CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Charles

Pure Religion

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Since the first congregational meeting was called in first century Jerusalem to elect seven spiritually qualified men to serve as deacons and focus on deeds of mercy and kindness, the church has been committed to meeting the needs of those inside and outside the church. From church history we learn that the expressions of love and service have been stronger at some times than at others. This is one of the moments, especially in the Presbyterian Church in America, when the pendulum is swinging to the stronger side.

In September 1999 Christian Education and Publications, through its Women In the Church ministry, held a mercy ministry conference in Atlanta for four thousand women. In March 2001, CE&P and Mission to North America jointly sponsored “The Call of the Gospel: Sharing Christ, Showing Mercy” conference for six hundred men and women. (Ninety-five deacons attended.) The CE&P / MNA partnership was a natural because CE&P is the training arm of the church and is also responsible for women’s ministry at the denominational level, and MNA coordinates mercy ministries.

The PCA, seeking to obey the Spirit and the Word, and to understand and apply the whole counsel of God, believes that it must demonstrate a heart of mercy towards those in need. The CE&P and MNA staffs are convinced that without a strong Christian presence demonstrating ministries of mercy and justice that the church will not be effective in meeting people’s legitimate needs. Nor will we have a positive witness to the postmodern world of young people who are looking for authentic and genuine evidence of the Christian faith in people’s lives.

In the opening remarks at the conference I quoted the late Francis Schaeffer who wrote in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, that unless young people see the church demonstrating community, compassion, love, and mercy, they will not listen to our message-nor should they! Those words were written thirty years ago. How true they are today when at least two generations of young people (around 130 million) are looking for that kind of reality.

Mercy ministry is vital in applying our biblical faith, especially while the organized church struggles to maintain its identity and to be intentional in its mission. We must determine to present the truth of God, centered in the Gospel in a way that touches people’s lives at the deepest level. There was a period in the twentieth century when the church was hesitant to involve itself in areas commonly called “social needs,” because of the liberal extremes of those proclaiming a social gospel. However, men like John R Stott and Francis Schaeffer, movements such as the Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, and organizations like Prison Fellowship Ministries, called for Christians to see the challenge to minister the people’s physical and spiritual needs. Of course, that has been God’s heart all along: in the Old Testament when the priest represented a concern for peoples’ needs, in the New Testament when the office of deacon was officially established, and periodically demonstrated throughout church history.

While we must not overly boast, because we are only scratching the surface, it was clear to those at the conference that a host of mercy ministries are going on the PCA. Some are being done quietly without fanfare, others are more organized and visible, and still others genuinely want to learn how to move in this direction. It is encouraging to see the growing interest in this vital expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a hurting and needy world. Several churches presented their ministries through seminars and displays. Dan Faber presented the model used by Chapelgate PCA in Marriottsville, Maryland. The lead article in this issue is a summary of that presentation and gives an example of what one PCA church is doing to sensitize, mobilize, and equip its people for mercy ministry.

The Changeless Truths article, by Richard Aeschliman, discusses the office of deacon and its importance in the life of the church. Deacons should not focus their attention merely on the physical church plant, but particularly on the lives and needs of the people in the church and community. The Book of Church Order reflects our biblical understanding of diaconal ministry, sometimes referred to as mercy ministry. While it is the work of the whole church, deacons are the focal point of that ministry. The BOCO states that local church sessions should appoint godly men and women to work together and assist the deacons in the ministry of mercy.

CE&P’s emphasis has been to help local churches better coordinate their diaconal ministries with gifted men and women working together just as the BOCO, reflecting Scripture, suggests. We hope to have more conferences to raise the level of awareness, provide training, and help network mercy ministries within the PCA. The CE&P office has resources that can be used in this task. We hope soon to develop a communication network among deacons in local churches as well as more cooperation and partnership with the Women In the Church.

Elsie Anne McKee in her book Diakonia in the Classical Reformed Tradition and Today, wrote, “Christian concern for the suffering of the world is not a new development, but the church’s role of providing service to the afflicted has sometimes been neglected. Christians have frequently stood out as shining examples of self-forgetful compassion and many more have labored quietly in their daily tasks to relieve the poor, sick, and oppressed. These individuals have frequently felt that the church has given them very little support, guidance, and even recognition.” May that not be true in the PCA!

