How to Plant a Regional Church
Ross W. Graham
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1997)
By the time the second General Assembly convened in 1937, statistics indicated that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church was composed of six presbyteries (Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and New England, Ohio, Wisconsin and California). The statistical record of the OPC is impressive. The church has been keeping at least some general statistics throughout its entire history. The Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension has begun a project of entering all sixty years of them into a database from which some valuable things can be learned. Some preliminary studies were made available four years ago but there is still much work to do. Today the OPC is divided into twelve regional churches covering the entire geographical area of the United States.
As God expands the OPC it is inevitable that new presbyteries will be formed. But while our general assemblies seem willing to make minor adjustments in regional church boundaries to accommodate new churches that spring up on their perimeters, the 62nd GA signaled that it was reluctant to create new regional churches. Part of the reason for that reluctance stems from the result of the 1986 division of the Presbytery of the Dakotas into the Presbytery of the Dakotas and the Presbytery of the Southwest. Another part probably stems from the fact that approximately 30% of the ministers of the OPC have personally experienced what could be characterized as a less-than-satisfying result of such presbytery divisions since 1964. But rather than focusing attention on the division of the Presbytery of the Dakotas in 1986, a more instructive study is that of the several divisions of the original Presbytery of California.
1. The Story of the Division of the Presbytery of California
The Presbytery of California (which was almost immediately renamed the Presbytery of the West Coast) began in 1936 with just a handful of churches spread from Los Angeles to central Oregon. Though it covered an enormous area, it was a working presbytery. Many churches were planted, effective youth work was conducted, and significant dollars were provided locally and denominationally for the work of the OPC. But the story of the growth of the Presbytery of California can’t be told without mentioning the importance that golf played in the development of the presbytery, and especially in the planting of new churches. It is said that Henry Coray loved the Lord, the OPC, and golf. When he returned from China in the early 1940s due to the outbreak of the war, he began to play golf and talk about where new OP churches should be planted. Later, during the 1950s and early 1960s when California population growth was booming, Henry Coray and a group of OP pastors played golf and planted churches.
There was Robert Graham in Los Angeles, who later moved to Chula Vista. There was Dwight Poundstone in Whittier (which became our La Mirada congregation), who later moved to Goleta. There was Lawrence Eyres in Long Beach, Bruce Coie in Santee, and Arthur Riffel in South San Francisco. And there was Henry Coray who started out in Long Beach in southern California and later moved to Sunnyvale in northern California.
Though this informal golfing home-missions committee was spread over a distance as great as from Philadelphia to Portland, Maine, these men would get together at least once a month to play golf and to talk about where the next churches should be planted. It is said that Henry’s greatest golfing skill was his ability to find the courses where ministers could play free on Mondays.
But in the mid-1960s, while California growth continued to boom, OP growth in the West came to an abrupt halt. The reason, most probably, was that the Presbytery of the West Coast was divided in 1964 to break off the Presbytery of Southern California, and again in 1968 to form the Presbytery of Northern California and the Presbytery of the Northwest.
2. Lessons Learned from Past OP Presbytery Divisions
It would be inaccurate to conclude that presbytery divisions were the sole contributing factor in the plateauing of those regional churches. Many of the golfers moved to other courses in different parts of the country, and a host of socio-economic factors began to come into play as a tremendous influx of immigrants invaded the west coast. But three important lessons can be learned from the several divisions of the Presbytery of the West Coast.
A. We should ensure that resources and manpower are wisely and realistically distributed among the resulting new regional churches.
In the Presbytery of the West Coast, much of the money flowed from the north while most of the manpower and the church planting was in the south. No one quite realized when the division occurred, that the south had plenty of opportunities but little money. It is possible that the rich fellowship and the common purpose which these men of the Presbytery of the West Coast enjoyed together may have masked the efficiency with which they did their work. If we are to learn this lesson from our history, here are some things we could consider doing in response to the occurrence of evident growth within our regional churches:
1. Study the present structure of those regional churches before we propose to establish new ones. Probably a minimum of 10 churches, 20 ministers and a $30,000 budget will be needed to do what we have come to understand to be the work of a modern-day presbytery. If an RHM program, a youth camp or some other ministry of the presbytery is added, that figure should be doubled.
2. Establish separate bank accounts for sub-regions of our regional churches prior to any division. Funds can then begin to be allocated for certain church planting assistance or other regional church ministries from one or the other of those accounts and receipts and expenditures can be tracked in advance of a division.
