Read on Twitter
A warning to the erstwhile “Vanguard Presbytery”— https://www.theaquilareport.com/vanguard-presbytery-calls-for-a-convocation-of-sessions/
Will you be presbyterian, or associational? The upcoming convocation is hosted at an independent, non-Presbyterian congregation. Is overturing GA to clarify biblical law really a sign “you have already lost the battle”, or is a quintessential act of Presbyterianism?
Do you really believe there should be a General-Assembly-level court in the Church? Doesn’t sound like it: “The Great Commission will be enacted and directed at the session and presbytery levels.”
Will there be “an emphasis on the spirituality of the Church and her mission”? How many prospective member churches feature an American flag flanking its worship stage?
Beware of novelty. You plan to create a third office, the office of evangelist? The #PCA #BCO already makes perfectly clear that the term “evangelist” describes one aspect of the labor of teaching elders. It limits evangelists’ extraordinary powers to 12 months.
“The polity of Vanguard Presbytery will be distinctly grassroots”? Friends, #grassroots has a democracy problem. It implies every church can do its own thing. Are you overreacting to being hitched to churches doing the wrong thing? Grassroots is *not* the same as Presbyterian.
Are you being unrealistic? So you’ll “require that all overtures to amend the Constitution must demonstrate the Scriptural necessity for approval”. Which bad overture has ever come without Scriptural backup? Or, what Scriptures bear on amendments to the RAO?
And all overtures must demonstrate “the impact of making such a change”. Are you to be a church or a commercial enterprise? “Effectiveness” is a fast-lane to liberalism.
So you’ll require “full subscription to the Westminster Standards”. Which set? Every other Presby denom in history has had a Directory for public worship, and very little of this:
Does your #grassroots bent allow you to give up your various modes of worship and conform to a single Directory for Public Worship, or will you import the #PCA’s failure to adopt a DPW?
“[I]n Vanguard Presbytery every congregation... will be unimpeded in leaving the denomination at any time for any reason.” You already have this “semi-Baptist” privilege (BCO 25-11). What more do you want? https://www.theaquilareport.com/exit-theology-leaving-the-pca/
Here it is: Vanguard “believe that true Presbyterianism is expressed in the will and actions of the presbytery(ies) (i.e., grassroots).”
So sessions, synods, general assemblies, and ecumenical councils are non-Presbyterian?
So sessions, synods, general assemblies, and ecumenical councils are non-Presbyterian?
You prioritize to “pray for the outpouring of the Spirit and the conversion of the lost”. There’s no problem with these words, per se; but are you certain this isn’t about revivalism (New School, anyone?). “Lost” doesn’t appear in Scripture, though “elect” does some dozen times.
I mean, evangelism is your “first priority”? You’re not tilting away from feeding the sheep, are you? Just asking.
