In 1973, God used the witness of men working in para-church organizations to bring me to saving faith in His Son Jesus and teach me the fundamentals of a Christian walk. While I was encouraged to attend a “Bible believing church” no information was given about which particular one to join. Eventually, by default, I became a Baptist. When the Lord called me into the ministry, I attended a Baptist college, Baptist Seminaries, was licensed and ordained as a Baptist minister and served in various Baptist (or baptistic) churches.

One of the most fruitful and productive times of my own spiritual life occurred while ministering in England. My job was every pastor’s dream. I designed the curriculum for Beck House Discipleship Training Center. Every day I went to my office, opened my Bible, turned on my computer and started studying. In the evenings I taught Bible studies, conducted seminars and preached. Again and again as I went back to the Scriptures to find the answers that young Christians desperately needed, I found my own preconceived ideas about the Christian life challenged and over turned. It was during this time the Lord brought me to Reformed convictions. I thought I was teaching others, but in fact, God was teaching me!

As I came to see the implications of the Reformed faith from an organic study of the Scriptures, I envisioned no real difficulty integrating them with my baptistic beliefs and practices. Predestination is perfectly consistent with historic Baptist doctrine. Covenantal theology simply replaced the vacuum left by Dispensationalism’s hasty intellectual retreat. However my convictions concerning Baptist ecclesiology, though sincerely held, were never seriously scrutinized. I was so preoccupied with purging my faith of humanism and arminianism that I simply accepted baptistic individualism without much question.

Yet throughout my ministry in England, the issue of the health and ministry of the church was a constant topic of discussion and debate. Every baptistic church I had ever known had endured serious weakness. They were torn apart by splits and controversies, handicapped by poor theology and doctrine, suffered from sincere, but uninformed teachers who seriously distorted the truth and they were deathly afraid of any form of church discipline.

Though the best churches were aggressive in evangelism, they seemed unsure what to do with new converts once they made them. And they were always unwilling to challenge anyone (since this might drive some away, leading to poor church growth figures). Baptistic churches seemed to produce either egotistical tyrannical pastors, poorly organized churches run by anarchic, incompetent committees or burned out their ministers by plaguing them with mind numbing pettiness and endless criticism.

One large piece of the puzzle fit into place while studying 1 Corinthians 6 regarding the necessity of church courts. It was clear church courts were absolutely fundamental to a healthy church. Yet NO baptistic church I had ever known had a court system in place. Only one church in my experience had ever practiced church discipline (and at that, only once in 12 years). Yet every baptistic church I knew had endured splits, divisions, bitterness, politicking and power plays because there was no mechanism to deal with problems. In fact, I was repeatedly warned by older and presumably “wiser” men to stay away from personal problems because they would ruin my career! The only solution to a controversy was to fire the pastor, split the church or simply transfer your membership to some place else where the same cycle began all over again.

As a Baptist minister, I affirmed local church autonomy. But in practice, I became convinced that this led to the very divisiveness and schismatic tendencies that had wrecked such havoc in every baptistic church I had known. Yet, even if a church were to have a local court and adjudicate problems by it, what was to keep that court from perverting justice to settle issues the way that certain “powerful” people wanted them to be settled? What was to keep every controversy from becoming a popularity contest? What was to keep the church of Christ from being run by the whims and desires of whoever could manipulate the congregation? Independent baptistic ecclesiology simply has no solution other than when things get too nasty, split off and form a new church!

In my experience, baptistic churches are like early flowers blighted by frost; they begin so bravely and show so much promise only to wilt when harsh weather hits. The average Baptist pastor moves every 2.5 years. The average Baptist church experiences a major split every 5 years. The average life expectancy of a Baptist church is 50 years. 45% of Baptist kids grow up & leave the church by the age of 25. Even the biggest, most successful megachurches seemed to achieve their prosperity only by minimizing the commitment people make to join. And how is it that small churches can baptize 40 new believers a year, every year, yet stay approximately the same size?

Clearly something was desperately wrong. At first I thought that the fundamental problem was one of application; i.e., we knew what was right but were just deficient in making it work. I decided that when God put me as the senior man in charge, I’d do it right.  Yet when I did move from a teaching position to serving as the senior Pastor of a Baptist church, I began to see things from a different perspective. Van Till spoke of “epistemological self consciousness” or the tendency of things to become more like their real nature as time progresses. When I began pastoring a church well down the road of baptistic independence I saw the fruit of a humanistic root.

I only took the church because of (1) a medical emergency in my family making it imperative for me to live in my home town (2) what I perceived to be a window of opportunity for revival and (3) and a sincere belief God called me (in fact, I still do, it’s just that God had different reasons than what I first suspected). But the task was daunting. The church had been gutted by generations of theological compromise as shepherd after shepherd told the people only what they wanted to hear. The church was fractured and divided, run by warring factions and the worst sort of power politics. The church was so rotten spiritually that when I preached on the necessity of regeneration or the deity of Christ, people became angry and stormed out of services.  The church was so compromised with humanism that people who had spent their entire life in her service did not know the term “evangelism” (they called it “soliciting”) and considered the practice somehow immoral and demeaning to the church.

