I was surprised and encouraged by many of the outcomes from the PCA GA yesterday. Here are some highlights...
(Note, all the Overtures, including the ones discussed below, can be found here: https://pcaga.org/resources/#overtures )
The passing of the committee's alternative recommendation on Overture 14: This one was easy to breeze over, but it is significant and a great victory for the PCA. This overture amends the MTW (Mission to the World) policy manual to include the statement "All MTW leaders in line authority over church planting or 38 church development ministry shall be ordained elders.” This is FANTASTIC news. During the debate portion for this overture, many men argued that this would prevent qualified-yet-unordainable women from being in administrative roles over missionary teams, including being over ordained elders in administrative capacities. Men arguing these points insisted that all the tools were in place to discern between ecclesiastical authority and non-ecclesiastical authority regarding church planting efforts, deferring to ordained elders in the former, while allowing room for "qualified" unordained men and women in the latter. In his counter-argument, Ruling Elder Matt Fender from James River Presbytery in Virginia put it thusly: "We're a church. All authority is ecclesiastical." He's exactly right. Whether intended or not, absence of this statement would continue to permit loopholes to rebellion by unordained men—and especially women—exercising authority over the bride of Christ (e.g. women presiding over mission budgets, which some of the elders at the Assembly actually defended). This has been a quiet, creeping cancer in the PCA and this is a great step towards remedying it. Praise the Lord!
The passing of Overture 38: This is a basic, crosses-the-low-bar statement on gender, marriage, and sexual sin and acknowledges that corrupt desires (such as same sex attraction) are *inherently* sinful. This is as basic as it gets, but it's a victory. Unsurprisingly, Greg Johnson expressed his disapproval of this Overture before the Assembly because, though he "agreed with it", he would vote against the Overture since it did not "apologize for how we have treated SSA Christians." Despite the efforts of wolves, this very basic and non-controversial Overture passed. Praise the Lord.
The passing of Overture 23: This is the big one that everyone was talking about. It was most critical that this be passed. The statement this overture sought to add was that "Men who self-identify as a 'gay Christian,' 'same-sex attracted Christian,' 'homosexual Christian,' or like term shall be deemed not qualified for ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America." Despite much debate against the point, this passed with 77% in favor. Those numbers would be discouragingly low in any other time in history, but given the present state of the PCA, this is very encouraging. Praise the Lord!
The Passing of Overture 37: This overture added the following statement to the Book of Church Order regarding the examination put up for the office of Teaching Elder specifically: "In the examination of the candidate’s personal character, the presbytery should give specific attention to potentially notorious concerns, such as but not limited to relational sins, sexual immorality (including homosexuality, fornication, and pornography), addictions, abusive behavior, and financial mismanagement. Careful reflection should be given to his practical struggle against sinful actions, as well as persistent sinful desires. The candidate shall give clear testimony of his reliance upon his union with Christ and the benefits thereof by the Holy Spirit, depending on this work of grace to make progress over sin (Psalm 103:2-5, Romans 8:29) and to bear fruit (Psalm 1:3; Gal. 5:22-23). While imperfection will remain, he should not be known by reputation or self-profession according to his remaining sinfulness (e.g., homosexual desires, etc.), but rather by the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 6:9-11). In order to maintain discretion and protect the honor of the pastoral office, the presbytery may empower a committee to conduct detailed examination into these matters and to give prayerful support to candidates." The overture also added language that Sessions presiding over the examination of men put up for this office should "give specific attention to potentially notorious concerns", listing homosexuality among them. Pushback was given in the form of an alternative recommendation in the committee's minority report, criticizing the language of this overture as being too ambiguous, providing a few exceptions where some men who may be technically qualified could not be ordained if judgement were carried out according to this clause. In my best estimation, this was word salad with little to contribute to the issue, drawing on exception to disprove the rule. It was pointed out by a few keen observers during the debate portion that the alternative recommendation would actually provide certain loopholes that work against the very intention of the original overture. So, by God's grace, the original recommendation was passed. Praise the Lord.