While the church ministry is multifaceted (home missions, world missions, education, training, etc.), we firmly believe that the church must be the church before the watching world or we will never claim its attention, as Schaeffer so eloquently stated. Through our training resources, publications, such as Equip for Ministry, the Bulletin Supplement, the WIC Resource Letter, and CE&P Website (www.pcanet.org/cep), we hope to continue to challenge, share ideas, and network resources to make the PCA even more effective in Sharing Christ and Showing Mercy.

Passing on the PCA Distinctives to the Next Generation

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As the Coordinator of Christian Education and Publications and as one who was involved in the development of the Presbyterian Church in America, I am often asked, “What is distinctive about the PCA? Why did you leave the mainline denomination to form a smaller one?” There are multitudes of denominations of all stripes. That’s nothing new (although denominationalism is basically a modern, Western phenomenon). There are numerous Presbyterian denominations, some older and even one or two younger than the PCA.

Why the PCA? What is distinctive about it? It is good to ask these questions periodically to remind ourselves where we came from and how our past impacts our present and future. During my years of serving the church, I have seen that the PCA has meant somewhat different things to different people. Two articles published on pcanews.com last year reflected two somewhat different perspectives of the PCA. Yet I believe that there are five areas that distinguish the PCA. As I describe them I do not want simply to major on the past, as though it were isolated from the present. We can make an idol of the past and miss the present, just as easily as we can idolize the present moment and forget the past.

In abbreviated form, the distinctives are these: The PCA is first and foremost committed to the triune God revealed in the Bible, and committed to the Bible as the “only rule of faith and life.” Second, the PCA is a confessional church. Its basic beliefs are reflected in those doctrines set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Third, the PCA is a connectional church, as implied by the word “Presbyterian.” Not only are individual Christians added to the church, the body of Christ, but also each church is connected with other similar churches. Fourth, the PCA takes seriously the idea of the parity of elders. Governance in the Presbyterian system is shared, not hierarchical. And, fifth, the PCA has intentionally taken the great commission of our Lord most seriously. There are other things that are unique about the PCA, but these are the five that primarily answer the questions above. Let’s consider them more fully.

The Authority of Scripture

First, the PCA recognizes the authority of the Bible. That authority is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which we believe to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God. We take the Bible seriously. There is no equivocation on the concept that the Bible is the authoritative and revealed will of God for his people. We believe that it contains special revealed truth about the Triune God that we will not find in any other source. It tells us what God wants us to know and to believe. (WCF, I).

Because truth matters and is more than subjective opinion, God selected and led “holy men” of old to write the Word of God. The Bible is true because it is God’s Word and it is God’s Word because it is true. Attempts to undermine the Bible’s authority are always before the church-our enemy sees to that. Nonetheless, we can be pleased to be a part of a church that takes the Bible seriously. As a matter of historical fact, we are the first Presbyterian denomination to require teaching and ruling elders and deacons to affirm by a vow that they believe the Bible to be the inerrant and inspired Word of God. (Book of Church Order, 24-5). It is not simply men’s words about God, but God speaking through his Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit who inspired the authors to write these words works in people’s lives to open their minds and hearts to God’s truth revealed in the Bible.

Though we do not believe that the Bible contains all of God’s truth (he has written another book-general revelation), we believe the Bible is our standard for faith and life (WCF I, 2). It is the plumb line by which we judge all matters of religion and life. Because the Bible is God’s book, we say without hesitation that anything that contradicts the Bible (properly interpreted) is wrong. God’s Word is true.

The authority of Scripture was important to the PCA in 1973 but does it matter today?Yes, and perhaps more so as postmodernism emphasizes that truth is relative or is whatever you want it to be. In a recent interview on C-Span, a well-known Harvard law professor said you cannot know what is right, you can only know what is wrong. But we can know what is right because the Bible tells us. People continually testify to how God uses the Bible to change their lives, to shine his light in the darkness, or help them develop a worldview that enables them to see reality as it is. Lives are being transformed by its truth. Gratefully, the PCA has made the Bible its foundation and does not hesitate to teach that to all five generations.

