This year’s Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) General Assembly had the potential to be one of the most significant in the history of the PCA, but it did not live up to its full potential. Nonetheless, this was a successful Assembly as it largely continued the status quo of the last five years or so: upholding our Constitution and steadily progressing in appreciation for the Reformed Faith.

The Assembly opened with a worship service in which RE Steve Dowling, the retiring moderator, preached a sermon on Rev. 3:14ff in which he warned us against becoming moderates and exhorted us to zealously contend for Christ’s glory and gospel.

1. Procedural Challenges

This was one of the most well-attended Assemblies in the PCA with over 2300 commissioners. There appeared to be a large number of first-time commissioners to the Assembly who were not acquainted with parliamentary procedure, which created additional challenges for the moderator and lengthened the overall time of the Assembly.

This was manifested in a number of ways, such as:

• Points of Information: Ordinarily a man may rise to a “point of order” or “point of inquiry” and not be counted as a speech in favor or against a measure. A “point of information” is an inquiry “as to facts affecting the business at hand—directed to the chair or, through the chair, to a member” (RRO 6:17.11b). However, a number of times speakers were interrupted either to present information to the Court or ask information from the chair on a related matter. The moderator quickly restored order, but I hope the misuse of “points of order” does not become common.
• Debating Negative Recommendations: This was especially acute in the Overtures Committee (OC) report. When the OC recommends a matter be answered “in the Negative,” there is no way for the Assembly to take the action proposed by the overture at this year’s Assembly. Numerous times, however, brothers insisted on offering reasons why the Assembly should not answer the question “in the Negative,” but instead recommit the matter to next year’s OC. This sounds nice, but I believe a more efficient use of time would have been to have the makers of the overture simply send up a new, improved, and perfected version of the overture, since there was no practical effect to the outcome of the vote.
• The MultiClicker: The moderator had to remind the Assembly that each commissioner is entitled only to one vote and that proxy voting is not permitted. At the time of the NC Report, this was observed by not a few and reported to the moderator who swiftly reminded the Assembly of the rules. There was at least one instance in which the GA Jumbotron even managed to capture a commissioner walking around with two clickers around his neck. In that instance, likely the man was simply holding a clicker for another commissioner who stepped out for a dentist appointment (or something) and left his clicker with a colleague in case the Assembly concluded early.

1. The Election of a Moderator

This year’s moderator was elected without opposition: TE Kevin DeYoung. In this way, the Assembly has continued to look for leadership from those men who stood firm against the Revoice Downgrade.

TE DeYoung ably guided the Assembly through both technical and procedural challenges. He was adept and witty throughout the time of his tenure. As a testament to his skill, by noon on Wednesday we were about two hours behind schedule, but by the end of business on Wednesday we were running exactly on schedule and we managed to finish by about 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night.

TE DeYoung showed himself to be a superb moderator with skill not only in the rules of order and decorum, but able to maintain a cheerful spirit himself and encourage the same in the Assembly.

1. Approval of BCO Changes

All four BCO changes approved last year to the BCO and ratified by the presbyteries were adopted by this Assembly. The BCO will be updated accordingly. These changes include:

1. Ministerial Transfers (Items 1 & 2): The BCO will be clarified regarding the areas in which ministers must be examined when they transfer from one PCA Presbytery to another as well as those ministers coming from other denominations.
2. Representation for Accused (Item 3): Until Tuesday, if a church member was charged with an offense (BCO 29-1), she or he could only be represented by another member of the same congregation. The BCO will be modified to permit an Accused to have representation before the Session from any communing member in the same Presbytery. This is an important amendment, and I spoke to it on Tuesday night. I believe, however, all representation ought to be limited to ordained officers, but that is a proposal for another year.
3. Complaints during Judicial Process (Item 4): In civil and criminal court, if a party does not agree with a trial court’s ruling on many matters, she or he could appeal that ruling to a higher court and receive a response with relative speed. However, this amendment prohibits any party from making a complaint regarding a portion of judicial process, instead any objection must be noted and saved for review by a broader court afterthe narrower court(s) have rendered a judgment on the matter as a whole.
4. Maintaining the Status Quo
5. RAO Changes Rejected

Two proposals were rejected that sought to modify the Rules of Assembly Operation (RAO), which govern how the Assembly conducts its business, collects data, and reviews proceedings of the narrower courts.

1. Data on Ethnicity
   Last year, the Stated Clerk’s office announced it would ask Sessions to submit statistical information regarding the ethnic composition of the congregations. Calvary Presbytery proposed to modify the RAO to prohibit the Clerk’s office from collecting data related to age and ethnicity. This proposal narrowly failed to receive the 2/3 needed (62%). However, on Thursday, the Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a directive to prohibit the Clerk from asking questions related to ethnicity. There were numerous excellent speeches in favor of this directive.
2. Data on Officers
   Last year, the Assembly adopted an Amendment to make it explicitly clear unordained people may not be given the titles of elder, deacon, or The Assembly narrowly declined to adopt a rule that would require the Review of Presbytery Records (RPR) Committee to inspect lists of the ruling elders and deacons in each congregation of each Presbytery. The Assembly seemed to believe there is already sufficient review of Presbytery records.

2. All Coordinators Renewed
   1. Without Controversy
      In PCA polity, all our coordinators are elected to one-year terms, but there is no limit to the number of times a man may be re-elected. With two exceptions, the Assembly re-elected the coordinators of our permanent committees without debate or discussion.

The first was the position of Stated Clerk; with the sudden resignation of the previous Stated Clerk, the Administrative Committee (AC) did not have time to search for a new clerk to be elected by the Assembly, so the esteemed and omnicompetent RE John Bise was appointed interim clerk by the AC until next year’s Assembly.

