GA: A Word About the Action on the Justification Report

Okay, as the Internet is buzzing about our action on the report (and has been before we even officially saw it), and I've received comments and emails wondering about it, I feel compelled to say a little more--for the sake of those who read this, particularly those in my church. I'm hesitant to say much, waiting for our Committee on Christian Ed to put out the final official version of the report with an explanatory preface. But, we've got to give people something to start with. I may keep writing a bit on this later. Polymathis is finding all sorts of interesting things about the word "commend" just by doing Adobe searches through the minutes :)

Anyway, here's a little something written by Guest Blogger Jason Wallace, the pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church, Salt Lake, my seminary mentor and all-around good guy (my first guest blogger, I think). Without further ado, take it away Jason:

The politics of spin never cease to amaze me. Anyone who wants to think the OPC backed away by "not adopting" the justification report is deluded. People need to look up what adoption means in Robert's Rules before offering opinions.

The whole idea of adoption was based on a misunderstanding of the differences between our standing rules and Robert's Rules. The report was never intended for adoption, and it was only suggested when someone tried to make more of that than was intended. I know of no one who wanted to bind themselves to every single word of the report. Adoption would have created more confusion than clarity. We also did not want to open the report up to endless amendments. This is not the Westminster Confession. It has been recommended in the strongest terms. It was also recommended by the General Assembly today to devote an issue of New Horizons to critiquing the New Perspectives and Federal Vision.

The OPC has spoken, but to many of our critics nothing will satisfy them. They have splintered the church with innuendo, and must now pick apart everything we do to justify themselves. They will seize on this and say, "See, they didn't adopt!" On the other hand, some who desire to promote these heresies may choose to believe they are free to do so. If they do, they will be charged and tried in the courts of the church.

GA: Other Stuff

so where's everything else from the last couple of days? Um, dull, confusing, and maddening...just not up for it right now. Dull is probably not the right word--it's very important stuff, but mind-numbing when you're in the middle of it (a judicial appeal, reworking the funding of our Worldwide Outreach, etc.). I'll get to it. We have quite the full day tomorrow, and little time to do it in.

Prayer would be appreciated.

GA: Justification Report

The GA has just voted (with practically no dissent) to request that our committee on Christian Education distribute the Report of the Committee to Study the Doctrine of Justification, commending it for study. This report will be distributed to seminaries, churches, other denominations, and our website with a prefatory statement to the report explaining the context around the origin of the report, what commending a report means and the statement on Justification adopted by the 71st GA.

The study committee was dismissed with thanks "for their arduous labors"

Soli Deo Gloria!

UPDATE: It occurs to me that I only reported on today's action re: the Justification Report. We did take some action on Saturday, and I was just going to hold off and do it all at once. Well, Polymathis covered all the bases in his post, so I'll just point to it (link will open in a new window). I plan on posting some general reflections on the report/the process in day or so.

Dodging Palos Heights Vice

Yesterday I introduce a pastor to Penguin mints...come to think of it, he's the pastor from the other day's little anecdote. Now I should point out, I don't down these things like crazy--I'm normally an Altoids man...but when it comes to attending series of long meetings, I play it safe. During a dull debate the pastor turns around and pantomimes to me popping a mint in his mouth, so I have someone pass them up 2 rows and he pops one and passes them back.

About 30 min. later he passes a dollar bill back to me and pantomimes some more...so I grab a handful for myself and pass the tin up to him (I brought two half-full tins, so not a problematic thing for me--just have to switch to peppermint from cinnamon).

If my first GA ends with me being accused of selling pep pills, my ecclesiastical career is over. Oh well, at least my breath will be fresh...

GA: The Rest of the Weekend

(links in this post open in new windows...I try to do that generally, but normally fail...didn't here)

Well, as you can see from the report on the OPC site, we didn't finish things up with the justification report--I'll hold off on further comments on that 'til we're done. Again, the report shows the details of the elections and money numbers we saw the rest of Saturday.

Yesterday, I had a very pleasant morning worshipping at a local congregation. Good sermon--reformed preaching always sounds better with a Scottish accent (right Lucy?)--after the service the associate general secretary of our Home Missions Committee (and moderator of GA) spoke about Home Missions--quite encouraging, and then we were treated to a very nice church dinner. It's mostly personal preference, but wow...was so nice to see everyone--men, women, children, teens--dressed for church. Ties (mostly with jackets--and I'm including the young), nice dresses, no jeans, no shorts, no sandals. I know that makes me a narrow, mean, curmudgeon. I'm fine with that.

Then in the evening there was a joint communion service with the six OPC congregations in the area and the commissioners--don't know the number of people there, but pretty sure I've never been in a congregation that large. Great service (tho' the organ was a touch too loud) and a fantastic sermon by Pastor Bill Shishko: Biblical High Churchmanship. I highly recommend listening to it. In fact, for those readers of this blog who happen to be members of my church, while I cannot compel you to listen to it, consider yourself strongly urged by one of those who keeps watch over your soul to do so. Urged not only to listen, but to pray about it, meditate upon it, and consider how it applies to our congregation--and then get back to me (and the rest of the session) with how we might apply what was said.

Ack!

I just said 6/24! Obviously, no offense is meant to my friends/readers who are of the the Framework, Day Age, etc. perspectives.

