An Evening of Confessional Concern and Prayer / Prior to 42nd PCA GA

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PuritanCovenanter

The Joyful Curmudgeon
Staff member
http://confessingourhope.com/blog/2014/06/07/confessional-concern-and-prayer/

https://www.facebook.com/42ndGAprayer


Taken from the facebook page.....

The 42nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America set to gather in a little over one month in Houston. It is difficult, amid all the duties we have as elders in Christ’s church, to have a clear, confessional understanding of all the issues and implications before us at GA. Hard as it may be, our responsibility to prepare remains. To help augment your personal preparation, we are putting together an Evening of Confessional Concern and Prayer prior to the start of the 42nd General Assembly. We have chosen four of, what seem to be, the significant issues we will be addressing at this GA. We have also assembled a panel of three men: Dr. Sean Lucas, Dr. Rick Phillips, and Dr. Guy Waters. These men will discuss these issues for the sake of helping us consider their significance prior to being asked to vote. Each man will be the lead presenter of a topic, and the other men will be given the chance to respond and add their own thoughts.

Our objectives are simple. First, we want to gather PCA elders who are concerned about trends that may threaten our confessional unity as a denomination. Second, we want to highlight and provide information about matters of significant concern to this year’s assembly in the form of overtures and study committee reports. Third, we want to pray to our sovereign, gracious God for the faithfulness, unity, and well-being of our denomination. By expressing concern, providing information, and praying to our Lord, we seek to promote the unity, soundness, and vitality of the PCA. Of these three actions, prayer is undoubtedly the most important and valuable, since, as Psalm 124:8 tells us, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” With these aims in mind, we will be discussing four issues of importance that will come before the 42nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America:

1. The Standing Judicial Commision. The function and oversight of the SJC is obviously a “hot button” issue, based on the number of overtures submitted to the GA this year. Dr. Sean Lucas will be offering his thoughts on how to best address concerns of accountability in the SJC.
2. The Role of Women in Church Offices. With the study committee proposal from Philadelphia presbytery in overture 22 on the issue of male only eldership, we want to consider the implications of this overture with regard to the consensus in the PCA on the role of women in the church offices. Dr. Guy Waters will help us wade through the sticky questions in this area.
3. Erroneous Views of Creation. Overture 32 deals with erroneous view of creation. Obviously there is still a concern surrounding the influence of Biologos within the PCA. We want to work our way through this overture. Dr. Rick Phillips will be summarizing his understanding of the implications of this topic.
4. The Insider Movement. The contents of this report are of great significance as was seen in last year’s floor debate. We will consider if this report adequately addresses the objectives of the Assembly.

Our Evening of Confessional Concern and Prayer will meet on Monday, June 16 in Grand Ballroom J at the Hilton Americas Conference Center starting promptly at 7:00 p.m. Following the presentations we will sing and pray together, asking God to bless our deliberations at the court.If you are interested in attending this meeting, please RSVP to [email protected], or call (706) 798-2691. We hope to see you there as we desire to serve Christ’s church at the 42nd General Assembly. Anyone can attend this meeting, so feel free to pass the link to this page along to others you may think could be interested.

On behalf of my fellow organizers,

TE Geoff Gleason
Cliffwood Presbyterian Church
Augusta, GA

RE Melton Duncan, Sr.
Second Presbyterian Church
Greenville, SC

TE Richard D. Phillips
Second Presbyterian Church
Greenville, SC

TE Ken Pierce
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Jackson, MS

This looks like a wonderful endeavor.
Be Encouraged,
Randy
 
I wish I could be there but with the "pay to play" and the high cost of simply going to GA it is nearly impossible for a RE in a small church to attend. I will be praying, however.
 
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