SteveJamieson.com

[Continuing "Why I Joined the PCA"]

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.
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My name would be S.T.E.V.E.: Synthetic Technician Engineered for Violence and Exploration!

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

I grew up in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Now, however, I have joined the Presbyterian Church in America. The difference? To some, perhaps not much. To me, a lot.

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.
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If you’ve read my friend Greg Johnson’s book The World According to God: A Biblical View of Culture, Work, Science, Sex & Everything Else then you’ve read about Idolo Lluvia. For those not in the know, allow me to explain. You see, Greg has two gods. One is the living and true God whom he and all other Christians worship. The other, Idolo Lluvia, is an 18 inch terra cotta Mayan rain god that he got at Pier One, and that he uses only as a handy illustration. This morning I borrowed Idolo Lluvia and Greg’s illustration (with his permission, of course) for the first lesson of the Memorial Pres. communicants class, which I am teaching.

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.

Holy hot credit cards, Batman! I have to pay how much for the six books required for my class The Church and Social Responsibility?
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