Where'd All These Calvinists Come From? Part 6 of 10
In the mid-twentieth century, Calvinism was at a low ebb in America (at least outside of Western Michigan!). I've suggested in this series some factors which explain something of its resurgence. The last one I suggested in the 1970s was the Inerrancy Controversy. In the early days of that--you could say in part, as some of that controversy's earliest fruit (even before the turn-around of the Missouri Synod Lutherans and long before the recommitted conservatism of the Southern Baptist Convention's leadership) was the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Born out of theological controversy in what was then the southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS), representatives of 260 congregations met together in December of 1973 to form what would soon be re-named as the Presbyterian Church in America. Throughout the 1970s this connection of churches grew, mushrooming in the 1980s and 1990s. In its numbers are found many who were once members of Methodist, Baptist and Episcopalian churches. These churches (nearly 1500 of them at last count) have over 300,000 communicant members, and far more in attendance at their churches.
The official doctrinal standard of the PCA is a revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document so associated with the history of Calvinism that it could almost be said to define it in the English-speaking world. This connection of churches became the home to well-known evangelical Calvinists such as D. James Kennedy and James Montgomery Boice. It's seminary grew in size and influence (Covenant Theological Seminary) and Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, Orlando, Charlotte) though officially independent, has functioned since the 1970s as the training ground for many PCA ministers. These churches are marked by aggressive evangelism and missions. We've already considered Evangelism Explosion and the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Ft. Lauderdale), but there are many others that became leaders nationally in evangelism. Briarwood Presbyterian (Birmingham, AL) the location of the denomination's organizing meeting, has also been a vibrant evangelistic church. Campus Outreach has grown out of the ministries of that congregation. Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City is also a PCA congregation. Redeemer is a leader in teaching church planting to Presbtyerians and other evangelicals. Reformed University Fellowship is the very effective student arm of the PCA, prominent especially in southern universities. By the late 1990's you could almost assume that the most seriously Bible-preaching and evangelistic congregations near major university campuses would not be Bible churches, or Baptist churches, but PCA congregations. There is no doubt that for the last 30 years, one of the major factors in the resurgence of Calvinism in American evangelicalism has been the organizing and growth of the PCA.



And I may have to leave thanks to Believer's Baptism by Schreiner and Wright.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 23, 2007 11:22:55 AM
Not being from a church background, learning the hymns via RUF's Indelible Grace has awakened me to the richness of the hymns and hymnwriters of the past.
I give thanks to God for them!
Posted by: Terry | Jul 23, 2007 6:19:54 PM
Actually, I meant to say a church that didn't have hymns~ though at Christmas even as a young person God used Issac Watts words to capture my heart and vision for Christ.
Posted by: terry | Jul 23, 2007 6:28:13 PM
Thank God for the PCA! I am a member of a small reformed baptistish eastern PA denomination called the Bible Fellowship Church. Each year many of our people flock to Tenth Pres. in Philly for the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Tenth has become the "mother church" for most of the Calvinists living in my region. I praise God for Tenth and the PCA and their faithfulness, especially when they were practically standing alone for inerrancy and Calvinism.
Posted by: Jesse Light | Jul 24, 2007 7:53:00 AM
Mark, do you deliberately only call Presbyterian gatherings "congregations" and never "churches" because they are paedobaptist?
Posted by: Pete | Aug 22, 2007 9:55:37 AM
I could be wrong but I seem to remember that Presbyterian churches (I think they were PCA) were responsible for helping organize other evangelistic events at my alma mater such as the Veritas Forum (although I realize Veritas is more Ravi Zacharias' thing; still, it was edifying for many of us to interact with the likes of Os Guinness and Phillip Johnson, among others).
Posted by: Patrick Chan | Oct 31, 2008 11:10:12 AM
I am soooo thankful to God for the Presbyterian Church in America! In the time I've been involved with my local PCA church, I've found blessing upon blessing with great expository Bible teaching, encouragement & fellowship. I love it! In a difficult phase of my life, it seems our sovereign God knew I would need a good, heavy-duty "industrial strength" Biblical church to keep me connected to Him...so he brought me to the PCA! And on the "macro" level, what better way for God to bring about the spiritual renewal our country so desperately needs than by the bold, steady Gospel-centered witness of a staunchly Calvinistic church?
Posted by: Tony | Mar 18, 2009 10:25:45 AM