When I got to the Speichers’ house, however, things began picking up. I got to meet the new puppy. The dinner was very good. Andreas gave us all Euros, and taught us a polka. Plus, the cake, while not much to look at, was certainly quite moist and tasty. All-in-all, despite a rough start, my extended birthday turned out to be a lot of fun.

I disconnected from the internet, and had just pulled out my gloves when the phone rang. It was Andreas from my church small group, and he proceeded to sing a German birthday song to me, in German of course, since he is, after all, German. That cheered me up. I still wanted my stars though, so I put on my coat, grabbed one of my collapsable chairs, went out onto my deck, and reclined in the chilly night air. I looked deep into the far reaches of space, observing the celestial inhabitants: Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades, and Cassiopeia. As my eyes wandered through the sky, enthralled by the enormity of the scene, a bright shooting star suddenly streaked through my field of vision. It cut a path between Orion and Taurus, and then, having had its split second of blazing glory, it disappeared. I made a wish. I hope it comes true.

So what do I plan to do for my birthday. Well, unfortunately I couldn’t convince the seminary to cancel classes in my honor, so I have to go to class. After that it’s off to the supermarket and the bank. Perhaps I’ll get a birthday haircut, since I don’t want to start out being 24 looking shaggy. Finally, some friends are supposedly going to drop by to harass me tonight, so fret not for I will get some revelry in today.

With my decision to join the PCA made, it was time to actually make the change. On Sunday, January 12th, the elders of my church here in St. Louis upgraded my membership from associate to full, and also voted to recommend to the presbytery that I be taken under care and be enrolled as a presbytery intern. (The presbytery internship isn’t so much an internship in the sense of a job as it is the 12 month minimum time period during which one completes a checklist of requirements in order to be eligible to be examined for ordination. Got that?) On Tuesday of this past week, I went before the Missouri presbytery of the PCA so that they could take action on the aforementioned recommendation.

Now, because the recommendation of the elders wasn’t made 30 days prior to the presbytery, and thus missed the deadline to be placed on the docket, a motion had to be made to amend the docket so that my coming under care would added to the official business of that particular meeting. Dr. Jack Collins—seminary professor, my mentor in all things related to the intersection of science and faith, and chair of the education and credentials committee—made the motion to add me as well as someone else who had missed the deadline. Upon mention of my name, however, there was a bit of a stir. As I have been informed on numerous occasions by seminary personnel, there is another Steve Jamieson in St. Louis. Actually, he’s Steve Jamison (note the difference in spelling), he’s the pastor of one of the PCA churches in the Missouri presbytery, and he was at the presbytery meeting. Thus, there was a brief moment of confusion as he and his colleagues tried to figure out why he had to go under care. It was soon revealed that Dr. Collins was not in error, but that there were two Steve Jami(e)sons in attendance. Someone remarked that the presbytery must be doubly blessed to have two of us, and I was thereafter humorously designated Steve Jamieson the second.

After this brief amusement and some business it came time to deal with the men coming under care that day. The seven or eight of us coming under care, including my Hebrew professor Dr. Jay Sklar surprisingly, presented our testimonies of faith, our sense of call to ministry, and reasons for seeking ordination in the PCA. Then the vote was taken, and we were all unanimously accepted under care.

Then it was time to deal with business related to the presbytery interns. My recommendation to be enrolled as an intern somehow got lost, so my pastor, George, had to come to the rescue and make a motion that I be considered. One quick unanimous vote, and a reading of a charge by the moderator later, I was a presbytery intern.

I left shortly after that because the meeting was scheduled to go well into the evening, and I had a paper to write. Thus, ends my first experience at presbytery.

Now let the Brunching Shuttlecocks give you your own cyborg name.

The PC(USA) is the mainstream presbyterian church in the United States, and the most theologically liberal of the many presbyterian denominations. It still has quite a few conservative member churches—I grew up in one of them—but the denomination as a whole has been leaning left for quite some time. The PCA was formed in 1973 by a group of conservative pastors whose churches had decided to pull out of the then Presbyterian Church in the United States in response to the increasing degree of liberalization in the denomination. (The PCUS was the southern mainstream presbyterian denomination, and during the PCA split-off, was in the process of merging with its northern counterpart.)

Late last spring, I went through an interview to go under care of the Donegal presbytery of the PC(USA). (A presbytery is a local level governing body of a presbyterian denomination.) The interview with the appropriate presbytery committee was quite interesting because it was my first personal exposure to the liberal element of the denomination, and they had a lot of questions for me about why I was going to the PCA’s seminary rather than one of theirs. I fielded their questions as best I could, and in the end, they took me under care. However, there were two stipulations. First, I had to start attending a PC(USA) church instead of the PCA church I had been attending (and still am, btw). Second, I had to either transfer to a PC(USA) seminary for my last year of school, or take an additional year of classes at a PC(USA) seminary after graduating from Covenant.

That’s how things have stood for the past several months. However, when I got back to St. Louis after Christmas break this month, I decided to leave the PC(USA), and to join the PCA. My specific reasons are given below.

I. For the past year I have been going through, on a personal level, a very similar struggle to that which the founders of the PCA went through in departing from the PCUS in accordance with Francis Schaeffer’s principle of discipline in reverse.

II. Since college I have had a growing appreciation for the historic reformed faith. The PCA shares this appreciation in a way that the PC(USA) does not.

III. I no longer wish to abide by the stipulations of my acceptance as an inquirer in the Donegal presbytery.

III.A. I have made a PCA church my church home in St. Louis, and through that church I am active in ministry and accomplishing the M.Div. field education requirement. To transfer to any other church at this time, PC(USA) or not, would be a hinderance to my timely graduation.

III.B. In accordance with point II, I desire to stay at Covenant in order to learn more about reformed theology. Attending an additional year of classes at a PC(USA) seminary after graduation from Covenant would be, in my estimation, both impractical and unnecessary in many ways.

III.B.1. Attending an additional year of classes at a PC(USA) seminary would be impractical since I could avoid the cost of an extra year of tuition, and the associated moving costs by joining the PCA instead.

III.B.2. Attending an additional year of classes at a PC(USA) seminary would be unnecessary because many of the courses that I would be required to take would overlap with the courses that I have already had at Covenant, or else would only be meant to supposedly “broaden” my theology in directions that I do not wish to pursue.

This has been a very hard decision for me. I certainly do not leave the PC(USA) celebrating, or thinking that by doing so I’ll really “show those liberals”. Rather, I leave weeping on account of the grave state of affairs that has made this decision necessary.

Now, the illustration goes as follows. After some introductory remarks to the class, I began talking about how great God is. For example, I talked about how he’s always there when I need him, and how he can go with me wherever I go. Then I proclaimed that, in fact, he happened to be with me in the room at that very moment. Immediately, I reached below the table, pulled out Idolo Lluvia, and plunked him down on the table. The kids stared at him speechless for a moment before one of them finally exclaimed, “That’s not God!” I immediately responded asking, “How do you know that’s not God?” and we launched into a discussion on the attributes of God.