As I write this the committees of commissioners are hard at work, the book sellers are apparently plying their wares, and the Twitter hashtag has started to get busy.

Yes, the 46th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America is starting to get rolling and they will convene in plenary session tomorrow afternoon, 13 June, in Atlanta. The meeting is scheduled to adjourn at noon on Friday 15 June. The theme of the Assembly is “Love God and Love Neighbor.” The meeting will be live streamed and they have their GA app available for several platforms to follow along. There is also a ShareFile! app there for registered commissioners to download reports and other documents.

While the full volume of reports is available only to commissioners, the docket and overtures are available on-line. A more general schedule of events is also available. There is a nice page with links to all the forms and schedules for the meeting.

To track the polity of the PCA you can access the Book of Church Order (BCO) online, which also contains the Rules of Assembly Operations (RAO).

News updates will be posted through the official news website and online publication byFaith, including the update from today’s committee action.

Turning to social media, you will probably want to keep an eye on the byFaith Magazine Facebook page. There are numerous opportunities to follow the meeting on Twitter including the official feed from byFaith (@PCAbyFaith). The hashtag for the Assembly is #pcaga. For pictures, keep an eye on the PCA Flickr site.

Other related Twitter accounts include Reformed University Fellowship (@RUFnational), PCA Discipleship Ministry (@PCACDM), Mission to the World (@mtwglobal), and the Mission to North America (@pcamna). I would also include in this group the denomination’s schools, Covenant College (@CovenantCollege). and Covenant Seminary (@covseminary).

As for individuals to watch – round-up the usual suspects. Some who will be at the meeting and are, or will probably be tweeting include Fred Greco (@fredgreco), Ligon Duncan (@LigonDuncan), Sean Michael Lucas (@SeanMLucas), Melton L. Duncan (@MeltonDuncan), and Jemar Tisby (@JemarTisby). For organizations I will mention Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (@prpbooks), Greenville Seminary (@GPTseminary) and Reformed Theological Seminary (@ReformTheoSem). (And as a note, there are other Twitter accounts for the different RTS campuses.) There is a long list of people tweeting (check out the #pcaga hashtag) but I will throw in Elder’s Wife (@Titus_1_wife),  and three accounts that have some overlap: More in PCA (@MoreinPCA) – a grassroots organization of REs, Chortles Weakly (@ChortlesWeakly) and Presbycast (@Presbycast). It doesn’t look like Allan Edwards (@edwardsae1) is actively tweeting from the meeting, but worth remembering that in past years he has given us the Bingo Card and the Selfie Scavenger Hunt. And for a Twitter feed that is posted decently and in order there is the @PCAPresbyter himself.

One of the new elements of this Assembly are opportunities to live into the theme of the Assembly with what are being called Love Neighbor Ministry Opportunities. Two opportunities are being offered to get out into the community and help with ministry. The first was Tuesday afternoon with a trip to a local area with a concentration of refugees to participate in a neighborhood block party. The second is Wednesday morning to work with the Restore Life community development organization in West Atlanta.

The overtures to this Assembly will provide a lot of opportunity for discussion, debate and discerning God’s will for the church. ByFaith has put together a summary of the overtures and earlier today the Overtures Committee has made their recommendation on many of them.

One of the closely watched sets of overtures relate to the traditional definition of marriage. While the Westminster Confession of Faith is clear about that and chapter 59 of the Book of Church Order is similar, there is concern that while that is satisfactory on ecclesiastical grounds it may not be enough if challenged in civil courts. The proposals center around raising chapter 59 to full constitutional strength to help protect pastors in the denomination. (Yes, it is an interesting polity feature that not all sections of the Book of Church Order have constitutional status.) The Overtures Committee is recommending against approval of these overtures but word is that a minority report will be presented.

Another big theme in some quarters is the participation and role of Ruling Elders in the denomination. The summary article covers this as well as I could:

Since the first General Assembly in 1973, the percentage of ruling elders who attend has declined. In an effort to boost their participation, Calvary Presbytery has proposed the following: 1) Require that at least three ruling elders serve on all Ad Interim committees, and 2) reduce the GA registration fee to $100 for ruling elders.

The Overtures Committee has so far only dealt with the first of those and recommends it be answered in the negative.

And in response to the adoption last year of the study on Women Serving in Ministry, there is a request to clarify in the report to make it clear that when a church has assistants to the deacons, those individuals are not in an ordained position and do not have a vote with the Deacons’ Board. Again, the Overtures Committee is recommending the overture be answered in the negative.

There is also a special report being presented this year, the report of the Ad Interim Committee on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation. This report will be presented Thursday morning following a seminar on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation.

All this and more is on the table for the next three days. It should be an interesting meeting and some of the overtures I just mentioned, as well as some other business, will be a guide to where the PCA is at the present time and where it may be headed. Get ready to prognosticate.

Our best wishes to the commissioners and leaders of the PCA General Assembly for this important meeting and prayers for your discernment the next few days. May the Spirit guide you in your work.