Jeremy Byrd

🧵God allows us six days of seven for our own affairs, and reserves but one for Himself (WLC 120). That is a gracious benefit beyond measure. 1/5

Indeed. Our issue is not one of polity, but discipline. If we take a vow before the Lord, to subject ourselves to our brethren, then we must do it. Let your yes, be yes, and your no, no. Vows matter.

History isn’t fear-mongering; it’s pattern recognition. In modern American Presbyterianism, several denominations that first opened the diaconate to women later expanded that change to include women elders and ministers. That trajectory is historically observable, even if not inevitable. The RPCNA is often cited as a counterexample. It has long permitted women deacons while maintaining male-only eldership and ministry. But its history also shows that questions about office, ordination, and authority do not disappear once the diaconate is opened; they resurface periodically in study committees and floor debates. The tension has required ongoing clarification. So the prudential question for the PCA is straightforward: Why import that structural dynamic when BCO 9-7 already provides a constitutional way to recognize and deploy women in robust diaconal service without redefining the ordained office? History does not prove inevitability. But it does demonstrate trajectory. Wisdom learns from trajectory. Let’s learn from history.

The argument that this is a liberal slide must answer the LCMS, Assemblies of God, RPCNA, ARP, Many American Baptists, including the Baptist General Convention... So, the question becomes, in what capacity do we understand "deaconess" is being used?

A great nomination! Fred is a good brother and friend who loves Christ and the church and would serve the PCA well.

@stephenspin This is the way. Also Mario Kart.

Letting my covenant children work out their micro-aggressions the good ol’ fashioned way.

@BenSasse A bitter providence, but also joyful hope. Such is the life of God's people on this earth. May God give you and your family grace and strength as you all travel the valley of the shadow of death together.

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

"And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

@DannyMorgan0 No. Because they aren't an officer of the church. That's why we don't ordain, install, or commission them. The BCO is very clear that there are only two offices: elder and deacon.

Wait...Didn't we invent a new class of officer called "Deacon's Assistant?"

@Blain_Crain Please say OSU looks like the best team in the country because as a Michigan fan I cannot utter such blasphemy.

It’s turning into the kiss of death. Who do y’all want next?

The PCA’s doctrinal standards are the Westminster Standards, not a list of granted exceptions. If a PCA agency’s violation of those standards is suddenly “ok” because many officers have been granted exceptions then the exceptions have become the rule.

@JohnStSomething Got my own

If you don’t know what time the main hatchway gave in, then I’m not sure we can be friends. youtu.be/1hPyk2yfffY?si… via @YouTube

@JohnStSomething youtube.com/watch?v=cRdPeG…

Only a monster would put something as bad as Ohio in candy.

Because there is salvation in no other name but the name of Christ (Acts 4:12).

I appreciate that point, brother, and I fully agree that the General Assembly is responsible for ensuring that the presbyteries are broadly represented in its work. But the key question is how that representation is expressed. Our polity already provides for presbytery representation at the Assembly itself, through commissioners sent by each presbytery. But once the Assembly acts and elects members to its permanent committees or agencies, those members no longer represent their presbyteries, rather they represent the Assembly as a whole.

@jbyrd1000 The ASSEMBLY has the responsibility to maintain the representation of the presbyteries. Who the men are serving under isn't consider or relevant to the requirement.

so I'm that spreadsheet guy. ignore as needed. I've been tracking the #pcaga PCs, Agencies, and Special Committees composition for about four years now. And we remain pretty top heavy: - 26 Presbyteries are not represented - 15 are represented by a single man - 18 are represented by more than 5 - 8 are represented by more than 7 - 2 are represented by more than 11 This means that 25% of the positions are filled by the top 6 presbyteries. (The top 2 presbyteries make up just shy of 12%.) To reach 50% (ie a majority of all positions)? Only 15 of 87 presbyteries are required. The remaining 46 (with representation) make up the other 50%.

The issue I take with this overture is that it fails to take into account the fact that the permanent committees and agencies represent the GA and are accountable to it, as their members are elected from the body of GA not their respective presbyteries. Those committees exist to do the will of the Assembly not individual presbyteries.

@ZGroff @sabaton LET'S GO!! I have been waiting for this.

New album by Sabaton goes hard. Great educational songs about history. Link in 🧵 👇

Tell me what about your idolatry without telling me about your idolatry.