Welcome to Chattanooga! The 43rd General Assembly of the PCA

It has been a couple of years since I’ve attended a General Assembly, which certainly has been a welcome relief to some. If nothing else, I have a gift for gumming up the works. I took a call as a chaplain for Chattanooga Christian School, which means I don’t have a church sending me every year. This year, in God’s Providence, he has provided a way for me to attend. I don’t expect to spend much time on the floor this year, but I thought I would offer thoughts on the Assembly as it progresses.

After two years hiatus, the first thing that jumps out to me in the packet is how much less time there is for floor debate. I’ve heard men talking for years about how the reason Ruling Elders don’t attend GA is that they are put off by rancorous floor debate with long haggling over arcane rules. What the Ruling Elders would really enjoy, they have said, are helpful workshops and interesting/inspiring reports about our denomination.

I am no longer young and won’t speak for youth, but I know why the REs in my congregation didn’t come: they felt like the floor business didn’t matter and the “powers that be” were going to find a way to push through their agenda through the denominational apparatus. The Res who DID come believed that they could still do something meaningful on the floor.

This does not mean that they didn’t appreciate some of the workshops. I didn’t, for the most part, but they did, sometimes. They were just no going to take a week off from work to go to workshops. The one thing that seemed true across the board was that there was very little interest in the denominational reports.

In my mind, the less people think that their participation makes a difference, the less they will be motivated to show up. That does work in favor of the “powers that be,” since the people not showing up would have been the ones most likely to question administrative agendas.

H.P. Lovecraft Gets a Shout Out

Ruling Elder Robert Mattes made PCA history tonight with his reference to H.P. Lovecraft, the father of modern horror-fantasy. Robert was speaking against a proposal to change the PCA Book of Church Order to forbid intinction (taking communion by dipping the bread into the wine).[Correction: He was actually speaking in favor of forbidding intinction, see his comment below.] The motion carried and will be sent down to the presbyteries for ratification and a second vote at the next General Assembly in Charlotte. The floor debate was long, and somewhat heated, and in the end the motion carried by a mere FOURTEEN votes out of around a thousand commissioners on the floor. The problem with the motion, in my view, is that it singles out one non-biblical practice which is very ancient and ignores other more egregious violations of apostolic practice such as swapping grape juice for wine or using tiny plastic shot glasses instead of a common cup.

Assembly Approves Report Condemning Muslim Bible Translations

Note: This post was written immediately after the events and needed some corrections, which I added later in the evening. The Ad-Interim Committee on Insider Movements submitted an eighty-page report on Bible translation which included five recommendations for the Assembly. The report was submitted to us by the unanimous action of the Committee. The first four recommendations passed almost unanimously after brief opposition from the floor. The fifth recommendation concerned funding and will come later in the business. The Assembly received the report, which grants it a great deal of weight in the PCA. Some scholars are calling the document "historic" as it defines biblically, theologically and linguistically why the common biological terms must be retained in the translation of "huios" (son) and "pater" (father) in reference to Jesus and God the Father. Muslim Idiom Translations have translated these terms with such substitutes as "representative" and "guardian."

This action will give guidance to churches supporting translation work, a resource to our mission agency, and place pressure on translation agencies to hold to biblical standards for translation.
Neither our mission agency or the pastor who questioned some of the language of the report in a pre-Assembly packet spoke against the report. I think we're all on the same page with this. Praise God.

Please pray the the Assembly will authorize funding the AICoIM to continue for another year.

The Deaconess Issue Rises

This post was made after midnite, so the "tomorrow" is Thursday, June 21. It turns out my statement about the absence of conflict about deaconesses was premature. Today we received the report from the Review of Presbytery Records (RPR) and RPR took exception to several sets of presbytery minutes which dealt with the issue.

To try to make this simple without the 60 page report in front of me and a dying cell battery the big issue is churches which are "commissioning" deaconesses as members of the diaconate with the deacons, which RPR holds is a "distinction without a difference." The Assembly will have to debate and vote on the report. This one of the avenues the Assembly can hold presbyteries accountable. The two others are by offering overtures from presbyteries or individuals addressing an issue in principle or by petitioning GA to "assume original jurisdiction" if a presbytery has been grossly negligent. The third option is almost impossible so the first two are the normal paths. We'll see tomorrow when we take up the report.

