For a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America

“With first–rate scholarship, engaging style, and a pastor’s insights, Sean Lucas provides the most perceptive history of the Presbyterian Church in America thus far. His proof that our forefathers intended for the PCA to be a new mainline denomination confirms that the growth pains so far have been worth it and inspires us to renew their vision to be a servant–leader denomination. According to Lucas’s research, our mandate as a denomination is to make sure that our service to the gospel is not ‘done in a corner.’ My friend has once again been used of the Lord to refresh my commitment to the Scriptures, the Reformed faith, and the Great Commission!”

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“As God did a glorious work in the lives of his imperfect but beloved covenant people, he would at times tell them to ‘pile up some stones’ in order to remember what he had done and to teach the ‘coming generations.’ Sean Lucas has ‘piled up some stones’ to prod our remembrance of the gracious work of God‘s providence in establishing the Presbyterian Church in America. And the ‘coming generations’ are therefore sure to be both encouraged and equipped for a future that by Gods grace will be marked with an imperfect yet loving obedience.”

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“This book offers the first comprehensive story of southern conservative Presbyterianism—a most important and too–often–neglected part of the larger story of American Christianity. It is full of both inspiring moments and cautionary tales. It is as church history should be: a faithful and engaging retelling of the church’s past in the service of her present and future calling.”

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“I’ve always thought of my friend and former colleague Sean Lucas as a walking encyclopedia. Every page of this volume proves me right. Meticulously researched, this history of the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America will instantly become the definitive account of a significant movement in the history of American Presbyterianism. The detail is comprehensive, the writing is wonderfully engaging (as though the drama were being played out before our very eyes), and the sins of the past are neither downplayed nor exaggerated. As a church historian and pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America,I’ve waited a long time for this history. I was not disappointed. There were surprises, there were aspects of the story that filled in gaps in my own understanding, and there was a sense of encouragement as I turned the last page. It does seem that we can count ourselves as one example of an evangelical Presbyterian church that God has enabled to remain true to the Scriptures, the Westminster Standards, and the robust Reformed faith. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”

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“With For a Continuing Church, Sean Michael Lucas has remedied the neglect that southern Presbyterians have generally suffered at the hands of church historians. His story of conservatives in the Presbyterian Church in the United States follows carefully the Old School tradition as it developed and adapted to twentieth–century life, and then informed the founding of the Presbyterian Church in America. If history teaches lessons, Lucas’s book has at least a semester’s worth for both those who belong to the PCA and others who desire to promote and maintain the witness of Reformed Protestantism.”

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“Take it from this Baptist. I don’t care if you’re not a conservative Presbyterian; you still need to read For a Continuing Church. It tells an important, yet often–neglected story in the history of American evangelicalism, combining original research and outstanding engagement with current scholarship. Writing with the empathy of an insider, but the historical honesty of a critical scholar, Sean Lucas has also told this story in a masterfully crafted narrative. The book makes a lasting contribution to our understanding of the American evangelical landscape, highlighting the complexity of denominational movements and institutions. It should be read widely, not only by historians, but by anyone else who wants to think carefully about the intersection of faith and culture.”

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“Sean Lucas has given us an account of events leading up to founding of the Presbyterian Church in America that not only is informative from a historical perspective but could be valuable in helping to assess events taking place today. Some of the issues and concerns facing the church today are similar to, if not the same as, those that fed into the forming of the PCA. I believe this book not only will have an appeal to those involved in this history, but could be a resource for those who have come along at a later time to better understand where and why we are today.”

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“Don’t let the title fool you. This is about far more than the PCA. This book is nothing less than a history of Presbyterianism in the twentieth century—with all its theological wrangling, all its political maneuvering, all its failings, and all its faithfulness. This is certainly a story worth telling, and Sean tells it very well.”

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“This important work by my friend Sean Lucas is much needed, well researched, forthright, and comprehensive. It will be a tremendous resource for present and future leaders in the PCA in general and Covenant Seminary students in particular. Lucas gets the story straight so that we can see more clearly both the strengths and the blind spots of our past. He does this with a hope–filled desire for faithfulness in today’s church as another new generation takes its place of leadership and joins God’s mission in and through the PCA and beyond.”

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“This is a story that had to be told, and Sean Lucas has told it with the skill and care of a historian and the warmth and concern of a pastor. Dr. Lucas is thorough, honest, fair, and accurate in unfolding the history of a complex movement that includes mixed motives, different hopes, complicated relationships, and inner controversies. In spite of the failures of the Presbyterian Church in America (‘the purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error‘), its history is a good story, indeed a wonderful story, of God’s grace and blessing on a group of southern Presbyterians who were committed, despite the cost, to establishing and maintaining ‘a continuing church,’ true to the Bible, faithful to Reformed theology, and obedient to the Great Commission. If you want to understand the Presbyterian Church in America, you must read this book.”

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