4 December 1973 A.D. Founding Churches of the Presbyterian Church in
America (PCA)
December 4: The Founding Churches of the PCA
Where are they now?
This
day, December 4, 1973, marks the formation of the Presbyterian
Church in America, as the denomination’s first General Assembly met in
Birminham, Alabama, December 4-7 at the Briarwood Presbyterian Church.
Lately
I’ve been compiling a list of all the churches that have ever been a part of
the PCA. Perhaps we can talk more about that larger list another day, but for
now we want to look at a select portion of that list. The obvious starting
point for such a list would be the founding churches of the PCA, and those
founding churches are the subject of our post today. Working from the Minutes
of the PCA’s First General Assembly, we find there were 273 churches that can
be called the founding churches of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Of
these 273 churches, 182 of them are still in the PCA (though technically, two
of those had merged with other churches). Three left for other Presbyterian
denominations. One of our founding churches, First Presbyterian of Hueytown,
Alabama, left to join the OPC in 1991. The Jackson Street Prebyterian Church of
Alexandria, Louisiana (now Grace Presbyterian), joined the EPC in 1997. And
Progressive Presbyterian Church, Princeton, North Carolina, joined the Associate
Reformed denomination, also in 1997. Over the years, another 16 of the founding
churches have left to independency.
Regrettably,
23 of the founding churches have dissolved. Closer study needs to be done to
determine the reasons, whether they were small rural churches or whether other
problems brought about their closing. Then the final category is for now one of
mystery, and more research needs to be done with this group. Here the record is
simply unclear for 41 of the founding churches. Most likely these churches were
dissolved or perhaps left to independency, yet without proper notation of their
action on the roll books. We might find even find in one or two instances that
the church is still in the PCA, but its status is obscured by a change of name
or location. (I have already discovered one such discrepancy.) In all, those 23
closures and 41 “uncertains” total 64 founding churches effectively lost to the
PCA. Nothing is forever in this poor world.
It is
interesting to look at those 273 founding churches state by state, and the
following list shows the breakdown, The last column in this list shows how many
PCA churches and missions now operate in each of those states, so as to show
subsequent growth in each state.
State
|
Then
|
Now
|
Alabama
|
50
|
110
|
Arkansas
|
2
|
11
|
Florida
|
19
|
154
|
Georgia
|
17
|
143
|
Kentucky
|
2
|
14
|
Louisiana
|
6
|
17
|
Maryland
|
1
|
57
|
Mississippi
|
89
|
117
|
North Carolina
|
13
|
112
|
South Carolina
|
35
|
109
|
Tennessee
|
11
|
75
|
Texas
|
4
|
92
|
Virginia
|
12
|
101
|
West Virginia
|
3
|
10
|
None
|
9
|
|
Note that last group, “None,” in the list above. That should be understood as
“unaffiliated with any Presbytery at the time of joining the PCA”. If you know
anything about Presbyterianism, you’ll recognize what an odd thing it was to
have churches admitted to the PCA, yet without being on the roll of a given
Presbytery. Surely this was a temporary arrangment, but the story of those 9
churches could be interesting.
Mississippi,
Alabama, and South Carolina were numerically the three strongest States for the
PCA at its founding. Between those three States, the roles are now reversed,
with South Carolina having the greatest growth in PCA churches, followed by
Alabama and then Mississippi. Ironically, in six States–Florida, Georgia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia–the PCUS maintained a stronger hold on
churches and few PCUS churches left in 1973 to join the PCA. However, since
that time the PCA has seen strong growth in these same States. The States of
Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia have remained difficult
terrain for church planting and PCA growth there has been slow.
Then
looking at the list of founding churches as grouped by the 16 founding
presbyteries, we have the following:
Calvary
[SC] – 35 churches
Central
Georgia – 11
Covenant
[AR; MS; TN] – 13
Evangel
[AL] – 25
Gold
Coast [FL] – 12
Grace
[LA; MS] – 31
Gulf
Coast [FL; LA] – 8
Mid-Atlantic
[MD; NC; VA] – 7
Mississippi
Valley [LA; MS] – 52
None –
9
North
Georgia – 3
Tennessee
Valley – 5
Texas
– 4
Vanguard
[AL; GA; KY; NC WV]; – 13
Warrior
[AL] – 22
Western
Carolinas [NC] – 5
Westminster
[NC; TN; VA] – 10
Calvary,
Grace and Mississippi Valley Presbyteries were, by their size, among the more
influential of the newly formed PCA Presbyteries. Covenant, then with just 13
churches, is today perhaps the largest of the 81 PCA Presbyteries.
One
interesting story worth following up would be that of First Presbyterian
Church, Brookhaven, MS, in Grace Presbytery, and the only church in that
Presbytery that lost its property upon leaving the PCUS. Were there others in
other Presbyteries that also lost their property. By the kind providence of
God, most of these founding churches were able to keep their property.
And of
course we can expect there might be an interest in which were the oldest of
these founding PCA churches? The ten oldest, all still in the PCA to this day,
are as follows:
1. 1764 –
Bethel Presbyterian Church, Clover, SC [Calvary]
2. 1775 –
Lebanon Presbyterian Church, Winnsboro, SC [Calvary]
3. 1786 –
Bethany Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, GA [Central Georgia]
4. 1808 –
Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Rock Hill, SC [Calvary]
5. 1812 –
Salem Presbyterian Church, Blair, SC [Calvary]
6. 1812 –
Meadow Creek Presbyterian Church, Greenville, TN [Westminster]
7. 1819 –
Kanawha Salines Presbyterian Church, Malden, WV [Vanguard]
8. 1820 –
Friendship Presbyterian Church, Laurens, SC [Calvary]
9. 1820 –
First Presbyterian Church, Greenville, AL [Evangel]
10. 1821 –
Lebanon Presbyterian Church, Abbeville, SC [Calvary]
Of
special note in that list is the fact that Bethel Presbyterian Church in
Clover, SC, is celebrating this year their 250th anniversary! Other churches
have joined the PCA since 1973, and the list above is not exactly the same as
the list for the ten oldest churches in the PCA today. Top honor, incidentally,
goes to Fairfield Presbyterian Church, in Fairton, New Jersey, organized in
1680.
On the
other end of the spectrum, there were thirteen of the founding churches that
had been organized in 1973, in the months just prior to the formation of the
denomination. 3 of these were in Evangel Presbytery and 3 were in Westminster
Presbytery. Another 9 of the founding churches were still quite young, having
been organized in the 1960’s. Many of these were located in Florida.
And to
conclude, additional to the 1,122 churches and missions throughout the South,
there are now another 741 PCA churches and missions spread out across the
remainder of the nation, in Canada, and even around the globe. Which means that
while 60% of the PCA remains weighted in the South, clearly the momentum is to
expand out across the nation with the glorious Gospel of salvation in Jesus
Christ alone. In all this work may our Lord God— and He alone—be glorified.
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