Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. ~ 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.
This week I received a surprise telephone call from a former student named Jerry[1] checking on me. I did not have as much time to talk with him as I liked, so we scheduled to talk again soon. However, I did learn Jerry is doing well in life. He has graduated from the Citadel with honors, has a steady girlfriend, is working for his father’s company, and is in the process of applying to law school. Jerry had a rough go in life at an early age and was a handful, getting into all kinds of mischief. Oh, the stories I could talk about him just from a teacher’s point of view. However, if you know me, those are precisely the kids I love the most.
You might be asking why I tell you about my friend Jerry in a post about our Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) denomination’s Overture Fifteen. It simply is this, young men like Jerry need godly men in their life that exemplify what it means to be a man. Thankfully, a remarkable man adopted Jerry and helped put him on a solid foundation with direction and goals; but he could have gone the other way. You know, one of the statistics who flounders because no one cares and does not have a solid father figure in his life.
Overture Fifteen comes before our PCA presbyteries this year, needing two-thirds approval for passing. In short, Overture Fifteen changes our Book of Church Order (BCO) by adding the phrase:
7-4. Men who describe themselves as homosexual, even those who describe themselves as homosexual and claim to practice celibacy by refraining from homosexual conduct, are disqualified from holding office in the Presbyterian Church in America.
My post is not to tell you all the reasons why Overture Fifteen needs to pass. Many have already done that for us: James Norris, Zach Groff, Reed DePace, Ryan Biese, Peter Jones, and its original author Larry Ball have given solid, reasonable, and biblical arguments. I encourage you to click on their names and read their excellent articles. My intention for this post encouraging the passing of Overture Fifteen is more fatherly.
As I draft this article, the world buried Queen Elizabeth II with over a week’s royal pageantry. She lived in the same generation as my grandfather. The men of that generation were “men” in every sense of the word. They were the John Waynes and Jimmy Stewarts. They were men who, for the most part, lived out biblical morals, loyalty, and toughness. They were men who knew war, The Great Depression, and family ties through it all.
Our post-post-modern world knows nothing of what I described above. My Generation X is the bridge between my grandparent’s epoch and the world we live in now. Everywhere we turn, we (and yes, I mean the all-inclusive “we”) are constantly bombarded with in-your-face sin, especially the homosexual and LGBTQ+ agenda. Children’s cartoons are full of gay couples, and television commercials during sports games promote drag-queen lifestyles. Then when a PCA pastor and church promote Side B affirming lifestyles with The Revoice Conference, it adds more confusion about black and white morality.
What explanation can a father figure, an elder in the church, give about such atrocious public pronouncements as we have witnessed these last five years? How does a father explain to his sons (and daughters, for that matter) that there is a teaching elder in our denomination pastoring and speaking at conferences like Revoice? What do we do about the loopholes that presbyteries find so they do not discipline men who are teaching elders and living publicly with a gay-affirming identity? I believe passing Overture Fifteen is an excellent place to begin.
The Bible tells us, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8). Micah addresses several things here. One crucial issue is that God tells us in His Word what is good. Good things are biblical things. Good is having a Christ-only identity and not a Christ-plus-gay identity. Yet, some are simply bound by a false belief. False thoughts imprison them, all along believing they can never escape, never change. However, biblical manhood does not allow this kind of thinking. What does the Lord require of you… teaches us that before we tap into God’s life-changing power, we must eliminate the excuses.
Here is where many well-meaning fathers of the faith have messed up. They allow the descriptive term “Christian” with qualifications, so they do not hurt feelings or drive away the person about whom they care. However, the gospel must be central to the discussion. We must stand firm on Scripture’s sufficiency and authority that if one is regenerated, transformed, and forgiven (Rom. 6:6,17-18; Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:5-8) and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19; Gal. 5:19-23), then he, especially an elder in the PCA, must respond with Christ only identity and lifestyle. Our teaching elders must be men by all accounts and in all walks of life. Indeed, we must be men who instruct and discipline in such a way. General Stonewall Jackson believed this: “General Jackson now also enforced his favorite dogma, the Bible furnished men with rules for everything. If they would search, he said, they would find a precept, an example, or a general principle, applicable to every possible emergency of duty, no matter what a man’s calling.” [2]
As a father and teaching elder in our beloved denomination, I think about David’s last instructions to Solomon: “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel’” (1 Kings 2:1-4). This exhortation is the language of a father to a son, an elder to a young man in the church, and a teaching elder to the world.
There is so much wicked teaching by the world today, and the church does not need to help it out. Instead, we elders and deacons must be men in positions of authority acting like men. We must hold other men accountable who pull shenanigans like participating in Revoice and publicly affirming the Side B lifestyle. We as a denomination must make sure that our teaching elders, ruling elders, and deacons are the ones who show themselves to be men. When will we be godly fathers of the faith to our men and David-like examples of discipleship? How do we point to Christ so that the “Jerrys” who have no father figures in their formative years, are in our care, and desperately need male leadership see Him instead of a gay-identifying Christian pastor on social media and in our publications? In addition to the reasons the men listed above made, I believe Overture Fifteen must be passed so our BCO reflects biblical manhood, not only to the world but to our church’s sons of the covenant.
© Rev. Mark A. Horne and Andrews Presbyterian Church (SC), September 21, 2022.
[1] Name has been changed for illustrative purposes.
[2] J. William Jones, Christ in the Camp or Religion in the Confederate Army (Harrisonburg: Sprinkle Publications, 1986), 99.
Andrews PCA 