;-)

GA: Day 4 (part 1)

As I start this we're about 15 minutes or so into the day (am typing this while taking notes on and listening to the presentation), the Committee on Justification is presenting its report. Obviously, this is the hot topic this year, it's the thing the GA will be judged by. No one is going to evaluate this GA by whether or not we're going to agree on a new Directory for Public Worship (we won't)--it's been 20 years already, what's another? Nor will we be evaluated by whether or not we end up with a mechanism to respond to Hurricane Katrina-type natural disaster (we're working on it). No, we will be judged--and the judging has already started by people who couldn't bother to wait for the GA to act before denouncing the OPC (both on the pro and con sides of the controversies).

This is going to be a long and eventful day, I trust. If you're reading this during the day on 6/24, please pray for God's guidance on the Assembly.

UPDATE: coming back from lunch, at this point it does look like there's a good deal of support for the Committee's report. 8-)

GA: Day 3

Perhaps the best way to start this is with a story about a Presbytery meeting I attended a few years ago. A friend of mine came with me, a former PCA Ruling Elder, he was then an OPC licentiate. I don't remember exactly what was being discussed, but I believe it was something like the time of adjournment for the next meeting (6 months away)--and we spent what could've been 15-20 minutes (probably only 10, just seemed like 30) on the issue. My friend leans over to me, huge smile on his face, cackling, "This is soooo OPC."

So today, we have long, meandering, technical debates over what reports we should/should not include in the minutes; how an action that it seemed most people wanted should be given to a committee to take care of; whether or not something that a significant number wanted to go to another committee could be given to a committee in the first place (and that's before we got to wondering if people wanted it to go anywhere at all). I could just see my friend busting a gut and how typically OP it was.

That's not to suggest that everything was the level of beating-your-head-against-a-wall like that. Heard some great reports of what's going on in Foreign Missions--including some moving and poignant discussions of a Missionary that died in the field this year. Home Missions was equally encouraging--the number of non-English language works starting in the US was great to hear in such a supposedly homogenous denomination (tho' politically troubling, I must admit). A lot of what I heard today made me glad to be here, just so I could hear it, be challenged by it, and praise the Lord for it. God is doing some good things through the OPC, and if He sustains her by His grace, they shall continue.

Had other stuff I wanted to say, but it's 1:20 local time here, and in 7 hrs and change we start discussing this little report on justification that you might have heard about. Need to get some shut-eye before that.

Can I go home now?

So I'm taking things easy last night IM'ing with my wife and another GA commissioner (yeah, kinda sad, instead of the usual hundreds of miles separating us, we're hundreds of feet away and we're IM'ing). Wife hasn't had much conversation with anyone over 7, so we're joking around, etc. And that's when I do something dumb.

I say something PG, yet something really only appropriate to say to your wife. And then I look to the top of the window, and YIPE! That's not my wife's window!! I have the strongest desire to just vanish. Change denominations effectively immediately. Think about praying for a power spike that will kill all electronic communications/hard drives/etc. in a 10 mile radius. The pastor smiles at me, reminds me we're OPC, not PCUSA, and drops it (at least temporarily, he'll likely bring it up again from time to time to keep me in line). Then I close his window. Not going to repeat that.

My wife is laughing. I've given a man a good deal of ammunition to use against me. And I feel like I'm back in high school, going through one of those humiliating moments that scar your psyche for life. [sigh]

GA: Day 2

Well, the OPC's running report is here and Pastor Polymathis reported a bit on today, too. Keep an eye on both of those...am sure they'll be more informative.

Today was the day for the Advisory Committees to get their work done. Didn't take too long for mine, had the afternoon and evening to kill. Mostly sat in my room enjoying the AC, reading, doing some sermon prep, re-reading the Justification Report. Relaxing, but dull. Tomorrow should be more eventful :)

btw, this is post 805 here. That's a whole lotta nonsense...hopefully a little good stuff, too.

GA: Day 1

Wow. To say that it's muggy here is an understatement. Give me South Carolina in August any day over this oppression. At least the dorms and the chapel are air conditioned :)

Got off to a late start...computer problems w/the plane just before take off. Thankfully I had a painfully long layover in Denver, so leaving almost an hour late didn't disrupt anything.

Short evening session tonight, elected a new moderator, adopted the docket, etc. Pretty routine stuff. Hope to have something more to say tomorrow.

Baby don't you wanna go...

Six and three is nine
Nine and nine is eighteen
Look there brother baby and see what I've seen
Hidehey
Baby don't you wanna go
Back to that same old place
Sweet home Chicago

Tomorrow a.m. I will be hurtling east through the skies in a big metal tube at hundreds of miles per hour...hoping that a couple of men will be able to hit their target (just not too hard). (oh well, have Michael Connelly's Trunk Music to keep me company...if we go down, I'll at least be content).

Their target will be Chicago--in case they lyric didn't tip you off--am headed to the OPC's 73rd General Assembly. My guess is that the OPC's home page will have the daily reports up soon, and I'll probably have some up here as well.

Hate leaving home...really I do. I am such the Hobbit at heart. Will be a freakishly long week away from my family. But at least the meetings should be interesting to watch :) (meetings interesting? oy, I am such the geek)

Oh come on
Baby don't you wanna go
Come on
Baby don't you wanna go
Back to that same old place
Sweet home Chicago

(and yes, I'm really singing along with Jake and Elwood as I type this)