“We remain an anti-denominational denomination,” it states, “demonizing denominational leadership or movements to justify non-support of the larger church, or simply making self-survival or self-fulfillment the consuming goal of local church ministry.”

Slowed numerical growth in the Presbyterian Church in America has prompted the denomination to move toward adopting a new “Strategic Plan” that will help bring about “healthy change.”

“The circumstances facing the PCA are changing more rapidly than even these wise words describe,” the plan states. “We can either wilt before the challenge or count it our privilege to unite as a church to learn afresh how to live the truth of the Gospel before and for this world.”

The Strategic Plan, which identifies challenges and proposes some structural changes, is two years in the making and will be considered for approval at the General Assembly, scheduled for June 29-July 2, in Nashville. The General Assembly is the largest annual gathering of the denomination.

The plan reminds PCA members that the conservative denomination was founded on a commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture as it fought against a growing liberalism in another Presbyterian group. But over the last 30 years, there has been less unity and more debates around what it means to be true to the Reformed faith.

“Differing understandings of what it meant to hold to Reformed distinctions in ministry and mission were either unrecognized or suppressed to support the primary mission of combating liberalism,” it explains.

READ MORE: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100427/presbyterians-consider-strategic-plan-to-unite-overcome-tensions/