![]() Now a new generation of leaders like Philip Ryken, Tom Gibbs, Kevin DeYoung, Julius Kim, Irwyn Ince, Nancy Guthrie, Paige Benton Brown and others maintain our historical commitment to reformed orthodoxy joined to a broader evangelicalism & joyful outreach through the Gospel. Tim Keller, Charles McGowan, Scotty Smith, Bryan Chappell, Ligon Duncan, and so many more have carried this forward. This stance inspired many and led to the PCA becoming a place of personal growth and safe harbor for some who, like me, saw the need to be part of a Presbyterian Church with its strong connectional practice & accountability in a Reformed theological framework that was also deeply committed to reaching others with the Gospel and modeling a genuinely ecumenical spirit. ![]() It was a denomination with roots to go deep and wings to take flight. Largely leaving worship practices to the wisdom of local Sessions, a great family of churches emerged and grew in the rich soil of these convictions. ![]() We have been united in our commitments to the inerrancy of Scripture, the Reformed Faith (especially in regard to the Solas & Sacraments), and the Great Commission. They showed the way ahead on many critical issues while embracing authentic confessional integrity.įrom the outset, and including the “Joining and Receiving” of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod, the PCA has offered a sometimes uncomfortable but committed communion of those who preferred a more strict approach to the Confession and a majority of others who favored a Good Faith approach. Looking back, men like Kennedy Smartt, Frank Barker, Francis Schaeffer, James Kennedy, David Nicholas, Cortez Cooper, RC Sproul, Steve Brown, and many others were not only deeply Reformed but also broadly evangelical, and resistant to fundamentalist impulses. While I want to see that approach maintained, deepened, and furthered, it’s clear that there are some in the PCA today who do not appear to share that hope with me. It was a diverse body of churches and stories of the Gospel’s advance, a home big enough for a whole host of views on secondary matters, possessing a joyful embrace of all that is most vital. I was astonished to find myself in the same denomination with men I’d long regarded as heroes of the Faith, who’d shown me kindness and taught me so much, albeit from a distance. I joined a Gospel-proclaiming, grace-saturated Presbytery in a Good-Faith Subscription, warmly Evangelical denomination that was in partnership with other Presbyterian & Reformed Communions. Just over twenty years ago I was received into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) as a minister. ![]() By David Cassidy, originally published Septemat. ![]()
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