Coming up on June 10-13, 2008, in Dallas, Texas, will be the 36th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America.  There is both an Assembly web site as well as one from the host committee.  Both web sites are basic but functional and the host committee’s site has the program for Women in the Church (WIC) and the children and youth program.  While the youth day trip to Six Flags and the Laser Tag event would get the attention of my Jr. Higher, the “mixer” with seminary students is a nice touch to acquaint them with another aspect of the wider church.

The docket is published and there are now twelve overtures posted on the overtures page.  I will tackle the latest on the “hot button” overture at the end of this post.  The rest fall into natural groupings.

From Southeast Alabama Presbytery come a set of three overtures all related to people becoming members of the church.  Now the details are incomplete since the text of the overtures is not posted yet (the site says that Clerk is still waiting on information from the Presbytery) but all are proposed changes to the Book of Church Order. Overture 1 would make modifications to the section that defines the methods by which people are received into or dismissed from the Church.  The next, overture 2, deals with “Transfers to Church Membership.” and overture 3 would “Require Affirmation of the Apostles Creed for Membership.”  More on these as the text becomes available.

Overture 4, from Presbytery of the Blue Ridge, also is related to membership, specifically what are informally known as the “membership vows.”  In the present wording the Book of Church Order, section 57-5, says that the minister may ask the five questions to those seeking membership by profession of faith.  This overture makes the simple, but significant, change of the may to a shall.  So if approved by the GA and confirmed by the Presbyteries the questions would be mandatory.  For reference the five questions deal with 1) do you acknowledge yourself as a sinner? 2) do you believe in Jesus Christ and rest upon Him alone for salvation? 3) Relying on the Holy Spirit will you live as followers of Christ? 4) will you support the Church? and 5) Do you submit yourself to the Church government and discipline?

Speaking of Church discipline, there are two overtures that deal with procedures in discipline cases, both from Missouri Presbytery.  Overture 6 addresses procedures during the investigation of a Teaching Elder (minister) who has had an accusation made against him.  Specifically, it adds a new paragraph to 31-2 that would have an investigating committee or commission formed and would permit the presbytery, by a 2/3 vote, to suspend the Teaching Elder from his responsibilities.  As the proposed amendment says:

At any time while its investigation is in process, the presbytery may suspend the teaching elder from active ministerial duties if it believes the man’s credibility, effectiveness, or fitness for office has been seriously compromised by these reports. Such a suspension shall never be done in the way of censure, since it is not tantamount to a judgment of guilt in the investigation; rather, it is a means of protecting the integrity of the gospel as well as the peace and unity of the church. Great care should be exercised not to invoke this provision too hastily or without sufficient grounds and careful deliberation.

It should be noted that the change here is to provide for suspension during investigation since section 31-10 already provides for suspension from official duties once the charges have been filed.  The second overture in this group, overture 7, clarifies the rules of discipline by explicitly stating that reports that warrant an investigation are “judicial” in nature and need to be treated as such.  These two proposed changes to the Rules of Discipline have the feel of ones that arose because of questions, confusion, or circumstances in a specific case in Missouri Presbytery.

There are three overtures related to presbytery boundaries.  Overture 12 from Evangel Presbytery asks to divide the presbytery since it now has the maximum recommended number of churches.  The southern half in the Birmingham, Alabama, area would retain the Evangel name and the northern half would become the new presbytery.  Overture 5 from Northwest Georgia Presbytery asks to have two additional counties, not currently included in a PCA presbytery, included in Northwest Georgia.  Overture 10 is effectively a concurring overture from neighboring Tennessee Valley Presbytery saying that they have no objections.  This is important because Tennessee Valley does have groups working in that area looking at planting churches.  However, overture 10 has a note from the Stated Clerk pointing out the title of the overture, “Revise Tennessee Valley Presbytery Boundary,” is actually incorrect since the two counties currently belong to no presbytery and so Tennessee Valley’s boundaries will not change.

Also, there are two overtures that have a common link to military chaplaincy.  The first and least obvious, overture 8, from Rocky Mountain Presbytery, is a “Tribute to TE William B. Leonard,
Jr.” who has given many years of service to Presbyterian and Reformed churches, service extending back before the founding of the PCA.  Among this service is the founding and serving as the first Executive Director of the Presbyterian and Reformed Joint Commission on Chaplains, an agency with connections to the PCA and four other Reformed denominations. 

