A large number of overtures deal with judicial procedure. Overture 1 seeks to ensure that church courts can determine whether there is enough evidence (etc.) to move forward to charges in a discipline case. Overture 7, which makes it easier for groups of presbyteries or the General Assembly to intervene in cases brought against a Teaching Elder when it is thought that the original presbytery is not acting faithfully, strikes me as written out of a lack of confidence in Presbyterian church government.

The Presbyterian Church in America’s General Assembly takes place near the end of June in Chattanooga, TN. Every year, the gathered assembly (all teaching elders and a proportional number of ruling elders from every church) votes on a series of overtures to potentially change our governing documents, whether our Confession of Faith, Book of Church Order, or other related documents. Individual presbyteries (regional bodies of elders) are normally the entities that send overtures to the General Assembly to be voted on, though occasionally individual church sessions, or even individual elders, send overtures. At the General Assembly there is an Overtures Committee that votes to carry out of variety of tasks related to these overtures: it sometimes alters the language of the overtures, merges similar overtures into a single one, and most importantly, votes on whether to recommend an overture be passed or rejected by the entire General Assembly. The General Assembly, however, is not required to adhere to the Overtures Committee’s recommendations.

Over the last few years there had been some overtures pertaining to Revoice, women in church office, and other controversial matters. This year there are not as many overtures that are quite so controversial on the surface, though a few of the most debated issues in the PCA are nonetheless addressed. In this article I will focus on those I think will be most debated and more briefly mention others.

Christian Nationalism

There are three overtures (Overtures 3, 4, and 47) from different presbyteries requesting a study committee be formed to create a report on “Christian Nationalism.” I doubt these will pass for the following reasons. First, many in the PCA have study committee fatigue. There are many issues that could profitably be studied (the impact of AI, for example), but study committees are expensive, time-consuming, and have no constitutional authority. Regardless of what a committee determines, no ruling or teaching elder in the PCA is required to adhere to its findings (though this does not stop people from acting as if they represent the “position” of the PCA). In addition, other things, such as postmillennialism and theonomy, are being grouped into these overtures. Regardless of what one thinks of those views, there have already been study committees on those very topics. Furthermore, the PCA has already determined what its view of the civil magistrate is: it is expressed in Chapter 23 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1788 version) and in various Larger and Shorter Catechism questions. The Confession and Catechisms, along with any relevant portions of our other constitutional documents (BCO, etc.), are the only standard that a minister or elder can be held to on these matters. I would argue, therefore, that presbyteries already have sufficient confessional guidance on what is or is not an acceptable position in the PCA.

Mission to North America, Immigration Laws, and Racial Affinity Worship

Overture 28 from Northwest Georgia Presbytery has to do with recent publications by Mission to North America (MNA) wherein it linked to guidance to help illegal aliens illegally evade U.S. immigration law and thus avoid deportation (all while calling them “undocumented persons”… what documents, one might ask, are they lacking?). This guidance was removed from the MNA website when it became known to the public, and a mild apology was issued, but this overture (if passed) would require Mission to North American (MNA) to:

1. Write and submit a statement to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General of the United States, and the Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services which apologizes for the offence of encouraging illegal immigrants to evade lawful authority; and
2. Write and submit a statement of repentance to the Presbyterian Church in America for permitting to exist within the ranks of MNA an environment among its staff in which a statement of the nature described herein would be released online for distribution, thus dishonoring the name of Christ and bringing shame upon our denomination; and
3. Terminate the employment of any individual on the MNA staff who participated in any manner in the preparation and release of the online statement which counseled undocumented persons on ways to avoid being detained by authorities of the United States Government.

This overture has real teeth. Is change possible without genuine consequences? Is it sufficient to claim that MNA simply made mistakes? For an entity even to make such mistakes is itself unacceptable according to this overture, and I suspect many would agree. This overture does not even address the controversy surrounding MNA personnel supporting and participating in “racial affinity worship” services.

Racial Diversity, Partiality and Statistics

Three overtures from Calvary Presbytery deal with the statistical data collected by the PCA. Overture 41 would have the Administrative Committee collect data on worship times in all PCA churches, data that is sometimes difficult to discover on church websites. Overtures 42 and 43 would require that the Stated Clerk’s office cease collecting statistics on age and ethnicity. There is an alarming trend among some advocating that certain levels of ethnic or racial diversity are a necessary reflection of a church’s faithfulness to the Great Commission. Such statistic could be used to reinforce this view. Thus, Overture 42 rightly notes that

the theological commitments of the PCA derived from Scripture and expressed in the PCA’s subordinate Standards and Constitute militate against the collection of data pertaining to ethnicity, for the PCA confesses with Scripture that though our members come from many different backgrounds (ethnic and otherwise). 

Read More