Agur the Sage, in Proverbs 30, expressed intrigue at “the way of a serpent on the rocks” and “the way of a ship on the sea” (v. 19). Certainly it is likewise appropriate to marvel at the way in which Christ forms a new congregation.

No two church-planting histories are the same. I find the theology of the church in general, and the work of church planting in particular, soul-stirring topics. It was with great interest, therefore, that I welcomed a call to pastor a new work being formed on the westside of Indianapolis, Ind.

It was in March 2005, that my wife and I received the call from Second RPC for me to serve as a church-planting pastor for the westside ministry. At the time, I was in my final year of postgraduate research in Scotland. As I considered the call, one of the features that intrigued me about this particular new work was the way Christ had been using so many different hands in its forming. It was clearly not a congregation forming under the labors of any one church planter.

Furthermore, Christ had drawn together an unusually broad and spiritually strong core of families as the “charter” congregation. The group was and is particularly blessed to have a group that includes children, youth, college and single adults, and both young and established families—all with a remarkable dedication to Christ and his church.

These are a couple of the marks that immediately stood out to my wife and myself as we considered the call to participate in this new ecclesiastical venture. No church plant emerges in the same way as another, and it has been a cause of praise for everyone involved in this new Indiana work to watch it taking shape.

The Indianapolis westside is one of the fastest growing areas in Indiana. Hendricks County, located immediately west of the capital city, has experienced a 38 percent population growth in the last decade. Not only are the older communities of Plainfield, Brownsburg, and Danville growing, but a new town called Avon was incorporated in 1995 to accommodate the rapid growth.

Much of this increase is related to business inside Indianapolis. Big cities have a way of stimulating growth, first on one side of the city and then, when that side “fills up,” on another. The westside is the new frontier of Indianapolisbased growth. However, there are also significant expansions underway at the Indianapolis Airport (which is located on the westside), such as FedEx’s decision to make this a major hub. There are also several massive new industrial parks and other local businesses in the area. All these factors contribute to the population boom in this county. The present rate of increase is projected to continue into the next decade.

With so many new people moving into the area, certainly there are many of God’s elect needing to meet the Savior. Certainly, too, there are many believers in need of spiritual nurture. While there are a number of churches on the westside, there is only one other Reformed congregation, which also happens to be a new work (a PCA church plant in Brownsburg). There is, therefore, a great need in this area for both evangelistic efforts and biblical teaching consistent with the historic confessions.

Recognizing these needs, the vision of a new RP work in the area has emerged over many years. Dale and Laura Koons are longtime Second RP members who have lived on the westside much of their lives. They have long seen the need for a Reformed witness in the area and have prayed for an RP church to be planted there. Their prayers are perhaps among the earliest seeds of what is now coming to fruition.

Observing the more recent trends of growth in the area, another Second RP family also developed a vision for a new work on the westside—even taking bold steps to see something happen. In 2002, Elder Jack Baumgardner and his wife, Karen, purchased a home on the western outskirts of the city specifically to become involved in evangelism in the Avon area with the hope of seeing a new church planted. They began to pray that God would raise up ten families to form a new congregation. It was a bold prayer, and little did they realize how God would answer it.

Over the next two years, the Second RP session provided oversight as the Baumgardners led various outreach efforts in their new neighborhood. Other Second RP families living on the westside joined in these labors as well, serving with Jack and Karen and with one another primarily through outreach Bible studies. In November 2003, the session asked Keith Magill, the presbytery coordinator for church extension, to help guide the developing ministry.

With a growing core of Second RP families dedicated to the vision of new work on the westside, and modest fruit from outreach, a step was taken in the spring of 2004 to begin biweekly evening worship services. Rutledge Ethridge, about to begin his theological studies at RPTS, served a summer internship with the new work.

After Rut’s internship ended, other RP pastors in the state generously shared in the westside preaching schedule, while Keith Magill and James Faris (associate pastor at Second RPC) provided handson oversight to the families. This arrangement continued until the autumn of 2005. Meanwhile, Second RP had made out their call to me to join the work. I had begun my theological training at Second in the late ’90s, and was completing postgraduate work in Scotland when the call was made. I did accept the call, but was not available until the end of the calendar year when my university studies were to be finished.

In the interim, area pastors continued to lead the services while the core families continued in outreach. That autumn, services were increased to every Lord’s Day evening when Wayne and Mary Spear arrived. Upon his retirement from the RP Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa., Dr. Spear graciously agreed to spend three months of his new retirement preaching, pastoring, and leading Bible studies among the westside families. The warm and generous ministry of Wayne and Mary was certainly a highlight in the work’s development.

My family bade farewell to our Airdrie, Scotland, church family in December, and we arrived in Indiana just in time for the new year. The Second RP session wasted no time and petitioned Presbytery for an ordination and installation service, which was held Jan. 27.

In the early months after my arrival, we worshiped with the mother church in the mornings while continuing to worship as a daughter congregation in the evenings. But by the March meeting of the Great Lakes–Gulf Presbytery, the session was satisfied that the group was ready to take another step forward. A petition was made, which Presbytery unanimously approved, to form the work into a mission church. As a mission church, the westside congregation became an independent congregation, albeit continuing to “borrow” oversight from the Second RP session until it is ready to elect its own elders and fully organize.

With this confirmation of the Lord’s commissioning from Presbytery, a formal sending service was held at Second RPC. At a joyful (and tearful) evening communion service on Apr. 30, the westside families were prayed for and set apart to the work of a new congregation. (It was later noted, by the way, that there are ten families involved in the core of this new work—just the number for which Jack and Karen had originally prayed.) Regular morning services began the following week, and two services have been conducted each Lord’s Day since then.

At present, the mission church gathers for worship in the facilities of a nearby American Baptist congregation, Garden Baptist Church. Garden Baptist has a history of supporting other denominations in new works, and the church is grateful for their flexibility to accommodate. In addition to weekly worship, outreach efforts into the community continue through personal evangelism, and other efforts such as a Christianity Explained course, a mothers and daughters study, and a vacation Bible school.

Presently, the congregation includes 32 communicant members and 24 noncommunicant, and covenant children. The congregation prayerfully anticipates continued growth, spiritually and numerically, in this new branch of Christ’s Body forming in the Avon, Indiana, area. The church at large can pray with the congregation toward this end, and marvel with them at Christ’s mysterious ways of building His church!