Overture 29: Passed Presbyteries 79-1. An Officer’s view of Indwelling Sin, Actual Sin, and Sanctification matter. This is the language that was approved to BCO 16.4: “Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character. While office bearers will see spiritual perfection only in glory, they will continue in this life to confess and to mortify remaining sins in light of God’s work of progressive sanctification. Therefore, to be qualified for office, they must affirm the sinfulness of fallen desires, the reality and hope of progressive sanctification, and be committed to the pursuit of Spirit-empowered victory over their sinful temptations, inclinations, and actions.”
 
The Presbyterian Church in America just completed its Jubilee Assembly in Memphis, TN!  This 50th General Assembly on this 50th Anniversary year was a God-Glorifying, Christ-Exalting, Body-Edifying Time to say the least.  It was a week full of the joy of the Lord in our worship and work. The week flew by as we reconnected with old friends and made new ones. We’d say that this GA was a statement on Transparency and Accountability as many of these items will show.
Here are the Top 20 Key Actions or Impressions of the 50th PCA GA (loosely in the order they came to the Assembly).  Go here to read the same list again with all the details and links that are needed to understand and research the items.
1) TE Fred Greco was Nominated Moderator
Implication: Fred lived up to his reputation. He ran the Assembly with precision, wit, humor, and gravitas. The assembly ended earlier on Thursday than others in recent history.  A motion was made to make Fred the Permanent
2) Abuse Victim Protection Provisions (last year’s Overture)

Passed Presbyteries: 77-3, Passed GA near unanimously
Implication: Victims of Abuse don’t have to testify in the presence of their abuser.

3) Qualifications for Church Office (last year’s Overture)

Passed Presbyteries 79-1, Passed GA near unanimously
Implication: An Officer’s view of Indwelling Sin, Actual Sin, and Sanctification matter

4) Ordination Requirements and Procedures (last year’s Overture)

Passed Presbyteries 77-3, Passed GA near unanimously
Implication: Candidates view of Indwelling Sin, Actual Sin, and Sanctification matter

5) Overture 7 – Improved Reporting Requirements for Agencies and Committees

Passed 1271-88, Goes into effect immediately
Effects MNA, MTW, RUF, Covenant College, Covenant Seminary, etc.
Implication: There will be more transparency and accountability for the PCA’s Agencies and Committees. This helps ensure they are operating according to the desires of the Assembly.

6) Metro NY Presbytery Referred to the SJC for allowing a Woman to Preach

This came out of the RPR Report
Implication: Our System Works. Women Preachers are not allowed at Worship Services.

7) NW Georgia Presbytery Referred to the SJC for Congregational Meeting Delinquencies

This came out of the RPR Report
Implication: Our System Works. Following the process of Congregational meetings matters.

8) RUF Affiliation Agreement was flagged because it was not approved by the Assembly

Reformed University Fellowship will need to rework the Contract for approval next year.
Implication: Agencies and Permanent Committees need GA Approval on Major Policy changes.

9) Nominating Committee Recommendations – All Were Approved by the Assembly

Great Men were added to the SJC, MNA, MTW, RUF, Covenant College and Covenant Seminary, and other Agency Boards and Permanent Committees.
Implication: PCA Agencies and Permanent Committees will have good guidance and oversight.

10) Overture 23 – Requiring Officers Conformity to Biblical Standards of Sexuality

Passed (1673-223). This must now pass 2/3 of the Presbyteries this year.
Implication: Church officers must communicate their sin struggle according to the Biblical standard for chastity and sexual purity.

11) Overture 26 – Titles for Officers must Not be Used for Unordained People

Passed (1427-481). This must now pass 2/3 of the Presbyteries this year.
Implication: This clarifies how terms for our church offices are used and restricts them to only those who have been ordained according to Scripture as described in our Standards.

12) Overture 12 – Condemning Practice of Surgical & Medical Gender Reassignment Statement

Passed (1089-793). This takes effect immediately. Will be mailed to Federal & State Governments.
Implication: This will put the PCA on public record as taking a stance against transgender reassignment surgeries. Having a denominational stance on this issue can potentially benefit Christians in the public sphere when they may be required to take a stance against this evil.

13) Overture 28 – Reaffirm the “Message to All Churches” from 1973

Passed (1158-143), takes effect immediately
Implication: This statemen reaffirms the PCA’s 1973 so-called Declaration of Independence, showing our resolve to be faithful to our foundational principle and call our mother denomination, the PC(USA), to repentance.

