The Assembly will have the opportunity to consider whether to uphold our polity and/or to reform our judicial procedures. Additionally the Assembly will take crucial votes regarding the personnel who comprise our GA Committees and Judicial Commission as well as for the staff who administer the daily operations of the denominational agencies.

Thanks to last year’s overture from the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley (PMV), a broad consensus regarding officer qualifications and character seems to be emerging in the PCA. This much-needed respite from debates on sexuality and abuse has given the PCA the luxury to focus on other issues that may seem less exciting, but may be more significant.
This year’s Assembly will focus largely on three main issues: Polity, Procedure, and Personnel. The Assembly will have the opportunity to consider whether to uphold our polity and/or to reform our judicial procedures. Additionally the Assembly will take crucial votes regarding the personnel who comprise our GA Committees and Judicial Commission as well as for the staff who administer the daily operations of the denominational agencies.
A number of men have prepared guides to and analyses of the overtures as they prepared for GA. Some of them have been made available to others; this is not an attempt to sway votes, but to aid the brethren in their own preparations:
TE David CoffinRE Howie DonahoeTEs Jared Nelson & Scott Edburg (Polity Matters Podcast)TE Fred Greco
Whether you’re an elder or not, I’d encourage you to consider the commentary provided by these brothers. It will help you to better understand and to talk with the elders and members of your congregation about the issues before the Assembly.
I. Presiding Officer
The first vote of the Assembly will be to elect a new moderator. TE Fred Greco did a superb job in the role at the PCA’s Semi-Centennial Assembly. An attempt to elect him “moderator for life” was ruled out of order at the close of last year.
By custom, this year’s moderator will come from among the PCA’s Ruling Elders, since last year’s moderator was a Teaching Elder.
For Prayer: Ask the Lord to grant the Church a moderator who is clear, compassionate, and competent to efficiently guide the Assembly through the business. Pray God will give the moderator wisdom in the appointments and rulings he will make.
II. Previous Overtures
One of the first votes of the Assembly will be whether to ratify the Amendments to the Book of Church Order that were passed by the 50th General Assembly. This year there are three items the 51st Assembly may ratify:
Item 1: The titles of pastor, elder, and deacon may be used to refer only to men ordained by a church court to those offices.
Item 2: Officers in the PCA must conform to the biblical requirement of chastity in their convictions, character, and conduct.
Item 3: Any confession from a person coming as his own accuser must be reviewed by the person(s) offended before a Church Court approves an official confession.
For Prayer: Ask the Lord to grant unity to the PCA regarding decisions on these items and to promote truth, righteousness, and justice in all the Courts of the PCA.
III. Polity
1. Review of Presbytery Records (RPR)
Among the most important works of the General Assembly is the examination of the minutes of the 88 presbyteries that comprise the PCA. This is a necessary component of our polity and ensures consistency and fairness across the spectrum of the PCA.
Each year a committee consisting of (up to) one representative from each presbytery examines the minutes of the presbyteries to ensure the presbyteries are upholding the theology of the Westminster Standards, balancing the rights and responsibilities of the congregations and ministers who comprise the Presbyteries, and correctly recording the actions of the Presbyteries.
Holding one another accountable, spurring one another along, and encouraging the brethren is a crucial aspect of Presbyterianism. The RPR committee meets this week; its report is usually worth careful consideration.
At last year’s General Assembly two presbyteries were referred to the Judicial Commission (SJC) due to irregularities in their minutes. For example, Metro New York Presbytery will have to report back on how it has fulfilled the corrective actions mandated by the SJC to this year’s Assembly (see WS Pod Episode 27 for more).
2. Preaching (Overture 3)
Last year the PCA saw a number of congregations depart for independency or more progressive faith communions over the issue of women’s roles (see WS Pod Special Episode for more).
Even though some churches have left the PCA due to a desire for women to preach, other congregations continue to push the envelope on the matter. Pee Dee Presbytery has proposed granting a section of our Directory of Worship (Chapter 53) constitutional authority and specifying that only “qualified men” may preach.
In our day there is great confusion both in the Church and the culture. Language games and equivocations abuse the plain meaning of words, which require us to further clarify our position on preaching: what it is and who may do it. The Overture says much more than that only “qualified men” may preach, but that seems to be the focus of the attention. The definition and description of a sermon contained in BCO 53 is a needed addition to our Constitution.
(See WS Pod Episode 9 for an interview with the author of this overture or this recent episode of Presbycast).
3. RUF Affiliation Agreement
At last year’s Assembly, there was prolonged debate over a new standardized Affiliation Agreement that RUF National desired to have implemented across the denomination.
