Our Lord Jesus has been building His church all through the world over the past 20 centuries, with especially exciting growth now occurring in Africa and Asia. We rejoice to see Him fulfill His word despite all opposition. And we also rejoice that after nearly a century of decline, in the last 30 years He has again built up His church in and through the RP Church within North America. How good to see God’s rich blessing on our prayers!

The RPCNA has planted churches steadily since 1985. Of its 91 churches and mission churches, 25 have been planted since 1987. Of the total RPCNA membership 25 percent is in these newer churches. Without church planting, the RPCNA would likely still be declining, as many other older denominations are. The impetus for church planting began with a few men in a couple of presbyteries, but now all of our domestic presbyteries have been part of the effort and have seen blessing in it.

The Pacific Coast Presbytery worked diligently during the 1990s to see a new congregation founded in Orange County, Calif. Such was not the Lord’s will then. But last year, during the presbytery’s centennial year, the presbytery called for a day of fasting and solemn assembly, asking God to expand their work and bring them new laborers. Now the Phoenix, Ariz. congregation, though still relatively small itself, is reaching out ambitiously to plant a church in Tucson, while All Saints United Reformed Church in Brea, Calf., has asked to join the denomination. The presbytery also has theological students under care once again.

Perhaps the first presbytery in recent times to emphasize church planting was the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery. Notice the founding dates of the existing congregations in Indiana: Bloomington, 1821; Second Indianapolis, 1964; West Lafayette, 1968; Columbus, 1978; Southside Indianapolis, 1979; Sycamore, 1994; Elkhart, 2000; Immanuel, 2007; Christ Church, 2008. Terre Haute is a mission church and Marion has regular worship. Several other church-planting efforts did not result in congregations lasting until today. One church-planting effort led to a new congregation in another denomination. The Lord is sovereign, and blesses in the ways that He chooses, and we rejoice however His kingdom is built.

To plant new churches is to reach out to new people with the gospel, and to experience both Christ’s trials and His power. We seek to plant churches, not to make a name for ourselves (quite a few megachurches have more members than our whole denomination) but for the glory of God and the good of those made in His image. In one new congregation, immigrant families are being helped to establish themselves and are in turn overcoming language barriers to join the church, though this was not the reason the congregation began to help them. In another congregation, the gospel is preached in the open air in a dangerous ghetto. International students are being reached with the gospel in the Midwest, while longtime residents are finding a church home after searching (or not searching) for years.

When an existing congregation sends out a team to start a new congregation, typically both the new and the old congregation gain in their zeal for evangelism. Although we already know the gospel should be shared, both good examples and recently emptied pews prime us to share it.

Here are some of those good examples: In Indiana, a new pastor is returning to Marion where he earlier served as a police officer. In Kansas, a former soldier is seeking to reach out at nearby Fort Riley. Two native South Carolinians have returned to their state to join and lead a new church despite great financial uncertainty. A pastor in an established congregation is taking the summer to go to Casper, Wyo., to seek to encourage and solidify a core group there.

In the past generation we have twice prayerfully set goals to focus our efforts. In the late 1980s, the goal was “Seven More By Ninety-Four.” The goal seemed overly ambitious to some, yet it was achieved. In 2005 the Synod adopted as a goal the ‘2020 Vision’: One Hundred Congregations and Mission Churches by 2020. After moving sideways for the first few years, we have grown from 79 to 90. Some of this growth has occurred as we envisioned it, through church planting. In other cases, existing congregations have asked to join our denomination—in Pennsylvania, California, Michigan and Alberta.

At this moment the question is beginning to be whether there will be enough money to send available ministers to promising locations. By God’s grace quite a few new missions were begun in 2010 and 2011. The Home Mission Board provides considerable financial support to most new missions, and in turn draws its funding from endowments, RPM&M, and individual donors. Little more can reasonably be expected from RPM&M so long as it remains at its current size, and endowment income has dropped with the markets.

The Home Mission Board (HMB) has the resources to fulfill its current commitments. But for the denomination to plant new churches will require either that new donors rise up to support church planting through the HMB, or that new churches be funded without HMB support. In some locations, the latter is feasible, as in the case of the sizeable Second Indianapolis RPC planting Christ Church nearby in Brownsburg, Ind. In other locations it is much less feasible, as in the case of the midsize Cambridge, Mass., RPC planting Christ Church in expensive Providence, R.I. And in some locations, church planting would seem extremely difficult without denominational support.

This summer exploratory grants are going to an existing congregation in Aurora, Ohio, that is seeking a pastor, to Casper, Wyo., to investigate and enlarge upon interest expressed by a few families, and to Bryan, Tex. (the same situation as Casper). Pageland, S.C., an exurb of Charlotte, N.C., is receiving limited support. Tucson, Ariz., and Manhattan, Kan., are locations where a resident-in-training is working for two years with a number of families. In each case, if the Lord blesses, further funds will be needed to establish the congregation—funds that the HMB does not now have.

In the 1990s, a burst of church planting was helped by an outpouring of financial support to the “Time to Plant” fund. We ask you today to provide a second wave of support so that church planting can be continued and extended. Gifts given to the Time to Plant fund can be used immediately in full, while gifts to the HMB endowment will provide income for generations. Further details about both approaches can be found at rphomemissions.org.

We know that unless the Lord builds the house, our labor is in vain. Please therefore pray for all those involved in this challenging work: the planters, their wives, the members of the small new mission works, those who are hearing the gospel and are challenged to believe. Please pray with them. Their requests can be found on Facebook at RP Home Missions. Only Jesus can convert a sinner, transform a life, and build His church.

—John D. Edgar

John is pastor of the Elkins Park, Pa., RPC and is president of the RPCNA Home Missions Board. A home missions feature appears semiannually in the Witness.