It’s hard to imagine that anyone has ever been more deeply rooted in the PCA than Jim Baird. In 1969, four years before the denomination’s founding, Baird, then pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Macon, Georgia, spoke at a rally in Atlanta calling for church leaders and congregations to return to biblical standards. By doing so, Baird was sowing the seeds for a new denomination. Two years later, as momentum for that effort gathered and organized, he became part of a 12-man steering committee appointed to bring reform and to call for a reaffirmation of the primacy of the Scriptures and the central mission of the church.
As plans for the PCA became firmer, he was appointed co-chair of the fledgling denomination’s overseas missions subcommittee. 
Baird would go on to serve the PCA as a pastor, leader, mentor, and friend to many. “He provided great guidance and direction,” the late Frank Barker once said. “Jim was extremely wise in the ways he led. He served as a great example as a leader.”
That may have never been truer or more evident than on June 11, 2015, when Baird made a heartfelt speech on the floor of the 43rd General Assembly (GA).
The Personal Resolution
On the Assembly’s opening night, Sean Lucas and Ligon Duncan, both pastors in Mississippi at the time, stood before commissioners to offer a personal resolution. They called on the Assembly to “confess our sins regarding our complicity and involvement in racial injustice during the Civil Rights era up until the present day.”
By rule, the resolution was officially received by the Assembly and then sent to the Overtures Committee, which would bring a recommendation two days later.
Reaction was strong and unbridled. On one hand, the resolution triggered enthused agreement. “Yes, it’s about time,” many felt. On the other hand, it stirred uneasiness and confusion.
Arguments and counterarguments were volleyed back and forth in the committee for more than nine hours. In the end, the Overtures Committee — frustrated, emotionally spent, and out of time — felt as though everyone needed to pause. Commissioners needed time to think, study, and seek counsel from others, it believed. Hence, the committee recommended that the resolution be referred to the 44th General Assembly, which would meet the following year.
The proposal sparked more emotion, more debate, and still more angst on the GA floor. Many pressed for immediate action. They wanted to send the resolution back to the presiding Overtures Committee and have them approve it “now,” before the Assembly adjourned the following morning. There was no reason to “kick this can down the road,” they argued. If repentance was warranted, the time was now!
Others, while sympathetic, felt that more time was needed to reflect and take counsel with others in their churches and presbyteries. A measure of this magnitude, they believed, surely required further study and perfection. It needed broader support from presbyteries, too.
“This man will forever have my utmost respect.”
– Jemar Tisby
The debate was both passionate and exhausting. And it may have been well past midnight when weary commissioners voted not to send the resolution back to the current committee. Instead, they’d vote on the initial recommendation, to refer the resolution to the 44th Assembly.
It was at that point, Teaching Elder Tim LeCroy recalled at the time, that one of the older commissioners stepped to a microphone. Jim Baird, one of the few living PCA founding fathers, then began an extemporaneous speech that will live in PCA lore.
Baird began by telling commissioners that in the early 1970s, he was focused on one thing: starting a new denomination. In his heart, he knew the effort was “… for the sake of the Scripture, for the sake of the preservation of historic Presbyterianism, and for the furtherance of the gospel proclamation.” His focus was there, he said, and it was singular. And so, he acknowledged, “I did not raise a finger for civil rights. Therefore, I confess my sin.”
Baird went on to explain to the younger men that neither he nor the other 11 steering committee members were racist. “But we did not do anything to help our Black brethren,” he said.
As he continued to speak — his pain and remorse palpable — many in the room began to weep. “It was as if a great weight was being lifted,” LeCroy recalled. “We were finally beginning to be honest about our past and to confess it so that healing can come.”
LeCroy recorded how, on social media, response to Baird’s speech was immediate. Jemar Tisby, then a seminary student at RTS Jackson and co-founder of the Reformed African American Network, took to Facebook, writing:
“This man will forever have my utmost #respect. The photo below shows, Rev. Jim Baird, a Southern Presbyterian pastor emeritus of a multi-thousand-member congregation in Jackson, Mississippi and one of the original twelve men who organized the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), confessing his own indifference to the concerns of African Americans in the past and offering heartfelt plea to see the Resolution on Civil Rights Remembrance passed this year and not get referred to next year’s Assembly.”
As Baird continued to speak — his pain and remorse palpable — many in the room began to weep. “It was as if a great weight was being lifted,” Tim LeCroy recalled.
Anthony Bradley, King’s College professor and former professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, wrote:
“I totally agree with Jemar Tisby. I’d take a bullet for Rev. Jim Baird. WOW!!! I’ve been waiting 20 years to finally hear something like that. Super encouraged by George Robertson’s prayer as well.”
Ultimately, the motion to refer the resolution to the next GA passed unanimously. But the night’s business wasn’t yet done. After the vote, GA Moderator Jim Wert opened a season of prayer. Men instantly streamed to the microphones to confess their involvement and complicity in racial injustice. Which, LeCroy noted, “was exactly what the resolution asked us to do!”
The prayer time persisted well over an hour. It was the longest time of prayer that many, including the moderator, had experienced at any Assembly, LeCroy wrote.
Roy Taylor, then stated clerk of the denomination, wrote in his report, “Actions of the 43rd General Assembly,” “This writer has attended every General Assembly the PCA has ever had. In his opinion, the periods of prayer and expressions of repentance and brotherly love on the Thursday evening session of the 2015 General Assembly were the most evident and powerful work of the Holy Spirit at any PCA Assembly heretofore.”
Much of it was sparked by PCA founder Jim Baird.
For a fuller description of this story, including an explanation of the historic “Protest of 2015,” please order byFaith’s 50th Anniversary commemorative publication, free to all PCA members and churches. Sign up at pcaac.org/ 50thcontact/.