Highlights of my time at the 89th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church

I attended the 89th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church which took place Wednesday August 5th through Friday August 7th of 2026. It was a greatly encouraging time. Here are some highlights of the week.

We had excellent attendance at Synod with a high percentage of the denomination’s ministers and elders present. Rev. James S. Blizzard was elected moderator. Rev. Steven Brinegar served for his second year of a three year term as stated clerk, and for the second consecutive year I was the assistant stated clerk.

As chair of the resolutions committee I presented three resolutions. One, a resolution of thanks to the host church. The second, a memorial resolution for Rev. Thomas G. Proctor M.D. And the third, a resolution on Race, Theology, and Ecclesiology. All three of these resolutions were passed, and I was especially glad that the last one found strong support.

An invitation for next year’s synod came from Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church. This was later approved. I look forward to going back to Tacoma where we last met about six years ago.

The host church honored the late Dr. James L. Blizzard with a presentation outside of street sign for the newly-named “Dr. Blizzard Drive.” Certainly this took much effort on their part to work with local officials, and now for them to change their address.

Regarding the presentation from Western Reformed Seminary, most notable was a mention of the desire to hire a full-time President for the school.

Notable also were prayers made for Rev. Augustus Nicodemus Lopes for serious health concerns. I was glad to see him come to Synod in person on the final day.

I was also glad to meet Rev. Henry Flowers, the new minister from the Tacoma BPC, and to meet Elder Kistner from Albuquerque church for the first time as well.

Our annual banquet took place an an upscale Italian restaurant with excellent food. Rev. Henry Fernandez gave a good sermon there, and I was blessed to have good conversation at a table with Rev. David Carnes (the OPC fraternal delegate), Rev. Jason Waeber, and my elder Adrian Vroegindewey.

The second evening of Synod I was blessed with the opportunity to preach on Matthew 6:13 on “Prayer Shaped by the Gospel: All for His Glory,”the second time I’ve preached at a Synod meeting.

Considerable discussion arose at Synod on a number of overtures. In each case I believe there was patience and understanding of the various positions taken, and unity among brethren even where there was disagreement on particulars. Ultimately, an overture to define the status of a mission church was sent back to committee to come back to Synod next year. Their task is now broadened to define what it is to have an “imperfectly formed church;” i.e. a church with an insufficient number of elders. After an overture at Synod to add prooftexts to the BPC-amended portions of the Westminster Standards was sent back to committee, the Rev. Jason Hutchinson later successfully brought us to revisit the question, approve a change to our “preliminary principles” to specify our position on eschatological liberty, and to then approve the prooftexts submitted from the committee assigned to do as such at last year’s synod.

The people of Esperanca Bible Presbyterian, our host church, did an excellent job with everything; especially the Brazilian style barbecue.

But perhaps the moment I will remember best from the whole week was what I’m calling “the legendary bus.” Leaving the morning of Saturday, August 8th, elder Adrian and I returned our rental car and at 5:08 AM and were waiting for the shuttle bus to bring us to the airport. Knowing that it would only arrive every 40 minutes, and that there were quite a few people there, and knowing that Adrian’s flight was soon approaching, we had a bit of concern that we might be late if we did not get the first shuttle. We stood on the curb and looked left waiting for the bus to arrive. Just then … beep, beep, beep … the shuttle bus backed-in from the right settling its door nearly right in front of us, and solving all our worries. That was the most beautiful beep, beep, beep I’ve ever heard.