The 87th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church will convene this evening, Wednesday, 7 July, at 7 PM Central Time on the campus of the Dordt University, Sioux Center, Iowa. The meeting will conclude by noon on Tuesday, 14 July. This represents the complete postponement of the 2020 Assembly.

This GA does not have live streaming but we usually have the next best thing: There is a tradition of very well done running daily reports for the OPC GA and in expecting the tradition to continue see if this works when the assembly gets underway.

The agenda and reports are not posted online but you can access the Book of Church Order and the Standing Rules and Instruments of GA if you need background material. There is also a collection of reports from previous GA’s that have become guidance for the church.

The OPC has elected to keep a perpetual hashtag for their meeting (no sticking a year or GA number in there) so it should once again be #OPCGA. In terms of who to follow, I can start with the OPC Twitter account (@OrthodoxPC) and the OPC Home Missions account (@opchomemissions). You can also follow them on their official Facebook page. For individuals tweeting there are already a number warming up for the meeting. It seems the mantle of the lead live tweeter has been handed to Jim Stevenson (@RevJimOPC) and David Mahaffy (@davidmahaffy) is in the building as well. It is probably worth keeping an eye on the Reformed Forum (@ReformedForum) crew including Camden Bucey (@CamdenBucey) and Jim Cassidy (@jjcassidy). While Forest Braden (@fbraden8) is active he advises us his contributions will not be from on-site. And other OPC related accounts to keep an eye on include D. G. Hart’s feed (@oldlife), maybe The Daily Genevan (@TheDailyGenevan), and an autoretweeter tied to one of their denominational associations, NAPARC. A couple other possibilities include Christopher Drew (@ChristopherDrew), Zach Siggins (@zachsiggins) and David Chism (@chismville). As always I will update as the meeting progresses.

Since reports and detailed agendas are not available to anyone but the commissioners, it is difficult to highlight any particular business items that will be coming to the Assembly in advance of it being considered on the floor. Keep an eye on the running report and maybe Twitter for info on what is being discussed. One tweet by Jim Stevenson does indicate that the GA “has 9 complaints on appeal and 4 appeals of judicial cases.”

So as this General Assembly gets underway, our prayers for the teaching and ruling elders of the OPC as they spend a week reflecting on what the Spirit is doing in their branch and their discernment of the future. May you indeed discern God’s will in your decision making.

[Editorial note: I did not forget about the PCA GA but due to family commitments the week got away from me. I am working on a review and commentary and hope to have it posted in a few days.]