The PCA Eras Tour...Where Are We Now?
by Brad Isbell
The opening session drama at last week’s 51st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America may have signaled (or confirmed) a new era for the 51-year-old denomination. At issue was the final ratification of a Book of Church Order amendment to tighten up the denomination’s doctrine of office and ordination. The amendment passed the final hurdle and is now church law, but only after some emotional arguments against and startling (to some) admissions1 of ecclesial deviation, disorder, contextualization, or acts of conscience—depending on one’s perspective. More on all of this later; for now let us try to answer the question “In which era does the PCA find itself…and how did we get here?”
The First Era: Founding and Finding (1973-1993)
The PCA formed in 1973 as a mixed mini multitude of Southern cultural conservatives, evangelicals who usually baptized babies, and committed presbyterian confessionalists. They all knew they wanted out of the liberalizing Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) which they expected would inevitably reunite with the Northern church and get even worse. One need only look at the resultant wretched rainbow that the PCUSA union denomination is in 2024 to see that the imperfect founders of the PCA did the right thing in 1973.
In 1982 the young PCA got an infusion of members and culturalist evangelical energy when the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod was received into the fold. Concern about cultural influence and size-matters angst probably motivated the RPCES to join and the PCA to receive. As the growing denomination asked the “Who are we?” question in its second decade, some leaders2 answered with visions of broader vistas and bigger tents.
The Second Era: Of Big Cities and Bigger Tents (1994-2018)
By 1994 most in the PCA had heard of Tim Keller's work in New York City (which began in 1989), and they liked what they heard. The message was that the PCA could be sophisticated, urbane, relevant, and influential in a world that was becoming ever more confusing and that had a neutral3 (at best) view of evangelicals—a label most PCA folk still owned. In 1994 a group of PCA leaders felt so strongly about the dangers of growth-hampering, unity-destroying narrowness that they got together and tried to head it off. The informal gathering produced a non-official document which was revised and republished in 1998. The group, such as it was, was known as PCA Consensus.
The document the group produced (signed by the likes of Keller, Frank Barker, John Frame, James Boice, and Harry Reeder) assumed that there was a problem—that deleterious conflict already existed.
We believe that a good part of our denominational struggle has to do with the following:
I. A lack of clarity and definition about our identity and our fundamental commitments (thus producing unnecessary and prolonged conflicts).
II. A lack of vision and focus regarding our mission (thus producing unnecessary confusion).
III. A cumbersome structure and process, which have caused us to place our focus on the administrative, programmatic, constitutional, and judicial aspects of our life together rather than the doxological, theological, edificatory and relational aspects of our communal life (thus unnecessarily trivializing our presbyteries and assemblies).
Attempts have been made in the past by various groups in the church to address some of the issues facing us, but for various reasons, the proposals have not been widely accepted by the church. Our solution is to present to the church a consensual statement—A Statement of Identity—in order to begin addressing the first concern (I) stated above. We believe this will provide a "center of gravity" for the church and a basis for future discussions on our vision and polity (numbers II and III). We also believe that a consensus on key issues regarding our identity will create an environment where allowable diversity will strengthen rather than weaken us. (bolding mine)
The Statement of Identity was a fairly conservative and modest document, but its true aim—an “allowable diversity that (would) strengthen”—was realized in the two decades after 1998 in ways some of its signatories never envisioned. First came 2002’s General Assembly approval of “Good Faith Subscription,” the desire for which the Statement clearly telegraphed. Did the signatories imagine that GFS would make exceptions to historical interpretations of the Second and Fourth Commandments unexceptional…almost expected among PCA ministers? Maybe so, maybe not.4 GFS was supposedly “shepherded” by a new interest group that followed the PCA Consensus group, the Presbyterian Pastoral Leadership Network, whose leadership was more decidedly left of…well, if not the center, at least left of the PCA right. Diversity, reasonable latitude, and missional agility were obviously priorities for the PPLN. Again, Tim Keller was a notable leader in this group.
