In early 2020, I had just returned home from a seven-month deployment as an Air Force Chaplain. Our family began the social distancing lockdowns extremely grateful to be together and to make up for lost time. As the months went on and the chapel on base remained closed, the Lord laid it on the hearts of several people, myself included, that we could safely have a worship gathering outdoors on Sunday morning when I was available to preach. A dear friend, Rosemary Henderson, graciously offered her side yard as the meeting spot, and on June 21, 2020, about thirty of us met to worship the living God in her beautiful garden overlooking Tampa Bay. Emails were sent and phone calls were made to invite people to our gathering. We emphasized that we
CHMCE Gospel Tracts for Reformed Evangelism
Dr. Eric Watkins, pastor of Harvest OPC in San Marcos, CA, and member of the Committee on Home Missions, has written several gospel tracts for OP congregations and church plants. Watkins brings a wealth of experience to this project. Together, he and General Secretary John Shaw teach a class on "Reformed Evangelism" for the OPC's Ministerial Training Institute. Watkins has planted two churches for the OPC, and he serves as the Director of the Center for Missions and Evangelism at Mid-America Reformed Seminary. Watkins himself grew up in a non-Christian household. He came to know the Lord when he was twenty-one years old, after he had finished following the Grateful Dead across the country. In God's providence, his older sister gave him a
Two New RHMS
THE PRESBYTERY OF THE SOUTH David Chilton has been in the Presbytery of the South for a number of years as a tentmaking associate pastor of a church plant in Orlando, Florida. He assumed duties as the new RHM on July 1. Pastor Chilton shares: "One of the first and most urgent orders of business was helping to provide oversight of a new potential mission work in Tampa, Florida—long an area of interest for the presbytery that had yet to bear fruit. I had already been helping fill the pulpit for the group, which was meeting in the yard of one of its members and calling itself the Side Yard Fellowship. Among its members was the family of a USAF chaplain, Daniel Halley, who is ordained in the OPC. At the spring meeting of the presbytery, the
Church Planters go to Summer School
CHURCH PLANTER TRAINING The Church Planter Training Conference (CPTC) is an annual gathering of OPC church planters, RHMs, and interns. Planters discuss and learn about important biblical principles and other practical matters related to starting a new church. This year's conference was hosted by Second Parish OPC in Portland, Maine—which happens to be the oldest congregation in the OPC. General Secretary John Shaw spoke on topics like "Building a Culture of Evangelism" and "Taking Your Place." Associate General Secretary Al Tricarcio presented on "Developing the Work," as well as the steps a church plant should follow to become a particular congregation. Kerri Ann Cruse, the OPC's Video and Social Media Coordinator, provided feedback on
Becoming a Welcoming Church—From Atlantic to Pacific
(Westfield, New Jersey) Pastor Chris Byrd leads evangelism and outreach efforts for Grace OPC in Westfield, New Jersey; Grace OPC is a church of about sixty members that would like to daughter a second church in the next 3–5 years. Byrd receives prayer support from the Committee on Home Missions. This spring, Byrd served the church by organizing prayer meetings, Bible studies, an ESL ministry, Christianity Explored, a blood drive, and more. The blood drive was the idea of an elder at Grace who regularly donates blood. Byrd writes, "The NY Blood Center set up and ran the actual blood donation, but volunteers from Grace served as hosts, providing snacks and conversing with the blood donors while they sat in the recovery area. Altogether we