A Good Heritage

I was blessed by being born and raised in a covenant home that actually spanned three homes. I was born in Hopkinton, Iowa, on Nov. 9, 1938, the oldest child of Thomas Lyle and Isabelle Stewart Joseph, and was baptized in that congregation. I became a communicant member 10 years later.

I lived in the small town of Hopkinton through the first five years of my life. My birth mother died shortly after my youngest sister, Isabelle (usually called Jo), was born; so I moved to the farm home of my uncle and aunt, Raymond and Alice Joseph. This is why I still regard myself as an Iowa farm boy. The third experience in a covenant home occurred after my father remarried in 1949 and we returned to the town of Hopkinton. My middle sister, Mary, was born while we lived in town.

I trace much of my spiritual heritage to the five years we lived on the farm, where regular attendance at the worship services and prayer meetings of the Hopkinton congregation was the norm and where family worship was practiced both morning and evening throughout the week and after the dinner meal on the Lord’s Day. (Uncle Raymond and Aunt Alice were the parents of the late Pastor Raymond Joseph and his brother, Thomas, now of Beaver Falls, Pa.)

Our worship consisted of my uncle reading a portion of the Bible, usually starting in Genesis and reading through to Revelation; the singing of at least a portion of a psalm, again starting with Psalm 1 and going through to the end—although we did not sing every verse or even every psalm tune and prayer—led either by Uncle Raymond or Aunt Alice. On the Sabbath, each of us got to pick a psalm and which two verses we would sing. I don’t remember exactly what was done for the reading of Scripture but I do remember all of us would pray. Uncle Raymond and Aunt Alice were faithful students of the Scriptures, and it is from them that I learned much of my biblical knowledge in those days.

My earliest education, through sixth grade, was in a country school called Joseph School, approximately an eighth of a mile from the home of my uncle and aunt. My middle sister, Mary, attended the same school through fourth grade, but, by the time my youngest sister was ready for school, my dad had remarried and we moved back into town. My exposure to the wider church began with the first Reformed Presbyterian National Conference held at Grinnell, Iowa, in 1947. I was privileged to attend fulltime the last year the conference was at Grinnell in 1954. During this conference I asked the late Dr. David Carson the meaning of the “consecration service.” He responded by challenging me to consider the gospel ministry. Later I, and sometimes my sisters, attended the Iowa Conference (in the back yard of the Sharon, Iowa, RPC property at that time) and the Forest Park Conference near Topeka, Kan. The idea of my being a preacher was not exactly a new idea, as often when Mary and I ate lunch on the Lord’s Day with my Aunt Nancy, I would “preach” and Mary would give the missionary talk. My aunt almost invariably went to sleep!

After my father’s remarriage we moved to Hopkinton where I lived while completing my grade school and high school education. After graduating from Hopkinton High School in 1956, I enrolled in Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pa., an institution about which I had heard so much while in high school. I majored in Bible with a minor in history. My extracurricular activities primarily revolved around the band under the direction of the late Buddy Kreps and the Genevans choir under the direction of the late Harold Greig. My senior year I was the student director of the band and vice president of the Genevans. After college, I attended the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa., graduating in 1963 with the diploma of the seminary. In the 1980s, while pastoring in Superior, Neb., I completed additional work and received a master of divinity degree from the same school.

I met Sandra (Sandy) German (pronounced with a hard G) while working at Allegheny General Hospital, where she was a student nurse during my first year in seminary. We were married June 1, 1963, and in the course of time two sons were born, Paul Edward and Timothy Lyle.

Before pastoring in Superior, I served for 10 years as pastor of the Bethel and Old Bethel congregations (now the Sparta congregation) in southern Illinois and 8 years in an attempted church plant in the Easton, Pa., area. Throughout these years one of the things that stood out was the Lord’s gracious provision for us in that, in practicing tithing, we were never in poverty although often without much in the way of extra cash.