Not all the emerging diversity was theological or doxological. Little by little, diverse expressions of polity became apparent. Keller may not have invented female deaconing persons and unordained deacons in the PCA, but he definitely made them cool. Many seemed to think “If it works in the Big Apple it should work anywhere!”
Keller did not exactly hide what he was doing, nor was he as open about his polity practices as many would have liked. By 2009 when Keller sat down with Dr. Ligon Duncan (who gave the counterpoint), the confusing, contextualized cat was out of the bag. This transcript of the 2009 General Assembly seminar will demonstrate that “confusing” is an apt adjective for Keller’s account of Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s practices regarding ordination:
“Redeemer laid hands on our off...on our deacons for about half of our life. Several years ago we stopped doing it. We thought, I thought that that didn't mean we stopped ordaining them. Plenty of people think it does. As Ligon (Duncan) said laying on of hands represents recognizing their gift, but you know for example if somebody said to me 'No, the PCA has spoken...and said you can't call them deaconess (misspeaks), deacons unless you lay hands on them, too, you're violating the BCO,' then I would just go back and say 'Fine.' I mean you know for quite a long time we laid hands on them, we haven't and it's largely or partly because some our deacons asked us not to (ordain by the laying on of hands) originally. And it was difficult for me to get around to all the services and kind of make the explanation. So it was actually a logistical, for me it was actually logistically easier in some ways. However I would be happy to go back to it. If somebody said 'No, the PCA has made it very, very clear - you are not ordaining then if you don't lay hands on them.5 If you don't lay hands on them you can't call them deacons.' Well, I do want to call them deacons and therefore I would do it.” (recording here)
The PCA never, it seems, spoke in such a way as to require ordination of deacon officers at Keller’s church. Redeemer has variously called unordained (and, off and on, ordained) persons deacons, deaconesses, “deacs,” and “the diaconate.” The words quoted above must have seemed to some PCA pastors and sessions as a license for ecclesial diversity regarding organization, officer titles, and ordination.
Arguably, the Big City/Big Tent era was marked by ecclesial creativity and a certain laxity. The Missional Middle had things going their way and the approved 2010 Strategic Plan (which was years in the making) indicated where the PCA was headed. The plan’s tenets were realized in some tangible ways—especially by the study committees on women in ministry6 and racial reconciliation. Diverse involvement and diverse practice were in the air, but an unforeseen diversity vector and expression of contextualized missionalism ended the middle era: Revoice/Side B gay Christianity.
The Third Era: Securing the Tent (2019-present)
The 2018 Revoice conference shook the PCA. It was hosted by a PCA church, whose ministries seemed to show just how far a contextual-missional emphasis could go. It did not help that the host church’s pastor became a sort of “mascot in an ascot” for the movement after publishing a controversial book on the subject. Though the pastor’s initial speech to the GA in 2019 was greeted with applause, Side B gay Christianity and its spokesman proved to be a bridge too far for the PCA middle. The pastor and church left in the middle7 of a discipline process that had moved in fits and starts—with traditional presbyterian slowness—and was never fully resolved.
Things changed post-2019. The demographics of the assembly changed and so did the attitude. There was a will to tighten up the ropes that secured the big, billowing PCA tent in successive assemblies from 2021-2024. Pegs were driven just a little deeper. Seams were repaired and reinforced.8 This was obvious at the recent Richmond assembly, especially when some of Keller’s Warrior Children9 waged a last-ditch attempt to thwart ratification of an amendment made necessary by practices Tim Keller inspired.
2023’s Overture 26 (above) easily passed the 50th General Assembly and had no trouble passing the necessary 2/3 of presbyteries. The first night of the assembly is when a simple majority is needed to finally ratify constitutional amendments. Several impassioned speeches against the amendment failed to sway the assembly. The amendment passed by voice vote because of problems with the voting devices; the margin was clear but not overwhelming. Some commissioners may have been swayed by arguments that the amendment would affect the practice of many of the PCA’s Korean-language churches. But other commissioners were surprised at admissions like this one from an English-language pastor:
“The session at the church where I serve believes that women should be permitted to serve in the office of deacon and that qualified women should be ordained to that office....we know that we may not ordain women to the office of deacon so we have always desired to honor our denom and to honor our commitment to the vows we have made to the denom, and so for the last 17 years we have not ordained anyone to the office of deacon. After training and examination, we have commissioned men and women together and asked them serve equally as deacons…with knowledge of our presbytery for 17 years.”