Sent with an Old World flourish from my iPhone

National Association of Evangelicals

The PCA voted to remain in the National Association of Evangelicals.

Sent from my NOOKcolor

Assembly Reduces Power of Permanent Committees

A problem that became increasingly apparent at previous General Assemblies was that when Presbyteries sent overtures to GA the Stated Clerk would direct the overtures to the Permanent Committee to which the overture was addressed. That meant that if a presbytery was trying to address a perceived problem in the permanent committee, then the permanent committee could revise the overture before it went to the floor of the GA. This created the problem last year with Overture 9, which MTW changed before sending it on. With the new rules, all overtures must go to the Overtures Committee, which is more a disinterested third party. This is a very good change indeed.
Sent from my NOOKcolor

Insider Movements and Translations

Last year, after a vigorous floor battle, the PCA erected a study committee to deal with the subject of Insider Movements (IM) and Muslim Idiom Translations (MIT). Insider Movements are a type of missions strategy which encourages Muslims to believe in Jesus but remain Muslims attending the Mosque and following Muhammed as Prophet. Muslim Idiom Translations use non-biological terms for "pater" and "huios" ("father" and "son" in ESV), replacing them with terms such as "guardian" and "blessed one."

Potomac Presbytery submitted Overture 9 last year asking the General Assembly to condemn MITs and erect a study committee to investigate missionary Bible translation and study Insider Movements. Mission to the World (MTW) objected to the study committee but agreed with the condemnation of MITs. The Committee of Comissioners on MTW disagreed and the GA went with the CoC and erected the Ad-Interim Committee on Insider Movements.

This year the AICOIM completed the report on MITs and is asking for another year to complete work on a report on IMs. The GA has to vote to receive the report on translation and then vote to authorize the AICOIM for another year. One PCA Teaching Elder (TE) is suggesting wordimg changes to the report which some say completely gut the safeguards against MITs and others may argue for ending the AICOIM.

Currently the PCA, with the Assemblies of God, is on the cutting edge of this issue, standing for the Gospel. I pray that we stay there.

Sent from my NOOKcolor

Assembly Overview

> This year's Assembly has several groups of issues before it. It isn't apparent yet how contentious these things will be. Somewhat shockingly, we don't have female deacons/deaconesses on the docket, perhaps because we've achieved an equilibrium. The conservatives aren't going to lay charges against the progressives and the progressives aren't going to ordain women as deacons. For the time being we'll continue with non ordained female deacons and deaconesses.
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> The Pacific Northwest Presbytery submitted a pile of overtures meant to try to clean up our rules of church discipline. There's a couple of overtures to change rules of Assembly operations. Three theological overtures are in the docket: one dealing with intinction (dipping bread in wine during communion), another requiring church members affirm the Apostle's Creed and a third condemning any evolutionary view of Adam. The Ad-Interim Committee on Insider Movements is presenting a partial report dealing with translation and asking for another year to finish its work. Finally, the Administrative Committee has a new set of proposals for funding the administration of the PCA and the General Assembly.
>
> I'll try to post some thoughts on these later.
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> Sent with an Old World flourish from my iPhone

Stop Wycliffe, SIL and Frontiers from Removing Son and Father from the Bible!

Wycliffe Bible Translators, the largest missionary translation organization in the world has been producing Bibles which remove the words "Son" and "Father" from the descriptions of Jesus and God. These Bibles are being produced for Muslims and are called Muslim Idiom Translations (MIT). In order to "contextualize" the Bible, Jesus is now described as "God's Uniquely Beloved Chosen One", or even worse, "God's Representative." References to "Father" have been "retranslated" as "Lord." One version reads "baptizing them in the name of the Lord, the Representative and the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19)

You can help confront this by signing the petition, Lost in Translation. When you sign the petition, your name and any note you write will be sent to the heads of Wycliffe, SIL and Mission Frontiers. Clicking on the link will NOT automatically sign the petition. It will take you to the website where you can read all about it BEFORE signing. I hope you do sign it.