The Lord led me to become a summer pulpit supply in Sparta, Ill., for two congregations, Bethel and Old Bethel (now combined and known as the Sparta RPC). That fall, the congregations called me to be their pastor. Each congregation had their own worship service in the morning and a combined worship service on the Lord’s Day. Ten years later, what was then New York (now Atlantic) Presbytery called me to take up church planting in the Easton, Pa., area. At that time there were few resources provided for church planters so we more or less flew “by the seat of our pants” during the eight years of the Easton Area Fellowship’s existence. The work closed at the end of 1981 and the following fall we moved to Superior, Neb., where we served as a part-time pastor and part-time newspaper reporter for 11 years. Yet the Lord continued to be gracious and provided full-time work for Sandy so our two sons were able to graduate debt free from Geneva College in 1987 and 1991.

I received a call in 1992 to the Selma RPC in Selma, Alabama, and served there for 12 ½ years. Some may have thought a white person pastoring a predominately black congregation was somewhat of an anomaly, but for us it was no different than serving in any other congregation. We are all God’s people.

In the summer of 2003 my beloved wife was called to her eternal home. A key verse of Scripture that guided me throughout this time was Job’s statement, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Although other brothers and sisters in Christ have experienced this, there was never so much love and concern poured out as was offered by the Selma congregation, the Woodland Hills PCA congregation (where I had served as a pulpit supply for seven months while they were without a pastor), and the church at large. The Selma church building was filled to capacity for her memorial service! Shortly after Sandy’s passing, John Mitchell shared some thoughts related to the passing of his wife and invited me to move to the Slippery Rock, Pa., area when I decided to retire. When I retired from the pastorate two years later, I moved to Slippery Rock. An added benefit was that I was near my son Paul and his family.

When I retired, I made it clear that I was retiring from the pastorate, but not from ministry. Soon after my retirement I was asked to serve as a pulpit supply for the Southfield, Mich., RPC, which continued until that congregation called a pastor of their own. Unbeknownst to me, but not to the sovereign God, my services were needed to help lead the Rose Point (New Castle, Pa.) RPC, in which I had become a member, through a difficult time in their life after their pastor resigned in 2006. My service continued until the congregation called a pastor who was installed in Sept. 2008. Through the ensuing years, the Lord has given me the opportunity to teach Sabbath school classes in Rose Point and minister in a number of congregations both in the RPC and at the Janesville Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where Tim and his family worship.

In the Lord’s providence, I met Joday Midgley, a resident of Pleasantville, Pa., in April 2008 and we were married on Nov. 29 of the same year in the Rose Point church with all our children and some of the grandchildren present. My granddaughter, Allison, and Tim’s wife, Stacey, surprised us with a flute duet as an unplanned, but very welcome, part of the service. Again the Lord was present among us as the children joyfully and willingly took care of many details associated with the reception.

In addition to assisting the Rose Point RPC, I have been able to serve the Lord in other ways. John Mitchell asked if I might help with the Reformed Presbyterian archives, since I had an interest in church history. It was not too much later that I began work as a volunteer librarian at the Reformed Presbyterian Home. The Lord also allowed me to serve for 27 years on the board of corporators of Geneva College, concluding my service in 2012. I continue to serve on the board of the RP Woman’s Association, the organization that operates the RP Home and related enterprises. I am currently serving as the clerk of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies. Outside of church and related activities, the Lord has given me opportunity to serve as president and secretary of the Slippery Rock Lions Club, positions I held in both the Superior and Selma clubs. While in Selma, I sang in the Selma Choral Society, serving for seven years as its president. I continue to sing bass with the society, and in Dec. 2012 completed 20 years as a member of the group. The Selma Choral Society sings a portion of The Messiah each year and sometimes includes other music of the season.

What is going to happen next? Only the Lord knows for sure as our times are in His hands. As of this writing, plans are in the works for ministry in New York and back in Sparta.

—Ralph Joseph

Ralph is a retired pastor in the RPCNA and served pastorates in Sparta, Ill., Easton, Pa., Superior, Neb., and Selma, Ala. Although officially retired, he still fills the pulpit on occasion.