By Matt Fender | June 2, 2023 Please note that the Editorial Board of Presbyterian Polity does not necessarily endorse all views expressed on the blog of this site, but the editors are pleased to present well-crafted position papers on issues facing Presbyterian churches and denominations. What follows is one such paper for our readers’ … More Making the Case against Overtures 10 & 14
By Brad Isbell | May 31, 2023 Dozens of congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) communicate to the church and to the world that ordination is not essential to the holding of church office or to bearing the titles thereof. The two-office polity of the PCA is simple and clear; its on-the-ground manifestation … More PCA Officers & Their Pronouns
by The Editors | May 29, 2023 With the 50th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) coming up in just a couple weeks (June 13-16) and the Commissioner Handbook now available through the PCA’s Administrative Committee, the denomination’s elders who will be attending need all the help they can get to prepare. … More Info Guide to Overtures before PCAGA50
By Ryan Speck | May 5, 2023 In Matthew 18:20, Jesus promises that “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (cf. 1 Cor. 5:4). Does this mean that two Christians gathering at a restaurant for lunch have achieved a Temple experience? Put another way, … More The Discipline of Worship
By Brad Isbell | April 27, 2023 The Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) Book of Church Order (BCO) contains no glossary, but maybe it needs one. This is not to fault the BCO’s early-70’s authors — no previous generation of Presbyterians had trouble figuring out what most of the words meant, including those words that … More An Overture on Titles & Ordination
by Zachary Groff | April 24, 2023 Whenever people gather as a group to accomplish certain tasks and to achieve shared goals, they must operate according to rules held in common. The more formal the group, the more formal the expression of said rules must be. However formal or informal, these rules direct the group … More What Can the BCO Teach Us?
by Zachary Groff | April 14, 2023 Every conscientious presbyter serving in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) should have a chunky blue binder containing the Book of Church Order (BCO) within easy reach of his desk or workspace. Like all good binders, this one includes pockets on the insides of the front and back … More A Newly Published Resource for Presbyters
By Jacob Gerber | March 13, 2023 Who Is Responsible for Church Discipline? Church discipline is painful and messy. Even the very lowest levels of church discipline are agonizing, when we admonish someone we notice to be sinning. The pain of church discipline only ratchets up, though, as we approach the ultimate censure of the … More Who Is Responsible for Church Discipline?
By Philip Ryan | February 24, 2023 “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18 For the second year in a row, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) has sent down overtures regarding the sexuality of ministers to the presbyteries. Overture 29 presented to the 49th … More Mainline Presbyterianism & the LGBTQ Movement
By Brad Isbell | January 24, 2022 The state of worship in the Presbyterian Church in America is arguably better than it has ever been, at least as far as liturgy goes. More churches now use recognizably Reformed liturgies than at any point in the denomination’s history. These are liturgies that include the biblical elements … More Worship, Polity, & the PCA