The 16th Stated Meeting of Evangel Presbytery met Friday, October 4th, 2024 at Clearnote Church, Indianapolis, IN. Our meeting came on the heels of New Geneva Academy’s annual Shepherds Conference which met the day before. This year’s conference was on the topic of Unity. Both days were full of warm fellowship!
Worship and Communion
We started the day by worshiping our Triune God. Pastor Max Curell preached from a book that seldom gets attention: Zephaniah. He pointed out that it is often our dispensational brothers who exhort their sheep about the Day of the Lord and keep it on their hearts and minds, but not so much with reformed men. We must have the end in view. Max focused on chapter 1 and exhorted us not to become complacent:
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men who are complacent,
those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ (Zeph. 1:12)
We must examine our hearts for ‘congealing.’ As Max pointed out, how many of us and our people fit Zephaniah’s description here: ‘worshiping God’s holy name on Sunday but then texting 500 ‘OMG’s throughout the week’:
I will stretch out my hand against Judah
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem…
those who bow down and swear to the Lord
and yet swear by Milcom, (Zeph. 1:4-5)
May we shake off all complacency and remember ‘God’s favorite judgment beverage’:
For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams;
It is well mixed, and He pours out of this;
Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. (Psalm 75:8)
Business
After communion we transitioned to business. We introduced visitors and sat our corresponding members – thank you all for coming! Our treasurer, John Kluge, gave his report. We have doubled our committee expense fund, so if you are incurring expenses, reach out to John. We also had a special request from our Reserve Fund. Pr Gregory Anglen (Sovereign King Church) recently launched a Christian school, Sovereign King Academy, and requested funds to help with the launch. Funds had previously been granted, and these additional funds were granted as well. May God bless this school!
Following the Treasurer’s Report we turned to two overtures that had been sent up from Sessions. The first was from Sovereign King Church concerning Irregular Baptisms. SKC requested that an ad interim committee be formed “to study the issue of receiving into membership those with improper baptisms and to offer guidance to the sessions of the churches in handling these cases.” The sacrament of baptism has been given to us by our Lord as a means of grace, a way to build up our faith by the use of a physical sign. But since we are in a fallen and imperfect world, oftentimes God’s people receive baptism in irregular ways (e.g. being baptized by an unordained youth leader at a retreat). Questions arise: when do we accept or reject irregular baptisms? What pastoral considerations should be taken? These questions presuppose what a normal, valid baptism is (see BCO 16). The ad interim committee was formed and will come back with its guidance.
The other overture came from Trinity Presbyterian Church regarding New Geneva Academy coming under the oversight of Evangel. TPC requested that a committee be formed to explore whether “it would be wise and beneficial to make NGA a permanent organization of Evangel, and, if so, to determine how best to structure the governing oversight of NGA within Evangel…” NGA has never been formally connected to Evangel, but it is organically: most of our pastors grew up in the soil of NGA. There are many things to consider when dealing with institutions and their joining arms formally. The ad interim committee was formed and will bring its recommendations back to the Winter 2025 Stated Meeting (February). Please pray for both of these committees – that God would give the men wisdom and foresight as they handle these overtures.
Next we turned to our Ad Interim Committee on the New Doctrinal Positions Section of the Book of Church Order (yes, it is a mouth full, but what else would you expect from presbyterians!). This committee has been hard at work, and we got to see the fruit of their labor. The purpose of the committee: Given the degeneracy of our times it is important for the sake of the purity of the Church that we make doctrinal declarations on certain issues. Evangel currently has two doctrine-heavy sections in the BCO on Sexuality and Abortion. These declarations are currently located in BCO chapters 28 & 29. Concern arose as to whether the BCO was the appropriate location for these chapters. Evangel Presbytery is governed first and chiefly by God’s infallible Word, and subordinately it is governed by our Constitution which is composed of the Creeds, the Westminster Standards, and the BCO. The committee created this helpful chart proposing a new constitutional section called Doctrinal Declarations of the Presbytery (DDP):
The committee gave multiple reasons for why adding this new section is the best course of action. You can find those reasons in their Report here. The Report also shows all of the committee’s work doing surgery on the BCO to transplant portions of chapters 28 & 29 into their own new constitutional section (DDP). Many thanks to the men on this committee! Their 30 page Report shows all their good labor, and we would all do well to read and examine it. Approval of these changes will be taken up at the next Stated Meeting.
Following lunch we heard from our Admin and Nominations Committee. Elder Josh Congrove has been nominated as our next Moderator. Pr Stephen Baker gave his report from the Candidates and Credentials Committee.
Pr Tim Bayly gave the Shepherding Committee report. Pr Joseph Bayly gave a short exhortation to Presbytery about pastoral care, especially as it relates to dealing with sexual abuse. He exhorted us to ask hard questions: Don’t let what you want to be true, or what you assume to be true, prevent you from asking hard questions. Be honest with yourself that you don’t want to know the truth, then confess this to God and have faith. The bottom line is this: if we do not dig to the bottom in our pastoral care, we will never heal the problems. So ask hard questions.
Churches
We then heard updates from Christ Church, Cincinnati, and Clearnote Church, Indianapolis. Next we heard from elder Tom Thisleton (Christ Church, Cincy) who gave a short talk on church finances and pastoral compensation. Elder Dan George (Clearnote Church, Indy) followed with a short exhortation to elders to be aware of their pastors and to offer them help. As he told his pastor, “I’m here to help you, I’m like your wife” (you can imagine the laughter that brought!). Of course, he’s right…
Pr Max Curell gave his report from the Church Planting Committee. In his words, ‘There are not many men today wanting to plant churches, they need to be prayed up.’ Our Lord commanded us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). Pr Jason Chen, Chinese Reformed Church of Bloomington, then gave his report. While they have had some fruit in Bloomington over the years they realize it is time to leave for deeper waters. Jason has been faithful in his work in Indiana for many years. Be in prayer for him that God would direct them to the right place to continue his labors. Continue to pray for our other plants as well, Christ Church, Columbus, and Church of the King, Evansville.
Wrapping Up
Finally, we heard from the Sessional Records Committee. If you are interested in serving the SRC talk to Alex McNeilly.
Our next Stated Meeting is Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 9 a.m. at Holy Trinity Reformed Church (Camby, IN). We look forward to seeing you there!
“The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.”
Psalm 87
