2024 General Assembly Report

Jun 20

Last week, the Presbyterian Church in America’s 51st General Assembly took place in Richmond, Virginia.

Charlie Nave, a ruling elder on Providence’s temporary session, wrote a helpful recap for our congregation to share the highlights and most important takeaways from this year’s General Assembly:

General Assembly was held from June 11 to June 13 in Richmond, Virginia. Overall, this was an excellent Assembly for confessionally-minded Presbyterians (the “Cons”). The Cons won nearly every vote, strengthening our denomination’s Biblical commitments, and finished in what appears to be record time.

At last count, there were 2104 commissioners at this Assembly, making it the third largest in PCA history. There were 651 Ruling Elders and 1453 Teaching Elders in attendance, meaning that REs made up 31% of the commissioners. This is a significant improvement since I first started attending General Assembly in 2017 when REs made up only about 20% of the floor.
There were five men that regularly attend worship at Providence PC who served as commissioners at this Assembly: TE Jake Hooker, TE Doug Hart, TE John Carroll, RE Don Craighead, and RE Charlie Nave.
The Assembly elected RE Steve Dowling of Alabama as our moderator. He was fair, professional, and efficient.
The Assembly provided final ratification to three overtures that passed the presbyteries over the last year. One of them – an overture that restricted the kind of titles that PCA Churches can confer on its members (i.e. no “deaconesses,” no “shepherdesses”) – easily passed but was protested by several hundred commissioners on Tuesday night. Then, on Thursday another protest along the same lines was filed on the floor and more commissioners signed that one. These men will have their names in the official minutes of the Assembly.
New York Metro Presbytery was cited (in other words, formally commanded to provide an explanation to the Standing Judicial Commission) for allowing a female to preach from a PCA pulpit during worship.
Columbus Metro Presbytery was cited for allegedly improperly dissolving a church and distributing its property as severance packages.
The Cons won all but one vote in the nominating committee report which means that more Confessionally-minded men were placed on the permanent committees and boards of the denomination’s various agencies and institutions. If this pattern continues, expect to see a discernible change in direction for these agencies and institutions in the coming years.
The one disappointment was that Overture 3 did not pass. Overture 3 was to give constitutional status to the chapter on preaching in the Directory of Worship. This would have added an additional, constitutional requirement that only qualified men can preach in PCA pulpits. Those opposed to the overture insisted that it was unnecessary and redundant.
One interesting overture that passed was Overture 14, which requires Covenant Seminary and Covenant College to disclose student enrollment data. Having been appointed to serve on the Covenant Seminary Committee of Commissioners twice now, I can attest that the Seminary did not disclose any useful enrollment data to that Committee in those years. This overture should provide information useful for oversight.
MORE in the PCA, Inc. helped 31 Elders attend General Assembly this year. Our fellowship event on Wednesday, June 12 at the Commonwealth Club was a warm time of camaraderie and encouragement. Please thank Pat Koelling for his invaluable and essential assistance in getting Elders to General Assembly.
The next General Assembly will be held in Chattanooga, TN from June 23 to June 27.

If you're interested in reading a few additional helpful summaries of the PCA’s General Assembly, check out this recap by TE Ryan Biese or this recap by TE George Sayour.