3. Study the manpower needed to staff the work of a new regional church. Make sure that this is done both in terms of raw numbers of ministers, elders and people and also in terms of skills, gifts and available time. Some men have more time than others to devote to the work of the regional church. The sessions of the Presbytery of the Northwest have made their pastors and some of their elders available for church planting in ways that many of our local and regional governing bodies would find unimaginable. Their ability to plant churches without the assistance of a regional home missionary is probably attributable, in large measure, to this factor.
4. Learn how to ask the right questions concerning the structure and resources available within a regional church and how to evaluate the answers to those questions. It will not be enough to simply send out survey forms and tabulate and report the results.
B. We should train and equip those who will be responsible to care for the ministries, committees and administration of the new regional churches.
In the Presbytery of the West Coast, much time was spent achieving equality of numbers in the resulting presbyteries. But men in the new presbyteries had not trained to do the jobs that needed to be done, and the resulting learning curve took five years.
The work of candidates and credentials, home missions and youth ministries require special skills. They rely on proven practices which are developed over a period of time. For instance, Candidates and Credentials Committees must learn over time which of their members is best suited to examine candidates in church history, or theology, or the Standards. Presbyteries are quite reluctant to change their committee compositions and it is conceivable that whole committees in newly formed presbyteries may have little or no experience doing the work to which they are assigned.
If we are to learn this lesson from our history, one thing we could consider doing in response to the occurrence of evident growth within our regional churches is to identify those ministries of the regional church that will require continuity and experience and then establish apprenticeships and cooperative training for those new committee and administrative people.
Recent developments in the French Creek Bible Conference illustrate how this could be done. A decade ago the French Creek Bible Conference cosponsored by the Philadelphia, New Jersey and mid-Atlantic Presbyteries noticed that the same people were year after year doing the work and that they were getting older. No new volunteers were coming forward and the ministry was in danger of dying by attrition. The Conference Association established a type of apprenticeship structure whereby men were brought into the work as assistants and were trained over a period of years to take over the work. The result was a whole new leadership pool which enabled French Creek to expand its program from two weeks a year to six. They began to train men in advance so that they could take over at the proper time.
C. We should pre-determine the organizational structure of the new presbyteries of the resulting new regional churches.
In the resulting divisions of the Presbytery of the West Coast, much of the initial time during the first five years was spent just getting organized. Bylaws, committee structures, meeting times, and budget allocations all had to be worked out after the presbyteries were divided. It was assumed that each new regional church would simply follow the structural pattern of the “mother” presbytery, but that did not happen. Rather, each of the presbyteries took its time to develop its own unique structure.
If we are to learn this lesson from our history, here are some things we could consider doing in response to the occurrence of evident growth within our regional churches:
1. Refine and generalize presbytery bylaws and rules of operation so that they may be applicable to the resulting new presbyteries. Then, adopt content-specific versions of those bylaws and rules of operation in advance for each of the resulting new presbyteries by simply changing geographical designations and names.
2. Choose the members of the committees in the resulting new presbyteries and have them work together with present committee members until the separation of the presbyteries is effected.
The men of the OPC have done what their Presbyterian grandfathers and great-grandfathers did decades and centuries ago. In time-honored fashion, when their presbyteries became too unwieldy to get things done, they simply petitioned the next general assembly to redraw the boundaries and new administrative structures were set in motion.
But what is needed if we are to learn from our past is to approach God’s expansion of the OPC from a different perspective. We should stop talking about dividing presbyteries and we should start talking about planting new regional churches. For too long the beginning of new presbyteries has been a reluctant separation for us. Rather, let the establishment of new regional bodies of Christ be as joyous as when a local congregation sends some of its own people out to plant a new body of Christ.
3. What is the regional church?
Chapter XIV of the Form of Government of the Orthodox Presbyterian church is titled “The Regional Church and Its Presbytery.” Sections 1 and 2 read as follows:
"1. The regional church consists of all the members of the local congregations and the ministers within a certain district. The general assembly may organize a regional church when there are at least four congregations, two ministers, and two ruling elders, within a region.
2. The presbytery is the governing body of a regional church. It consists of all the ministers and all the ruling elders of the congregations of the regional church."
This simply-stated construct of a “regional church” is unique to the polity of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The concept does not appear in any other Presbyterian system. But it is the logical extrapolation of the Presbyterian concept of the equality of governing powers. It may be stated in syllogistic form as follows:
If the local church has its session, and
If the whole church has its general assembly, then
The regional church has its presbytery.
The regional church is the first level of the connectional church. It is not a preaching church but it is how we begin to practice the concept of the catholicity of the church. The task of the regional church, as a body of Christ, is to perform those functions that are purely regional in nature or which the local church may be unable to do by itself, such as church extension, the training of ministers of the Word, the mobilization of its covenant youth, extraordinary diaconal ministries, problem solving and ministerial discipline.
