“I hope this morning equips you to be the commissioner that God has called you to be.”

With this purpose statement, the Rev. Phil Moran opened the Presbyterians For Renewal (PFR) Briefing Saturday morning, the opening day of PCUSA 2010 General Assembly.

Two hundred intrepid commissioners, advisory delegates and observers gathered for this 7 a.m. evangelical overview of the hundreds of items of business to be decided in the next eight days. From the PFR team, they received warm support and gentle guidance.

PFR Executive Director Paul Detterman assumed a pastoral role. “You have very difficult things ahead of you,” he cautioned the commissioners, and then he offered three pieces of wisdom.

First, “You will be engaged in some form of debate over the next few days,” he said, to a chorus of knowing chuckles, “but you have no enemies.” Pressing it home, Detterman continued: “Even if you are locked in nose-to-nose arguments, you have only one Enemy, and he was defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Second, Detterman warned them that “an Assembly is a microcosm, and it can become a cauldron. It can become intense, so take in the things you observe, but don’t become overinvested.”

“And third,” he continued, “you are being prayed for, day by day and moment by moment, both here and across the country. So rejoice!”

We’ve got issues

The majority of the briefing was spent in, not surprisingly, briefing the participants about major questions they will be called upon to answer.

Important by prominence was the business in the GA Civil Union and Marriage Issues Committee, particularly the dueling majority and minority reports of the Special Committee to Study Issues of Civil Union and Christian Marriage. Special Committee members — and PFR board members — Tracie Stewart and Bill Teng spoke about the Special Committee’s minority report, which “focuses on transformation,” according to Stewart. “We are excited about the good news in the minority report,” she said, comparing it to the majority report, which focuses on human brokenness and indecision.

PFR President Phil Moran and other team members next walked the participants through crucial business items in the other eighteen other General Assembly committees. A few items stood out as crucial:

The committee on middle governing bodies will investigate the idea of a new non-geographical synod for conservative congregations. This concept derives from PFR’s conceptual framework and is thus of particular interest to those active in PFR.

The polity committee will consider an overture to provide for gracious dismissal of congregations to another denomination, and an overture of concern would greatly expand the ability of presbyteries to summarily defrock ministers through a broad interpretation of “renunciation of jurisdiction.”

As is now usual, the ordination standards committee will be considering the removal from the Form of Government of the “fidelity and chastity” standard for ordination (G-6.0106b), its rewording, or its meaning through an authoritative interpretation. “We hope the committee determines that our biblical standards are necessary and they will not change,” Moran explained.

The Rev. Marnie Crumpler, Executive Pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church and a PFR GA Team member, cautioned commissioners to pay careful attention to any change of the standards. Several overtures may sound good, she warned, “but don’t be confused. They are about changing our ordination standards.”

On the proposed new Form of Government (nFOG), the Rev. Gail Watkins, a PFR team member, pointed out that two Presbyterian entities are at odds concerning the potential effect of changing Former of Government (FOG) language. The Advisory Committee on the Constitution claims that judicial case law would be affected only with substantial change in constitutional wording, and the “substantial” determination would be a judgment call. But the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission says otherwise: Changing even a word of a constitutional provision means it is a new text, which would require all new rulings by the denominational courts. A new FOG would likely lead to a long season of litigation about the new meanings of the text. Further, a number of “due-process provisions go away” if the nFOG should be approved, according to Watkins.

On the proposal to include the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions, Moran counseled caution, noting that “our confessions already powerfully echo the Apostle Paul, when he said, ‘God has made of one blood all nations of men…’” (Acts 17:26). He also cited President Richard Mouw of Fuller Seminary, who appreciated the Belhar Confession in its context but counsels against its inclusion as a Presbyterian confession.

On the subject of abortion, Moran lifted up positive overtures that would speak out against violence against pregnant women and forced abortions.

Concerning evangelism, Moran got on a soap box. “Don’t ever blame General Assembly, if your church is not bringing folks to Jesus!” he cautioned. “That’s on you.”

Following table conversations for persons interested in each committee, the crowd drained out into Minneapolis to attend the General Assembly – sponsored “Riverside Conversations” about several hot-button issues. Scores of commissioners from the PFR briefing departed, better equipped to ask strategic questions and make informed votes.