Glossary
This glossary of sorts is a brief list of words, acronyms, or abbreviations used to communicate in the office at Tenth Presbyterian Church. For more information on structure, please see Tenth’s Organizational Manual or the websites listed in this section.
Denomination—a group of churches that have common doctrines (beliefs) and governing structure. Tenth is part of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA; pcanet.org). The PCA has a national meeting—General Assembly (GA)—each year in June/July. The PCA’s governing document is its Book of Church Order (BCO; pcaac.org/bco).
Presbytery—a local geographic group of churches that are a subgroup of the denomination; Tenth and other nearby PCA churches that are in or near Philadelphia make up the Philadelphia Presbytery (phillypca.com). These churches have regular Presbytery meetings.
Presbyterians celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper (Communion).
Each PCA Church is governed by its Session, made up of Ordained Elders—including both Teaching Elders (ministers) and Ruling Elders (elected by the congregation). Session has a Moderator (chairman, who leads meetings) and a Clerk of Session (secretary, who keeps minutes). Ruling Elders have assignments on various commissions, committees, or as Trustees.
The Diaconate is made up of ordained Deacons (men) and commissioned Deaconesses (women).
The Nominating Committee seeks congregational input and nominates members for the Session and the Diaconate. The nominees are approved by Session.
The Trustees oversee the business side of church—budgets and finances, capital building projects, and personnel/human resources.
Ministries at Tenth are in four different groups that we call compass points: Worship and Music, Discipleship, Mercy, and Outreach. Worship and Music has a committee, and three commissions oversee three others (a few ministries are directly under Session; see the organizational charts in the Organizational Manual). A commission differs from an ordinary committee in that while a committee is appointed to examine, consider, and report, a commission is authorized to deliberate upon and conclude/make decisions about the business referred to it. Some ministries that have commonly used acronyms are listed here under the commission that oversees them.
1) Worship and Music
Worship and Events Communication Committee (WECC)
2) Kingdom Discipleship Commission: KDC
Adult Bible School (ABS)—adult education classes
Children’s Bible School (CBS)—classes that are known as Sunday School classes elsewhere
Parishes—Tenth has 5 geographical areas that we call parishes: Metropolitan, Northern Tier, Western Suburbs, Brandywine, and New Jersey. Each includes Session and Diaconate members that are assigned to give spiritual and other care and attention to members in the area.
Maranatha—our youth group
Nursery
Library
3) Mercy Commission
Internationals Outreach (IO)
Prison Ministry
Nursing Home Ministry
Homeless Ministry
International Students Ministry
Immigrants Ministry
Hispanic Ministry
Refugees Outreach
4) Global Outreach Commission (GOC)
Boice Center Commission—a commission that sponsors theological lectures (named after a former pastor)
Church Planting Committee—a group that oversees new churches in the Philadelphia Presbytery
Medical Campus Outreach (MCO)—for healthcare students and workers
Metro Outreach Committee (MOC)
Tenth College Fellowship (TCF)
Tenth City Network (TCN)—for those in their 20’s and 30’s
Tenth Saturday Night (TSN)—a regular social events program for TCN
Easter Sacrificial Offering (ESO)
Small Group Ministry
Sextons—maintenance and custodial staff who clean and maintain Tenth buildings and grounds.