Wycliffe has been denying many of the claims in the petition. Answers to their denials can be found in the Fact Check, which is produced by Biblical Missiology. Wycliffe's denials raise more concerns.

By joining this effort, you will be supporting the effort to save an important ministry from apostasy and you will help the efforts of the faithful Christians within these organizations which are trying to fight this error. Many long-term missionaries have already left the organization. The church in the Muslim world is asking for your help. These "Bibles" are hurting the cause of the Gospel.

GA Photos Online

There are several hundred official pictures of the 2011 PCA General Assembly online here. This one is of me speaking in favor of a Study Committee on Insider Movements.

Denominational Accountability and the PCA

I made a comment on the blog Johannes Weslianus concerning Dr. Bryan Chapell's membership on the Standing Judicial Commission of the PCA, reflecting that it represented a problem with accountability in our denomination. A brother gave me a well-stated and kindly challenge on my comment and I explained my concerns in more detail as follows:

Mike,

I don't think that Bryan Chapell is ill-intentioned by any means. As far as I know he is a godly guy. I am simply pointing out that denominations in our age tend to fall through their seminaries. If anyone thinks that age is over, they should cast an eye towards Erskine and the ARP. Dr. Chapell's position on the SJC violates both the principle of layered accountability and the principle of separation of responsibility.

Since seminaries are a danger point for a denomination, what does it mean for him to be on the SJC? Well, does anyone think that if he were to fail to deal with a professor as the president that he would be vigorous on the SJC? Accountability doesn't mean much when everyone's well-intentioned and responsible, it's meant to provide protection when people are NOT well intentioned or responsible.

So if Dr. Chapell were NOT doing his job well, then someone would catch it. Except in this case all the people dealing with the problem would either be the one who was asleep at the switch or part of the problem (Chapell) or people who had very close relationships with the guy who was either asleep at the switch or telling them "everything's" fine (the rest of the SJC). It's just a really bad idea.

Accountability means that there's some kind of system or structure to catch things is there's ever a problem. I don't have a half-glass office door because my elders don't trust me, I do it for accountability.

If you want another PCA example, look over at MTW. Dr. Kooistra serves as the coordinator (CEO) and his brother serves as CFO. In accounting, this is called "an issue of deficiency in control." To compound that, I understand that the Permanent Committee on MTW operates with a much smaller Executive Committee which makes the key decisions. Roger Kooistra is on that Committee, which increases his influence and power within the organization.

Now, I am confident that Dr. and Mr. Kooistras (did I say that right?) have the absolute best of intentions. But accountability is not about intentions, it's about wisdom and the acknowledgement that the best men are still sinners.

Does anyone else find it uncomfortable that the Strategic Planning and old PPLN process was dominated by Committee Heads (otherwise known as the best paid denominational employees) and their closest allies and that said process resulted in less functional power for the Committees of Commissioners (otherwise known as the accountability structure for the Permanent Committees)? Nobody sold it like that. It was for "efficiency" and "encouragement of ruling elder attendance." But if we cut all of the talking points away, the employees of the denomination spearheaded an effort which resulted in their oversight structures being less powerful.

Did they do it for bad intentions? Probably not. Is it a good idea? Not at all.

Call to a Faithful Witness - The Text of the Assembly Action Against "Insider Movements"

Here is the text to the resolution passed by the PCA General Assembly:

A Call To Faithful Witness

Approved By The 39th General Assembly
Of The Presbyterian Church In America
June 10, 2011

Whereas; the Church is called to take the gospel to all peoples, including those who have historically been resistant to the gospel;

Whereas; contextualizing the language and forms of the gospel, while remaining faithful to the truths of Scripture, is good and necessary for the advancement of the gospel;

Whereas; the Church must exercise wisdom in discerning appropriate expressions of contextualization, reserving its public corrections for genuine and substantive threats to the gospel;

Whereas; in recent initiatives known as “Insider Movements”, some groups have produced Bible translations that have replaced references to Jesus as “Son” (huios) with terms such as “Messiah” in order to be more acceptable to Muslims;

Whereas; some Bible translations of Insider Movements have replaced references to God as “Father” (pater) with terms such as “Guardian” and “Lord”;

