“Lord, we pray for rain.” That was the cry from elders of Pacific Presbytery during their meeting in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 25. Their community had been ravaged by wildfires with many in their congregations impacted. Though they also discussed how to coordinate their relief efforts, the primary relief they sought was for God to break open the heavens and send rain.
I recently visited Pacific Presbytery along with two other presbyteries in the Western United States in what we affectionately refer to as the PresbyTour. The goal was to showcase the work of presbyteries and provide readers across the country with a glimpse into a region of the PCA that might be less familiar to them.
The average church member in the PCA will never attend a presbytery meeting. They may hear about decisions made by their church session and even watch the General Assembly via livestream. But PCA church members probably don’t know what happens at a presbytery meeting. The PresbyTour was designed to provide a window into this court of Christ’s church.
On the PresbyTour I visited Rocky Mountain, Pacific, and Rio Grande presbyteries. A presbytery includes the PCA churches, ruling elders, and ministers in a prescribed district. There are 88 presbyteries in the PCA. The presbyteries on my journey were chosen because their meetings fell on the calendar in close proximity to one another with major airports nearby.
But they were also chosen because of their uniqueness.
- Rocky Mountain Presbytery is regional. It covers three states and has the largest land mass of any presbytery in the lower 48 states.
- Pacific Presbytery is the greater Los Angeles area, plus Las Vegas, Bakersfield, and Santa Barbara.
- Rio Grande Presbytery is a single state, New Mexico, plus the churches in El Paso, Texas.
Each presbytery conducted a worship service, examined candidates for ordination, and received updates from church plants and campus ministries. They also had times of prayer for special needs and even engaged in reconciliation efforts to heal divisions in their midst.
I attended as a true outsider. I had never visited any of these presbyteries before. I communicated with the clerks in advance but was not provided an agenda. In each meeting, I was introduced alongside other visitors in attendance, and enjoyed getting to know elders during breaks and meals.
Observing Differences
Like churches, each presbytery is different. They have different personalities, processes, and problems.
The personalities often reflect their cultural context. Pacific Presbytery felt more casual in tone and attire. Rio Grande Presbytery had a number of reports and prayers in Spanish, the primary language of many in the area. Rocky Mountain Presbytery had plenty of burly beards and flannel shirts.
Even their meeting schedules were different. Because of its geography, many committees of Rocky Mountain Presbytery meet the morning of presbytery with the official meeting starting after lunch. Elders go straight from committee meetings to lunch and then to presbytery. Their reports are published and distributed digitally just prior to the start of business. Pacific Presbytery meets all day on Saturday while Rio Grande spread their meeting over two days.
And each presbytery has problems they had to work through. They wrestled with internal disagreements and even whether they should continue as a single presbytery. At one presbytery, the meeting went into executive session, requiring visitors (like me) to exit. Another presbytery had to extend its meeting beyond the scheduled adjournment to complete its docket.
Gauging Health
After visiting all three presbyteries, I’m encouraged about the health of the PCA.
One of the responsibilities of a presbytery is to “devise measures for the enlargement of the Church within its bounds.” All three presbyteries are seeking to plant new churches, launch campus ministries, and serve the needs of their immediate community.
- Due to the small number of Reformed churches in states like Wyoming and Montana, some families are driving over an hour to get to church. The meeting included serious discussions about the need to multiply churches in these states.
- The Pacific Presbytery meeting had representatives from a non-denominational church present as the church considers affiliating with the PCA.
- Churches in Rio Grande and Rocky Mountain presbyteries have residency programs for candidates considering ministry or church planting.
Presbytery meetings also serve as an opportunity for churches and ministers to encourage and support one another.
- Pacific Presbytery had an extended time of prayer and discussion regarding the recent wildfires and the trauma they have inflicted on their community and congregations.
- Rocky Mountain Presbytery celebrated a minister who is retiring after decades of service as a military chaplain.
- Rio Grande Presbytery had a season of prayer for a minister who is having a major surgery that will keep him out of the pulpit for a year.
Though presbyteries in the West may not be as large as those in the Southeast in terms of churches and resources, all signs indicate they are healthy and growing. The testimonies from a variety of candidates provided a glimpse of how God is calling people to himself and to the ministry. A candidate in Rio Grande was received under care and testified to God’s grace in rescuing him from a life in the cartel.
Answered Prayers
When Pacific Presbytery concluded its meeting late Saturday afternoon, the presbyters were greeted with the rain clouds approaching in the distance as they walked to their cars. That evening, the rain started falling, and most of Los Angeles received an inch of rain over the next 48 hours.
Though the work of presbyteries accomplishes many things for the advancement of Christ’s church, this visible answer to prayer was a needed reminder that nothing is more powerful than when we “draw near to God with confidence of his fatherly goodness, and our interest therein.”
Many thanks to each of these presbyteries for the warm welcome they provided and the opportunity to see how Christ is at work through them.