Picking up on a couple of themes he discovered in Sean Lucas’s book “For a Continuing Church,” ruling elder and moderator of the 43rd General Assembly Jim Wert, discusses two topics that he believes are keys to the PCA’s health: biblical authority and missional zeal.

These values are inherent in our DNA, Wert says, and yet—at times—there’s tension between them. In some contexts, for example, it’s possible to think of mission as being on offense and proclaiming the Bible’s absolute truth as being on defense. Such tension, Wert claims, shouldn’t exist. As the PCA makes strides toward ethnic diversity, the two themes must merge. If we’re to become an every nation/every tribe church, we need to “open our eyes through the participation of this broader brotherhood and sisterhood.” We need to open ourselves up to new partnerships and engage in actual co-laboring across a broader tapestry of what could be included in the PCA.