August 8 Today in OPC History

While a student at Moody Bible Institute in the late 1960s, Stephen Pribble met fellow music major Norma Goodpaster in the music building. After receiving their diplomas, they married on August 8, 1970. In 1973 Stephen received the bachelor of religious education from Detroit Bible College. He was ordained and served as pastor of independent churches in Ohio from 1978–1985. In 1985 he received the master of arts from Ashland Theological Seminary (Ashland, Ohio), having majored in Hebrew under Dr. Joseph Kickasola, who, with PCA pastor Carl Bogue, convinced him of the Reformed faith. The four Pribble children were baptized the same day by Dr. Bogue.

Stephen was received into the PCA as assistant, then associate pastor in Akron, Ohio, where he served from 1986–1989. There he recited the Westminster Shorter Catechism before the session. On December 1, 1989, Stephen was received into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to serve as pastor of Grace OPC, Lansing, Michigan, where he has served for more than 30 years. For outreach, he produced three-minute recorded phone messages in the 1990s and appeared on Reformation Forum, a weekly TV show.

Stephen has served as the OPC’s part-time website manager (now senior technical associate) since 1998. He was a member of the Committee on Christian Education from 2001–2016. In 1999 he became chairman of the general assembly Committee on Proof Texts for the Larger Catechism. Stephen used his musical gifts as a member of the Psalter Hymnal Committee, beginning in 2006. Norma plays piano during worship and teaches children’s Sunday school.

Stephen and Norma have four children: Jeffrey, Julie, Jessica, and Joanna; and nine grandchildren. Stephen and his session ordained two of his sons-in-law as ruling elders. Their son, sent by the PCA, serves as academic director of a Christian school in the Middle East.

Picture: Stephen and Norma on their wedding day