A Confessional Commitment

Second, the PCA is a confessional church. Its system of doctrine is set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms written in the 1640s. This Confession connects us with the churches down through the years that have embraced that system of doctrine. Church officers are required to submit to the Westminster Standards and to believe that the system of doctrine they contain best reflects in summary form what the Bible teaches.

Of course, only the Bible is infallible and the confessional Standards must not be elevated to the same level. They can be, and have been, changed at certain points. This is one of the strengths of the Confession: it teaches in the first chapter that the final authority in matters of faith and life is the Bible.Alister McGrath made a point about the historic creeds of Christendom which I would apply to our confessional statements: while they unify us around certain understandings of biblical teaching on key topics, they can also encourage a more serious study of the Bible. Like the ancient creeds, we believe that the Westminster Standards give us a summary of some of the main tenets of the Christian faith. They do not address every biblical doctrine, and were written to deal with certain topics at a particular point in history, and are subject to the higher authority of Scripture. Nonetheless, they draw us, within the reformed, Calvinistic family, together with a common doctrinal understanding.

There is genuine commitment to our confessional Standards within the PCA, though there are different degrees of commitment and understanding. Some believe that the Confession is the system with all of its parts essential to the whole. Others believe it contains the system of doctrine and not each part is essential to that system. That diversity is not unique to the PCA but reflects historic Presbyterianism as well. B.B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen are two familiar examples.

What has maintained the PCA’s high level of commitment to those Standards has been the agreement that it is not up to the individual officers to determine what is essential to the system, but rather it is a collective judgment made by the courts to whom the officers are accountable.Our confessional commitment was important to the PCA in 1973, but does it matter today?Yes, it still matters that the PCA is committed to those confessional Standards. Even considering the different levels of commitment and understanding of the Standards, the history of the PCA’s actions reveal the consistency of our doctrinal commitment. The actions of the church courts and the preaching and teaching of the word reflect that confessional commitment. While the PCA continues to reflect the different views stated above, we are distinguished by our commitment to those Standards.

This commitment may matter more today as postmodernism continues to sweep through our culture suggesting that beliefs are merely individual matters and choices and that no one can insist that others believe just like they do. Each person becomes his or her own standard; hence, the Bible is privately interpreted and the church’s doctrinal system is disregarded. People are free to believe and interpret those beliefs in their own way. In this context, our confessional Standards become a good unifying check and balance. They keep us in touch with the church that has gone before us in history.

Connectionalism

Third, the PCA is a connectional church. Not only are we joined together by a common faith and doctrinal understanding, but also by a common view of the church. We believe that churches do not exist independently of each other. They are joined together with churches that share a common faith and doctrinal commitment. Presbyterianism not only indicates a particular style or form of government but also a connectional approach.

Connectionalism was important to the PCA in 1973, but does it matter today?Yes, and even more so because we have been reminded of the need to see ourselves as part of something larger than ourselves. Coming out of the influence of modernity with its emphasis on privatization and individualism, the PCA seeks to reflect its connection with the Church universal throughout the ages. Plus we continue to see the need to come together and help each other better understand God’s truth. Whether it is demonstrated by a presbytery-wide men’s retreat, a mercy ministry conference for four thousand women, or a summer camp for young people, our connectionalism allows us to benefit from each other’s strengths and offset each other’s weaknesses, and it reminds us that we are a part of a larger whole.

Parity of Elders

Fourth, the PCA believes in the parity of elders. Churches are led and overseen not only by the ordained clergy but by ordained laymen as well. One of the great doctrines that resurfaced with the Protestant Reformation was the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. As the Apostle Paul stated, “there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus….” Our entry into God’s presence does not require any human hierarchical priesthood. Christ has invited us as individuals to come. However, the keys of the kingdom, referred to by Jesus in Matthew 16, were given to the elders of the church.

The PCA recognizes that there are two types of elders: teaching elders and ruling elders. Both have equal authority in overseeing and shepherding the Church. Though the PCA gave the concept a unique interpretation by requiring that an equal number of ruling and teaching elders serve on its standing committees, the idea of equal authority was present from the beginning. One of the concerns that led to the formation of the PCA was that the Presbyterian system of governance as practiced in the mainline church was becoming increasingly hierarchical in its practice.