Whereas; these Bible translations are harmful to the doctrines of the authority of Scripture and the deity of Christ, bringing confusion to people in need of Christ—concerns that are held by many national leaders and Bible societies;

Whereas; some PCA churches have knowingly or unknowingly financially supported these Bible translations;

Whereas; Muslims should not be denied a full and faithful witness;

Therefore be it resolved that the 39th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America:

• Affirms that biblical motivations of all those who seek to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who have never heard or responded to the gospel should be encouraged;

• Repents of complacency or comfort that keep us from a faithful witness;

• Declares as unfaithful to God’s revealed Word, Insider Movement or any other translations of the Bible that remove from the text references to God as “Father” (pater) or Jesus as “Son” (huios), because such removals compromise doctrines of the Trinity, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and Scripture;

• Encourages PCA congregations to assess whether the missionaries and agencies they support use or promote Bible translations that remove familial language in reference to persons of the Trinity, and if so, to pursue correction, and failing that, to withdraw their support;

• Encourages PCA congregations to support biblically sound and appropriately contextualized efforts to see Christ’s Church established among resistant peoples;

• Calls PCA churches and agencies to collaborate with each other and the broader Church to discern and implement biblical authority in gospel contextualization.

• Authorizes the Moderator, as an aid to greater gospel faithfulness throughout the PCA and the broader Church, to appoint a study committee to report to the 40th General Assembly concerning Insider Movements, including but not limited to:
o A summary and biblical assessment of Insider Movements’ history, philosophies, and practices;
o A biblical response to interpretations of Scripture used in defense of Insider Movements;
o An examination of the theological impact of removing familial language for the Trinity from Bible translations;
o An assessment of PCA missions partners regarding the influence of Insider Movement within them, including assessment of their theology of religion, ecclesiology, Scripture, and relationship to the Emergent Church;
o An explanation of the relevance and importance of this issue for the PCA;
o Suggestions for identifying and assessing the influence of Insider Movements among mission agencies, missionaries and organizations;
o Recommended resources for faithfully training and equipping congregations to reach Muslims locally and internationally.

• Set the budget for the study committee at $15,000/year and that funds be derived from gifts to the AC designated for that purpose.


Rationale:

The Committee is convinced this critical issue for the global church strikes at the vitals of religion. However, the lack of sufficient analytical, biblical, and theological resources from a Reformed perspective, compels us to ask for a study committee to produce a cogent report for our churches.

We're the Other Kind of Presbyterians

When someone asks you about Presbyterianism, show them this video and then say, "We're the other kind of Presbyterians." So thankful for my denomination. At our General Assembly, we opened with a psalm, a hymn, and a stirring sermon calling us to faithfulness by Harry Reeder.

Wycliff Bible Translators comes out in support of "Insider Translations" but not quite

Wycliffe, the Presbyterian church of Bangladesh, and other organizations have sent communications to the General Assembly regarding the use of "Insider Translations" and the involvement of the PCA in Insider Movements in the world. These communications were ruled out of order, partially out of concerns that this precedent would open the floodgates of lobbying by outside organizations and parties.

One commissioner noted that the purpose of a Study Committee would be to solicit opinions and information from such parties (indeed!) but another commissioner, Bill Nikides (an expert on world missions), noted that some of the communications come from Reformed denominations addressing missions work by the PCA in the Islamic would. Scott Seaton, former missionary and currently a pastor in Potomac Presbytery, noted that the information is directly related to matters before the Assembly.

Even though the material was found out of order, much of it was already in the hands of the commissioners. Maybe we get to have our cake (not set a bad precedent) and eat it too (get to read the information anyway).

Wycliffe submitted a detailed response to the motion condemning "Insider Translations," basically arguing that there is a difference between the Insider Movement and accepted contextualization in translation. This is probably fair enough in a theoretical sense, and likely opponents of the Insider Movement have been hyper-sensitive at times to attempts to contextualize the message of Scripture appropriately. But . . . I strongly suspect this is not as cut and dried as they are claiming and I bet there ARE Insiders seeking to influence Bible translations.

