Location: Hoover, Alabama

Presbytery: Alleghenies

Organization: 2018

Membership: 8 communicant; 0 baptized

Pastor: Vacant

Website: Birmingham-Reformed.org

Birmingham (Hoover, Ala.) RPC is a new mission church with governing oversight from the Presbytery of the Alleghenies (POA). We began meeting in summer 2016 when a Bible study was formed by a seminary student who was raised in the area. Our transition to an RP mission church began in the fall of 2017 when Rev. Paul Martin visited us and delivered a thought-provoking seminar on Christ in the Psalms. Paul is an elder of Grace & Truth (Harrisonburg, Va.) RPC. In spring 2018, the POA was granted oversight privileges, and we began to meet in weekly worship services.

Since March 2018, our worship schedule has remained simple and consistent. The POA supplies the pulpit for two consecutive Lord’s Days, and retired PCA teaching elder Herb Bowsher ably leads the remaining Lord’s Days. We are also encouraged through the exhortation from Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) students and temporary governing body (TGB) members. Our services consist of morning worship, noon fellowship meal, and an afternoon Bible study, structured to accommodate our geographically widespread members and adherents. The families and regular visitors of our fellowship are scattered in various Birmingham suburbs and as far away as Starkville, Miss. Most recently, we have gained a semi-regular commuting family from upstate New York! We are a very hospitable group with several homes open to overnights and meals for guests. The Covid years brought us two faithful families who were seeking “old normal” fellowship and worship services. Come visit us! You will be well received—and on the cheap.

There are many job opportunities in the area. Consider moving here and joining us. A wide variety of local employment possibilities are listed on Indeed. Many healthcare-related positions are available at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Like most church plants, we have experienced much turnover in membership and adherents. Birmingham RPC is a very diverse congregation composed of small business owners, seminary students, parents, active elders, inactive elders, retirees, physicians, trivia knowledge holders, academic eggheads, history buffs, and weather enthusiasts, all of whom love one another and the Lord. We are currently meeting in a nice office complex with a very generous lease arrangement, paying only for utilities. The Lord has graciously provided for us in marvelous ways.

The ministries of Birmingham RPC are varied. The Moeck husband/wife team leads a challenging ministry to broken families in very rural Bibb County, Ala. We meet in nearby Centerville, Ala., on a regular basis to host Lord’s Day evening psalm sings and worship services. Being a small group, we have a small budget, but we recently committed to tithing our tithes monthly toward local, national, and international kingdom needs.

Our temporary governing body consists of Bruce Backensto, Paul Martin, Mark Sampson, and Brian Panichelle. We are thankful for their faithful and wise oversight, leadership, and prayers.

Information about Birmingham RPC is publicly available at our website. Sermon audio files are at soundcloud.com/b-r-p-c-sermons and facebook.com/BirminghamRPChurch. And our two services are broadcast on Zoom each Lord’s Day.

Paul Martin is the POA regional home missionary and engages in significant hands-on personal ministry to our body. Every month, we each receive a time of elder visitation and fellowship with Paul over a meal. Through Paul’s instruction, our group takes seriously our Constitution’s Directory of Public Worship directive for attention being “given to how the Psalm reveals the work of Christ and the blessings of the New Covenant” (chapter 2, section 9). This has brought a glorious richness to the Psalms that spreads throughout the entire Scriptures.

Please pray with us for growth numerically and spiritually, for alleviation of several chronic health matters in our group, for continued peace and unity of our fellowship, and for the deepening of regional relationships with Selma RPC, Atlanta RPC, and other southern RP churches.