But in order there be good order, we are told in Corinthians to do things in order, then there is order in the church. It's not do what you want, whenever you want it, or one person to run everything. There is an order. And that order makes us distinctively Presbyterian. The first part of that order is in the local church. You become members of a local church. You belong to this church. This is where you make your spiritual home. And you have to profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to do that. But that faith is assessed by a court. Believe it or believe it not, Mark and Mark and Kevin and Pastor Fleur and I form a court of the church. We don't dress up in black robes, I hope, and we try to do things in a decent way, but we are the session. That's the lowest court of the Presbyterian Church. The next court is a regional court. It's called, in the Book of Church Order, the regional church. And that's a presbytery. We meet in presbyteries twice a year, except when there is particular business to be transacted of an important nature. And that's true for our presbytery at the moment, that there's business that requires the presence of men more than twice a year. But normally, it's twice a year. It's in the spring. I appeared at the last one, and then in the fall. And the next one, I believe, is in Raleigh, held at Pilgrim, I believe. But that's for every church. There are regional presbyteries, presbyteries of the south, presbyteries of the southeast, presbyteries of the southwest, presbyteries of the northwest. central Presbytery encompassing parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. There are, I can't remember how many Presbyteries, but there are a number. And to that go delegated elders and every minister. Every minister can go to Presbytery, but certain delegated elders go. And then, finally, the highest court we have is the General Assembly. And at the General Assembly, business is transacted which cannot be transacted in the regional courts. There are appeals being made and those kind of things, and they're dealt with in the General Assembly. Appeals come from different presbyteries to resolve certain issues that it's not easy to be resolved locally. And the General Assembly is an important place. To that, two elders from every presbytery are delegated, and then two or three ministers. I think the total number of delegates at a General Assembly is 155. I don't know if they count heads, but certainly that's the number according to the Book of Church Order. They're 155. And they meet once a year. This year, it was in Grand Rapids. I don't know, did they decide where next year is going to be held? Sorry? Dort College, Iowa, in the middle of the cornfields. It's going to be there. And it moves. It moves around. I come from a denomination that has its assembly. Its assembly begins tomorrow, in fact, or Tuesday. But they don't take a week over deliberating anything. They're in too much of a hurry, so they're in and out. The General Assembly of the OPC lasts for the best part of a week. Mark went on Wednesday, I think, a week last Wednesday, and he came back last Wednesday, although the Assembly finished on Tuesday night. And he will come and tell us now precisely what was discussed in general terms. You're not going to be bored by this. It'll pass quickly. But before he comes up, let me pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for granting to your church a certain order, and that that order is good for us, that we do things decently and in order. that there is authority and yet there is the opportunity to submit to authority. And that teaches us precisely what kind of Christian grace we have. We pray that you would bless Mark as he tells us what happened and that all the decisions of the assembly might be carried out in a loving and a gentle way. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. Mark, come up here. Since I'm not using my Creflo dollar uniform, you've got to come up here. This will certainly be a report only in general, but as the brothers have indicated, it was a great privilege to serve as a commissioner to the General Assembly of our denomination. It was my first opportunity to serve as a commissioner at that level. I was pleased to see, and not surprised, but pleased to see the experience that I'd had in the reform tradition prior to coming into the OPC was certainly evident in the interaction of the brothers there at the GA level. It is a great encouragement to be in the midst of brothers who are desirous of honoring the Lord even as they administer the various responsibilities and the oversight of the church. And I was thankful to be a part of it. As Pastor Hughes indicated, we assembled at Kuyper College. It's a small Christian college there in Grand Rapids. Only about 350 in attendance there. So it was a very intimate setting. We were very well served by our hosts in terms of the accommodations. It's really conducive to carrying on the business that was before us. And I would, as an aside, as Pastor Hughes indicated, strongly urge you as the opportunity arises to observe the function of the church body at various levels if that is a possibility. The Presbytery will be meeting at Pilgrim this fall and Lord willing Shiloh will at some occasion in the, we hope, near future, serve as a host as well. And I would encourage you to participate in that to the degree that you're able. It's a great encouragement to see the Lord governing His church, even through the various levels of government as they do their work. As Pastor Hughes indicated, Much of the assembly is taken over with the reports of various committees. These committees are established on a permanent basis and they deal with the various areas of the church that need oversight during the year, missions, home and foreign. various financial needs, diaconal ministry, various categories, all relating to the support and the operation of the church. And as these permanent committees bring their reports to the floor of the assembly, They are considered by temporary committees, if you will, which exist for the period of the General Assembly itself. And so we have opportunity as standing committees to review the various work that has gone on during the year. evaluate that, perhaps make recommendations to the body for modifications or not, as