I thought I could change my church by preaching the truth and showing her people where they had gone wrong. And God granted us some magnificent successes. We baptized twice as many new believers as any other church in the state (and this in a church that had not seen a conversion in 20 years!). We went from 95 in morning worship to 225. But every new member meant another person who could vote! This changed the traditional balance of power. The old power people no longer could do things the way they wanted and became furious. While there were many good people, they refused to practice discipline against those who were destroying the church because, “We’ve never done it that way!”

You see, the reason why the church had become apostate in the first place was that the people didn’t want to do things God’s way so they had acquired teachers according to their own desires. They may not have liked all the bad results of their mismanagement. But they were unwilling to change the behavior that caused the problems because they wanted to run things their way, not God’s.

No, not every non-Presbyterian church is this corrupt. Praise God for every faithful evangelical Pastor, laboring to preach and teach the truth and to retain his integrity in spite of the situation. Praise God for every faithful baptistic church struggling to be obedient to the Lord Jesus (while not always understanding what that requires). But in both cases, the efforts of faithful Pastors and Churches are handicapped by the same underlying theological deviance implicit in baptistic structure and polity.

Most autonomous, baptistic, broadly “evangelical” churches have unabashedly given themselves over  to antinomianism, arminianism and humanism. Cheap grace is desired and cheap grace is all too often provided. Even successful churches often appeal to an anti-intellectual, pietistic self indulgence that says “if I don’t already know it, it can’t be important.” The congregational form of church government wherein each congregation determines its own doctrine and policy is based on enlightenment humanism, not 1 Timothy 3. The absolute autonomy of the local church clearly contradicts Acts 15 and results in breeding manipulative individuals who run the church according to their own desires.

It became clear to me that the underlying problem was theological rather than practical. If the foundation is wrong, nothing built upon it will be right either. If the foundation cannot be changed, then it was time to start all over again. Yet as I searched for another church I would want to serve I quickly came to see that it did not exist in Baptist circles. Again and again as I talked with churches and examined their underlying doctrinal foundation, I saw the same problems, some more developed than others, but all showing the same tendencies.

It was then that the Lord gave grace. The fruit is determined by its root. You can’t expect apples from pear trees. The only church I knew that was structured according to Biblical criteria were Presbyterian ones. They were reformed in doctrine, governed by elders, supervised by Presbyteries and covenantal in relationship. In fact as I examined my personal library, I found again and again that the books that had changed my life and deepened my walk were written by Presbyterian theologians and pastors.

Yes, Presbyterian churches encounter the same problems that all other churches do. No, the people are no more holy by nature than any other part of the body of Christ. But Presbyterians have the right foundation and the right superstructure. They have the mechanisms in place to deal with problems. Consider this, though making up less than 10% of American Evangelicalism, for over 150 years Presbyterians have shouldered 90% of the intellectual weight for the Christian church!

The big struggle for me was Covenant Baptism; i.e., whether children of believing parents were entitled to the sign of the covenant. Eventually I came to understand that the promise of the new covenant is given not just to us, but to our children (Acts 2:39). Furthermore, since baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of participation in the covenant (Col 2:11-12), it is therefore not only right but a requirement that believers baptize their children. At that point I made official contact with a Presbytery in the PCA and asked to have my ordination credentials recognized.

My rejection of baptistic individualism and acceptance of Presbyterianism was one of the most difficult decisions I had ever made. Many of my friends, teachers and former Pastors now find it difficult to even fellowship with me. As a minister, I cut my chances of finding and serving a church (humanistically speaking) by a factor of about a hundred. But the issue is always obedience to Jesus. We cannot, we must not make decisions on the basis of what will please our friends or give us ministry opportunities. Instead we must be obedient to the Word, first, foremost and always.

Sadly, too often, some Presbyterians, especially some in the PCA, neglect their heritage and forget what they have been given. There is a disturbing tendency for some to move away from Reformed worship, doctrine and polity to a more “broadly” evangelical view. We look at our small, struggling churches and compare them to baptistic mega-churches with their bulging congregations, fat budgets, ever growing facilities, and entertainment oriented worship services. We want the same kinds of things they have. So therefore we think we have to offer the same kind of watered down religion that they do.

Such a move would be a disaster for our Church and the cause of Christ in our land.  Mainstream evangelicalism is dying even as we speak. I have sampled the best that broad evangelicalism can offer, serving as an intern in one the largest, most successful baptistic churches in America. And yet, if their powerful pastor ever leaves, their own evaluation is “We’ll have the biggest taco stand in Southern California.”

