The 38th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America will convene in Nashville, Tennessee, at 7:30 pm today, Tuesday June 29.  The committees of commissioners began their meetings yesterday.

For more official information on the meeting of the Assembly here are the appropriate documents:

• Docket
• Overtures
• Committee of Commissioners Schedule

An important resource will be the byFaith site with posted updates, live streaming, and Twitter updates from @PCAbyFaith .

Speaking of Twitter, the hashtag will be #pcaga and there looks like a large crew of folks entering into the conversation.  I’ll pass on highlighting any specifically right now but as the week progresses if I find any particularly helpful I’ll update here.  But have a look because they appear to be a great bunch of G.A. Junkies.

There are no posted reports coming to the Assembly (please correct me if I missed them) but the headline item is the new Strategic Plan put forward by the Cooperative Ministries Committee.  For all the official materials and interpretation refer to the page from the Administrative Committee.  There has been official promotion of the plan at byFaith Online including the latest article from a couple of days ago with links to earlier pieces.  There has been a tremendous amount of analysis, discussion, critique, and criticism of the Plan and I will not even attempt to review it here.  The best compilation of all that has been written (101 total links- see why I don’t want to summarize) is over at Johannes Weslianus but being the geek and statistics freak that I am I must point you to an excellent article by Martin Hedman who points out the substantial problems in the data that underlie the conclusion and recommendations of the report.

Some of the business items are the old perennial ones. There are once again overtures (7 of the 28 total) that deal with the role of women in ordained office or a position that could be seen as similar to ordained office.  The other on-going discussion regarding Federal Vision theology can be expected to arise in the review of presbytery minutes.

Finally, for today, I would highlight an overture that seeks to clarify the polity of the PCA for church planting and mission churches and make it more flexible.  If you are not aware the EPC and the PC(USA) are also taking a hard look at their polity to decide if it can be streamlined and made more flexible for mission.

While those branches are interested in broad revisions of the constitutional documents, Overture 15 from Potomac Presbytery focuses only on one chapter of the Book of Church Order, Chapter 5 on Mission Churches and Organization of a Particular Church.  As the overture says at the beginning:

Whereas, the Presbyterian Church in America has been faithfully committed to church planting since its inception and should only deepen that commitment, and

Whereas, church planting in the Presbyterian Church in America will be served by a process that is clear where necessary and flexible where possible, and

Whereas, certain phrasing in the Book of Church Order has caused various degrees of confusion, inconsistency and even frustration among those involved in church planting

To this end this overture provides a nearly complete rewrite of the chapter. (Don’t let the official title “Revise BCO 5-2; 5-3; 5-4; 5-8; 5-9; 5-10; 5-11; add new 5-5; and Renumber Thereafter” fool you.)  As the rational contained in the extensive footnotes explains, when Emmanuel Presbyterian Church of Arlington, Virginia, organized they found the process confusing.  This is a “Blood on Every Page” overture that proposes changes based on their hard experience.  They say of their experience:

While the organization was relatively smooth, BCO 5 was found to be confusing in many parts, open to various interpretations, and in some places, contradictory to the practices of a particular church. Hearing similar reactions from church planters and others familiar with the organization process led to a consensus that mission churches would benefit from a revision of BCO 5.

From their experience they talk about the basis for some of the revisions:

A guiding principle for the overture is that mission churches should mirror the practices of particular churches as nearly as possible. Not only would doing so thereby adopt the reasoning behind such practices, it also helps establish in the minds of the mission church the correct procedures they will be using after organization.

From both a comparative reading of the overture with the current BCO language as well as spot-checking detailed portions there are only minor adjustments in pure polity in this new language.  There is, as the introduction suggests, significant simplification of the process language.  One example of an point where the language was heavily modified is regarding the selection of officers.

Current wording

Proposed wording

5-9. The following procedures shall be used in nominating and training ruling elders prior to organization and the election of a Session: 1. All men of the mission church (unless they decline) shall receive instruction in the qualifications and work of the office of ruling elder by the organizing commission or the evangelist. 2. These men shall be examined by the organizing commission or the evangelist concerning their Christian experience, their knowledge and acceptance of the constitutional standards of the church, and their willingness to assume the responsibility of the office of ruling elder according to the qualifications set forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The organizing commission or the evangelist shall present a list of all who are found qualified to be nominated. 3. Not less than thirty (30) days prior to the date of election, petitioners shall submit, from the list of all those found qualified, nominations of members for the office of ruling elder to the Presbytery-designated organizing commission or evangelist. (Compare BCO 24-1) 4. The congregation will determine the number of ruling elders following procedures outlined in BCO 24-3 and 24-1. 5. At the organizing meeting ordination and installation shall follow the procedure set forth in BCO 24-6. 6. Those elected, ordained and installed ruling elders should meet as soon as is practicable to elect a moderator and a clerk. The moderator may be one of their own number or any teaching elder of the Presbytery with Presbytery’s approval. 5-10. If deacons are elected, follow the procedures of (1) through (5) above. If deacons are not elected, the duties of the office shall devolve upon the ruling elders.

5-9. c. When the temporary government determines that among the members of the mission congregation there are men who appear qualified as officers, the nomination process shall begin and the election conclude following the procedures of BCO 24 so far as they may be applicable. d. The election of officers shall normally take place at least two weeks prior to the date of the organization service. However, the effective date of service for the newly elected officers shall be upon the completion of the organization service. e. If deacons are not elected, the duties of the office shall devolve upon the session, until deacons can be secured.

That should give a good idea of the simplifications proposed.  The question now is whether that is too simplified or whether the references to other section of the BCO cover the requirements for PCA officers.

So, get ready for a great week of GA watching, tweeting and discussion.  For those in Nashville — enjoy. For the rest of us polity wonks, we look forward to absorbing the wisdom of the “fathers and brothers.”