Why a new church in a city and region filled with churches?
The name of the Gainesville Reformed Presbyterian Church helps answer this question.
We are Reformed in theology. We hold to what the apostle Paul calls “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 18:27), all of the Bible, and nothing but the Bible. That commitment comes to expression in our holding to three of the historic Reformed theological standards, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and the Westminster Larger Catechism.
We are Presbyterian in governance. We are ruled not by a bishop or by a congregational meeting, but by elders, or “presbyters” in the Greek language of the New Testament (1 Timothy 5:17). Since we do not have elected elders yet in Gainesville, we are governed by the elders of the Orlando Reformed Presbyterian Church, our sending church.
We are a Church in structure. The root meaning of the word “church” in the Bible is “fellowship” or “assembly”, and so we emphasize meeting together each week for the worship of God, morning and evening on the Lord’s Day, and on Wednesday evening for Bible study and prayer.
Put these three words together, and we are a Reformed Presbyterian Church. We stand in solidarity with the faithful of centuries past, who called for the recognition of Jesus Christ’s kingship over the nation as well as the church, as Psalm 2 and Matthew 28:18 teach. These faithful implemented this commitment with the signing of public covenants, documents committing the signers and those they represented to faithfulness to King Jesus, as was done in the days of King Josiah (2 Kings 23:1-3) and the high priest Jehoiada (2 Kings 11:17-18). These faithful issued a periodic Testimony, to bring the whole counsel of God to bear upon current circumstances, as was done by the early church in Acts 15.
Does this church sound like a faithful and relevant church, one which you would like to visit? Please do so.
