The Presbytery of the Siouxlands met for a called meeting on October 20, in Watertown, S.D. to hear two complaints and an overture.

The complaints concerned the Presbytery’s actions at its stated meeting in September. The complainants alleged that the Presbytery erred in several areas, most importantly in finding “no strong presumption of guilt in any area” of views of TE Greg Lawrence concerning the “so-called Federal Vision.”

The Presbytery “repented of its hasty actions” and formed a new committee to further investigate the views of TE Lawrence and report its findings and recommendations at the next called meeting in January of 2010.

The Presbytery also answered an overture from the Session of Foothills Community Church in Sturgis, S.D. The Foothills Session asked the Presbytery to conduct a judicial investigation of the views of another teaching elder. The basis for the overture was the TE’s own statements made on the floor of Presbytery at the September stated meeting. The statements were made in the context of the defense of his motion to exonerate TE Greg Lawrence.

Several things this TE said caused concern to the Session of the Foothills church, including the statements:

“In attributing to all the baptized some form of union, adoption, new life, and forgiveness, TE Lawrence is speaking the language of our tradition and of our Scriptures. By refusing to attribute absolute and final union, adoption, new life, and forgiveness, TE Lawrence is directly in line with our standards.”

And

“The fact is, what TE Lawrence says on baptism is held in various ways and with various nuances by a lot of people in our PCA: from ministers and elders here in this Presbytery, myself included, to professors at our (emphasis in original) theological seminary, and even almost entire Presbyteries. Some are wanting to drive them all out and are asking you to begin that exile.”

This TE voluntarily offered his testimony from the floor of Presbytery on the matters in question. He testified that he fully and without reservation subscribed to the teaching of the Westminster Standards in the areas of concern, and affirmed his agreement with the nine points of the PCA General Assembly’s Federal Vision report. He also affirmed that he believes that no reprobate person ever gets justification, and that he believes that the baptized reprobate do get forgiveness of sin in some real sense.

A motion was made to the effect that the testimony be deemed sufficient to fulfill the requirements of BCO 31-2, and that no strong presumption of guilt should be found.

Several further questions were asked of the presbyter before the question was called. The motion to call the question passed, and debate ceased. The motion to find the TE’s explanations to be sufficient to fulfill BCO 31-2 and to find no strong presumption of guilt concerning his views then carried and was adopted by the Presbytery.

The Presbytery of the Siouxlands is a Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America that includes 17 Churches in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. It holds Stated Meetings in January, April, and September.