Presbyterians have always been a bookish bunch, a trait the PCA leaned into from its inception. When the PCA founders convened their first General Assembly in December 1973, they began building the frame of a denomination that would be faithful to Scripture, true to the Reformed faith, and faithful to the Great Commission.
The Committee on Christian Education and Publication had its work cut out for it in developing the new denomination’s curriculum and publishing ministries. One of the 35 recommendations it made to the first General Assembly was “that the following bibliography of suggested training materials used by other Reformed Denominations in leadership training be published for study and possible adaptation by individual sessions.”
Here are the books that the Committee on Christian Education and Publication recommended:
A LISTING OF BASIC BOOKS FOR PRESBYTERIAN ELDERS AND DEACONS
The Best Books: A Guide to Christian Literature by W. J. Grier (Banner of Truth)
Holiness by J.C. Ryle (Clarke)
Reformation Today by Klaas Runia (Banner of Truth)
How is the Gold Become Dim by Morton Smith (Continuing Church)
Thy Word is Truth by E. J. Young (Eerdmans)
A Summary of Christian Doctrine by Louis Berkhof (Banner of Truth)
Scripture and Confession by John Skilton (Presby. & Reformed)
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (Eerdmans)
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (Eerdmans)
What is Christianity? By J. Gresham Machen (Eerdmans)
Calvinism by H. Henry Meeter (Kregel)
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner (Presby. & Reformed)
Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray (Banner of Truth)
Holy Spirit Baptism by Anthony Hoekema (Eerdmans)
What About Tongue Speaking? By Anthony Hoekema (Eerdmans)
An Examination of Dispensationalism by William Cox (Presby & Reformed)
Church at the End of the 20th Century by Francis Schaeffer (Inter-Varsity)
True Spirituality by Francis Schaeffer (Tyndale)
The Bible on the Life Hereafter by William Hendriksen (Baker)
Christian Baptism by John Murray (Presby. & Reformed)
What About Baptism? By Robert Rayburn (Covenant College)
Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams (Presby. & Reformed)
Education in the Truth by Norman De Jong (Presby. & Reformed)
The Soul Winner by Charles Sprugeon (Eerdmans)
God-Centered Evangelism by R. B. Kuiper (Banner of Truth)
Introduction to the Old Testament by Edward Young (Eerdmans)
Introduction to the New Testament by Donald Guthrie (Inter-Varsity)
The Westminster Confession of Faith edited by G. I. Williamson (Presby. & Reformed)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism by G. I. Williamson (Presby. & Reformed)
The Noble Task by Andrew Jumper (John Knox)
Chosen to Serve by Andrew Jumper (John Knox)
By God’s Grace: The Church by Edmund Clowney (Westminster Sem.)
The Church Before the Watching World by Francis Schaeffer (Inter-Varsity)
The Birth, Care and Feeding of a Local Church by Donald MacNair (Christianity Today)
CTI Officer Training Series (RPES)
Confessing Christ by Calvin Knox Commings (Great Commission)
Harmony of the Westminster Standards by James B. Green (John Knox)
The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary by A. A. Hodge (Presby. & Reformed)
Evangelism Explosion by D. James Kennedy (Tyndale)
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J. I. Packer (Eerdmans)
Baptism by Francis Schaeffer (Clark)