No, not me; I am safe and secure in Louisville this week. No, there are some brothers who are blogging about the PCA GA this week, including my good friend Kevin Carroll and his good friend Andrew Barnes. Click on their respective blogs if you’d like to follow the festivities.
As an aside, I’d like to add that Kevin is such a good friend that I’m thinking of writing both the Moderator of the PCA and the chairman of their Committee on Interchurch Relations and ask that Kevin be sent to Bonclarken each year as the PCA’s delegate to our General Synod. Yes, he’s that good of a guy.
But back to business. For all the tension and excitement at General Synod last week, at least the opening evening worship service was edifying, uplifting, and (most importantly) God-glorifying. OK, the organ was WAY too loud at one point, but otherwise no complaints. The same cannot necessarily be said for the PCA, however. Consider this account from Andrew Barnes:
… I had a hard time this evening, it was a struggle, and I wouldn’t want anyone to experience what I did. Besides the sermon (which had a good message overall: we are to love one another as Christ loves the Church), a testimony was given during worship. Testimonies should not be part of the worship of God. Worship is clear in Scripture. It is to contain the means of grace: Word, sacraments, and prayer. Testimonies are not part of this. They are better suited to happen before worship.Besides this there was the last element that troubled me and that was the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. There were icons on the front table, distracting ‘praise’ music playing during the celebration of this solemn sacrament, the sacrament was not set apart for holy purposes, and besides that there were Roman Catholic overtones throughout the whole celebration of the sacrament. I even believe I saw a woman serving communion. I say “I believe I saw” because she was caring and walking with the communion tray during the administration of the sacrament. The sacrament was celebrated contrary to our Standards (WCF 29), which we believe is a summary of Scripture, and our Book of Church Order (BCO 58-5). To conclude my thoughts on worship, I quote a friend (a minister in Texas) who said of the service, “it’s a microcosm of the sorts of schizophrenia that is found in PCA worship.”
Apparently Kevin was nearby (he also overhead the schizophrenia comment), and his comments are similar:
The Assembly officially convened this evening with a nearly two hour worship service. It was a strange, eclectic blend of worship styles, somewhere between Reformed, Charismatic, Revivalist, and Roman Catholic. (My friend, Rev. Chris Thomas described the worship service as a microcosm of the “schizophrenia” of the PCA.) The service began with a majestic organ prelude. Immediately afterwards a praise band got up and led in a number of songs that, while contemporary, were pretty theologically sound. (Think Sovereign Grace Ministries.) Rev. Skip Ryan then got up and gave a personal testimony about his struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers. While I am thankful that he has been delivered from the addiction, the entire segment was a gigantic non sequitur, not relating to any of the themes of either the Assembly or the worship service that I could tell. Retiring Moderator Paul Kooistra gave a good message on the necessity of loving others, especially those with whom we have differences. (I suspect he has read the tea leaves and divined a contentious Assembly ahead.) Finally we celebrated the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. I was a litte uncomfortable; the whole affair was carried out with something of a Roman Catholic flair. The reponses (“The Lord be with you.” “And also with you.” Etc.) and manner of distribution (viz. coming to the table, taking the bread, dipping it in the wine, being told “The Body of Christ” as you did so, etc.) all left me feeling a bit odd.
OK, the schizophrenia comment is not the best description (I don’t believe, for instance, schizophrenia is synonymous with having multiple or split personalities). Rather, I likened it to a really really bland shepherd’s pie: piling all the leftover ingredients you can into a dish so that in the end nobody’s really happy.
Tim. Thanks for the kind words on behalf of both myself and Andrew. We are rooming together and have had a lot of fun.
Today will be a very important day on the floor, so keep us in your prayers.
And if you were serious about recommending me to be the PCA Fraternal Delegate to the ARP, I would be honored! (And accept!)
Thanks to both revkev and Rev. Barnes for their updates.
Allow me to add my $.02. Larry Roff’s organ prelude was great – as usual. Paul Kooistra’s sermon was OK, and since I’m preaching through 1 Corinthians a bit helpful for illustrations and ideas, but hardly fit for the opening worship at GA. Skip Ryan’s testimony answered a number of questions about him, but certainly should not have been part of worship. The praise band added nothing, was a distraction, and their voices were not suited for leading a service – their musical entrances on “Before the Throne of God Above” were late. Personally I had no problem with Joe Novenson leading worship but he was a bit too wordy. I did not see the woman AB refers to. It seems we have a number of churches doing away with pew communion and having folks come forward. The intinction did smack of Romanism. But, I did deeply appreciate the liturgy of the Sacrament.
I must say I did not go the other times for worship – praise bands and rock in worship bum me out.
We did vote down a study committee on the deaconess issue – but only by 20 votes.
The ARP Fraternal Delegate did mention the Erskine issue.
We are done for this year and some of what went on was appropriate for being in the land of Mickey Mouse!