

Presbytery
Posted by Steve Jamieson in Church, Events (Personal), tags: Presbyterian Church in America, presbytery internship[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.
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.