TE Zach Byrd of PMV successfully argued before the Assembly last year that RUF National Committee must submit any substantial change to the review and control of the General Assembly.
As the new “Affiliation Agreement” was crafted for consideration by the Richmond Assembly, careful attention was paid to the relationship between a campus ministry of RUF, the presbytery of which the RUF campus minister is a member, and the RUF National and Regional Coordinators.
For Prayer: Ask the Lord to bless the Presbyterian Church in America and keep us faithful to our historic polity and more rigorously, zealously, and charitably to apply the biblical principles Christ has given to govern His Church.
IV. Personnel
1. Nominating Committee
The Report of the Nominating Committee is one of the Assembly’s few “orders of the day.” At this time dozens of men are elected to serve on the boards (committees) for the agencies of the Presbyterian Church in America as well as her Standing Judicial Commission and special committees.
These committees are responsible for ensuring the staff and agency coordinators execute the policies and priorities of the General Assembly. These committees recommend to the Assembly who will serve as Agency Coordinators (e.g. Covenant College President, MTW Coordinator, Stated Clerk, etc.).
As a Presbyterian communion, the heads of staff for our missionary and discipleship organizations (e.g. MTW, RUF) are not styled “Presidents” as in the case of many other faith communions, but “Coordinators.” This is because the heads of staff for the PCA committees are ministers of the General Assembly and not executives with broad powers. This is another way in which the grass-roots nature of the PCA is manifested.
2. Election of the Stated Clerk
The Administrative Committee annually recommends a candidate to the Assembly to serve as Stated Clerk. Frequently, this election is simply a formality with the current clerk receiving overwhelming reelection. There have been some exceptions, for example at the 1986 General Assembly there was much back and forth regarding the resignation of inaugural Stated Clerk Dr Morton H Smith.1
The current Stated Clerk’s tenure has not been without controversy. In 2021 there was objection to his continued service on the SJC while simultaneously serving as interim Stated Clerk; historically when a judge on the SJC is elected Stated Clerk, he resigns his position on the SJC. As interim clerk, however, TE Chapell continued to participate in the SJC until the Assembly elected him Stated Clerk at which point he did resign. But many brothers believed he should have resigned or abstained during his service as interim.
In 2022 there were many questions as to whether the Stated Clerk had been or continued to be a member of the “National Partnership,” a caucus group advocating for progressive causes within the PCA. TE Chapell denied ever having been a member of the now-defunct Partnership and while emails claim him as a member, there is no evidence he actually participated in the National Partnership.
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The presence of God, represented by the angel Gabriel, appeared to Zechariah and to Mary. Next, we see the presence of God with an unnamed angel who proclaims Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. God interrupted their humble job as caretakers of sheep, which led to their assignment as the first evangelists to share the good news. As the Theology of Work Bible Commentary (vol. 4) notes,  “God is able to break into the midst of everyday life with his goodness and glory.”

In this Advent season, we celebrate the birth of Immanuel, who brought God’s presence to us. As we live in between Jesus’s first and second comings, the reality of his presence affects every aspect of our lives at church, at home, and at work.
Luke’s version of the Christmas story offers glimpses of men and women of faith—ordinary workers, like you and me—who illustrate the repeated biblical connection between God’s presence and human work, which I call Immanuel labor. I invite you to join me as I unpack their stories, share some observations, and consider how to apply these principles to experience God’s presence at work.
Zechariah’s Work
The first character Luke introduces us to in the Christmas story is Zechariah, an ordinary priest. His wife, Elizabeth, was barren (we also later learn she is a close relative of Mary, Jesus’ mother). When Zechariah was doing his duty serving in the temple, he was randomly chosen to burn incense. Luke tells us that there, in the middle of carrying out his job, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, announcing that Elizabeth would bear a son who would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Lk. 1:5-17).
This divine encounter undoubtedly enabled Zechariah to continue his priestly work in a new light, but it also gave him a new role: the father of the boy who would grow up to be John the Baptist. As we consider how God’s presence with Zechariah might apply to us, perhaps our most significant contributions to God’s Kingdom are not what we accomplish, but what God will do through the children we raise.
Mary’s Faith 
Like Zechariah, Mary is an example of an ordinary parent raising an extraordinary son—and thus another great example of God’s presence connecting with human work. However, Mary’s faith in God was deeper and her work far more profound.
God was present with Mary as the Holy Spirit came upon her at Jesus’s conception (Lk. 1:35). God was present while she was in labor to deliver the Deliverer. Through the pain of childbirth that Eve was cursed with in Genesis 3:16, Jesus was born so that we could be born again. God was present with her as Jesus’ loving mother as she worked daily to meet his human needs.
