It is not for the General Assembly to require lower courts or churches to dispose of their property against their will. Writing such provisions into the PCA constitution would set a dangerous precedent and would undermine the freedom and rights of local churches.

Overtures to the 51st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America that would require —with a “shall”—the purchase of background checks for all officer and ministerial candidates violate the principle that a church’s property is its own and cannot be taken by a higher court, agency, or committee of the church.1 Many PCA churches incurred great financial loss to come into the denomination from the Presbyterian Church in the United States because of claims to local church property by the denomination and its presbyteries. Churches lost buildings, ministers lost pensions, or churches paid huge sums to keep what they rightly owned. Written into the PCA constitution are provisions to prevent such things from ever happening again. Money is property—requiring it to be spent is equivalent to taking it.

Book of Church Order 25-10:

The provisions of this BCO 25 are to be construed as a solemn covenant whereby the Church as a whole promises never to attempt to secure possession of the property of any congregation against its will, whether or not such congregation remains within or chooses to withdraw from this body. All officers and courts of the Church are hereby prohibited from making any such attempt.

Heretofore, monetary expense (the taking of church money or requiring that church money be spent) was not required to constitute a church or call an ordained man.

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