The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) at its annual meeting on Thursday voted to analyze the Christian appropriateness of the best-selling book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, who was a part of the PCA and died in August last yr at age 77. Young was one among the most-read evangelicals of the last 20 years.
Pastors within the denomination are concerned that Young’s use of the voice of Jesus within the book undermines the concept of sola Scriptura and might amount to heresy. The book was published in 2004, and criticisms of its theology from leaders within the denomination have already been widely circulated.
In addition to having a level from the denomination’s Covenant Theological Seminary, Young was the wife of a PCA elder and missionary to Japan, Steve Young.
At the talk on the measure, the recent widower rose and spoke to the room of several thousand church leaders, asking the assembly to vote against the investigation.
“Her writings didn’t add to Scripture but explain it,” Steve Young said. “She would stand with Martin Luther and declare that her conscience was captive to the Word of God.”
He went on: “Sarah is a sister in Christ and wife who delighted within the law of the Lord, and on his law she meditated day and night. She was led to share her meditations with the world.”
Young herself said her devotions were meant to be read “along with your Bible open.”
The measure passed by a comparatively close vote, 947–834, with 20 abstentions. It directs two denominational committees to reply a set of questions on the book and to every issue a report.
The committees must have a look at the denominational agencies’ history with the book and must “assess the book’s appropriateness for Christians basically and PCA members and congregations particularly with special regard for its doctrine and method.”
One of the committee reports will come from Mission to the World (MTW), the denominational mission agency through which Sarah Young and her husband were missionaries. MTW’s report must “examine MTW’s relationship with the book, knowledge of its content, and any counsel given to the creator” and “consider actions that MTW and the General Assembly should soak up light of this study of the book and of the agency’s relationship to it.”
Those supporting the measure said the reports can be useful.
“This book in query is maybe the best-selling book by any member of the PCA,” said pastor Zachary Groff, speaking in favor of the investigation.
Chuck Williams, one other church leader, said he was concerned about anyone “claiming a direct revelation from God.” (Young’s editors at Thomas Nelson said she was clear that she didn’t have “latest revelations.”)
Those against the measure thought it was an unusual undertaking for the denomination to analyze a book and thought it was inappropriate given the timing after her death.
A pastor from Tennessee, Daniel Wells, said he knew Young’s clan.
“They are still grieving,” he said, urging a vote against the measure. “Romans 12:15 tells us to weep with those that weep. This overture would as a substitute ask us to analyze this woman who has passed on.”
Church leader Jerid Krulish, speaking against the measure, noted that he was from Alaska, where people often eat quite a lot of fish.
“I do know a fishing expedition once I see it,” he said to laughter within the room. “I find this to be disparaging and a waste of those committees’ time.”
Hymn author Kevin Twit also rose to oppose the measure, saying that he hadn’t read the book but that John Newton’s hymn “Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart” also speaks using God’s voice, and he considers that not latest revelation but a summary of ideas.
The original laws (called an overture within the PCA) got here from a person, pastor Benjamin Inman. Most pieces of laws come from a presbytery. The lack of support for the measure from a presbytery didn’t bode well for its possibilities at a denominational level.
But, this week, the denomination’s overture committee amended Inman’s laws to be milder and more palatable to the assembly—removing his language condemning Young for publishing a book guilty of idolatry, for instance—and really useful the gathered assembly vote yes on the amended version.
Inman’s original laws called for the PCA to contemplate repenting for not disciplining Young for idolatry, though he acknowledged that “the creator’s passing in August 2023 has carried her above the jurisdiction of the PCA.”
Steve Tipton, the chair of the committee that produced the amended laws, said that the goal of the denominational report was not to sentence Young, although he said “we are able to all guess” what the denominational committees would say concerning the book’s appropriateness for Christians.
The PCA is a small denomination—with about 1,800 congregations to the Southern Baptist Convention’s 47,000—but it surely has broad mental influence, with authors like Young, Tim Keller, O. Alan Noble, Kevin DeYoung, and Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt. Jesus Calling sold greater than 45 million copies.
Evangelical leaders have already criticized the book. Author Kathy Keller, wife of Tim Keller, said Jesus Calling undermined the sufficiency of Scripture. Blogger Tim Challies said the book was “unworthy of our attention.”
The PCA disagreed.
