The PCA would profit by constantly remembering the focus of its vision. What has been its call as a church and as a denomination? What has been my call as a pastor and elder during the time God, in His providence and mercy, has granted me to use and fight in this life?  These questions are important as we are seeing the decline of historic denominations such as the Church of Scotland and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. These cases show the consequences of abandoning the focus of our task in favor of other agendas. There are definitely many organizations and groups in the world that can excel on these social agendas. The paradox is that when churches adopted social agendas in an attempt to become relevant, they instead became irrelevant and therefore had to close their doors.

Please note that the Editorial Board of Presbyterian Polity does not necessarily endorse all views expressed on the blog of this site, but the editors are pleased to present well-crafted position papers on issues facing Presbyterian churches and denominations. What follows is one such paper for our readers’ consideration. ~ The Editors

As I am heading to the 51st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) this year in Richmond, VA, I am remembering last year’s excitement of the Golden anniversary. The most encouraging part of the 50th GA was the recommitment to the foundational principles of the PCA . Most of the discourses given by the representatives of the PCA Committees and agencies emphasized the need to remain loyal and faithful to the Bible and the Westminster Standards. 

While we must be confident that good intentions and efforts continue in the PCA this 51st year, we must also be vigilant in keeping our denomination’s first love. Commitments and recommitments tend to wear off and to decrease with the passage of time. Consider, for example, the excitement of the  2017 GA concerning racial reconciliation. For good or for ill, it is evident that today this is no longer crucial and in the best of cases has become a secondary issue in the PCA. One may argue that this won’t happen on a central issue such as confessionality, but the example of large denominations losing their fidelity demonstrates the importance of considering what we can do to press on. Allow me to share some of my suggestions to keep alive our first love.

Gratitude

First, we must have a spirit of gratitude. Showing gratitude to God and to our denomination decreases any spirit of dissatisfaction that we may have. When we lack gratitude for the PCA, we may run the risk of becoming overly critical and negative which can sometimes produce unnecessary confrontation. A heart that is grateful to be part of the PCA will prompt us to have a spirit of gentleness and wisdom. Gratitude will develop a spirit of tranquility and ‘gentleness’ in those who are siding with the truth and that know its victory. This temperament is also one of the qualities which is required of an elder (Titus 1:8) and is an important characteristic that must be applied when participating  in our church courts.

Hence, we must be grateful to God for the strengths of our church and its accomplishments. We not only have encouraging statistics of growth, but have also made some progress in protecting our denomination from temptations to compromise doctrine and morals. The rejection of the doctrinal error of Federal Vision in 2007 and the rejection of the moral error of Revoice in 2023 are two recent examples of this progress. Furthermore, the PCA has made significant progress standing against Side B homosexuality and the various methods it uses to advance in today’s world. I know these types of actions which clarify the PCA’s position moved some to leave the denomination because these leaders’ recognized that their ideas aligned better with other denominations. However, we can be grateful that our denomination did not fall into the trap of becoming soft and tolerant in evaluating its ministers in their consistency with biblical doctrines (FV) and morals (Revoice) and spurs us on to greater fidelity in the future.

Repentance & Self-Examination

On the other hand, gratitude and celebrations must be balanced with a spirit of repentance from our sins. This requires self-examination in light of the Word. We must keep an autocritical and repentant spirit that goes deep and applies to our own corners and “tribes” where we are laboring. While it is easier to criticize our denomination as a whole, it is more complicated to criticize our own tribes and our own organizations in our local sphere of influence. What are the blindspots of our local organizations and ministries? Is my practice consistent with the Bible and our Standards? In which sense may my accommodation to this world be deceiving me in realizing and confessing my sins of commission and omission? 

Accountability

If we recognize our shortcomings, we must also recognize that we all have a tendency to go astray. Therefore, just as it is important to maintain accountability within our local sphere, so also do we need to maintain accountability within the denomination. As repentant sinners – but still sinners – we tend to fail and to justify our failures, but our denomination can correct this with a good system of accountability. I think we need to move beyond the excitement of 50 years and ask how we can evaluate the consistency of the denomination to confessional fidelity. We must appreciate the discourses and the commitment of the chairmen of our committees and agencies, but we must keep them accountable. Usually the reason provided against accountability is the idea that we must think the best of our brothers and the best of our committees, agencies, and missions. While it is true that we may run the danger of becoming overly suspicious,  we must also reject the tendency to predict the outcome of our denomination in a historicist fashion.

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