In September 1949, Robert Atwell, pastor of Calvary OPC in Middletown, Pennsylvania, approached the Calvary Church session about holding a summer Bible conference for the covenant youth at French Creek State Park, located fourteen miles southeast of Reading. That summer, as he had done the previous two summers, Atwell had led a delegation of covenant youth from Calvary Church to participate in the Presbytery of Philadelphia–led Seneca Hills Bible Conference near Franklin in Western Pennsylvania. Although Atwell drove the Calvary youth across the state speedily—one rider called him the Jehu of OPC drivers—he felt the need for a Bible conference sympathetic to the aims of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that was geographically accessible for congregations in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The session approved holding the conference at French Creek State Park, which led Atwell to inquire of other OPC pastors and congregations if they would be interested in sending their young people the next summer if a Bible conference was held there. The response was so overwhelmingly positive—135 interested campers was the estimate—that Atwell reached out to fellow OPC pastors Lewis Grotenhuis in Harmony, New Jersey, and Glenn Coie in Silver Spring, Maryland, to help organize the conference. The three pastors were agreed that the purpose of the conference should be “that our young people may learn to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” They also agreed to divide the labor so that Atwell would serve as the conference director, Coie as the head counselor for the boys, and Grotenhuis as the director for group competition and athletics. They then recruited Charlotte Milling (soon to become Mrs. Arthur Kuschke) to serve as music director, Audrey Crafts as girls’ counselor, Betty Atwell as dining room supervisor, and Louise Hess as camp nurse.

Monday, August 28, 1950, was chosen as the day that the conference would begin and Monday, September 4, as the day that the conference would close. Young people entering the eighth grade or older were eligible to attend. The hard part, with a limited budget, was figuring out how to feed over one hundred young people without dining service, much less kitchen equipment and utensils, and then what the young people were going to sleep on at night in the rustic cabins since there were no mattresses. The bedding solution was to give campers mattress ticking that would be filled with straw and then set on a metal-framed cot.

A Successful First Year

From Tuesday to Saturday, the rhythm of the conference was classes in the morning, followed by activities and fellowship, and a worship service at the end of the day. For the morning classes, Edmund Clowney (of Westminster OPC in Hamden, Connecticut) spoke on the missionary journeys of Paul. Pastors Atwell, Coie, Grotenhuis, John Clelland (of Eastlake OPC in Wilmington, Delaware) and Edward Kellogg (of Immanuel OPC in West Collingswood, New Jersey) took a day each teaching on the Christian life. Arthur Kuschke taught a class on the Bible and nature that included hikes to illustrate the truths presented in his talks. Each of the three morning classes were taught in two sections according to age groups. In the afternoon, recreation included everything from softball to swimming in a goose-less Hopewell Lake to hiking. After the camp meal for the evening, Clelland supervised Bible quizzes, Milling led the music period, and Kellogg preached.

A “Mission Fest,” held Labor Day, September 4, ended the conference. Over two hundred people were in attendance to hear Missions General Secretary John Galbraith and OP missionary Clarence Duff. That evening those who had participated as directors, counselors, and teachers gathered to give their feedback on how they felt the week had gone. They deemed the first conference a success and determined to establish a Conference Association comprised of ordained OP officers who would report annually to the Presbytery of Philadelphia and the Presbytery of New Jersey.  

Growth in the 1950s

The template from the first conference would be repeated throughout the decade. The 1952 conference included Ralph Clough (of Calvary OPC in Bridgeton, New Jersey) teaching on the Gospel of John, Roy Oliver (of Grace OPC in Fair Lawn, New Jersey) teaching on Scripture, and Clelland on the origin and purpose of the OPC.

The excitement in 1953 during the recreation time was the addition of five canoes and row boats. The drama was a softball game between the youngsters and the “old men.” The youngsters, led by Richard Gaffin Jr., pitching, Ron McCoy at first, John Jr. and Don Clelland at second and shortstop, Bernard “Chip” Stonehouse at third, Ed Urban catching, and George Marsden, Robert Coie, John Adair, and David Armour in the outfield, prevailed to the delight of the campers over the Buzz Walmer–led “old men.” In between the campers and “old men” age-wise were young counselors like Donald Taws, who would play “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes to close each night.

By 1955, the French Creek Bible Conference Association expanded to three Bible conferences. The Junior Young People’s Conference held at the end of August had a total attendance of 168. It was followed by the Senior Young People’s Conference, which totaled 160 people. Earlier in August in Connecticut, the French Creek Family Bible Conference that featured John Murray teaching had seventy people attend for the week. By 1958, the Family Bible Conference was brought to French Creek State Park with Meredith Kline speaking nightly on “Highlights from Old Testament Biblical Theology.”

Covenantal Continuity

In the decade of the 1960s, children’s conferences for younger grades continued to be added. The straw “ticks” were replaced by mattresses that were stored in a barn and transported to French Creek every summer. Robert Atwell and Lewis Grotenhuis were still mainstays. They could be found teaching, helping organize activities, or even joining Buzz Walmer in throwing the mattresses into the back of a truck. Other volunteers, like Rebecca Mullen and Mary Laubach serving kitchen duty, could be found at French Creek yearly. 

Many of the youth and counselors that attended French Creek in the 1950s and 1960s, by the 1970s and 1980s were now bringing their children. Among those who regularly attended the conference and became OPC pastors were Thomas Tyson, Donald Taws, Richard Gaffin Jr., Ed Urban, Chip Stonehouse, Donald Duff, Douglas Watson, Steven Miller, and Rick Nelson. Others who attended were future OPC ruling elders such as Chris Walmer, David Gregg, Stephen Hunter, Kevin Parks, Charles DeBoer, John Atwell, and OPC deacons David Porter and Ed Schnitzel.

This wonderful trend of covenantal continuity can be seen to the present day. Although membership in the Association is no longer limited to OPC officers, and it no longer reports to the presbyteries of Philadelphia and New Jersey, the culture of French Creek retains the biblical foundations that Orthodox Presbyterians embrace. OPC missionary Bruce Hunt in a letter to Ruth Grotenhuis after her husband Lewis’s death spoke for many when he said:

I especially remember your and Lew’s activity in connection with French Creek Bible Conference which I consider one of the strongest institutions in our area and for the whole denomination in tying our OPC churches as congregations, members, and young folks together in a Christian fellowship, including our home and foreign missionaries and our Christian educational outreach. Not only does it seem to me that Lew was responsible for asking me to be a missionary speaker there, but I enjoyed working with Lew . . . Rebecca and Grace Mullen and the many others in the happy informality of washing dishes, setting tables, watching ball games, going on hikes as well as services, Bible study, and worship. To me it’s been a model of broad Christian unity and the fellowship that I believe Christ intended that the church should have.

The author is editor of New Horizons. New Horizons, May 2025.