Tennessee Valley Presbytery has proposed adding a new question to the existing five membership questions in the PCA. The additional question is, Do you believe in the one, true, and living God who exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—who are of the same substance, equal in power and glory?

In order for a person to become a communicant member of a PCA church, he or she must answer five membership questions in the affirmative: Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel? Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

The additional question would be positioned as the second of the questions proposed to a candidate for membership.

The author of the overture, Pastor Brian Cosby of Wayside Presbyterian Church in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, identifies two reasons he believes the PCA should add this membership question. Not only will it add clarity to a public profession of faith in an age of pluralism and large-scale confusion over the Trinity, even among self-proclaimed ‘evangelicals’, he says, “it also anchors us to a most foundational truth of the historic Christian faith.”

The overture has been referred to the CCB for review of its compatibility with the rest of the constitution and to the Overtures Committee for its recommendation.