14) Overture 14 –Attempt that will Hinder PCA Members who are Lawyers from Aiding in PCA Courts

Voted down by the Assembly (unanimous as part of larger vote)
Implication: This preserves that professional lawyers can participate in the church courts without undue restrictions. The language of the proposal would have severely restricted the ability of those members and elders in the legal profession from aiding members in Church Discipline cases. Language in BCO already prohibits paid counsel.

15) Overture 13 – Attempt to Allow atheists to testify in the Church courts

Voted down by the Assembly (1091-751)
Implication: This maintains the current BCO language which requires a belief in “the existence God or a future state of rewards and punishments” in order to testify in the Church courts

16) Overture 15 – Attempt to Codify that Women Cannot Preach to Assembled Christians in the PCA

Voted by the Assembly to refer back to the Overture’s authors (1725-139)
Implication: The decision to “refer back’ indicates the Assembly’s desire to address the subject of women preaching, but they would like the authors to refine and clarify the language before resubmitting the overture.

17) Wonderful Worship Services, Sermons, and Exhortations for our 50th Year

Ligon Duncan’s Call to “Stand Strong in the Lord or You will Fear Man” During His Sermon
O. Palmer Robertson’s Call to Be Ministers who Stand on and Preach the Word of God from the Bible and to Present Christ’s Bride Sanctified before Christ.

18) The Gospel Reformation Network Luncheon & its Honoring of the Late Dr. Harry Reeder

Over 700 people were present. This represents approx. 1/3 of the whole Assembly.
Shows a Commitment to the GRN Vision “To Cultivate Healthy Reformed Churches in the Presbyterian Church in America.”

 19) The Administrative Committee and Host Committee Did a Wonderful Job!

Thank you to all involved in making PCA GA 50 a Christ-honoring success in Memphis, TN!

20) All indications lead us to believe that the PCA is heading in the right direction.

The last 3 General Assemblies have shown that Transparency, Accountability, and Faithfulness are increasing.
Our Membership, Pastors, RUF Chapters, Church Plants, and Missionaries are all growing in #.
May we remain Faithful to the Scriptures, True to the Reformed Faith, and Obedient to the Great Commission.

________________________________________
GO HERE TO READ THE SUPPORTING DETAILS ON EACH OF THE ABOVE # ITEMS

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How, then, shall we disagree? We start by welcoming one another, and when we look to the clear light of Scripture we stand fully convinced on that solid ground. In other words, we disagree like Christians, like those who have been welcomed by the God of goodness and truth. And if Paul’s instructions don’t seem to relieve the tension you still feel between Scripture’s clarity and our fallibility, then number your days and ask for a heart of wisdom (Ps 90:12). We disagree because our dim little minds obscure even the purest light of heaven. The light is still shining and shining bright. May we learn to live in the light of God’s clear truth as he dispels our darkness and disagreement until one day we “know fully, even as [we] have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12).