Parity of elders was important in to the PCA in 1973, but does it matter today? Once again the answer is yes. A problem has developed that could threaten this principle of parity and the grassroots nature of the PCA. Fewer ruling elders are participating in the General Assembly and presbytery sessions. That has caused a larger number of clergy to speak and rule at those levels. With postmodernism’s challenge to authority and the strong reaction of the younger generations against what they perceive as authoritarian leaders who lord over people, the concept of parity and the priesthood of all believers is necessary to keep the laity involved in oversight of the church and ministry.

The Great Commission

Fifth, the PCA began with a strong commitment to the Great Commission-to evangelism at home and abroad, and to education and discipleship. The PCA has always demonstrated an aggressive evangelism and church growth strategy, and an educational and world missions and emphasis. At a recent weekend conference, I heard a testimony about a church where 80 percent of the members had become Christians in the last ten years. While most of the PCA’s growth has been from what we call transfer growth, we must continue to emphasize a strong evangelistic concern. Much of the growth that has come from evangelism, has been a result of personal evangelistic efforts.

The Great Commission was important to the PCA in 1973, but does it matter today?Again, a resounding yes. We must reflect a concern for the lost and for discipling those who profess faith in Christ. In a culture permeated by change, instability, and ambiguity, we must confidently declare the hope offered in the gospel. We must be able to give a reason for what we believe. We cannot afford to loose this distinctive lest we fail to challenge those without faith in Christ to believe in him and his Gospel.

There are definite demonstrations of unity in these five distinctives. Yet the PCA is a diverse denomination. Some are more focused on world missions, while others are committed to church growth and evangelism. Others have demonstrated a high level of commitment to discipling members in the Christian faith. Some have held to a broader or more universal view of the church while others have been more restrictive. Some have supported parachurch ministries, while others have questioned the validity of ministries not under the governance of the courts.

There have also been diverse understandings of certain specifics not essential to the life and health of the church. For example, in the recent debates over the “days of creation” the unifying point was commitment to the historical account of creation recorded in Scripture. The debates never questioned the authority of the Scriptures. The point of diversity was how to interpret the “days.” Worship is another example. When the PCA was organized, part three of the Book of Church Order relating to worship was written to reflect our unifying commitment to follow the Bible in the implementation of corporate worship, and freedom in practice which gave rise to a diversity of forms of worship. The role of women in church ministry has been another area where there is a unifying principle that ordination to office is for qualified men; however, there is diversity in the way PCA churches involve women in that ministry.

A strong commitment to and unity on these five distinctives, combined with flexibility on second level issues of polity implementation, has and will hold the PCA together and keep the church moving forward and growing. In Book Four of the Institutes of the Christian Religion Calvin reminds us that not all doctrines are of equal importance, and he gives examples of those that are and are not essential. That is the key to maintaining our integrity and commitment to that which God led us to establish in 1973, to maintain in 2001, and to grow in the 21st century.

Some have recently claimed that the church has begun to emphasize one or two of its distinctives at the expense of the others, and in some isolated incidents that may be true. Some have focused on a part rather than the whole. But when we evaluate the PCA at large, the five distinctives continue to define who we are. We must work to maintain that wholeness. We do not want to turn off or turn away the rising generations to which we were committed when we formed the PCA. Communicating a legalistic hard line view of Christianity, which is impossible to maintain, is the surest way I know to lose the rising generations that God has called us to disciple. I believe our greatest challenge at this moment in history is to demonstrate a commitment to our distinctives and a willingness to give one another room for diversity.

Relevant Roots

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One role of education, particularly biblically reformed Christian education, is to link together the past and present. Recognizing this link is important in order to understand where we are today. We cannot do that in isolation from the past. Neither is our understanding complete if it does not incorporate thoughts and ideas about the present and future; that would make an idol of the past, and God does not call us to live in the past.

