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Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

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Mission Accomplished? When? How?

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By Sidney Anderson. You just don’t wake up one morning in a village of the Tiv Tribe of Nigeria by accident! It was the fulfillment of years of planning and waiting for the Lord’s leading.

I had wanted to be a missionary almost immediately upon understanding some

The PCA’s Campus Outreach

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By Mark Lowrey, Jr. Changed lives – that’s the trademark of Reformed University Ministries, the PCA’s campus outreach devoted to evangelizing and discipling college students. Its business is to reform lives with the living, cutting edge of Scripture. As a result, scores of students are becoming Chris

Eyeglasses and a College Education: The Significance of a Christian World View

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By Dr. Donovan Graham. If you do not suffer from visual myopia, have you ever watched a nearsighted person try to get around without his eyeglasses? Not being able to see clearly, he becomes very uncertain in terms of action. I am so nearsighted that my wife kids me about not being able to find the bathroom in the middle of the night without putting on my glasses. No one in his right mind would dare ride as a passenger in a car with me unless I were wearing my glasses, and I would probably not trust myself to eat without them for fear of what I might put in my mouth. A nearsighted person cannot act or move very well without the benefit of his eye

Editorial

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By Jack Williamson. It is proper that we pause to remember the great things God has done in the Presbyterian Church in America since we took our place among the family of churches of the Lord Jesus Christ on December 4, 1973 – fifteen years ago.

In our opening worship on that occasion, I made this statement:

The origin of this church is in God, its form of manifestation is from God; and from beginning to end, its purpose is and shall be to magnify God’s glory.

As we reflect on these fifteen years, we must acknowledge that God has worked many miracles before our very eyes. In God’s providence the PCA did not begin with many great or mighty men. No giants of the faith were among us to dominate and guide. We were a group of novices who had to rely totally on God for direction. Many mistakes were made, but God’s hand has surely been upon us. We should rejoice in praise and adoration of God – to Him be the glory, great things He has done.

We need to constantly recall the three cardinal principles the PCA set forth in that 1973 Message to all Churches of Jesus Christ throughout the World. They are:

  1. The Bible is the very Word of God, so inspired in the whole and all its parts, as in the original autographs, to be the inerrant Word of God. It is the basis of authority for the PCA.

  2. The system of doctrine found in God’s Word is the system known as the Reformed Faith.

  3. The PCA would give top priority to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.

Today it seems to me that there are at least four groups in the PCA:

1.There are those who experienced the trauma of separation primarily from the PCUS and some from the UPCUS.

2.There are those who joined us from the RPCES and who are one generation away from their experience of separation.

3.There are those who have been called to the ministry since 1973.

4.There are those who have joined the PCA from many former associations, particularly in our newly organized churches.

I happen to be in that first group. For twenty years, I saw developing errors which I fought in the PCUS which drove us to separation for the honor of Jesus Christ. I believe it is a truism that those who do not learn from history will have to relive it. I see certain tendencies in the PCA which alarm me because they were among those things denomination and eventually led to separation.

I would suggest three such tendencies for our prayerful consideration:

  1. There seems to be a growing lack of zeal on the part of ruling elders to attend those Courts of the Church above the local level. This will result in a clerically dominated system. The PCA needs the balance of teaching and ruling elders in our courts. I hope that ministers will make a special effort to train and encourage ruling elders to participate and that ruling elders will consider the privilege of being called by God to sacrificially serve.

  2. There appears to be a tendency toward a more hierarchical control of the lower courts by the higher courts. This tendency erodes the fundamen

The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ

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By Linleigh Roberts. When the “God-is-dead” theology emerged a couple of decades ago, the question was asked, “If those men really believed that, why don’t they forget about theology altogether and do something else?” Certainly, an alternative occupation would seem to be the logical course of action. The issue, how