As we look back at 2020, we can struggle to find an attitude of thankfulness in the midst of the experiences that blindsided us last year. From a global pandemic and economic losses to riots over the treatment of members of the black community and a polarizing presidential election, we could be led to despair.

Yet, despite these troubles, we can rejoice in the Lord’s lovingkindness and the blessing of lives changed for Christ. As hindsight reveals, the RPCNA overreached the Synod’s 2020 Vision of “100 churches by 2020.” As of last year, the RPCNA has 105 congregations in North America and Japan.

In 1988, the Home Mission Board called the denomination to the work of evangelism and church planting through a vision called “A Time to Plant.” At that time, the RPCNA reported 69 congregations with a handful of vacant pulpits across the United States, Canada, and Japan. The following year my husband, Pete Smith, entered the final year of his studies at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary alongside men like Bruce Parnell, Ed Blackwood, and Barry York.

As Pete considered the open pulpits for ministry at that time, few options were available. How could God use these young men who were trained for service and impassioned for ministry? It was time to cast a new vision to see the RPCNA grow through the addition of healthy, growing, multiplying congregations.

The Synod of 1989 embraced the work of church planting in a new way when they adopted the goal that at least seven new mission churches would be underway by 1994—“Seven More by Ninety-four” (Minutes of Synod, 1990). Pete, Bruce, Ed, and Barry were among the men who took up the call to plant. Each of these men, joined by the wives God gifted to toil beside them, confronted the challenges put forth in the difficult ministry of starting churches in areas like Washington, D.C., Indiana, and Oklahoma.

Pete was called to plant in southern Maryland in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1990. Anchor Fellowship was a daughter congregation of Trinity (Burtonsville, Md.) RPC. Trinity had been planted several years earlier. Members of Trinity who lived in southern Maryland were praying for their coworkers and neighbors. They wanted a closer location to which to invite these friends to investigate a relationship with Christ.

While some of these initial church plants were able to meet the challenges to survive and thrive, others were beset by hardships that caused their eventual closing. The congregation in which Pete and I labored for two decades met with hardships created by a transient population and of spiritual oppression built into the fabric of the community. During our season of serving in the area, at least 20 church plants from various denominations came and went. Pete and I remind each other that, though our planted congregation is no longer open, we saw lives changed by Christ and saw many families, strengthened in their Reformed convictions, reinvested in churches across the nation.

The Synod reported 72 churches in 1994 with 9 mission churches that had been planted since 1988. The new works in which Pete, Bruce, Ed, and Barry labored were part of the reached goal of “Seven More by ’94.” Between 1988 and 2005, 14 new congregations and continuing mission churches were planted in places like Hazleton, Pa.; Longmont, Colo.; and Kitchener, Ont. In addition, serious development was happening in 5 new locations with church planters on site. By 2004, the RPCNA reported 76 total congregations with 10 empty pulpits.

During the 2005 meeting of Synod, the Home Mission Board once again called the denomination to the goal of establishing congregations in the 2020 Vision: to see the RPCNA grow to 100 congregations and mission churches by the year 2020. (These statistics always include Japanese congregations.)

The 2020 Vision as a goal was adopted by the 2005 Synod as it sought to strengthen home missions by making evangelism and church planting a renewed priority for the church. At that time, 77 churches and 6 mission churches were reported for a total of 83. To meet the goal, the denomination would need to plant 6 new churches every 5 years.

The pamphlet published by the Home Mission Board to set forth this goal stated, “Being called to sow is intimately connected to planting churches. We believe that God has ordained the church to be the pillar and ground of the truth and the corporate instrument of proclaiming His Good News. If we as individuals will give ourselves to the calling of sowing through personal evangelism, we must also give ourselves to sowing corporately through church planting. Believing it to be part of our calling to sow, the HMB would prayerfully set before you a vision for the year 2020, a ‘2020 Vision’ if you will.”

The purposes of this vision encouraged the church to a continual repentance from sinful carelessness and to continued renewal of faithfulness in the essential work of evangelism. Congregations would help to develop the outworking of evangelism in the life of the church.

In 2010, the HMB reflected on the importance of mentoring men for ministry, as well as how to care for those in the planting ministry. Starting a new work can be a lonely endeavor for the planter and his family, especially when the plant is located far from other organized congregations and pastors. Our spiritual adversary greatly desires to see a pastor falter due to a spiritual battle and give up the effort to build relationships with people in a new community as he seeks to establish a new congregation. To give support to new works, the HMB added a role in each application for aid of potential works to identify an “encourager” for proposed church planters. An encourager would have the duty of connecting with the planter at least twice a month and visiting in person as often as feasible. Older, more experienced pastors began to intentionally mentor people called to plant new works.

In 2015, the denomination teetered on the edge of reaching the 2020 Vision goal ahead of schedule. Ninety-nine churches were reaching their communities across North America and Japan. The denomination hovered around 100 congregations for a couple years before officially ending a year with over 100 in 2018.

New congregations were meeting in locations new to the denomination, including Rhode Island, Texas, and British Columbia. Exploratory works were requesting aid in Missouri, Nevada, and Alabama. Still on the horizon was a ministry to incarcerated people in California who were unable to participate in an organized community of believers.

One young congregation that demonstrates the denomination’s approach to planting churches is the Dallas (McKinney, Tex.) RPC. After a few families petitioned the Midwest Presbytery in 2012 to establish a new congregation in the Dallas area, Pastor Bruce Parnell and the Stillwater, Okla., RPC supported the daughtering of this church by providing oversight and guidance. Mark Koller, a local minister who had just transferred into the presbytery, stepped in to guide this group of families toward the development of a mission church. As a recipient of the denomination’s declining aid program, this young congregation called Mark as pastor at its most critical time of advancement. After celebrating its organization in 2015, the Dallas RPC now assists the Midwest Presbytery in church extension efforts in Texas and Missouri. This congregation provides a dynamic example of the RPCNA’s approach to the organic multiplication of congregations.

Since the 2020 Vision was set as a goal, church plants have been started and churches have been closed. The spiritual warfare of advancing the kingdom creates a battle for the lives of men and women who desperately need to be changed by the gospel of Christ. Planted congregations and their pastors must live intentionally in their communities and build relationships with unbelievers as they seek for the Holy Spirit to draw the hearts of their neighbors out of darkness. This is a worthy goal for organized churches as well and may lead to the exploration of new areas as churches grow.

As we reflect on a turbulent year, we can examine the past 30 years of church planting and give thanks for God’s growth of the RPCNA as we represent His kingdom on earth and bear witness of His life-changing gospel to our communities. At the 2020 fall meeting of the HMB, it was reported that the denomination now has 105 churches, five of which are located in Japan. This means that we reached our goal of 100 churches in North America alone! Recalling God’s goodness to us as a denomination strengthens us to endure the hardships of the past year and to press on toward the future as Christ continues to build His kingdom here on earth.

As Synod’s Home Mission Board, we leave you with the question, “What should our next goal be as a denomination?”

Vicki Smith serves on the Home Mission Board of the RPCNA. She is a member of Covenant Fellowship RPC in Wilkinsburg, Pa., where her husband, Pete, serves as pastor. Vicki is employed as the administrative assistant at Trinity Christian School in Pittsburgh, Pa.