Christians should be aware that life is dynamic, not static. Change is always in the air. But unless we understand our past, which gives us a sense of continuity with something more than the existential moment, we may not understand why we are where we are today, and how we got here. We might get so caught up in change that we change the wrong things, which, in turn, may take us in the wrong direction in the future. This need for balance and my study of people like Abraham Kuyper (see Buy the Book) has led me to develop the idea that we need to be biblically orthodox, philosophically and theologically reformed, and culturally progressive. We must learn to live, though carefully so, on this slippery slope in today’s world where things are not nearly so black and white.

In our postmodern world, few things are the same as they have always been. (For postmodernists that is acceptable because of their philosophical concepts that we have to continually deconstruct and rewrite history to make it say what we want it to say.) Actually, nothing is exactly like it used to be. We only hold to false illusions if we think things can always be the way they have always been. We might wish for that, especially in some areas, but in holding too strongly to the past we can often distort our understanding of the past, present, and the future. I remember when a loaf of bread was 15 cents and gasoline was 25 cents a gallon. I remember when Atlanta’s famous Varsity hot dog was two for 25 cents and cokes were a dime. It is easy to think, “Boy, I wish it were still that way!” until I realize the bigger picture: salaries were much lower then, people were living shorter lives, and many were marrying too young. I have to be careful not to let my maturing years lock me in the nostalgia of the past, which could keep me from serving God’s purpose to this generation because I would focus on myself and not on them. On the other hand I must not let the things of today cause me to neglect or forget the things of the past. As I grow older, and hopefully more mature, (though I feel less and less so the older I get-I do not know nearly as much as I thought I did twenty years ago), I must continue to know God, to know his Word and to know his world and to know myself. (That is a summary of the Christian Education and Publications mission statement.)

A number of years ago when Dr. Paul Gilchrist was editor of the PCA Messenger, the denominational magazine at the time, he asked me to write an article on the PCA. I included several things that I thought important to remember about the PCA, its history, and its current development. I entitled that article, “The PCA: Past, Present, and Future.” As one of the speakers at the General Assembly in St. Louis, I was asked to elaborate on that topic as we celebrated the PCA’s 25th anniversary. As a member of the organizing committee, the pastor of one of the thirty churches that called for the Presbyterian Church in America, a member of the original administration committee, and chairman of the constitutional documents committee, I am often asked why I participated in the formation of the PCA and what is distinctive about this denomination.

Obviously, to call ourselves Presbyterians should reflect that we are biblically reformed in our beliefs and that we follow the Presbyterian form of government in the life of our church. Sadly, modernism has caused “Presbyterian” to mean something different. It has become such a problem that many newly formed mission churches are hesitant to use the word Presbyterian in their title because of its negative connotation in our culture. That is unfortunate because, historically understood, it is a good term. It reflects the principle of “reformed and always reforming.” Clearly this means reforming according to the Word. But over the years, not all reforming was according to the Word. This became such a problem that some of us felt led to stand together and form a new denomination that was “true to the Scriptures, the Reformed faith, and obedient to the great commission.” That became the motto of the PCA! We believed that truth really mattered twenty-eight years ago and that we had to do something to communicate that to the younger generations and give them a framework for understanding that truth does matter.

The lead article in this issue, “Passing on the PCA Distinctives to the Next Generation, ” describes five distinctives that were crucial at the formation of the PCA, and that continue to matter in the midst of-perhaps even more so because of-our changing culture. Many who were children twenty-eight years ago when the PCA began are now emerging as pastors and leaders of the denomination. As they begin to take the reigns, and as they train their own children, it is more important than ever that we understand our past so that we are faithful in the present and prepared for the future.

We suggest to church leaders that they encourage parents to teach their children about the PCA. It is important for them to understand what it is and why it is. One reason we formed the PCA was to communicate to our children and grandchildren that truth matters and that God determines what is truth. We also want our children to know that we are not simply committed to building a future for them but we are committed to building them for the future. Truth matters, our young people matter, and the PCA is concerned about both. The lead article, Equip Tip, book reviews, and camp and conference schedules in this issue will equip you for your own ministry, and help you prepare your children for theirs.

Turning Events into Opportunities

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Welcome to the first issue of Equip for Ministry 2001. You have been a faithful reader and we thank you. We are committed to being your resource for ideas, products, services, and people that can enhance the ministry of formal and informal local church leaders. We enjoy putting together each issue with that commitment in mind. I hope you will notice the new cover design. We want this magazine to be friendly and helpful for our readers. We really do think of ourselves as teammates with you, networking to strengthen our local churches. “The church grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work,” and we believe that part of CE/P’s challenge in the PCA is to help facilitate resources.