Wycliffe's claim that Muslims are offended by the idea that Jesus came from a sexual union between Mary and God and are not at all offended by the Bible's claim that Jesus is God in the flesh is completely untrue. While there may be some Muslims who completely misunderstand the claims of the Incarnation, very few thinking Muslims who have read the Bible would think this. What they are offended by is the Bible's claim that Jesus is God. Wycliffe is clouding the issue and people should ask why.

Is this not why we need a study committee?

More Truth Comes Out

The Aquila Report reveals that the "emperor has no clothes" so to speak. Clements writes:

Dr. Kooistra was invited to explain CMTW’s recommendation of removal of the study committee from the overture. MTW had issued a statement saying that a committee was unnecessary given the fact that MTW was already equipped to assist churches deal with insider movement issues. Upon further questioning, Dr. Kooistra said that the statement did not originate from him and was not strictly accurate. Further questions determined that materials available through MTW were very minimal and included much material that was written by insider movement advocates.

Is this really the best that we can do? With the wonderful Study Reports that the PCA has produced on Creation and Marriage should we not produce one on the most important theological issue of our time? Should we not bring to the table some of our wonderful theologians, missiologists, Islam experts and missionaries and produce a report that MTW and our churches can use in thinking through these vitally important issues?

Read the entire Aquila Report article here.

Note: Dr. Kooistra is not the "emperor" here, the idea that MTW has produced all of the needed materials on Insider Movements is.

Correction

With the Assembly Internet currently down I'm correcting a post from earlier today. A friend who is one of the Former Insider experts at MTW asked me to correct my statement that he claimed that MTW didn't have any studies on the Insider Movement. He said that Dr. Kooistra states that he has three articles on the Movement. I initially thought that meant Mr. Kooistra has WRITTEN three articles, but it turns out that he simply HAS three articles, presumably for distribution to interested parties. Maybe this is the material that MTW "has available to the churches to help evaluate Insider Movements"?

All of this seems a far cry from level of study and evaluation most pastors would expect from our denomination concerning the most important theological/missiological issue of our time...

MTW has puzzling opposition to Study Committee on Insider Movements

On May 9 of this year the Committee on MTW passed a resolution recommending to the GA that it PASS the overture condemning "Insider" Bible translations but STRIKE the language calling for a study committee. The rationale is, in their own words, "MTW has conducted extensive research and has numerous resources and tools available to
assist local churches in evaluating insider movements."

What is the "Insider Movement"? Well, in some forms, it's bad, bad, bad... It's heresy, and we're not talking about paedocommunion heresy or Federal Vision heresy (which don't really fit the category of heresy) - it's completely give up the Gospel heresy and destroy the Church in the Islamic World, straight from the Pit of Hell heresy. Insider Movements tell Muslims that they can be good Muslims and believe in Jesus. They don't have to join a church, reject Mohammed, or get baptized. All they have to do is believe in Jesus. Brothers and sisters, since Islam is a religion created explicitly to reject Judaism and Christianity, that would be like saying that you can be a Christian and a Satanist (except you'd do a LOT less harm to others as a Satanist).

What my missiologist friends are telling me is that the Insider Movement, rather than adding to the number of Christians, is growing by luring Christians out of churches! There are also rumblings that MTW has been less than vigorous in dealing with this in the mission field. Now, Paul Kooistra (head of MTW) has apparently rejected Insider theology without reservation and written a short article or two about it. The problem is that there are Insider experts who are criticizing MTW's manner of dealing with this issue.

Do we really need a denominational study committee on this? Here are some reasons why we MUST have a study committee.

1) While they are claiming that they have material available to the churches, I wrote them as a pastor of a church asking for it and got no response. People I know who are "in the know" say that there's nothing they have besides an article or two by Dr. Kooistra. Maybe they have more, but they aren't giving them to the churches.

2) Since there's some rumbling about the cleanliness of MTW's hands in all of this, it would be most proper for people outside of MTW to deal with this. Not that MTW is always concerned about proper accountability and being beyond reproach in appearances. This is the agency which has Dr. Kooistra's brother as CFO (Dr. Kooistra controls the organization and his brother controls the money). My wife is a CPA and she doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the church finances because of the possible appearance of impropriety. It is important with money, but even more with the accurate teaching of the Gospel.