1. With Debate
   There was great debate regarding the re-election of the coordinator of Mission to North America (MNA). Budgetary concerns were at the forefront; last year MNA realized a shortfall of nearly $2 million. A number of brothers raised concerns about ballooning expenditures on administrative matters rather than on actual mission (e.g. church planting, disaster relief, etc).
   Later in the Assembly, other brothers raised objections to the budget of MNA itself with one brother proposing to reduce the proposed salary & housing allowance of the MNA coordinator by 10%. These attempts failed; the coordinator was reelected by a vote of 62% of the Assembly in favor.
   Through all this debate regarding TE Ince’s leadership and service as coordinator, at least one thing became abundantly clear: Irwyn Ince is a man of high character who clearly manifests the fruit of the Spirit. As his job performance and compensation were being publicly debated, he stood calmly and in dignified, humble silence. When asked questions from the floor, he graciously and clearly responded to each one.
   While there is disagreement regarding his leadership, there are no questions regarding his character as he manifested love, peace, patience, joy, and especially self-control so clearly before the whole Assembly.

3. The Administrative Committee Remains the Same

One of the most needed overtures this year came from James River Presbytery, which would have limited the voting members of the Administrative Committee (AC) only to those men elected by the Assembly to serve on the AC.

Currently, the AC is comprised of 11 men elected to that committee and nine representatives appointed by the other committees and agencies.

One of the objections to this proposal was that currently the AC functions – in part – as an executive committee regarding the budgets of the other permanent committees and agencies. And if the men from the other committees are no longer allowed a vote, they will be unable to vote on a recommendation to the Assembly regarding their own budgets.

This change was referred back to James River Presbytery; I hope it will come back next year with a fix for the budgetary concerns.

1. Review of Presbytery Records (RPR)

Despite the efforts of one brother to alter the report significantly, almost every recommendation of the RPR Committee was adopted by the Assembly (compare the GA minutes re: Nashville and Highlands Presbytery to the RPR report).

See the second portion of my GA Preview for a quick summary of several of the issues flagged by RPR. All of those recommended citations were approved by the Assembly. Those presbyteries will have to respond to the Assembly to explain why they took the actions they did, which the Assembly determine appear to be departures from our Confessional Standards.

This continues the trend in the PCA of the Assembly looking more carefully at what theological errors, differences with the Westminster Standards, are permitted by the presbyteries.

1. Nominating Committee

The composition of this year’s Nominating Committee (NC) was reportedly different than recent years. In previous years, the more conservative or confessional wing of the denomination seemed to have an advantage on the committee.

This year, however, another side clearly dominated the NC, which was evidenced by the rejection of nominations to re-elect men such as Steve Dowling to SJC, TE Zack Groff to MNA, and RE Matt Fender to CCB. But nonetheless the NC did put forward some great candidates such as Frank Cohee for AC, Rick Hutton for ICRC, T. David Gordon for CCB, and Steve Tipton for SJC, all of whom were elected by the Assembly. The loss of RE Fender’s concise, logical clarity from CCB will, however, surely be felt.

Because one side of the PCA felt under-represented in the NC Report, it’s understandable there were a great many floor nominees presented. Nine of them were elected including TE Paul Bankson (who has long-served on SJC, but whose paperwork was not received by the committee), RE Steve Dowling, and TE Zach Groff as well as men such as RE Mel & TE Ligon Duncan to AC, TE Stephen Spinnenweber & TE George Grant to CDM, Jamie Peipon to MTW, Michael Brown & Eric Manthei to MNA.

Well done, brothers!

This year’s NC report took an extraordinarily long time not only due to the number of contested elections, but also to repeated procedural motions, which were largely ruled out of order. One commissioner was rebuked by the moderator when he went to the mic commending the committee for its work, which was interpreted by some as an endorsement of the committee nominees over the floor nominees.

1. Selected Overtures

The delightfully competent and thoughtful RE Melton Duncan was elected OC chairman. I was amazed at his ability to not only keep order in the OC meeting, but do so with a quick, winsome wit in order to help the committee stay alert. On the rare occasion his rulings were challenged, he welcomed the challenge with grace.

His careful planning, which he transparently announced beforehand, was quite helpful in enabling the Assembly to conclude on Thursday night instead of Friday morning. I hope we will see RE Duncan put forward for moderator again soon.

1. The Distribution of the Lord’s Supper

Throughout history, the Church has observed that the elements of the Lord’s Supper are to be distributed by those called, elected, and ordained to church office. Recently, however, many American presbyterians have begun to allow unordained men, women, and children to distribute the elements. Overture 12 (O12) sought to require the Lord’s Supper be distributed only by men ordained to church office.
Those in favor of O12 argued this practice, while not explicitly prohibited by the PCA Constitution, is contrary to our theology and ecclesiology. Many who opposed O12 recognized the wisdom of elders distributing the elements, but did not want to place such a requirement in the Constitution.
The failure of O12 was the biggest disappointment of the Assembly for me. There were numerous superb speeches in favor of it, but the Assembly was not persuaded to change our constitution to codify what many proponents argued is the clear teaching of scripture. The status quo continues here.
The overture failed by a mere 57 votes with fewer than 2000 commissioners present and voting (out of 2300).

2. Directory for Worship
   One of the most surprising, and welcome, outcomes of this year’s Assembly is the creation of a study committee to recommendchanges and updates to our Directory for Worship, which presently has merely an advisory role in the Constitution. This differs from the historic practice of other Reformed communions, since worship is the most important task of a Church (yes, worship is more important than evangelism).
   Let us pray for Moderator DeYoung as he appoints men to serve on the committee and ask God’s blessing upon their work. It would indeed be a blessing to the PCA to have a useful, clear, concise Directory around which we can all unite regarding the elements of worship.

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