What is a denomination? People will answer this question in a variety of ways. Perhaps members of varying denominations will answer it differently. Members of the clergy might answer it differently from laity. A seminary graduate will probably point to distinctive aspects of theology and church governance. Church members might describe it in terms of the manner of worship, closeness of community or focus on missions.

But what makes us the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America? Some would mention exclusive psalm singing in worship without instrumental accompaniment. Those with a more historical view would readily add public covenanting, “close communion” (now session-controlled communion), political dissent, and opposition to secret societies. Beyond those distinctive aspects of our denomination is a shared experience and ministry.

Many of us have, every four years, attended the RP International Conference. There we have made and renewed friendships as well as listened to presentations, lectures, sermons, debates, entertainment and much more. Many of us have a long history, both personal and familial, of presbytery camps and conferences, whether the long-term and stable “RP owned and operated” White Lake Camp, or the perapetic Pacific Coast Conference, and everything in between. The RPCNA is blessed with national and international ministries that are far larger in scope than any one congregation or presbytery could carry out. Many of those ministries reach well beyond the borders of the denomination. Supporting this work, the annual Reformed Presbyterian Mission & Ministry (RPM&M) budget is one of the key aspects of the denomination. Through it, members from near and far, and in different circumstances—whether in small congregations or large—are able to participate through their individual and congregational donations in the national and international missions and ministries of the denomination. These supported missions and ministries include the following:

The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, founded in 1810, now the third oldest accredited seminary in the country, trains not only Reformed Presbyterian pastors, but pastors for more than 20 denominations. In addition to professional degrees for pastors, the seminary provides an education to numerous church members for many avenues of service. While not all of our denomination’s pastors are RP seminary graduates and not all RPTS graduates are RP pastors, there is a significant overlap and cohesion that comes from this national teaching institution. The effect is international, for it has educated Irish, Japanese, Korean and African pastors as well.

Geneva College, founded by our denomination in 1848, continues to be operated by the Reformed Presbyterian Church. While not all Covenanters go to Geneva (such as the writer; although his mother, father, wife and four children did), and surely not all Geneva students are Reformed Presbyterians (although a significant number join our denomination after attending our college), the overlap provides a substantial bond and continuity for the denomination. Many of today’s current church families around the country include a husband and wife who met at Geneva College. While the direct monetary contribution by the denomination to Geneva College is a small part of its budget, the Reformed Presbyterian Mission & Ministry budget is both a symbolic and tangible part of the 160-year-old higher educational work of Geneva College.

Throughout its history, the Reformed Presbyterian Church has sent missionaries to different parts of the globe. Historically that has included China, Manchuria, Syria, Turkey, and Cyprus; currently it includes Japan, Cyprus and the Sudan. Equipping and underwriting this work are funds from the annual RPM&M budget. The Women’s Missionary Fellowship contributes to RP Global Missions (formerly the Foreign Mission Board), as do individuals and congregations directly. But RPM&M is one way in which the denomination as a whole can pool the efforts and resources of its members and congregations across this continent to send missionaries to other continents.

Similarly, church planting or home mission work is carried on by the denomination. This is made possible through the presbyteries and funded at times congregationally, at other times significantly or totally by the presbytery and at other times largely by the Home Mission Board. The importance of home missions is shown by the fact that more than a quarter of RPCNA members are in churches planted since 1980. Church planters are given the opportunity to seek specialized training, and potential church planters may do a residency with an experienced planter.  All church planters are invited every few years to rest, regroup, and compare notes. The board itself seeks to learn and make available the experiences of previous efforts. The funding for the Home Mission Board’s work comes largely from congregational and individual donations to RPM&M.

The Board of Education & Publication serves the churches and families of the RPCNA with denominational publications, including the Reformed Presbyterian Witness magazine and The Book of Psalms for Singing. This ministry also helps spread the testimony of the RPCNA around the world through various media. This year, over 3 million visits will be made to the ReformedVoice web site to download RP sermons. This year, over 3,000 psalters will be sold to congregations and families outside the RPCNA. These efforts could not be sustained without denominational contributions.

Like many of the foregoing participants in RPM&M, the Pension Board has multiple sources of funding. Monies from RPM&M are another means by which our denomination works together in order to provide retirement benefits for its salaried employees. Pensions as we know them today didn’t exist in the 19th Century or in the first half of the 20th Century. There have been changes in the structure both nationally and denominationally in this area. Should a pastor and his wife be cared for in retirement by the last congregation at which he served, the first, by all of them, or by the denomination as a whole? Or should that be his personal responsibility? Annual pension assessments, and contributions, both individual and congregationally, to the annual Reformed Presbyterian Missions & Ministry budget serve as one way to make such provisions. Many things make a denomination. Beliefs, practices, history, experience, and joint undertakings of ministry and missions are among the strongest elements. Please support RPM&M personally and through your congregational budget.

—John P. Edgar

John P. Edgar is president of the Board of Trustees of Synod. He is an attorney and a member of Covenant Fellowship (Wilkinsburg, Pa.) RPC. A Trustees of Synod feature appears semiannually in the Witness.