Editor’s Note: The following is a letter sent by a Session through its pastor to the PCA Administrative Committee through the Stated Clerk, Dr. Roy Taylor. The proposed AC Funding Plan is included in the amendments to Book of Church Order 14-1 and 14-2.

“Dear Dr. Taylor,

“Our treasurer is sending the Administrative Committee a freewill contribution from our church in the mail. You will receive it in a few days. We are small church and cannot support the AC to the degree which we would like. I, particularly, after 15 years of service on a General Assembly committee, understand the important work which the AC does in its support role for the PCA and keeping us connected. You know that I have personally paid a large part of my expenses to serve on the GA committee over the past several years. And our congregation has supported the AC with contributions as we have been able.

“The proposed AC funding plan, which requires amending parts of BCO 14, was discussed at our November 2010 Session meeting. Our Session disagrees with the proposed plan. The plan takes away the right to make free will offerings and imposes a form of tax. The amount of that tax is irrelevant in our opinion because that amount can be easily changed by future assemblies by a simple majority vote.

“In my own case, I was unable to attend the past two GA’s due to being on active duty. If the plan were already in place both my congregation and I would already be two years behind on our required tax payments.

“Our Session decided that I should write you to express our disagreement with this proposed plan. The plan is proposed as being fair, equitable, proportional, etc. It might very well be, but the plan is not based on biblical principles of giving. At our Session meeting we had to do some serious work on our budget to prune as much “fat” out of a very lean budget as we could. I have not had a raise in 6 years (and I report this without any complaint). I have taken on additional duties for the good of the church, such as mowing the church lawn. Recently, another church expressed interest in me and my first thought was, “I can’t go there; they wouldn’t let me mow the lawn!”

“I say all of this to suggest to you that in our opinion the AC has not taken all the steps it should have to keep the budget in line. We are aware that in past years staff salaries were reduced across the board and that the AC has run a deficit. But I am also aware that a huge drain on your budget is ByFaith Magazine. Yet, in all of the information the AC has communicated to the PCA about the responsibilities of the AC, ByFaith Magazine is never mentioned as being one of your ministries. Why is that? Maintaining and subsidizing a print magazine during a time when print media is folding all across the world is not, in our opinion, a wise decision. It is tantamount to subsidizing a blacksmith shop at the time when automobiles were first being mass produced. It would be better to make the magazine available only on the internet for those who are interested.

“In my opinion, if this funding plan is approved by the PCA it will ultimately be the death knell of the PCA as an evangelical denomination (which is already in very serious theological turmoil). I say this because no Presbyterian denomination in church history has been able to maintain evangelicalism after it became a top-down, rather than a bottom-up, denomination. The power to “require” a certain percentage of giving and to refuse to seat as voting GA members those who do not comply will give the PCA more of a top down power.

“I have read all the materials you and the AC have communicated to the PCA about this plan and I understand your position. Yet, I want to share with you this fact about small churches. Small congregations have small budgets and are not going to reduce their pastor’s small salaries to support the AC. Before they do so, they will just opt out of sending their pastor and/or elders to GA. That will probably mean that many of them will never again be involved in the GA because they won’t be able to pay the required assessments which and will be continually in arrears. If these churches are then publicly embarrassed by being put on a public blackball list, then the PCA may well lose the churches altogether.

“In other words, you can’t force churches or individuals to give no matter what proposed funding plan you, the AC and the General Assembly devise.

“Our Session has placed the AC in our budget for this year and will do so in future years as long as our giving remains a freewill offering. My desire is that the proposed plan fails, but at the same time my prayer is that more churches will support AC.

“Your friend in Christ,

“Pastor in Florida”
______________________________________
(Editor’s Note: Name has been withheld at the writer’s request)