unnatural lusts from ordination. A few “do-overtures” will be considered by the 2023 General Assembly in an attempt to spare the PCA further discord resulting from the new ideas brought in by some in Saint Louis and elsewhere who dwell in the bulwarks of nuance and ambiguity.
The Jurisdiction Overture (Overture 8)
A valiant effort was made last year by Houston Metro Presbytery to codify how scandal in one presbytery or congregation may be addressed by the wider Church. Currently the language of the constitution is vague regarding how a higher court may intervene in a scandal within a lower court, which has allowed a number of men to avoid judicial scrutiny of views and practices that are clearly deviant.
Critics of the overture at last year’s Assembly expressed concern that such a change to clarify the PCA Constitution would enable “witch hunts.”
Except for Overtures 8 and 15, all others sent to the presbyteries for approval received overwhelming support and will likely be ratified by the Assembly in Memphis.
B. Signs of and Challenges to Confessional Health in the PCA
There are numerous reasons to be optimistic regarding the trajectory and continued fidelity of the PCA. Since 2019, the Assembly’s acts and deliverances have generally tended to strengthen our commitment to historic Christianity and distinctively Reformed Presbyterianism. But congregations must continue to send their full complements to General Assembly in order to participate in the work of the Church and contend for the faith against those who would broaden or weaken our constitutional commitments.
Good Faith or System Subscription?
Long ago, the PCA wisely determined she would not require full subscription to every proposition of the Westminster Standards by her officers. Instead the PCA enshrined in her constitution what has come to be called “Good Faith Subscription” (GFS). In GFS, all a candidate’s differences must be submitted to the Church court for assessment and it is expected - in good faith - that the man has no other differences with the system of doctrine other than those few that he has articulated. The Presbytery then must determine whether those differences are acceptable and whether/how they impact the rest of the system.
GFS is not loose subscription or “System Subscription” in which a wide variety of differences may be held, practiced, and taught. In GFS, a man’s stated differences are presumed not to impact the rest of the system and that he is in agreement with everything else within the Standards except where has he has narrowly stated a difference. GFS is one of the more strict forms of confessional subscription.
In “System Subscription,” a man simply states his agreement with the system, but in there is no necessary check or examination to ensure the system the man claims to hold actually conforms to the system of doctrine contained in the Westminster Standards. It is important to remember, the Westminster Standards are themselves a system and to disagree with or reject one portion often results in a series of other disagreements, since much of the Westminster Standards are interdependent.2
Recently there seems to be a blurring of the distinctions between GFS and System Subscription by some within the PCA, but the two are not the same. In his farewell / sabbatical blog, SemperRef editor TE Travis Scott inaccurately equated System Subscription with the Good Faith Subscription required by the PCA’s constitution:
Likewise, another SemperRef contributor elsewhere seems to misunderstand the difference between what our constitution requires (i.e. Good Faith Subscription) and System Subscription as he attempted to portray his own position as historical:
We should certainly assume this is merely confusion by some TEs on what our Constitution requires rather than a conspiracy to change the meaning of language within the PCA to allow for wider latitude. But since there is this confusion, congregations must continue to send their elders to presbytery and General Assembly in order to uphold our commitment to our confessional standards.
Ruling Elder Participation
Grassroots organizations help to found the PCA and it is grassroots organizations such as MORE in the PCA that are helping to “get the word out” regarding the urgency for both orders of elder to participate in the work of the Church courts. While MORE in the PCA helps financially with the cost of GA attendance for a relatively small number of ruling elders, their work helps to excite and interest other ruling elders to make the sacrifice to attend GA and presbytery.
The proportion of ruling elders attending GA has been slowly, but steadily increasing. The presence of ruling elders in the Church courts helps to offset the influence of “presbycrats” many of whom desire wider latitude and a “big tent” in terms of what is acceptable doctrinally.
Secrecy Shouted from the Rooftops
There have been numerous secret organizations within the PCA aimed at advancing a “big tent” ideology and progressive causes within the PCA; Jared Nelson has provided a helpful overview of this phenomenon here. One such secret organization, calling itself the “National Partnership,” somewhat effectively managed to advance those goals throughout the 2010s, but its activities were publicly exposed in 2021, which greatly reduced its ability to operate. It has been reported that the “National Partnership” has now gone defunct.
