A Q&A with Fred Greco

The Administrative Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) last month named Fred Greco as its nominee for the denomination’s position of stated clerk. The role—sometimes referred to as the PCA’s “mailman”—is typically low-key but has drawn more attention than usual in recent months. The previous stated clerk, Bryan Chapell, resigned and apologized last year after making disparaging remarks about a list of individuals, including PCA elders in good standing, during a video interview. Greco, who has been a pastor in the PCA for 20 years, currently serves at Christ Church PCA in the Houston area and teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary. If he is elected as expected by the General Assembly at the PCA’s upcoming meeting in June, he will be the fifth stated clerk in the denomination’s history. Here are edited excerpts of our interview.

In the PCA, the stated clerk is an administrative position that helps the denomination function smoothly. As clerk, what would you hope to do to keep the PCA well-run and on track?

The clerk can help churches that are having difficulties or conflict, serving as a resource about how to handle things peacefully, orderly, and in accordance with our standards, which (we hope and pray) reflect the Scriptures. Additionally, if you’re going to plant a church, you should do it orderly and in a good fashion, so it has the best chance to succeed. If you’re going to do foreign missions, or campus ministry, the same principle applies. And so the clerk can get information to the appropriate people, to give encouragement, to share experience and insight from one presbytery to another. That’s one of the benefits of the connectionalism of Presbyterianism. We’re not on our own. We work together, and it makes us stronger.

What other situations might the stated clerk’s office handle?

The office needs to help churches understand and navigate various aspects of church life that have legal ramifications—like the sale or leasing of property or the calling of pastors. The stated clerk’s office has a job posting service for churches that are doing pastoral searches. The office also helps keep the PCA’s various ministries, such as our missions agencies, connected and coordinated.

Recent statistical reporting by Washington University professor Ryan Burge indicates that the PCA is one of the few growing churches in America right now. How do you maintain a healthy PCA amid that growth?

Well, I think the main reason that the PCA is growing is because it is committed to the Scriptures. That’s the foundational part of our motto: Faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed faith, and obedient to the Great Commission. People are coming to PCA churches because they want the Bible preached to them. We need to keep bringing people the Scriptures. And not just about the doctrine of salvation, but the doctrine of church government too—the Biblical way that Jesus runs His church. We’re looking to the Scriptures to find out how to resolve conflict, how to bring sinners to repentance, how to forgive others, how to look over a multitude of sins, how to divide responsibility and authority, and how to have accountability. All of these things are part and parcel of our Book of Church Order. We’re not doing everything perfectly, but the way in which the Bible describes the running of the church and the organization of the church makes a difference. If we continue to emphasize these things and be very transparent, I think it will continue to be a breath of fresh air in our society.

In recent months, the PCA has made it into the news cycle a few times—for example, Saint Andrew’s Chapel’s vote to disaffiliate with the PCA, as well as the suspension of the church’s senior pastor, Burk Parsons. Amid such divisions, do you hope to promote unity in the PCA?

As stated clerk, I hope to preach patience in the PCA. We live in a world in which the news cycle changes by the minute and people pontificate on social media as if they know all facts. One of the things about Presbyterianism that I tell my seminary students is that slowness is a feature, not a bug. Things in the PCA take a while, and that is going to be a watchword as things happen in the PCA world: to encourage folks not to jump to conclusions, to trust the process, to trust the elders who are involved in certain matters, and to hear and weigh evidence. One of the worst things that people can do, in a denomination, in a local church, or quite frankly, in a family, is to jump to conclusions. One of the things that I will try to do is to not only preach patience, but to give information and broader context to matters that come up in the public eye.

How do you see yourself as similar to past stated clerks? Different from them?

I’m similar to the four previous permanent clerks in the quality that we have all been pastors, and all seminary trained. A way in which I’m different is that I practiced as a corporate attorney for about a decade. I was also a ruling elder (lay elder) before I went to seminary and became a pastor.

Is being a lawyer an advantage for the role?

I think so. It’s trained me how to think. It’s trained me to listen to people. From the very beginning of my term, should I be elected, I plan to get out into various presbyteries across the country, and to hear from them about their challenges and their hopes and their ministries. Regarding conflicts, what I did as a corporate lawyer was help parties to come to a solution that was beneficial to both sides. It’s not about trying to win. It’s about trying to find a solution that is best for all. That’s really important in a church because you have competing interests, and people have different opinions. What you want to do is not win or lose but see Jesus Christ be exalted.