One of the most common objections I hear from non-believers about Scripture is: “How do you know that you’re right about the Bible when so many other Christians disagree with you?” Usually, the mere existence of Christian denominations (a kind of crystallized disagreement) provides enough of an excuse for a scoffer to throw up his hands and walk away. And I know some in the church who have struggled with this reality as well. “If the Bible is as clear as you say, shouldn’t we all interpret it the same?”
My answer: The clarity of Scripture doesn’t erase Christian disagreements, but it does help us disagree like Christians.
We’ve already seen the Bible’s own case for its clarity and the undergirding of that clarity in the character of God. Beyond that, we’ve considered the natural blindness of mankind to biblical truth and the Scripture’s own demand for obedience to grant understanding. So, Christians should expect to disagree with non-Christians about the Bible – we’re starting from a different premise, so we’ll naturally reach different conclusions. We also saw that we can only be enabled to rightly read the Scriptures when Christ illumines our spiritual eyes to see the clear truth in his light.
So, if all Christians have the same Holy Spirit helping them read the same, clear text, why all the disagreement? Why do some baptize babies and others don’t? Why do some teach sovereign election and others don’t? Why do some believe in a pre-tribulational rapture, some mid-trib, some post-trib, and some the pre-wrath mid-trib double-check discount rapture? Shouldn’t a clear text with the clear light of Christ lead to clear, universal agreement among earnest Bible readers?
Christians can and do still disagree in their interpretations of the clear Scriptures for three reasons, none of which negate the clarity of Scripture itself. Christians disagree because of sin (we may still reject a clear text because of a hard heart), finitude (we are limited beings who can only know so much), and distance (we’re removed from the authors of Scripture by thousands of years, a language barrier, and differing cultural values that need to be grasped before rightly interpreting the text). A combination of these factors can pour mud into the crystal-clear waters of Scripture and make it hard for us to see the bottom. The consequence, then, is that Christians still disagree on the right interpretation of a clear text of Scripture.
So, it’s obvious that we disagree, and it’s apparent why we disagree. The question is how, then, shall we disagree?
The apostle Paul gives us a roadmap to Christian disagreement in Romans 14:1-12. Without plumbing the depths of this text, I just want to help us see Paul’s two chief commands for disagreeing with Christians like Christians. First, “welcome one another.” Second, “be fully convinced.”
Welcome One Another
In writing from the church at Corinth (known for its division), the apostle Paul assumes that the Roman church (whom he has not visited) needs to be prepared for disagreements among the brethren. In fact, Paul seems to assume in his letter to the Roman Christians that they will disagree. This is the same apostle Paul who assumes that Timothy can “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). This is the same apostle Paul who “reasoned from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2) and told his protégé to devote himself to “the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim 4:13). Paul certainly believes the Scriptures are understandable, or else his whole ministry would be forfeit! And yet, Paul also anticipates that Christians who approach the same texts of Scripture will arrive at different conclusions regarding eating meat and esteeming certain days. Paul assumes Christians will disagree.
We should also notice that in this passage Paul believes that when Christians disagree, someone is right and someone is wrong. “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself” (Rom 14:14). The mere presence of a disagreement doesn’t kneecap the truth. Paul’s no post-modern life coach spewing relativist nonsense about “your truth,” “all truths,” and “the truthiness of truth.” No, Paul knows that there is a right way to understand and apply the New Covenant to the lives of believers (the “strong” position), and there are “weak” brothers who need to mature spiritually into that right understanding.
And yet, even though Paul knows there will be disagreements and truly believes that one side is right and another wrong, his first word to his fellow Christians is not a resolution to the debate! More than simply landing the plane for them, Paul wants them to learn how to land it in one piece. In Christian disagreements, Paul wants to first turn their attention to how they love each other in the midst of their difference.
Paul says, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (Rom 14:1). Meaning that before you try to correct another Christian with whom you disagree, you ought to warmly, richly, hospitably embrace him as your brother first. And why should you do that? “For God has welcomed him” (Rom 14:3). If God was willing to bring you close, make peace with you by the blood of his Son, and bring you into the family home, then who are you to begrudge that same welcome to another?
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Gill recognizes that as a sinful human, he is meant to struggle, and there is power in embracing that struggle. Indeed, the only real way for people to flourish is to let go of pride and accept and even embrace the humiliating realities of life. Gill gets this, making his song a radical departure from the mental health industry’s sole focus on “chemical imbalances” and “biological predispositions” to various mental ailments. 

Gen Z is being marked down as the most mentally ill generation to date. Disturbing rates of anxiety, self-harm, suicide, and depression plague young people, with professionals calling it an “epidemic.”
That’s the cultural context for “Hi Ren,” a nine-minute rhythmically and lyrically genius blend of rap, singing, and acoustic guitar by English musician Ren Gill.

“Hi Ren,” thrusts you into the harrowing internal battle within Gill’s tormented psyche. The Music video is filmed in an unsettling room inside a mental institution, with Gill dressed in a hospital gown and seated in a wheelchair. The song appears to be a vocal and visual representation of mental illness or perhaps addiction.

Throughout the song, Gill switches character between a scary and belittling version of himself, to a positive part of himself that wants to thrive, make music, and be fulfilled.
At first blush, “Hi Ren” seems to be yet another song about mental health struggles and internal turmoil. When the “good” Ren wants the “bad” Red to go away, “bad” Ren responds, “You think that you can amputate me? I am you, you are me, you are I, I am we. We are one, split in two that makes one so you see? You got to kill you if you wanna kill me.”
However, things take on a dramatically new and counter-cultural meaning when the “bad” Ren reveals himself as entirely separate from the real Ren:
I was created at the dawn of creation,I am temptationI am the snake in Eden,I am the reason for treasonBeheading all Kings,I am sin with no rhyme or reason,Sun of the morning, Lucifer,Antichrist, father of lies,Mephistopheles,Truth in a blender,Deceitful pretender,The banished avenger,The righteous surrenderWhen standing in-front of my solar eclipse,My name it is stitched to your lips so seeI won’t bow to the will of a mortal, feeble and normalYou wana kill me? I’m eternal, immortalI live in every decision that catalysed chaosThat causes divisionI live inside death, the beginning of endsI am you, you are me, I am you, Ren
The development of the song reveals the earlier assertion that “bad” Ren is the same as “good” Ren is a malicious falsehood. “Bad” Ren is not Ren at all, but the Devil himself—the “father of lies.” He is “truth in a blender,” a “deceitful pretender.”
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