In the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, God says a most significant thing. “‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.’…So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” Although building the tower was a sinful act, we should not gloss over God’s point: there is strength in unity and number. We need to realize that our personal or local agendas are not as effective as our corporate and broader one. That is a strength of our Presbyterian system. When it is properly practiced, it brings us together with an intentional connectedness that demonstrates the axiom “the whole is larger than the sum of its parts.” My desire for all of CE/P’s programs, particularly Equip for Ministry, is that our readers would always be reminded of that principle, which I believe has a solid biblical base. We should not only acknowledge it but practice it as well.

In previous issues, you have read articles and book reviews focusing on cultural awareness and the importance of understanding how to communicate God’s Word (truth) in this pluralistic setting. Of course, when we talk about cultural awareness our real point is effectively communicating and applying God’s truth to this culture. The church is facing a great challenge, and the way we respond will determine (humanly speaking) what kind of future lies ahead. As we have said many times, the Church will survive because it is God’s Church and He says that it will. However, the institutional church as we know it may experience great transformation. Some change is essential. We must not change the wrong things; however, we must be willing to change anything that is not effectively reaching those whom Christ has called us to serve.

We have talked much about the church’s challenge to reach the millennial generation. I wish you could read and study the analyses, and interview the many youth with whom we have talked, who remind us of the urgency of this moment. The church must pull out all stops and do whatever needs to be done to reach the next generation with the truths of God. We have to go beyond the call of duty to communicate to our young people that we love and care for them. The church must demonstrate the kind of caring spirit that Bob Palmer wrote about in his article on covenant baptismal vows in the September/October 2000 issue.

The lead article in this issue, “Covenant Stones of Passage” written by our friend in ministry Brad Winsted, offers some interesting and intriguing ways for local churches to carry out those covenant vows. I hope every local church leader and parent will read, ponder, and discuss them. Joining the church, either as a non-communicant or communicant member, should be one of the most special events in a young person’s life. I think about my days as a pastor and confess that such a “receiving event” was often more of a routine than a celebration. Do not gloss over the ideas suggested in Winsted’s article without careful, serious consideration.

If the statistics about huge numbers of young people leaving the church are right, then we should be willing to do whatever we can, humanly speaking, to demonstrate that our covenant children belong and are accepted in the covenant family. Please take the challenge seriously! Several new books reviewed in this issue should help convince you of the urgency of this matter. Four of them speak to the challenges of this generation that is growing up in a morally and spiritually chaotic world. Church leaders and parents should read, study, and discuss the books by John Seele and Os Guinness. I read and scan many books, and these two are as timely and crucial as any I have read recently. The other books elaborate on the challenge and offer materials that can be used effectively to rise to the occasion.

Though the connection may seem less obvious, the books on effective boards also fit into this scenario. As CE/P has worked with church leaders through the years, we have seen that many are so consumed with activities that ministry time is eaten up by busyness. The books on boards are full of helpful ideas on how leaders can use their time more efficiently and minister more productively. It is our joy and delight to help local leaders consider options that will make them more effective in giving direction and spiritual oversight to the church ministry.

The series of articles on stewardship, as well as the other features such as “Equip Tips” and advertisements, are carefully selected for your benefit. Though the advertisements in Equip for Ministry help us offset a portion of the publishing expenses, they also help us carry out our philosophy of making local church leaders aware of available resources.

Pray for us during this new year that we might listen carefully and obediently to God’s Word and be so unified in spirit and purpose that we can do whatever we set out to do. Of course we realize that while “Paul plants and Apollos waters, only God can give the increase.” To Him be the glory and praise.

New Ways for New Days

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From the pulpit, I scanned the faces of several hundred people who had come to worship. At least that is what I hoped. Several things struck me as I looked over the congregation. One of the most obvious was the diversity of ages.

Three distinct age groups were there; the traditionalists (over 55), the baby boomers (26-45) and the baby busters (under 25). There were couples, fami