It remains to be seen both whether another “big tent” advocacy group will take its place either secretly or publicly and what the significance of the demise of the “National Partnership” will be for the PCA. We should pray God will raise up elders who will openly contend for the truth and work to promote unity, integrity, and faithfulness within the courts of the Church.
Comings and Goings
Each year the Stated Clerk’s report includes lists of ministers who have been dismissed from the denomination to other communions. This year, a majority of those ministers who have departed the PCA have left for more progressive faith communions. Many readers might recall a group of other ministers in Saint Louis who did not join another faith communion, but simply withdrew under threat of discipline and/or investigations to become independent. These all suggest the culture of the PCA is becoming more decidedly Reformed and confessionally faithful and less of a “big tent.”
Another sign of health is the churches joining the PCA. Several congregations were organized in 2022 and a handful of existing congregations have joined the PCA from other communions. The PCA’s reputation as a healthy, faithful, vibrant Reformed Presbyterian Church is attracting not only individuals, but whole congregations into this communion. Other independent congregations have announced their intention to join the PCA in 2023 such as Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Central Florida, which was founded and pastored by the late R. C. Sproul.
The PCA is not only growing by receiving new congregations, she is also receiving new congregants; there were more than 5,000 adult professions of faith in 2022 in PCA churches, and the PCA now has more than 390,000 members. This is welcome news since the PCA had been declining very slightly in membership since 2018. We give thanks to God the PCA has shown significant growth over the past year.
II. Anticipating the Fiftieth General Assembly
A. The Birthday Party
While the General Assembly is a full week of work, deliberations, debates, and reports, this year will also take on the added aspect of a “Birthday Party.” In addition to numerous commemorations throughout the week, there is a special 50th Anniversary concert on Wednesday night, which will surely be loud.
Ordinarily, increased attendance at General Assembly indicates greater interest by local churches and subsequently the deliverances of such Assemblies tend to promote confessional and historic Presbyterianism. But the “Birthday Party” aspect of this year’s Assembly makes it difficult to predict what increased participation will mean. We must pray the Lord will preserve the PCA from doctrinal drift and ask Him to show mercy to us beyond what we deserve as a communion.
B. Safety Concerns
Memphis is not a safe city; one study ranks Memphis as the single-most dangerous city in the United States. The ambient criminality in Memphis is compounded by rumors of terroristic threats made against the PCA General Assembly due to our denomination’s commitment to historic expressions of human dignity and sexuality. While the conference center is a “Gun Free Zone,” we must not let concerns about safety deter us from the work of the Church. Instead, we must pray the Lord will protect His people and bring to nothing those who would oppress His heritage. Pray the commissioners to the Assembly will not merely be kept safe, but kept faithful to their callings as elders in Christ’s Church.
C. Nominating Committee
One of the most significant actions of the Assembly each year is to elect the elders who will sit on the permanent committees of the General Assembly. These men are responsible for holding PCA staff accountable to fulfill the Assembly’s mandates and to submit to the PCA Constitution.
If the PCA is to continue on her trajectory of growing in confessional integrity and biblical fidelity, churches must send their elders to be ready to vote to elect confessionally-minded and biblically-grounded men to serve on these committees. Pray the Lord will give to His Church men of integrity and zeal for the truth to guide the PCA’s permanent committees and agencies.
D. Selected Overtures to the 50th General Assembly
The boys from PCAPolity.com have published a resource from TEs Jared Nelson and Scott Edburg that gives a more thorough overview of all the new overtures coming before Assembly. Here are some selected highlights.
The Do-Overtures
There are primarily two groups of Do-Overtures this year. The first group considers officer qualifications related to character. One of the best in this group is Overture 9 from Arizona Presbytery, which would amend our constitution to clearly state:
7-4. Men who deviate–whether by declared conviction, self-description, lifestyle decisions, or overt practice–from God’s creational intention for human sexuality are disqualified from holding office in the Presbyterian Church in America.
One of the criticisms of Overture 15 from last year was how it singled out sodomite lust in particular. Overture 9 has the advantage of not singling out any particular unnatural lust, but requires all officers to uphold biblical sexuality in the way they speak, act, and conceive of themselves.
Overture 21 seeks to pick up where Overture 8 (jurisdiction) failed last year. This Overture comes from FPC Montgomery, Ala. and incorporates some of the criticisms from last year by setting the threshold required for the higher court to take up jurisdiction in a scandalous case at 5%, but also clarifies it must always be more than one Church court making such a request.