The second is overture 11 from the Presbytery of the Ascension that is titled “Sending Reformed Military Evangelists to U.S. Oversees Military Communities.”  This is a complex overture in a number of respects but the bottom line is that it calls for better church evangelism and support in overseas military communities beyond the work of the chaplains from the Joint Commission.  For the GA to deal with it will require its consideration by four different commissioner committees and it calls for the creation of an additional national committee for the denomination which will require a Book of Church Order change.  Briefly, the four action items are: 1) encourage each presbytery to establish a committee to work on church planting among church families stationed around the world. 2) Have a coordinated PCA effort for this church planting as well. 3) Encourage commissioning evangelists for military colleges and military bases nationally and globally. and 4) establish the Reformed Military Ministries as a denominational committee parallel to the Reformed University Ministries for college chaplains.  Because of the issues involved and the complexity of this overture I can see this as a “sleeper” that could lead to extended debate and consideration of the partnership with the Joint Commission for this work.

Finally, we have the issue that several of us in the blogosphere have been tracking for a while, the question of ordination and ordination standards as it applys to the place of women in the diaconate or deaconesses.  Overture 9, from the Philadelphia Presbytery, calls for the creation of a study committee for sorting this all out.  For some of the background leading up to this you can check out my previous post on this from about a month ago.  The summary is that the Book of Church Order and the Westminster Standards state that only men may serve in ordained office, but some question the Scriptural support for this for deacons, some ask how women can be involved in service that is like that of deacons, and some are wondering what actions or procedures are, or are not, ordination.  Not much has officially changed in the last month, but plenty of people are weighing in on the topic.  As before, the strongest proponents of strictly having men serve in anything even close to an ordained office are the Bayly Brothers.  In addition to their earlier blog posting they have recently added another that is a reprint of a piece Timothy Bayly wrote for Ligonier Ministries’ publication Table Talk ten years ago.  There is also an extensive post on Green Baggins by Bob Mattes that considers the Greek text , and one of the (currently 204) comments is by Doug Wilson that defends the unique role of deaconess.  Another detailed post that directly addresses the “where ases” in the overture is on the blog “The Cellar Door.”  And in a brief post A Reforming Mom affirms and links to the Bayly Brothers earlier post, so it is not just the “male hierarchy” of the PCA that is in favor of preserving the status quo.  At this time there has been little I have seen directly related to this overture arguing for the ordination of women as deacons in the PCA posted in the blogosphere except maybe in blog comments on the BaylyBlog or Green Baggins.

It has struck me that there is currently a higher level of discussion of deacons and deaconesses in the general blogosphere right now.  It is impossible to say if it is directly linked to this overture and controversy.  One example is Thabiti Anyabwile on Pure Church who has several posts this month about deacons in general.  If you want a women serving as deacons analysis of the Greek text you can see a discussion by Baptist minister Wade Burleson on the role of women in the offices of the church.

As the PCA heads towards this General Assembly there is a new dynamic beginning to surface and that is the current prominence nationally of PCA Teaching Elder Tim Keller, Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  In addition to Redeemer’s growth and strong ministry in New York City, Rev. Keller also has a best selling popular book out now called “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.”  The extent and emphases of Redeemer Presbyterian Church is a subject for another time, and I am not sure yet whether the church would fall into the “emergent” category, but with their programs and “popular feel” there is a rising level of concern among some in the PCA about their orthodoxy.  This includes the diaconate ministry of the church described in a carefully worded web page which mentions but does not distinguish between deacons and deaconesses and refers to both as “officers.”  Because of the intended scope of this post being the General Assembly I’ll return to TE Tim Keller and the situation at Redeemer another time, but I just wanted to point out a rising level of concern among PCA bloggers about Redeemer as exemplified by, among other, the BaylyBlog, Confessional Outhouse, and a long related discussion on the Puritan Board.  The PCA is not a “one size fits all” Presbyterian branch and has in the past addressed questions of orthodoxy head-on rather than walking around the “elephant in the room.”  We will see how this develops.

Looking back at this post I am now aware that I have read a lot on these issues from bloggers with a fairly close reading of the Westminster Standards and not a lot who identify themselves with the PCA and have a more relaxed or flexible view of the standards and Scripture.  I try hard to keep this blog balanced so if you think there is another voice out there I should be reading and quoting more feel free to let me know in the comments or send me e-mail at steve_at_gajunkie.com.

Keep watching these issues as GA approaches and we will see how they develop.