July 26 Today in OPC History

Happy wedding anniversary to Ross and Nicole Graham! After getting to know one another as Covenant College students on a choral tour, Ross and Nikki married on this date two months after graduation in 1969. Both had grown up in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. In 1972 Ross earned his master’s of divinity degree from Covenant Theological Seminary and served as both a church planter and a pastor in the RPCES.

In 1984, the Grahams joined the Orthodox Presbyterian Church when Ross accepted a call as regional home missionary for the Presbytery of New Jersey. They strategically located in the middle of the state so Nikki and their children could travel to various churches with Ross on the Lord’s Day.

Ross’s passion for church planting began as a child when he helped his parents set up chairs and greet guests at a church plant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In a natural progression, Ross was called to be general secretary for the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension in 1990. He wrote articles for New Horizons about biblical church planting, including an emphasis on not watering down our doctrinal distinctives. Those articles became the basis for his book Planting an Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a tool widely used by many inside and outside the OPC. By the time Ross retired in 2013, home missions works had grown from 20 to 46 church plants. He then served as Stated Clerk of the OPC from 2014–2019.

Their daughter Jennifer is the wife of Joe Troutman, OP pastor of Mid-Cities OPC in the Dallas, Texas area. Their son David and his wife are members of Reformation OPC in Morgantown, West Virginia. Ross serves as clerk of the session at Immanuel OPC in Medford, New Jersey, a church plant he helped to start.

Picture: Ross, Nikki, Jennifer and David Graham in the early 1980s.