Officers and Titles
Despite the clarity of our standards regarding what an elder is, what a deacon is, and even what a pastor is, some churches are confused on this matter. One PCA congregation in Atlanta, for example, has a woman “pastor.”
Numerous congregations in the PCA have unordained men and women impersonating deacons. Instead of ordaining men to the office of deacon (as the BCO requires), they commission both men and women whom they improperly and inaccurately refer to as deacons. RE Brad Isbell has recently published further on this division in the PCA.
Overture 26 from Northwest Georgia Presbytery seeks to clarify what our constitution already requires by adding one sentence (in bold below) to BCO Chapter 7:
No one who holds office in the Church ought to usurp authority therein, or receive official titles of spiritual preeminence, except such as are employed in the Scripture. Furthermore, unordained people should not be referred to as, or given the titles connected to, the ecclesial offices of pastor, elder, or deacon.
This an amendment will provide redundant clarity regarding what our constitution already requires, i.e. that it must be followed. Such a statement should not be needed, but we are ministering in a context in which some have a view of language such that they are not required to abide by positive instructions unless there is a corresponding prohibition against failing to abide by what is positively enjoined.
Other Polity Changes
There are a few overtures aimed at amending the PCA constitution and polity procedures. Some seek reduce the time allowed for debate, others would permit atheists to testify in the Church courts, and another would allow minority reports to come to the floor from the Committee on Constitutional Business (CCB). That last one is particularly important as ordinarily committees do not have the authority to resolve a matter before them, but simply make recommendations to the Assembly. But the way the PCA General Assembly functions, it is difficult to revise a recommendation from a permanent committee on the floor; a minority report would give the Assembly greater ability to maneuver. At last year’s Assembly, there was a failed attempt to bring a minority report from the CCB related to one of the matters in Saint Louis.
Another overture (Overture 15) in this category comes from the Session of Bryce Avenue PCA in New Mexico, which would amend our Constitution to explicitly state:
No woman shall preach, exhort, or teach at a public worship assembly, including assemblies or chapel services where men are present in any congregation, educational institution, or gathering overseen by the Church or one of its agencies.
Such a statement should not be necessary, but there have been a number of instances in which women in PCA institutions have been “preaching” in everything but name. This overture, while unlikely to pass, addresses a serious threat to the unity and integrity of the PCA.
External Overtures
A couple overtures are aimed at matters outside the PCA. Overture 2 would instruct the PCA to seek admission to the International Conference of Reformed Churches. After withdrawing from the National Association of Evangelicals in 2022, it makes sense for the PCA to seek ecumenical relations with more like-minded brethren throughout the world.
Another (Overture 12) in this category is the “humble petition” to the governing authorities imploring them to prohibit the mutilation of minors by doctors claiming to provide “sex-change” procedures. This excellent overture provides a large number of helpful resources. The main issue with this overture is to determine whether the mutilation of minors by the American Healthcare Industrial Complex is indeed a case “extraordinary” (WCF 31:4). I believe it certainly is.
Conclusion
I have only hit the high points within this preview. If you desire to know more, there are links throughout for further reading and listening. Sarah Morris, wife of TE Sean Morris, in the past has written an excellent and whimsical article in preparation for General Assembly. You can usually find her work on The Aquila Report or the Heidelblog. TE Sean Morris has recently published an article considering the good prospects for the PCA going into 2023 available here.
Presbycast has featured a number of podcasts looking forward to the work of the Assembly available here.
There are indeed many reasons to continue to be hopeful, optimistic, and engaged in the work of the PCA courts. The PCA continues to move slowly but steadily in a direction that reflects greater faithfulness and integrity regarding our confessional commitments and Reformed distinctives. Please pray for the work of the Assembly that unity and love for Christ will prevail, that charity and clarity will characterize our debates, and that faithfulness and truth will be manifested in all the acts and deliverances of the PCA’s 50th General Assembly.
For example, consider a man who states a difference with the Second Commandment and believes images may be used in worship or even just to teach the illiterate about Jesus. His disagreement with the Standards on the Second Commandment also impacts his view of Christian liberty, since the use of images in worship or in teaching would necessarily impose his own view upon all who are present.