3) This is THE most significant theological issue since inerrancy. Do we wish to be asleep at the switch when this train comes bursting out of the tunnel?

What Travis Does at GA

Scanning the articles posted on the Aquila Report, I noticed my name mentioned in reference to a speech I gave at the last General Assembly of the PCA. The author posted a link whereby, if you advance the player, you can watch my short comment.

The comment was made in the midst of debate on the funding plan for the Administrative Committee of our denomination. I have objected for years that there is something morally wrong with taking money from the poor and giving it to denominational leaders to live in the upper middle class. There is a funding plan which would make the current voluntary system (if you like the salaries, go ahead and pay the money) involuntary (if you don't pay the money, then you don't have a voice at GA).

Ironically, I think the funding plan is actually a way to force wealthier churches to give. The problem is that they are avoiding the issues by trying to force everyone to pay and their using denominational resources to promote the plan whereby they force churches to give. And then the Stated Clerk chides opposition bloggers for speaking out against their plans. It's kind of like Hugo Chavez taking over most of the media and then threatening the remaining voices as if he's a victim of harassment.

This clip is a good example of why I don't think I should go to GA and why one of our Ruling Elders is going to try to keep me going.

Here's the link to the article, which contains the link to the video.

Excellent Article on the New York Evolution Case

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not one of those who spends a great deal of time banging the drum about biblical creationism. I'd rather talk about the cross and the kingdom of God. But that being said, the cross assumes a real historical Adam. Adam sinned for us all, as our representative, and plunged humanity into guilt and sin. Jesus, the New Adam, died for us, as our representative, so that we might be rescued from the plight of Adam. When you introduce evolution into this mix, the entire edifice begins to tremble. When you remove the historical Adam, it crumbles to the ground.

A Reformed pastor at the Pastor of Print blog has written an excellent article about the consequences of evolutionary teaching. As background, this article is about PCA pastor, Choong, who is teaching evolution in the New York Metro Presbytery. Choong was noticed by the Aquila Report a week or so ago, and gave the information to the local Presbytery. If New York Metro doesn't handle this, there will be numerous presbyteries clamoring for original jurisdiction.

Pastor of Print's excellent article can be found here.

The End of the Assembly Summarized

The 38th General Assembly ended with most of the Strategic Plan adopted (at least this stage of it adopted) with vigorous protest of a large part of the Assembly on some of the Plan. One of the PCAs remaining founders, Don Clements (the Aquila Report), expressed his concern in an article. Likening this to calling a pastor he posed a rhetorical question, "Who would take a call as a pastor with so many people dissenting?" Don is afraid that the Administrative Committee and other denominational functionaries (with a few prominent pastors thrown in) have won the battle of implementation but are in danger of losing the war for trust. Another founding pastor, Bill Iverson (also perhaps the greatest living evangelist in the PCA) delivered a stirring speech which seemed to be a condemnation of the worldliness of the whole thing and a call to return to faithfulness in advancing the Gospel.

The PCA issued a letter on homosexuality and the possible (likely?) repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. The PCA has a large, influential, and active chaplains corps and our chaplains are very concerned. The statement adopted by the PCA was made stronger on the floor of the Assembly and it was reported to us that the chaplains were VERY encouraged. Before the ink was dry on the statement it was communicated in substance to the Pentagon at a high level meeting. The PCA is often very loathe to speak on matters of politics but sounded a clear prophetic call on this one.

Without the expected debate on the "deaconess issue", the Assembly basically affirmed that is was not inappropriate for churches to have "deaconesses" or "diaconal assistants". It was also affirmed that ordination was only appropriate for men. This leaves many churches' practices in place and agrees with the practice of our Korean presbyteries, which have a position called a "kwonsa" which corresponds to this. This practice has some roots in older presbyterianism as well.

I plan on blogging more details about the Assembly and some thoughts on our denomination as well as some confessions and oddities. Coming soon: Travis gets nabbed by the po-po, Dan mostly redeems himself from cowarding, the Assembly finds truth out of order and yours truly fails to condemn blasphemy - along with one or two Nashville tips.