82 articles from 43 issues, 1996 to 2025
The PCUSA constitution added two new categories this year and a new examination requirement that's already baffling presbyteries. Andrews offers pastoral guidance for sessions and committees on what's actually changed, what hasn't, and how to act faithfully without either overreach or quiet capitulation.
Two PCUSA amendments are heading to presbyteries for ratification, and Andrews lays out exactly what they say, what they don't say, and what's at stake. Drawing on his father's prayer that he be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove, he urges presbyters to be both.
Nixon walks through what actually happened with POL-01 (the Olympia Overture) at the 2024 General Assembly, why the split-vote outcome is more ambiguous than either side claims, and what congregations and sessions need to think about as the amendments now move to the presbyteries.
Theology Matters joins a public pledge for Presbyterian officers facing an overture that would compel them to affirm what they do not believe. Reading like an open letter, the piece calls clergy and elders alike to stand on the historic doctrines of creation and redemption rather than yield.
PCUSA, EPC, ECO, PCA, OPC: the Presbyterian family in America has become a set of clans that mistrust each other's seminaries, agencies, and theology. Stith calls the hardening 'ecclesial sclerosis' and asks whether anything like a shared Reformed identity survives the fragmentation.
What did Presbyterians mean by saying that God alone is Lord of the conscience? Randall Otto takes the eight Historic Principles of Church Order one at a time and asks what each says today about liberty, discipline, truth and Scripture.
How has the church kept its distinctness from the world? J. Gresham Machen walks from Christ and the apostles through Athanasius, Luther and Calvin to show that the precious salt was preserved by those who would contend for the faith, then asks which side his hearers will take.
The 220th General Assembly's overtures to redefine marriage are the next logical step after 2011's repeal of fidelity-and-chastity ordination standards. Wisdom walks through the proposed changes, the constitutional process they would require, and what the church teaches that all of them quietly assume isn't binding.
What should faithful Presbyterians do after the PC(USA) dropped its “fidelity and chastity” standard in 2011? The Board traces the counterfeit gospel back to the Re-Imagining Conference, restates what Theology Matters believes, and pledges to keep contending for the truth.
What does Jeremiah say to people who have dug broken cisterns for themselves? Lisa Van Riper reads the presbyteries’ approval of Amendment 10-A through the prophet, draws six principles for congregations, and offers a word of hope for those in exile.
What does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ when a denomination changes its ordination standards? Mark Atkinson works through 2 Corinthians 5 and 6 and argues that the church speaks for its sending authority and makes no policy of its own.
Why does the debate over ordaining practicing homosexuals matter so much to a congregation? W. P. Campbell, in a chapter from his book, argues that leaders shape the people who follow them, and that the church must avoid both the Sadducees’ compromise and the Pharisees’ legalism.
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