We would ask readers to take care to not represent this report as an endorsement of Revoice, because our Presbytery does not understand itself to be endorsing Revoice by the actions it took at the May 18 meeting. As we say candidly in the report, we have concerns about where Revoice is going, and even now, how its goals and principles are being worked out by some of its participants under the umbrella this organization has become.

At a called meeting on May 18, 2019, Missouri Presbytery met to receive the report of our Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Memorial Presbyterian Church and Revoice. Having completed our deliberations, we are releasing the findings from the committee as promised.

You can download the complete report here.

Actions Taken By the Presbytery

The entirety of the report was “received” by Missouri Presbytery and the AdHoc Committee was subsequently dismissed with thanks. In addition, beyond simply receiving the report, we took the following actions with regards to specific sections of it:

• We adopted the Judicial Judgment recommended by the committee.
• We approved the Theological Judgments and Arguments 1-9, as being, in substance, consistent with the teaching of Holy Scripture and our confessional standards, and recommended them to our churches for their serious study, consideration, and guidance.
• We adopted the Commendations and Recommendations from the report.
• We adopted the “Overture to the 47th General Assembly of the PCA to Form an Ad Interim Committee to Seek Consensus on Doctrinal Boundaries and Pastoral Care in the Current Debates About Sexuality” attached to the report to be sent to the 47th General Assembly.

A Note About Our Conclusions:

The Fathers and Brothers of Missouri Presbytery recognize that some of those who will read this report will be discouraged by some of our conclusions. But, for those who have expressed concern, on the specifics of the alleged theological errors, we would be encouraged if the evidence we provide in the report leads you to go back and take a fresh look, re-examining your original doctrinal concerns closely and helping us to promote the peace and purity of the church by disseminating the clarifying information from this report at least as widely as any misunderstandings that have been spread prior to its release.

We would ask readers to take care to not represent this report as an endorsement of Revoice, because our Presbytery does not understand itself to be endorsing Revoice by the actions it took at the May 18 meeting. As we say candidly in the report, we have concerns about where Revoice is going, and even now, how its goals and principles are being worked out by some of its participants under the umbrella this organization has become. We believe it is a young and evolving organization and stands in need of much prayer and guidance, and, in places, constructive criticism, to the end of becoming aware of some corrective moving it needs to make, at least in our judgment.

Missouri Presbytery seeks to cultivate the peace and purity of the PCA as appropriate pastoral care models for same-sex attracted people are being debated. As readers will see in the report, our committee laid some of the blame for the intensifying of the Revoice controversy at the door of our Presbytery. We will be considering that as we go forward. We thank those who contacted us for caring enough to challenge us to take a serious look at the whole situation.

We do believe that help is needed on these important issues from the wider church. We hope that our brothers across the PCA might join with us in petitioning the General Assembly to erect a study/consensus-building committee to address the thorny issues that are at the heart of these debates about sexuality, as the Sexual Revolution begun in the 1960s has established itself as mainstream now, even though more and more lives are being damaged by its teaching.

You can download the complete report here.