Remaining Semi-Independent for a Little While Longer

As a church and leadership team, we’ve decided not to actively pursue the PCA for the time being.

I mentioned this at our recent congregational meeting, but it’s worth saying publicly as well. As a church and leadership team, we’ve decided not to actively pursue the PCA for the time being.

Personally, I’ll continue to attend General Assembly and stay involved here and there, because I care deeply about the state of that denomination. But as we explored it as a potential home, we grew concerned about the condition of its church courts. One of the main draws for us was the court system, but what we’ve seen, at least from our vantage point, looks more like lawfare in some cases, along with an inability to consistently discipline ministers.

Now, that’s clearly not true everywhere.

There are presbyteries with godly men who are working hard to maintain the health of the PCA, and we’re thankful for them. But for now, our focus is on strengthening our own church, along with the two church plants we’re already supporting, and likely a third plant sometime late next year. We’ll continue to evaluate our options as we go but it’s no longer an active item on our session’s agenda.

And yes, for those who always ask, every time I post something like this, we have considered the other alternatives.

For the next couple of years, we plan to remain an semi-independent Reformed church, using an external accountability board to help, if the need should arise, resolve disputes between elders or to hear cases if a member wishes to challenge a judicial decision. We do see independence as a temporary arrangement, not a permanent one.

By the way, when I say “semi-independent,” I mean that we’re not really isolated. We already function as a small family of churches when you include the two church plants, and we’ve built strong local relationships with churches across several denominations. We’ve been intentional about that from the start, and it’s been a real encouragement to see it take shape… whether through shared efforts in church discipline, mutual encouragement, or, at times, even financial help.

We’re still a young, fast-growing church with a lot of needs in front of us. That has to be the priority right now. We’re not willing to step into something that could compromise our ability to focus on that, and based on what we’re seeing, that risk is real.

No matter what, we’re going to keep building the kind of organic connectionalism that’s already taking shape here locally. We’ve been encouraged by the number of new churches being planted across the tri-state, along with the ongoing work of reformation and revitalization.

It does seem to me that we’re in a kind of transitional moment in the American Reformed church. There are a lot of good men, both inside and outside the major denominations, so I remain optimistic about the future. The work of building, and the work of reformation, is rarely the work of a few years. More often, it’s the work of decades.

That work is happening in various camps. It’ll grow into something sizeable and stable. It’s just going to take time, along with a patient, steady commitment to a long-term vision of healthy, connected churches.