Category Archives: General Assembly

Follow Up from General Assembly

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It’s been a couple of weeks now since the 44th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America wrapped up its business, and I think I’ve finally recovered from the experience.  I don’t mean to say that the General Assembly was an ordeal one had to suffer through. In fact, it was a great time of fellowship, study, worship and prayer as the presbyters assembled to conduct the business of the church.  Still, the drive to and from Alabama was exhausting, and I followed General Assembly with a week of Church Camp as a Counselor and Teacher, then came back home just in time for our Community’s 4th of July Celebration.  I need to make sure that this perfect storm doesn’t hit my calendar like this again.

I thought I’d take the next couple of weeks on my blog to share some follow up thoughts from the Assembly.  One of the downsides to going to a conference like this alone is that I’m the only one who had the experience, and much of what I heard or picked up is beneficial to the entire church.  So I’ll try to share some insights (hopefully they’ll be helpful).

Today – some personal observations from the floor of General Assembly.

  1. I don’t have, nor will I ever have, enough seersucker to be a fully vested PCA Teaching Elder.  Ok, this might not be the earth-shattering, revolution causing insight you might be looking for, but I found it interesting that there were so many Southern, “hipster-ish” among the Elders of the PCA.  I know we are a predominately Southern church, having come from the PCUS, but the dominance of the Southern influence is overwhelming at an even like General Assembly.
  2. I scored points by being from South Dakota.  Having stated that the PCA is a predominately Southern church, it was remarkable the reaction from our brothers and sisters in the church when I told them I was from South Dakota.  You might have thought I told them that I had planted a church on Mars.  They acted as though living this far north qualified me for hardship duty.  For many, the prospect of pastoral ministry in the “outer rim territories” was simply inconceivable.
  3. I never want to speak on the floor of General Assembly.  During the business of the Assembly, microphones are placed throughout the assembly room for people to come and speak for or against a motion, to present new business, or to question the order of business on the floor.  It’s all very “politic-y”, and I hope never to get caught in the middle of it.  There were people who stood in line to speak on every item of business before the Assembly – they always had something to say or a point to make. I pray that I may go my entire life without having to rise to speak on the floor of the Assembly.
  4. There are some brilliant people in this Church.  The real blessing of attending GA was to see how God has richly blessed this church with those who will intelligently and passionately engage this world with the truth of God’s Word.  The preaching in worship, the instructional seminars, and the conversations in the halls were uplifting, informative, and encouraging.
  5. We are a church that is searching to find its voice.  We are in our 44th year as a church.  We broke away from another denomination in an effort to remain faithful to the inspired, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God, and have grown through the years as we have faithfully proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Unlike the majority of mainline and other evangelical denominations, the PCA continues to grow in numbers, and is financially strong.  Yet it is obvious that the pressure to look like the other denominations and to concede in certain areas to social and political influences  is high.  How will the church move forward in a culture that is more and more clearly post-Christian and even antagonistic to the faith?  How do we proclaim the gospel to a generation that is technologically proficient, but is meanwhile spiritually illiterate, lacking even the most basic understanding of who God is or what the Bible teaches?  How we answer these questions will shape the next 40 years, and more, of our church. I pray that our answer will be the same as that which led to the establishment of the PCA, a faithfulness to the Word of God and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I do have audio recordings of several seminars that were offered at General Assembly if anyone is interested.  Here are the topics:

  • Advancing The Gospel In A Changing North America
  • Recovering The Biblical Office Of Elder
  • The Pulpit And Public Theology In The Public Square Presbyterian Style
  • Making Session Meetings The Best Night Of The Month, Or How The Session Is Supposed To Work (2016)
  • Transformational Discipleship

Pickin’ Up the Accent

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floss

Mornin!  Hows all y’all doin’?

That’s my attempt to fit in here in the deep south.  My spell check really didn’t like it, though, so I’ve got to start putting my “g’s” at the ends of the words, even though I have’t heard one since Sunday.

It’s beautiful here in Mobile, AL, where the Presbyterian Church in America has come together for the 44th General Assembly.  As we are a predominately Southern Church, the G.A. meetings are predominately in the South, and predominately attended by Southerners, there is a lot of Southern speaking going on.

As I have found in my experience, I have a sort of “chameleon” style accent – I tend to pick up, or perhaps slide into, the accent of those around me.  I was talking with a representative from Edinburgh, Scotland yesterday, and had to consciously keep myself from picking up the brogue.  It’s easy, when talking to my Church Fathers and Brothers from the South, to want to start talking with a Southern accent, but I don’t want to appear to be imitating them, so I have to make an effort to drop any accent whatsoever.  My hope is that when I return from GA, I won’t sound any different than when I left.  Everybody was worried about catching the Zika virus, my prayer is that I don’t come home with a Southern drawl.

Yet, there is an unmistakable accent spoken here in the Church that I hope to learn and speak the rest of my life.  It is the accent of grace.  We are a people saved, not predominately but entirely, by grace.  It is God’s grace that creates us out of chaos.  It is God’s grace in Jesus Christ that calls us out of death and sin.  It is God’s grace that re-creates us to be a people set apart for Him.  It is God’s grace that compels us in His Spirit to proclaim boldly the doctrines of Grace for the salvation of all men.  As the sweet southern charm soothes the frantic bustle of this northerners day, so the ever flowing grace of God brings comfort and refreshment to the weary soul.

The accent of grace is spoken fluently here, and I hope I sound like that every day.

G.A. Update – The first day of GA was excellent.  Most of the day was spent in seminars to help build up and equip the church. I did serve as the recording secretary of the Mission to North America Committee  of Commissioners, a job that ended as soon as the committee meeting ended – Amen!  The opening worship service was excellent, and we elected the new Moderator, Pastor George Robertson, from Augusta, GA.  The Assembly business begins today, as well as more seminars, so it will be a full and busy day. I’ll hopefully have more updates at the end of the day.

Grace and peace!