This pastor went on to urge defeat of the amendment:
“for the sake of charity, and I mean that in the sense of forbearance and love and kindness—specifically for the sessions that will be put into very difficult positions and have to make hard choices if this amendment passes. If we are forced into a position where we have to make these kinds of decisions it will not be because our practice has shifted or changed....it will be because our denomination has changed and shifted and left us behind.”
The words just quoted show how important the de facto latitude of practice had become to some churches in the Big Cities/Big Tent era. But the amendment’s ratification (despite emotional appeals and near-threats of leaving if it passed) suggests that things really have changed in the PCA. The new era, which may have begun five years ago, differs in one important way from the middle era: It has not been led or brought about almost exclusively by elite, middle-aged pastors from large churches. Rather, the new era has seen a resurgence of ruling elders10 and pastors from churches of all sizes, many of who are younger.
If there were such a thing as a denominational weather forecast, this might well be it: Conditions are favorable for the growth of grassroots presbyterianism in the PCA. And, as always, there’s a chance of storms.
Watch a special Presbycast with Dr. Dominic Aquila discussing these topics at 9:30 PM ET, Wednesday, June 26:
Speakers against ratification of Overture 26 largely confirmed the deviations outlined here: https://pcapolity.com/2023/05/31/pca-officers-their-pronouns/
See Jared Nelson’s article on what might have been the PCA’s first interest group, the Vision Caucus: https://pcapolity.com/2022/01/28/secret-caucuses/
See Aaron Renn’s positive, neutral, negative thesis: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-three-worlds-of-evangelicalism
Good Faith Subscription had a short honeymoon: “At the 30th General Assembly, after a hard fought battle on confessional subscription (acceptance and submission to the doctrinal standards), the PCA adopted "good faith" theological subscription, the via media between strict and loose subscription. This centrist line blew like a fresh spring wind; choosing ‘good faith’ put the PCA out of its theological subscription debate misery.
“Yet however painful it might be, we must face the question again. Yes, already. And yes, really. Though the ‘good faith’ language was advanced in, well, ‘good faith,’ its approach presupposed assumptions about language and meaning that are no longer universally shared. Times were changing, but the theories that then pushed higher academia to its limits have now become culturally pervasive paradigms. We are immersed in reconstituted, recalibrated senses of meaning; and this shift does ‘good faith’ very badly.” - Dr. David Garner in 2013 https://www.reformation21.org/articles/intinction-and-extinction-where-is-our-good-faith.php
The PCA Book of Church Order knows nothing of hands-free ordination, nor does any other presbyterian order, so far as we know.
Interestingly, the women’s study committee concluded, “In a word, the biblically defined complementarian relationship of men and women in the family and church is to be embraced (including ordination as the PCA has defined it), and inconsistent practices should not undermine or contradict it.” https://pcahistory.org/pca/digest/studies/2017_WIM.pdf
Some cases involving the pastor and the church session had been resolved, but more were imminent. The Side B controversy resulted in a flurry of proposed constitutional amendments in the PCA from 2019-2023.
The Review of Presbytery Records committee became more willing to cite actions that may previously have been ignored.
This is of course inspired by John Frame’s derisive term “Machen’s Warrior Children.” Keller’s kids have not fought an aggressive “hot” conflict. Theirs was more of a long march through the institutions of the PCA. Their most ambitious attempt to reshape PCA polity was an overture put forth in 2019 (there’s that year again) by Metro New York Presbytery but quickly pulled by them before the assembly could consider it. The proposed amendment would have created a new, unisex, ordained office of deacon. Archived copy available here.
Excellent & insightful.
"If we are forced into a position where we have to make these kinds of decisions it will not be because our practice has shifted or changed....it will be because our denomination has changed and shifted and left us behind."
The Arians positioned similar arguments at Nicea in 325 and again at Constantinople in 381.