As the world grows more consistent with its rebellion to God, it will self destruct. And hurting people will then have no other option but to turn to the only Church that offers an uncompromised Biblical faith. Reformed theology is Biblical orthodoxy. Covenantalism is the basis of a Biblical hermeneutic. Presbyterianism is Biblical church government. And that is why I became a Presbyterian.

Common Questions About The Presbyterian Church In America

What Are the Doctrinal Standards of  the PCA?

The PCA is a Bible believing Church, pure and simple. We separated from the liberal, mainline Southern Presbyterian Church in 1973 because they had departed from the authority and inerrancy of God’s Word. The PCA is a confessional church, which means that we  have definite doctrinal standards. These standards are contained in the Westminster Confession and catechisms.

Do You Have to Agree with All of the Westminster Confession to Join A PCA Church?

All those who have received Jesus Christ by faith are members of His invisible church. Therefore the individual Christian does not have to agree to all of the Westminster Confession to join a PCA church. A person becomes a member by professing saving faith in Jesus Christ and living a life consistent with that profession with the Elders. However to hold office as an Elder or Deacon, one must accept the Westminster standards as an accurate summary of Bible doctrine. Furthermore, Pastors are required by their ordination vows to preach and teach consistently with the Confession.

What Does the PCA Believe About the Sacraments?

The Bible teaches two sacraments; the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. All those who receive Jesus as Lord are to be baptized as well as their children. We do not indiscriminatly baptize infants, only the children of believing church members. This type of baptism is known as Covenant Baptism. Just as children in the Old Testament received circumcision as a sign of participation in the Old Covenant, children of believing parents have a portion in the New Covenant (cf. Acts 2:38-39, Colossians 2:11-12). However, a child is not saved just because he has been baptized. Rather, baptism is a sign that the child has the privilege of enjoying the external blessings of the Covenant, (i.e., he can hear the preaching of the Word, receive Christian training and nurturing from his parents and church etc.). When a child is old enough to express saving faith in Christ, he is examined by the elders and then admitted to the Lord’s Supper. Only baptized believers who are members in good standing of an evangelical church may receive communion.

How Are PCA Churches Governed?

Local churches are governed by the Session made up of Teaching Elders (Pastors) and Ruling Elders (laymen trained in the Westminster Confession). The members of  a particular church call their own Pastor and elect their own elders based on Biblical criteria. However, a prospective pastor must be examined and approved by the Presbytery before he can begin his ministry. Thus the churches in a given geographical area are overseen by the Presbytery (from the Greek word presbyteros, i.e., elder) which is made up of all the Teaching Elders and delegate Ruling Elders from all the churches (cf. Acts 15:1ff). The Presbytery meets regularly to adjudicate problems, arbitrate disputes, examine candidates for the ministry and ensure that local churches remain faithful to the Word. The Presbyteries are supervised by the General Assembly which consists of all the Teaching Elders and delegate Ruling Elders from all the churches in the denomination. The General Assembly meets annually to ensure that the Presbyteries are doing their job.

This concept of church government is based partially on 1 Corinthians 6:1ff which requires Christians to maintain church courts to resolve problems (cf. Acts 15:1ff). All Christians sin and all Christians have problems. The question is whether we have a biblical means to resolve those problems so that the Lord Jesus is glorified and factions, schisms and divisions do not occur. The PCA is far from perfect, but church splits over unresolved problems are rare. If a person has a problem they take it to their Elders. If it cannot be resolved by their Elders, they can then appeal to the Presbytery. If for whatever reason the Presbytery cannot deal with the problem, then it goes to the General Assembly. Thus though Teaching Elders are held in very high esteem, a Pastor is inhibited from abusing his position because he is responsible to his brother elders at the local, Presbytery and General Assembly level.

Can Women Be Elders in the PCA?

Women are excluded from the office of Deacon and Elder based on 1 Timothy 3:1ff and Titus 1:5ff. There is no compromise on this issue. While we value the ministry and gifts of godly women, we believe that God forbids them to teach or exercise authority over men. There are many other important ministries which they may do which do not compromise God’s Word.

What Kind of Preaching Is Common in PCA Churches?

We have no authority for saying or doing anything except what the Word of God declares. Therefore PCA pastors strive to be as diligent and careful in presenting that Word as powerfully as the Lord allows. Our ministers are trained rigorously in Greek and Hebrew in order to rightly interpret the Scriptures and feed God’s people spiritual meat. Our worship services are usually

simple, dignified and reverent. We believe that God has ordained in His Word how He is to be worshipped and therefore we must seek to please Him rather than men. We believe that Biblical worship has four elements, prayer, singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, reading and expository preaching of scripture, and administering the Sacraments. Some churches sing Scripture choruses as well as traditional hymns.

What About Lakeside Church?