Location: Bloomington, Ind.

Presbytery: Great Lakes-Gulf

Organization: 1821

Membership: 146 communicant; 47 baptized

Pastor: Richard Holdeman and Philip McCollum

Website: www.bloomingtonrpchurch.org

1820, John and Thomas Moore completed the lengthy journey from South Carolina to Bloomington, Ind. These Christians left the southern state where slavery was both legal and widespread to venture north to Indiana, a free state. With the other families who soon joined them, they organized the Bloomington Reformed Presbyterian Church, holding their first service on Oct. 10, 1821. Two hundred years later, in 2021, we give thanks to God for sustaining and blessing our church as we approach our bicentennial anniversary!

Throughout its history, our congregation has had a significant impact in the Bloomington community as well as on the nearby Indiana University campus. Today, the congregation is comprised of families and singles, small business owners, university faculty and staff members, graduate and undergraduate students, retirees, and professionals of all types. Our youngest member is two months old and our oldest is 94. We are led by a session of seven elders and a deacon board of seven men and one woman. The congregation is committed to team ministry and has had multiple pastors serving together since 1992. Currently, our pastors are Rich Holdeman, who began his pastoral ministry here in 2005 (1994 as a ruling elder), and Philip McCollum, who came to us with his family from Northern Ireland in 2018.

While the specific details have changed over the decades, our goal has been to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully to those around us. One staple of our ministry, where university students are concerned, is food! Different families take turns providing meals for a large group of students, church visitors, and young professionals after the morning worship service most weeks. Since the university attracts families from around the world, there are many people in Bloomington who need help developing their English language skills. For several years, church members have offered English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, which have attracted a wide range of people. Before Thanksgiving, ladies in the church also assembled a holiday craft workshop as an outreach event. Several students from our ESL class attended, along with other visitors from the community. Contacts made at these and other events have been invited to participate in Christianity Explored, an evangelistic study through the gospel of Mark. Pastor Philip has led several such classes and hopes to do so again in the near future.

A favorite outreach event is the autumn church picnic. Members are encouraged to invite friends. Kids and adults enjoy soccer, volleyball, and other games with a delicious supper to follow. Over the years, the church has sponsored a neighborhood yard sale, with members of the congregation supplying items they wish to sell and proceeds going to missions. It has given neighbors a reason to stop by and get to know folks in the church. A new effort, spearheaded by Pastor Philip, has been targeted mailings to people purchasing new property in the county. Each month we are contacting around 75 people with information about the church and invitations to join us for worship.

Since our local public library was shut down for a time during the pandemic, we built and installed a “little library” near the sidewalk leading to the church building. We have kept it stocked with lots of good literature and have found that many people are taking advantage of it. We recently began partnering with Wheeler Ministry, a Christian ministry that serves the homeless in our community. The church has collected material and financial donations.

Please pray for our congregation as we continue our efforts to reach students at Indiana University. Pray for the weekly ESL class hosted by people in our congregation, for deepening relationships with our students, and that God would open avenues of ministry with them. Give thanks with us for our recently acquired additional property. Pray that God would guide us as we consider how to expand our facility to accommodate our growing congregation. Also, please join us as we praise God for the recent election of three new deacons. Pray that God would continue to bless us through our diaconal ministry.

Finally, we want to extend an invitation to join us in Bloomington for the weekend of Aug. 6-8, 2021, as we celebrate our 200th anniversary as a congregation. We have planned a full weekend of activities and would love to share our thanksgiving with you. See our website for more information.