PresbyterianIntegrity.org

… but PresbyterianIntegrity.org is going to disappear for a few days. This is all part of some deep restructuring of the website. When it comes back, it will have a new look, but there will be many more changes to come. That will be OK; the infrastructure changes now are being made to allow for expansion later.

Dear Brethren,

When a year ago I recovered the domain name of PresbyterianIntegrity.org, it was my intention to simply use the name for my personal blog. You can still see that declaration of intent posted here. Since that time, a number of things have happened that have caused my plans to change.

First, my new job and its duties expanded exponentially. When I first posted here, I had been at Florence-Darlington Technical College for a year as an English instructor. Over the past year, I acquired new duties. I became first an instructor, then lead instructor, in Religion at the college. This was accompanied by an increased class load at the very same time I was involved in some significant technology projects for the college. And I became Chairman-elect of the college’s Curriculum and Instruction Committee. My time at work detracted from the time I could spend on this site.

That has meant, first, that over the past year the vision for PresbyterianIntegrity.org has never gelled, and secondly, now that the time drain is now easing, I am able to look at PresbyterianIntegrity.org afresh. If ever there is a time to take this site on a new path, it is now.

Second, my initial dreams can now become a reality. The closing of PresbyterianIntegrity.org years ago had never been my desire. As a matter of fact, in 2003, I was really hoping that we could go on to have an annual convention or do something else to encourage a community of pastors committed to Confessional Presbyterianism. Well, obviously, I couldn’t ever finance anything that huge.

Now the web has evolved to the point where I don’t have to. Technology has solved what money could not. We can now build a Facebook-like community that keeps all of us in touch, encouraged, and nourished by each others’ ideas. PresbyterianIntegrity.org can in fact be a community of Confessional Presbyterians.

Third, the need has never been so great, and the time has never been so right. The General Assembly of 2010 has placed this in stark relief. Two issues boiled to a head, women’s roles in the church and the Strategic Plan. What did we see on these fronts?

Well, on women’s roles in the church, we averted near disaster. The Committee on Constitutional Business used very shaky reasoning to unanimously rule two very good overtures were unconstitutional (this will be discussed in a future post). And the discussion in the Overtures Committee looked for a while like it was heading toward a position that might go as far as allowing deaconesses. Thankfully, all that was reined in. The resulting overture did not settle the issue, but was something that both conservatives and moderates could live with, which enjoyed widespread support on the floor, and which should appeal well to the presbyteries.

Then, when it comes to the Strategic Plan, we saw a number of things.

1. We saw powerful men exerting their will upon the church without benefit of Scriptural support. To be sure, a lot of PR power was put in motion from the moment the plan was rolled out. But it was all with a lack of Scriptural support. Indeed, the most telling point of the whole debate was when Greenville Seminary President Joey Pipa rose to point out that the plan never once cited Scripture as a reason for this plan being God’s will for His church. The plan’s proponents referred him to the previous Strategic Plans of 2003 and 2006. Dr. Pipa went back to the Assembly Minutes for those years and — behold, no Scripture. In response, Bryan Chapell read some passages from the 2003 plan booklet that simply said we were committed to Scripture. None of his words cited a single passage of Scripture.
2. We saw Confessional men ready to respond with a plan of their own. Indeed, Northwest Georgia Presbytery submitted an alternate Strategic Plan. It was documented thoroughly with Scripture. Although the powers that be did not allow the document to go forward as an alternate plan, they did recommend its adoption as a call for renewal.
3. We saw that there were many men ready to say what Christ had to say, and many that were willing to listen. The Strategic Plan was debated, not as a whole, but item by item on the floor. There were calls to recommit on many items. While those motions failed, the commissioners most often voted to extend debate on those motions at least once. Some of the votes were quite close, one ruling of the chair was narrowly reversed on recount, and one means actually failed. For once, the floor of General Assembly became a real court again, and did the hard work of a real church court!

All of this suggests to me that my original vision for PresbyterianIntegrity.org was the right vision at the wrong time. Instead, that time is now. Yes, as a church, we nearly lost our founders’ Biblical vision on women’s roles, and we did in fact pass a Strategic Plan based on sociology rather than Scripture. But as churchmen, we are more willing to listen than ever before. Listening to Scripture and to each other does not exist in advocacy groups like PPLN was, but by God’s grace it can happen in a community like what I hope PresbyterianIntegrity.org becomes.

So here’s my plan for the next few months:

1. I plan to edit the Affirmations and Denials that I wrote nine years ago to be more inclusive of the issues facing the PCA today. It was a good, Scripturally-based document during the PPLN years, and with very few additions can serve to outline the basic positions of our community today.
2. I plan to post the Alternative Strategic Plan from Northwest Georgia Presbytery as the plan for our community today. With these two documents, we can define who we are and what we commit ourselves to do.
3. I plan to work on the software for the new site. Accordingly, over the next few months, you will see things appear, disappear, and reappear. No doubt the general appearance of the site will change. Count this all as growing pains.
4. I plan to roll out the new community features by September 1, 2010, at which time you will all be able to sign up!

I hope you look forward to the future as much as I do!

Mark Rooze