It is this concept of the regional church, which enables us to think appropriately and creatively about the providential expansion of the OPC. We may stop talking about dividing presbyteries and start talking about planting new regional churches. This is the missing principle in how we have been approaching the problem of the press of work and distance traveled within the administrative presbytery systems we have inherited.
Just as the goal in local church planting is not simply the beginning of a new session but of a viable body of Christ, so the goal in regional church plantings should be the establishment of a functional regional body of Christ, and not just the beginning of its presbytery. And just as in local church planting, the objective is to narrow the region in which the ministry of the church takes place.
The scenario which is here proposed has never been attempted before. But while the concept of planting new regional churches is not expressly prescribed, it may be observed that:
1. FG XV, which addresses the whole church and its general assembly, provides very little instruction concerning how presbytery divisions are effected. Section 7 simply says: “The duties peculiar to the general assembly include organizing regional churches, reviewing the records of the presbyteries, and calling ministers or licentiates to the missionary or other ministries of the whole church directly or through its standing committees."
2. There is nothing in the Form of Government which would prohibit the general assembly from following this proposed scenario.
What follows is put forward as a method by which the OPC might be able to think and act in a more consistent Presbyterian fashion as it considers the establishment of new regional churches.
4. Steps in the Planting of a Regional Church
A. Follow the principles and practices involved in the planting of a daughter church as described in FG XXIX.
FG XXIX deals with organizing and receiving mission works. It has been established that this chapter describes a process which is accomplished over time, and not simply a list of formal actions taken by a presbytery by which a new particular church is created. Organizing a mission work implies all of the things which are involved in working with a group of people from the time they are received as a mission work until the time they are organized as a new and separate congregation. The suggestion here is that the same process be understood in the planting of a regional church.
The same evaluative questions that a session would ask before embarking on the establishment of a daughter congregation with some of its members should be asked by the presbytery:
Is a new regional church needed in that region or can we continue to care for all the people and ministries needed there ourselves?
Are we of sufficient size and income to fund the work and to absorb the loss of members and finances?
Does our session (our presbytery) have the manpower and energy to care for the new church until its own session (presbytery) is ready to govern and minister?
Should we do it now or can it wait until later? After these questions are answered and the decision to plant a new regional church has been made, then the specific narrowed region for the new regional church should be proposed which will enable both mother regional church and daughter regional church to work in harmony in separate geographies. But to whom is this proposal made? And how?
B. Ask permission of the General Assembly to begin the planting of a new regional church.
In the case of local church planting, the session requests the authorization and assistance of the presbytery. Just as the session of a local church authorizes ministries within its bound which it deems wise and appropriate and as the presbytery authorizes the establishment of new churches and other ministries within its bounds, so the general assembly authorizes the establishment of new regional churches.
But just as the presbytery assumes that the beginning of a mission work and its organization as a new and separate congregation is a process which is accomplished over a period of time, so the GA could understand the establishment of a regional church to be a similar process which is accomplished over time.
Along with the request to the GA to begin the planting of a new regional church must come the proposal of specific arrangements:
A provisional oversight structure should be proposed. How is this new regional church going to be functioning before it becomes a fully organized new regional church?
Lines of authority and responsibility should be carefully spelled out.
A timetable for the development of the regional church into a new and separate regional church should be proposed.
C. Take the time necessary to develop the new regional church into a mature body of Christ so as to insure unity and consensus among the members of its governing body, the presbytery.
As the process of planting the new regional church unfolds, it will be important to focus on the ecclesiastical development of the regional church itself as well as on the organizational structure of its presbytery. The new regional church should consider becoming involved in ministries of church planting, foreign missions and regional youth work from its very inception.
Just as a wise session charged with the development of a local church, the presbytery must make sure within the church of the broader region that:
(1) The members (as well as the officers) are cared for. (2) Flock visitation is ongoing. (3) Fellowship and edification is ongoing. (4) Outreach is consistent and aggressive. (5) Covenant children are especially being nurtured. The local region and its specific regional problems are being addressed.
D. We should allow the formal functions of the new regional church to remain with the existing regional church until the new church is functioning maturely.
A local mission work needs to be granted the use of the name “church” in its publicity because it is not yet a mature and fully functioning body of Christ and should not bear that name inappropriately. But since it is becoming a fully functioning body and carries out many of the responsibilities of an organized congregation, it may be granted the use of the name, as long as it realizes that it ministers under the auspices of its overseeing session.
Just as the reception, care, and discipline of members, and the setting of parameters for decision-making by the mission work remain with the session of the mother church, so should the authority structure of the new regional church and its presbytery remain with the mother presbytery. There can be no “partial presbyteries” in good Presbyterian polity. How then can a new regional church and its presbytery develop?
