Location: Suwanee, Georgia
Presbytery: Great Lakes-Gulf
Organized: 2010
Membership: 27 communicant; 14 baptized
Pastor: Dr. Frank J. Smith

Look at a map of RPCNA congregations, and you quickly realize that Reformed Presbyterians are concentrated in places like Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kansas. For over two centuries, there has been very little representation in the southern United States.

However, over the past two decades, a concerted effort has been made to reach out to Dixie with the Reformed Presby-terian message, including doctrines of mediatorial kingship and purity of worship. Slowly but surely, that message is winning converts in the Southland-including the Peach State.

According to W. Melancthon Glasgow’s History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, by 1780 a society of Covenanters was meeting near Louisville, Ga.; however, no congregation was gathered, and the dream lay dormant for about 200 years.

In more recent times, the desire to found a psalm-singing church in the Atlanta area goes back more than a decade. In 1999, services featuring a cappella exclusive psalmody were conducted on an irregular basis, in the hopes of establishing a PCA congregation committed to historic Presbyterian worship. In 2000, weekly services were held in Alpharetta under the auspices of a PCA church, but after a few months that effort ended.

About the same time, interest was expressed in establishing an RPCNA congregation in the suburbs north of Atlanta. Ads would often appear in the Covenanter Witness, seeking to elicit support. But again, nothing materialized.

Finally, about four years ago, a group began to meet for worship and fellowship. In Feb. 2008, Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery’s Atlanta Commission organized the North Atlanta Reformed Presbyterian Mission Church. In the fall of that year, Dr. Frank J. Smith, a minister with credentials in Reformation Presbytery of the Midwest, was called by the commission to be stated supply of the budding work. A year and a half later, on Apr. 24, 2010, Northminster RPC, the first RPCNA congregation in Georgia was organized with 30 members.

Along the GA-400 corridor, in Fulton and Forsyth Counties, door-to-door visitation has taken place. Over the past two and a half years, aided greatly by the 2010 and 2011 short-term RP Missions teams, approximately 8,500 homes have been visited. What has been revealed is that the region can hardly be considered the Bible Belt. The number one religious preference in many areas is Roman Catholic. In some other communities, Hinduism has been predominant.

While some people have attended as a result of knocking on doors, none of them has yet joined. Most of the growth has come via internet contact.

The congregation continues to enjoy various social outings, including a recent trip to an aviation museum. In October, a social event doubled as a ministry opportunity, as members participated in the Festival of Lights parade in the English Avenue area of Atlanta. A Bible study has been conducted there under RPCNA auspices since April 2010 on the steps of a burned-out church building. That neighborhood is a high crime area, with heroin dealing and prostitution. Ministry in this neighborhood is an example of the ongoing outreach to metropolitan Atlanta and its five million souls. It is also part of a strategy to establish, for the first time, an RPCNA Southern Presbytery.

The Joseph Connection

The late Rev. Ray Joseph and his wife, Alice, who moved to the Atlanta suburbs in the 1990s, long wanted to see an RPCNA congregation established in Georgia. Without their efforts in plowing the ground, Northminster RPC would not exist. Today, their son Phil and his family are active participants in the congregation.

Prayers and Praises

Please pray for increased membership and financial stability.

Rejoice with us in our moving to a new location (a Christian school), at a lower rent than the hotel where we had been meeting.

Did you know that Georgia…

…was the 13th colony?
…was the fourth U.S. state to ratify the Constitution?
…is also known as the Empire State of the South?
…is the largest state in land area east of the Mississippi?
…is the ninth most populous state (population of 9.7 million)?