A Vision for the PCA: A Look Back and Ahead
A Conversation with Randy Pope
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from an interview with Randy Pope by Jim Wert with the PCA byFaith Magazine published December 3, 2023
Today our fight for purity in doctrine is found in nearly all churches in our denomination. And this is important.
But even a casual study of our denomination’s annual statistical records tells an equally compelling story. Our people are not being adequately equipped to share their faith in a way that is relevant within the current culture.
The health of our denomination has, in my opinion, diminished over the past decades. I’d like to see our churches and committees and agencies renew their passion and training for mission and bring it back to the PCA.
It is like the analogy of food and exercise. A believer’s food is the truth of God found in His Word. His or her exercise is found in missional living.
Watch what happens to our denomination as a whole and our individual churches when we focus on both our diet and exercise. It takes both to be healthy, and candidly, our body needs more exercise.
In 1977, when I was just weeks from moving to Atlanta to plant a church, Frank Barker gave me a life- and ministry-changing challenge, one that continues to have a rippling impact in my life and in the lives of generations of people who have been connected to Perimeter Church.
He simply said — and I can still hear him as only Frank could say it —
Randy, don’t let one year go by in the life of your church that you are not offering your people an opportunity to be adequately equipped to share their faith with the people with whom they live, work, and play. Randy, model it to them in your own life and equip them to follow your example.
Reference: Read the article in its entirety here: A Vision for the Next 50 Years, A Conversation with Randy Pope, by Jim Wert.