Location: Seattle, Wash.

Presbytery: Pacific

Organization: 1892

Membership: 62 communicant; 17 baptized

Pastor: Ryan Hemphill

Website: seattlerpchurch.org

The Seattle Reformed Presbyterian Church was established in the 1890s by a commission of the then-Kansas Presbytery in a fairly new city with some 42,000 people (compared to over 700,000 today). This congregation was the first west coast RP church and has existed continuously since 1892, starting with 42 members. In 1893, the congregation purchased its first building in downtown Seattle at a cost of $5,500. Its first pastor was Rev. P.J. McDonald, who was installed in 1895 after serving as stated supply for three years. Thanks to some Seattle members, a more detailed history is available at the church’s website, seattlerpchurch.org.

In recent history, Rev. Don Piper retired in 2008 after pastoring faithfully for 31 years, and seminary graduate Ryan Hemphill was called as pastor a year later. He was ordained and installed in December 2009 and has been honored to serve for the last 8 years alongside the session and deacons. The church is strengthened by its faithful members who have labored in Christ over a long time.

We have prayed for many years for more children to come to the congregation, and, by God’s grace, He is bringing more. Some are from new families and some are from existing families that are growing according to the will of God. Aside from these, we rejoice at the presence of a foster child who has been in our midst for three years. You can guess how fervently we and the foster parents are praying that the Lord would pave the way for formal adoption and for him to become a baptized covenant child of God. What a joyous day that would be!

Attendance has ebbed and flowed. Because Seattle is such a transient city, there is a regular coming and going of members and adherents. One of the most significant factors currently effecting the movement of people is the still-rising cost of living and the ever-changing landscape of tech jobs. Housing expense is through the roof—the average home price is $690,000—and there has been a major influx of millennials due to hiring by Amazon and due to growth in tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Seattle is also considered one of the “least-churched” cities in the nation, and, if you take stock of the city at a glance, you can understand how much our congregation is flowing against the tide. You can also imagine both the challenges faced by a Christian family seeking to raise children here and the extensive need for Christ to be known and declared.

As for church life, a monthly fellowship meal is enjoyed following morning worship on the first Lord’s Day, and a psalm sing takes place on the fourth week in the evening, with some practice of the psalm of the month. On the other weeks, we have the joy of gathering for worship to end the Lord’s Day.

During the week, there are two Wednesday Bible studies during the school year. One is held at the manse with the pastor leading, and the other is held at Aaron and Jenny Piper’s home where the men rotate leading. There are also men’s and women’s discipleship groups. It has been the desire of the Hemphills to see personal spiritual growth from relationships between members at church. Their prayer is that the discipleship groups that they lead, as well as hospitality among members, might be a means the Lord uses for such growth, building upon the faithful preaching and singing of the Word each Lord’s Day.

Despite the cultural challenges in our area, those who live and worship here enjoy abundant natural beauty from God in the surrounding snowy mountains and volcanoes, vistas of water and evergreen trees, and intriguing sea life. We feel immensely blessed to be surrounded by such beauty; we pray that God might work to make the people of this city as beautiful spiritually, so that they would laud their Creator as Lord, just as our beautiful land always has.