Reflections on General Assembly
Dear City Church,
Every year the Presbyterian Church in America, the denomination City Church is a part of, gathers for a big meeting called General Assembly (or GA). Every pastor in the denomination is invited to attend, along with Ruling Elder representatives from each local church. The meeting provides a time to worship together, to catch up relationally, and (importantly) to carry out the business of the church. This year’s General Assembly was held in St. Louis, the week before July 4th. Because of COVID-19, the Assembly was canceled in 2020. That meant there’d be more work to do, building anticipation around this year’s Assembly. Last year’s cancellation likely also contributed to a record number of attendees at General Assembly: 2,116 total commissioners—1,498 Teaching Elders (that is, pastors) and 618 Ruling Elders. City Church was well-represented with Harrison, Peter, and me all in attendance, along with Ruling Elder James Murphy.
In the weeks since GA, there’s been no shortage of hot-take reactions to the gathering. I’ve resisted the urge to add my voice to the hot-takes, but I do want to share some reflections with you. I’m convinced that we’re better served responding to General Assembly not at the pace of Twitter or the news cycle, but in a more measured way.
Things I liked about GA:
The Assembly always has three worship services; this year, they are a highlight. In particular, we heard three great sermons focused on the message of God’s grace. You can find those sermons here.
The Assembly offered a reminder and rekindling of friendships with others in our denomination. At GA, I saw several former staff people from City Church, like Jim Pulizzi and John Bourgeois. Perhaps you saw on social media the photo of three generations of VCU RUF Pastors (Peter Rowan, Harrison, and Pete Lyon). It encouraged me to think about how City Church has sent men out to faithful ministry in other places.
We heard news of how the PCA is punching above its weight as a denomination. Though a relatively small denomination, the PCA is exercising global leadership within a number of ministries and networks (like The Gospel Coalition, the Lausanne Movement, and Serge, to name just a few).
The Assembly demonstrated the PCA’s unwavering commitment to Bible. In debate and through arguments, we were wrestling with what the Bible says and what the Bible calls us to do. There may have been disagreement about how the Bible guides us, but there wasn’t disagreement that the Bible is foundational to everything.
Two well-known pastors in the PCA, Tim Keller and Kevin DeYoung, presented a video report from the Study Committee on Human Sexuality. The report produced by the committee is a great resource to the church and will serve us well in years to come.
The chairman of the Ad-Interim Study Committee on Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault gave an update. I’m grateful that our denomination is faithfully and carefully addressing this topic and I’m certain that the committee’s report (expected in 2022) will bless the church.
I witnessed a willingness to work together within the denomination through serving on a committee called Overtures Committee—basically the church version of “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” I witnessed genuine listening through differences of opinion, along with the hard work of compromise and consensus-building. People were committed to arriving at wisdom as the product of collective thought and prayer, dependent on the Spirit. That was refreshing and inspiring.
Things I didn’t like about GA:
You mean things I didn’t like beyond the fact that hanging out with 1,500 Presbyterian pastors isn’t exactly my idea of a good time?
In both the lead-up to GA and the week itself, I didn’t like the hand-wringing and “the-sky-is-falling” vibe I got from a lot of people. It is easy (and cheap) to overreact to proposals and decisions and even debate. It seems like every year there are voices that say, “This year will make or break the PCA.” Those predictions are never accurate. The slow, patient work of the faithful church continues.
I didn’t like some decisions. I didn’t like that certain overtures passed. I found myself on the losing side of several votes. I found myself disagreeing with some of the things that were said. But I opposed most of those things said and those things decided more because I found them unhelpful or unnecessary, not because I found them untrue. That’s an important difference.
I didn’t like seeing proxy culture wars played out within our denomination. There were arguments leveled (from both sides, really) urging the denomination to say something or do something because the culture demanded it. The problem I see is that because our denomination is not monolithic, what’s demanded by one context within the PCA may prove detrimental in another. Instead of capitulating to the prevailing language of broader culture wars, we have an opportunity to rely on Biblical language and guidance. That allows us to speak (and live) the unchanging gospel into an always changing world without swaying in the winds of the age. We all must realize that these discussions represent the challenges of being a church of many parts pursuing unity. That’s a challenge we’ve encountered on a local level within City Church over the last year and one that’s played out on a much larger scale denominationally.
Sure, in my more cynical moments I’m tempted to think that GA doesn’t matter a whole lot for City Church—that it doesn’t really affect a lot of what we do, so we can ignore it. But in my better moments, I’m encouraged that we’re part of a denomination that is unwavering in its commitment to the Bible, unflinching in its love for sinners, and unashamed of doing the hard work of pursuing unity even in the midst of our diversity.
If you have any questions about this year’s GA or want to talk through it in more detail, please reach out to me, Harrison, or James.
Stay well and do good.
Erik