A possible answer may be found in the use of commissions. While the concept of commissions is not very palatable to many in the OPC who have feared the use of such structures since they were employed against our fathers by the PCUSA in the early 1930s, there is historic and governmental warrant for their use. FG XII: 3 states “Assemblies have the authority to erect committees and commissions and to delegate to them specific interim powers. The membership of such committees and commissions need not be limited to the membership of the appointing assembly when the delegated tasks and powers do not require it."
While no further explanation of the word is made in the Standards, Presbyterian polity normally understands that while a committee has authority to investigate, report and carry out certain specific assigned responsibilities, a commission has authority to act on behalf of the governing body in any and all matters relating to its commission.
This means that if we are willing, certain members of a presbytery’s candidates and credentials committee or of its home missions committee who also happen to be members of the fledgling presbytery of a newly forming regional church may be made a commission to act on behalf of the mother presbytery in specific matters of responsibility in the new region. It provides the needed ability to function in many ways like the presbytery of a new and separate regional church before the boundaries are reset. In effect, it allows the new regional church and its presbytery time to grow and develop while it practices its new functions prior to formal reorganization.
The use of commissions could provide the answer to the dilemma in which general assemblies find themselves when a presbytery asks for division. “How can we be sure that the resulting new regional bodies will work unless we let them divide? But if we let them divide and it proves to be a disaster, how will we ever be able to put the pieces back together?” The presbytery of regional church “X” can authorize some of the members of their home missions committee to be a commission to work on behalf of the newly forming home missions committee of the presbytery of new regional church “Y” before there is a formal and final division.
The new answer to the general assembly’s dilemma may be “We want to take the next three to four years to plant a new regional church, the progress of which we will report to the GA each year, but until a new and separate regional church is formed, we will bear full responsibility for the work and oversight within our region.” It will be as if there is no new regional church according to the statistics just as there are no session minutes in a mission work because a mission work does yet not have a session. Its minutes are found in the records of an already existing session.
E. We should ask permission of the General Assembly to organize the new regional church as a new and separate body.
Just as the local session declares its belief to the presbytery that its daughter congregation has now matured sufficiently to be ready to be on her own with her officers trained and chosen, so it may be with the organization of a new regional church.
It would then be at the end of the process of the planting of the regional church that the boundaries of the new church are fixed, their name assigned and the statistical report adjusted. The difference from past practice is that this proposed last step has been the only step taken by the GA. Care would need to be taken to insure that all of the details of specific boundaries lines, name of the new body, officers and date of organization are spelled out in a well-worded overture to the GA in the year of the new regional church’s separate organization.
Conclusion Some have called this above-described process a paradigm shift in Presbyterian polity. However it is viewed, it is offered not simply to be imaginative, but because it may be a more consistently biblical way to approach the expansion that we face as part of God’s Church.
Consider this. When Paul directed the letter to the Colossians to be read also among the Laodiceans (Col. 4: 16), it was apparent that at least something of a new connectionalism was forming. His intent in his second missionary journey had been only to provide pastoral care to the new churches of the Galatian region and to deliver the decisions of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 16: 4) to them. Are we observing in this passage a shift to the formation of a new regional church of Asia Minor? Something of that nature had to have been effected if Presbyterian polity is actually the biblical norm for the New Covenant people of God.
By whatever means the creation of new regional churches and their presbyteries is ultimately effected in the OPC, several matters need to be mentioned as concluding comments.
1. These studies and scenarios are preliminary in nature. They are not put forth as the way new regional churches should be formed. They are offered as a first step in discussing the matter of regional church divisions in an expanding OPC.
2. In order for the above scenarios to work, presbyteries which contemplate such a process will need to develop some new ways of doing things. For instance, presbytery liaison committees and regional church development committees will probably need to be created. Existing presbytery bylaws will probably have to be altered so as to allow for the functioning of such proposed commissions.
3. At least one additional implication of these scenarios is that just as local church planting is normally done under the auspices of the presbytery’s home missions committee, so regional church planting might logically be done under the auspices of the general assembly’s home missions committee. The Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension is not here proposing an additional job assignment. But it may be an appropriate step to take in the OPC’s maturing understanding of Presbyterian polity as it touches the concept of the regional church.
November 1995
With this essay we conclude our presentation of material originally prepared for, and presented to, the 1995 Regional Church Extension Conference held at Lake Sherwood Presbyterian Church, in Orlando, Florida. We wish to take this opportunity to thank General Secretary of Home Missions and Church Extension, the Rev. Ross W. Graham, for making these available to us.