the standing committee reviews the work of the permanent committee. My assignment this year was on the Committee for Ecumenicity and Inter-Church Relations. I was really happy to have that particular assignment. That involves, as the Name would indicate the relationship that the OPC has with other Sister denominations not only in this country, but throughout the world they have opportunity to maintain correspondence with with these various Groups that they have relationship with and often as it was the case this year Fraternal delegates are invited to participate in our General Assembly and they customarily bring their greetings from their denomination. And it gives you an opportunity to get some firsthand knowledge of like-minded brothers in various parts of the world. I had a number of representatives there this year, and one of the advantages of being in that committee that I was a part of is that we had an opportunity to speak with many of those brothers at some length about some of the work that was taking place. good friend and former classmate of Pastor Hughes. Richard Holst was among the delegates there. He is providing two sons to the OPC at this point. Matt Holst, who you know, has supplied the pulpit here at Shiloh in the past. And Jonathan, if I have the name right, is the other son who is also serving in the OPC. So I had opportunity to fellowship with him. There were a couple of brothers there from an independent reformed church in Korea who had recently, in fact, at this meeting was granted, that particular church was granted the closest level of relationship with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It was good to get to know them and hear something of the work as it's taking place on the other side of the world. Many other, uh, delegates and so forth were there. And, uh, I'd be certainly happy to, to speak to you after this presentation, uh, on any questions, uh, you might have in terms of that, but it was the most enjoyable committee assignment for me. And I was, was thankful to, uh, to be able to have that particular assignment. Um, I guess in terms of, um, major issues that came before the body this year. I would classify them as two. One concerning a doctrinal issue that apparently is causing a degree of unrest in particular in our Presbytery of the Northwest. It is known as the doctrine of republication. I am not sufficiently well-informed to inform you on it with any degree of knowledge at this point, but in general it relates to a discussion over consideration of how the law as originally given the covenant of works as it was given to Adam relates to the covenant of grace and how that the two interrelate as the Covenant of Grace is involved in the issuance of the law during Moses' time. It is an issue, like I say, that I cannot speak with any degree of real understanding on at this point in terms of the subtleties of the debate and the discussion, but it is such that it is having a a rather serious impact on the Presbytery of the Northwest to the point where the brother who was presenting his plea for help from the General Assembly was practically moved to tears as he was making the presentation because of the discord that at this point is bringing about in that particular presbytery. So as you think of the work of the body, please pray for those brothers who were appointed as a committee to study this issue. and to deal with the Presbytery of Northwest and seek to be of counsel and advice to them. It is an issue that will be before us apparently for the immediate future and perhaps sometime after that. The other two issues before us were appeals from two congregations over disciplinary action that was taken at the Presbyterian level, the results of which they appealed to the General Assembly to consider and advise on that. And again, I won't go into detail on that at this point. I'd be happy to speak with you about that after this presentation if you so desire. But at this point, I just wanted to give you a general idea of what takes place. And that is certainly the bulk of the proceedings that is considered in these various issues. that in one way or another have been perhaps dealt with at a lower level and because of an appeal have been brought to this highest level of the church court to consider. I guess the only other thing I would mention that was of interest to many, as I mentioned, there are fraternal greetings brought from the various denominations who send representatives to the meeting. And as the delegate from the United Reformed Church spoke to the body, he proposed the idea of a concurrent meeting of the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Synod of the United Reformed Church. Uh, in part because as you might be aware, uh, those two denominations are jointly working on a new production of a Psalter hymnal. And, uh, they thought because of the, uh, the close relationship that that work has brought about, it would be of benefit to both denominations to perhaps meet concurrently. Uh, The reaction of our General Assembly was to counter-propose that that be deferred for consideration until the year 2018. in part because preparations are already underway for next General Assembly and it would probably be an unworkable time frame to look at that 2016 year. But that proposal will go back to the brothers in the URC and there is a a possibility at this point that there could be a concurrent meeting a few years down the road. Some of the thinking behind extending that time frame was the hope would be that the new Psalter Hymnal might be completed by that time and would be an additional cause of celebration for this concurrent meeting. At that point, I think I will conclude my presentation for this morning. I would suggest that if you're interested in more detail and probably a clearer explanation of what has taken place, there is a very good summary of the proceedings posted on the denominational website. Simply go to opc.org and you will find there recorded an excellent summary of the activities of the body, some pictures of the the delegates who were involved. Again, I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to participate and pray that the Lord will continue to bless the Orthodox Presbyterian Church as it labors at every level to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you.