In reading Mary’s song of praise (Lk. 1:46-55), we see that she not only understood God’s omnipresence with his chosen people, but that she had experienced his presence personally.
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Jesus is first shown to be majestic and mighty. He is king, ruler, the Lion. He is sovereign, and fulfills our longings for greatness, for a ruler strong and mighty to impress us with power and win our trust and protect us and provide for us and give us life. But we long not only for a great human king. We long for God himself. And this Lion of Judah is not just Messiah, a human king. He is God himself.

One of the reasons that we love Jesus is his paradoxes.
In Jesus in particular, we see realities come together that our human instincts do not expect to be together, and then we see, with surprise and delight, that they do indeed fit together, contrary to our assumptions — and it makes our souls soar with joy.
The beautiful paradoxes of Christ expose our false and weak and small expectations. They remind us that we did not design this world. We do not run this world. And we did not design God’s rescue of us. And we cannot save ourselves, but God can — and does, in the Word made flesh.
As Christians, we confess that Jesus is Lord. That is, he is fully God. He is the towering, all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful God. As God, he formed and made all things, and every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus is Yahweh — the sacred old-covenant name of God revealed in Exodus. Jesus is creator, sustainer, supreme Lord of heaven and earth, almighty in power, infinite in majesty, our Lord and our God.
And we confess that Jesus is our Savior. Without ceasing to be God, Jesus took our full humanity: flesh and blood, human body and reasoning soul, with human mind and emotions and will, and with all our lowliness and ordinariness. Jesus had a normal Hebrew name: Yeshua, Joshua. In the incarnation, he added to his eternal divine person a full and complete human nature and came among us, as one of us, to save us.
So, Jesus is glorious as sovereign Lord, and Jesus is glorious as our rescuing, self-sacrificing Savior. And we come to Revelation 5 to linger in the paradox and beauty of majesty and meekness, of might and mercy, of grandeur and gentleness, in this one spectacular person.
Our Longings Met in Jesus
In verse 1, the apostle John looks and sees — in the right hand of God, the one seated on heaven’s throne — “a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.” These are the eternal and hidden purposes of God to be unfolded in history, the mystery of his manifold wisdom to be revealed in the fullness of time, judgments against his enemies and salvation for his people in the coming chapters of Revelation. Centuries before, God had said to his prophet (in Daniel 12:4), “Shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.” Now the sealed scroll is in the hand of God, in full view of all of heaven, ready to be unsealed.
John is riveted. He wants to know what’s in the scroll. What mysteries does God have to reveal? What wisdom of God, what purposes for history, might now be made known in this scroll? Then John hears in verse 2 “a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’”
Now, at this point, it might be tempting to run right through verses 3 and 4 and miss the weight of this moment in heaven. Not so fast. This is what the seasons of Advent and Lent are for: to slow down and feel the weight in the waiting. Instead of racing ahead to Christmas, or Easter, we prepare our hearts by pausing to feel some of the ache of what God’s people felt for centuries as they waited for the promised Messiah. Or the horror and utter devastation of what his disciples felt in the agony of Good Friday and in what must have seemed like the longest day in the history of the world on Holy Saturday. The pause, the waiting, helps us see and enjoy the risen Christ as the supreme Treasure he is.
So, the angel asks, “Who is worthy to open the book?” And verse 3 says, “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.” No one in heaven. None of the four great creatures around the throne. None of the angelic elders who lead in worship. None of the angels, in all the heavenly host. Not Gabriel. Not Michael. And get this: not even the one sitting on the throne opens the scroll. Not the Father. Not the Spirit. So, heaven waits.
And if no one in heaven, then of course no one on the earth or under the earth. None living or dead is worthy to open God’s scroll. Mere humans like us are not worthy to unveil his great mystery. And so, heaven waits. “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.”
Weep No More
John begins to weep, loudly. Perhaps he even wonders, What about Jesus? Verse 4: “I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.” John doesn’t tell us how long he wept, but mercifully, the announcement soon came.
In verse 5 — what an amazing moment — one of the elders turns to John and says,
Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
So, now through the lens of verses 5–6, let’s look together at three aspects of the longing and aches of our souls fulfilled in Jesus, our Treasure.
1. We Long for Majesty and Might
We long to see and admire and benefit from greatness. And the voice rings out in verse 5, “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.”
“Lion of Judah” signifies that this is the long-promised king of Israel, the Messiah. In Genesis 49, as the patriarch Jacob neared death, he prophesied over each of his twelve sons, and said to Judah that his tribe would produce the nation’s kings.
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