The Theology of a Nominee
One’s vocation in family life (single or married) gives us a window into the leader’s character. Now, we are going to talk about the importance of theology.
When someone joins a church in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), they commit to five vows. You essentially have to say:
You are a sinner
You have placed your faith in Jesus Christ
You are committed to your growth in grace
You are committed to participating in the life of the church
You are willingly placing yourself under the authority of the church
There’s nothing special about the first four. Pretty much every orthodox church asks this of you even if they don’t practice church membership. The last is particular to how the institution of our church is setup, so it is distinctively Presbyterian. That means, you can be a member of our church and not understand or disagree with a lot of what our church believes. The primary things of the Christian faith are in the vows so we all stack hands there, but some of the secondary issues like baptism, predestination, women in leadership, views of the Bible, etc are areas where not all of us are in agreement. I’m comfortable with that. Many of us have not spent our whole lives in the church, so we are figuring things out. Others of us grew up in a different tradition and many things in the PCA are new and take some time to digest. That’s great. There’s space for that. But, know that it is my hope that the body of doctrine that our denomination believes is something you believe at some point in the future.
What is that body of doctrine? It is the Westminster Confession of Faith and the longer and shorter catechisms that were written when the Protestant Reformation was taking place in England during the 1600s. All Presbyterian denominations subscribe to these historic documents, but to what extent that subscription takes place differs from one Presbyterian denomination to the next. Our denomination, the PCA, follows a pretty tight subscription which means there is little room for disagreement. Here’s why this is important: all pastors, elders, deacons, and deaconesses must subscribe to the documents in order to minister in these roles. This falls in line with what the Scriptures lay out when it comes to both deacons, elders, and deaconesses. We see two deacons delivering powerful sermons in Acts (Stephen in Acts 7 and Phillip in Acts 8). We see in 1 Timothy 3 that elders are supposed to”be able teach" and in Titus 1 elders are to “give instruction in sound doctrine.” We see Priscilla and her husband, Aquila, take Apollos, a young preacher, aside to teach him the way of God more clearly. Therefore, there is this doctrinal element that plays a role in church leadership and that’s why there is the requirement to subscribe to our confessional statements.
So, as you pray about who to nominate, please look for character. In many ways, that is most important. We can’t lower the bar for holiness. As you look for holiness, look for those who are convinced of sound doctrine as well. We need them to proclaim the gospel to us in word and deed. We need them to maintain doctrinal faithfulness in all aspects in the life of our church.
- Marshall
