The PCA: The Offices of the Church and Women

I love my wife.  For almost four years now we have been married and every year our marriage, by God's grace, has gotten better and better.  She is most important to me save the Lord.  I am thankful that Adam saw amongst all the creatures no good match for himself and God made woman.  Women were created for a very great purpose, to show forth the glory of God through their beauty and love.  In general, their caring motherly nature linked with their gentleness is a blessing.  Now, I could go on and on about how great God has made women and how each man deserves not a wife due to his own wretchedness.  But I come at the topic in the title from this angle because I don't want you to think that I am a chauvinist pig.  Sure, in my sin, I have a tendency to be that because I hate the egalitarianism of the world.  Any man's natural tendency is to go too far to contradict a problem he sees.  Mine is to go too close and into chauvinism, but this doesn't detract from the truth for man is not the determiner of what is true, God alone is.  At the same time, I love my wife and she has a great purpose in this life, to live for the glory of God.  

Concerning her and all other women, God has made very clear that she is not to hold any office in the Church of Jesus Christ.  That's what Scripture says and at the institution of the offices men were appointed even in the times we would think women were needed (see Acts 6:1-6).  In the Presbyterian Church in America, our Constitution, which is made up of our Book of Church Order and the Westminster Standards, is clear that men only are to hold the offices in Christ's Church.  Rightly, they line squarely up with what Scripture says.

In the PCA, every single elder and deacon must take the following vows:

1. Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as originally given, to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice?
2. Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms of this Church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures; and do you further promise that if at any time you find yourself out of accord with any of the fundamentals of this system of doctrine, you will, on your own initiative, make known to your Session the change which has taken place in your views since the assumption of this ordination vow?
3. Do you approve of the form of government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church in America, in conformity with the general principles of biblical polity?
4. Do you accept the office of ruling elder (or deacon, as the case may be) in this church, and promise faithfully to perform all the duties thereof, and to endeavor by the grace of God to adorn the profession of the Gospel in your life, and to set a worthy example before the Church of which God has made you an officer?
5. Do you promise subjection to your brethren in the Lord?
6. Do you promise to strive for the purity, peace, unity and edification of the Church?

I have taken these vows and I have broken these vows.  I hold to all of them including vow #1, but Lord help my unbelief every time I sin.  I hold to vow #4, but I have not faithfully performed the duties, I am a sinner.  Praise the Lord for Jesus Christ and His imputed righteousness.  Have I adorned my life with the Gospel?  No, but I do in Christ.  Have I set a worthy example?  I hope some in Christ, but no not perfectly or faithfully.  I could go on, but I digress.  The point is here, though I fail in keeping these vows (and my marriage vows for that matter), Christ's righteousness still covers my sin.  But what if I were to take these vows, but not actually hold to them.  What if I took vow #3, but continually practiced those things which are contrary to the form of government found in the Book of Church Order in the PCA and I had been confronted about it time and time again and done nothing to change my practice?  Assume I had taken a vow to set a worthy example before the Church, promised to be subject to the brethren, and to strive for the purity, peace, unity and edification of the Church.  Yet in one or more areas I led my congregation in its practice to do those things which were clearly contrary to the Scriptures and the Book of Church Order, thereby not adhering to vows #4-6.

Maybe I should put it in a more practical light for everyone out there.  Suppose you as a parent, led your children into sin.  The Bible clearly says that children are to honor their parents (fifth commandment) and to obey their parents, yet when they clearly disobey you sit there and do nothing.  Or when Scripture commands that you raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and daily you do not open up the Scriptures to them, but instead you read 'bedtime stories'.  Or where the law of God clearly states that you shouldn't lie (ninth commandment) but you get your children to tell 'white lies' when you are in other people's company to make your family look better before others.  It is hypocrisy and sin.  And I believe it is the same thing that happens in the PCA, in our congregations.

Back on the main topic.  Scripture and our Constitution say that women are not to hold any office in Christ's Church.  They are vital to the health and well-being of the Church and I greatly appreciate their work and service when it is given and it should be given, but not as officers because God says so.  Yet, in our midst, leaders are leading their flocks down that dangerous road of rebelling against the Lord and (if that isn't good enough) not subjecting themselves to the brethren and to the government they vowed to uphold.  What message does this send to our people, to their people?  Take for instance this church in Rye, New York, which goes by the name of Trinity Presbyterian Church.  If we look on their Staff and Leadership page, we notice the list of deacons,

David August, Sean Boyd, Linda Cariri, K.C. Choi, John Eddy (in seminary), Denise George, Graham Henry, Angela Landess, Matt Landess, John Patitucci, Ken Sax, John Talbert

Now I have nothing personal against any one of the ladies I have highlighted from this list, this is public information that there are women who serve on the board of deacons at this church.  If this were the PCUSA, then at least they would have a system of government to support them, but this is the PCA.  Women shouldn't be on the diaconate according to our system of government (not to mention because of what God says).  Please don't get the impression either that this is just out of ignorance.  It is publicly clear that this church's Pastor, Craig Higgins, is promoting this view in his church and in their presbytery (Metro New York Presbytery).  The Bayly Brothers covered this back in November in this post.  There you see that a two page letter was given to the Presbytery to be voted on called A Proposal to the Metropolitan New York Presbytery Regarding Women in the Diaconal Ministry.  The authors were Craig Higgins and  Matt Brown (Park Slope Presbyterian Church) and supporting the letter were men Tim Keller (Redeemer NYC), Mark Reynolds (Redeemer NYC), Stephen Ro (Living Faith Community Church), Randy Lovelace (Redeemer Montclair), Vito Aiuto (Resurrection Presbyterian Church), Chris Hildebrand (Resurrection Presbyterian Church), Jamison Galt (Park Slope Presbyterian Church), John Sweet (Flatbush Community Church), and Trinity's associate Pastor Craig Chapman.

Is Higgins alone?  No, just on the church websites that show who is on their board of deacons, Redeemer Montclair (Randy Lovelace's church) shows the following:

Elders: William Arnold, Sean Bailey, Abraham Houng, Dennis Martenz, Leonard Noll
Deacons: Ming Chang, Jason LaValley, Sal Perednia, Todd Reilly
Deaconess: Eva Perednia

In case that isn't clear enough for you, Living Faith Community Church (Stephen Ro's church), and I have bolded the one's I believe are females.  Please forgive my not knowing the gender of names in the Korean language, so if I have made a mistake please let me know. 

Becky Lee, Grace Jang, Gary Fong, Judy Cho, BJ Sung, Sarah Liu, Henna Choi, Wing Lee, Stephen Au, Ali Hasan, Carol Chou, Gloria Choi, Alan Cheng, Curtis Xia, Matt Suhu

And of course, Redeemer NYC (Tim Keller and Mark Reynolds' church) you can see here and here.  On top of this, some of you may remember the 'incident' where a Pastor of Redeemer NYC 'ordained' deaconesses.  The video you can find below, and an explanation from Tim Keller and the man speaking in the video himself.

If you were the Elders of these churches, what message are you sending to your congregation and to the sheep who look up to you?  If you are a member of a PCA church or an officer of the PCA, what message does this send to you?