CHURCHES OF AMERICA
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Areas of Charity
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Enduring Values
6. Issue of Our Age: Biblical Sexuality and Ordination
5. Committed Complementarianism
4. Engaged Presbyterian Polity
3. Confident Gospel Proclamation
2. The Historic Reformed Faith
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1. The Supremacy of Scripture
Values
Enduring
Westminster Churches of America
Next Enduring Value
We affirm that the Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, is the only infallible, inerrant rule of faith and practice, the final authority on all matters of which it speaks.
Next Enduring Value
We affirm Reformed covenant theology and subscription to
the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechisms (1788) with allowance for clearly
defined exceptions.
Next Enduring Value
We affirm that the God who ordains the end also ordains the means, and that He is pleased to gather His elect from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue through the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Since salvation belongs to the Lord, the Church labors in evangelism and missions with confidence rather than anxiety, knowing that Christ will build His Church and that none whom the Father has given Him shall be lost. The Great Commission binds the whole Church in every generation until Christ returns, and is ordinarily fulfilled through the faithful proclamation of the Word, the right administration of the Sacraments, prayer that His kingdom would come, and the planting and strengthening of particular churches. This work begins in the covenant household, where parents are charged to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; it extends through the witness of every member in his or her ordinary calling; and it reaches the ends of the earth through those whom Christ calls and the Church sends and sustains. We therefore affirm that a people gathered for worship and discipleship must also be dispersed for mission and evangelism, and that no Session, presbytery, or synod of the WCA may treat the salvation of the lost as the business of some other body than its own.
We affirm a plurality of elders (teaching and ruling) in all courts of the church. In the Presbytery and the Synod we are committed to parity that results, in practice, in two ruling elders for every teaching elder as well as all churches having equal ruling elder representation regardless of size of ordained staff. In line with this, we are committed to subsidiarity (‘bottom-up’ governance) that prioritizes the particular church Session while limiting the terms, authority, scope, and structure of the upper courts.
Next Enduring Value
We affirm that God created humanity male and female, equal in dignity and worth yet distinct by His design in God-ordained callings; embracing this design is essential to Christian obedience.
God has called the husband to be the head of (his) wife even as Christ is the head of the church. Husbands should love their wives as Christ loves the church and should raise their children in the fear and loving discipline of the Lord. Likewise, in the church, the household of God, only biblically qualified and called men shall lead as pastors and elders.
God has called wives to reflect the church’s beautiful relationship to Christ in their marriage as helpers through God-honoring submission to their own husbands in gospel partnership. Women are called to love their husbands and children and manage their households well, for in so doing her family will call her blessed. Both men and women together, empowered by the Spirit, are called to the work of ministry both in the church and the world, for the glory of God and the good of all people.
Next Enduring Value
We affirm God’s good design for humanity as male and
female and uphold the biblical sexual ethic of chastity in singleness and fidelity in covenanted
marriage between one man and one woman. We also affirm that unnatural sexual attractions, desires, and/or practices necessarily disqualify men from ordination. Those eligible for church office shall conform in heart, mind, and conduct to God’s design for human sexuality, embracing with gratitude the calling of either chastity in singleness or fidelity in marriage.
Those who profess, persist in, or identify with unnatural desires (Romans 1:26-27), or
affections contrary to God’s created order and condemned by Scripture as against nature, are disqualified from holding office in Christ’s Church.
Next Enduring Value
1788
Westminster Confession of Faith
Confessional
Standards
In 1788 American Presbyterians meeting in Philadelphia adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms as its doctrinal standards. The Bible remained the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
The WCA affirms reformed covenant theology and subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith and its Catechisms (1788) with allowance for clearly
defined exceptions.
Areas
of
Charity
Sunset Clause: Female RE's
Women currently serving a term on a local Church Session as a ruling elder when joining the WAC will have the opportunity to complete their current term (without voice or vote in the upper courts of the church during this time).
The Office of Deacons
Church Sessions are able to discern whether to have deacons and if women are eligible for the office of deacon.
Areas of Charity
Gifts of the Spirit
Church Sessions are able to discern for themselves from Scripture the place of spiritual gifts in the local church and worship provided the use of gifts never contradicts the Scriptures.
Westminster Churches of America
1st Covening General Synod
Christ Will Build His Church.
The Westminster Churches of America hosted its first Convening Synod October 6-8, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. The Lord is at work in creating a growing and thriving denomination that is historically reformed, confessional, and presbyterian.