Surely it was no coincidence that in my devotions this morning, I read this line from one of John Newton’s letters to John Ryland, Jr. written near the end of Newton’s life: ”I have nothing to do with church controversies. … I desire to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.”

While I like that, I am afraid that is a privilege only enjoyed by certain senior saints. In the meantime, we are responsible as leaders of Christ’s Church to attend to her safekeeping, which sometimes involves “rebuking the gainsayers” and striving for her peace and purity.

Next week the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America meets in Nashville. Whereas I once dreaded the meeting because of excessive haggling over minutiae related to our constitutional documents, I look forward to it now as a time to be refreshed as a Gospel minister. Due to reforms I participated in earlier this decade, the GA has greatly reduced the amount of time spent doing meaningless business and expanded time devoted to seminars, fellowship and worship designed to build up the Church, her ministers and elders. The result has been a more “boring” Assembly in the sense that we do not have great parliamentary brawls. Every year reporters arrive to do a story on us thinking that there will be some tabloid-like controversial matter that they can report on, but they leave disappointed. A camera and lights were once stuck in my face in Tampa for the purpose of such an interview. After I began relating the issues of the day, the lights went dim and the reporter walked away from me mid-sentence!

The main issues being discussed this year are the Strategic Plan and deaconesses. After several false starts, a Strategic Plan for our denomination has finally been crafted that is responsible, forward-thinking and inspiring. Some are threatened by it as they are by anything new, but over all it is something we must adopt if we will continue to be a leading denomination for biblically faithful churches.

The controversy over deaconesses is a made-up one. The Reformed Church throughout the centuries has recognized in various ways the importance of supplementing the ministry of male deacons with the gifts of women particularly skilled in mercy. Luther, Calvin and Warfield argued strenuously for such gifted women to be authorized by the Church to do such work, often citing the biblical example of Phoebe referred to as a diakonos. The PCA has allowed for such as “deacon assistants” or in some churches they are referred to as “deaconesses.” All that is new is the concern of some that this is a slippery slope toward ordination of female teaching or ruling elders. While it never has been in church history, their solution is to restrict a healthy practice we have had for nearly 40 years as the PCA and even longer among our brethren in the RPCES. The Committee on Constitutional Business has advised that the overtures that restrict this current practice are unconstitutional, so I hope the GA follows the counsel and we have a “boring” meeting parliamentarily while we enjoy an exciting gathering spiritually.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

George Robertson is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and currently serves as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, George. This article comes from P.R.O.B.E. – Pastor Robertson’s Occasional Blog Experience and is used with permission.