How One Church Came To Be

In August of 1986 a group of families began meeting together in a home; these families were concerned about doctrinal issues in their denomination and in their particular church. They were particularly concerned about the move away from the Bible as the standard for faith and practice. Many churches and individuals known by these families had left their denomination for the Presbyterian Church in America(PCA), which had been formed in 1973 due in part to doctrinal concerns within increasingly liberal presbyterian denominations. At their particular church, a move to the PCA had been considered but was voted against by a narrow margin. These families wanted to start a church that was committed to the authority and infallibility of Scripture, to the Reformed faith and confessions, to missions, and to taking a stand against abortion.

In the Spring of 1987 a Steering Committee was formed and the group became a Mission of North Georgia Presbytery, PCA. The first eight members were received on August 23, 1987. Eight more members were added on December 12, 1987. Initially various men affiliated with Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship (PEF) provided preaching for the mission church. In November 1987 the meeting place was moved to the McDonough Women’s Club in downtown McDonough.

On September 18, 1988 the church voted to become incorporated and to borrow funds to purchase property at the intersection of White Drive and Highway 155 in Stockbridge. The church closed on the property on December 16, 1988. The Rev. Donald J. Musin became the first pastor of The Rock Presbyterian Church in May, 1989. He served as a part-time pastor. Also in 1989 one of the houses on the property was renovated to become the sanctuary.

In November 1989, the congregation moved to the new church building and became a particular church with approximately 35 members. The mission of the church was “to provide and serve the community with a friendly, conservative, evangelical, Bible-centered, Reformed church.”

The founding goals of The Rock were:

1. To be a church where the Bible is preached and taught, and where believers can fellowship, worship, and be built up in the faith.
2. To care for one another, as Christ cared for his church; attempting to integrate each with his gifts and needs to the body, leaving none out.
3. To be fervent in faith that believes everything in Holy Scripture; fervent in prayer, fervent in holiness of life and thought, and fervent in doing all things for the glory of God.
4. To have an outreach ministry to the unsaved, unchurched, sick, shut-in, handicapped, elderly and youth.
5. To encourage the reading, studying and memorizing of God’s Word, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms for the gathering and perfecting of the saints.
6. To be involved in missions:
7. To give 10% of all offerings to the Mission to the World.
8. To increase to 50% of offerings for all missions.
9. To hold an annual missions conference.
10. To help plant other PCA churches in nearby areas.

In July 1990 the church completed the land purchase and now owned 8.5 acres and the two houses which sat on the property. Remodeling began on the second house for use as a pastor’s office and Sunday School rooms and was completed about March 1991. In the Fall of 1992, Rev. Musin accepted a position as President of the Atlanta School of Biblical Studies. After a pastoral search process of almost one year, The Rock called Rev. Mark Rowden as the first full time pastor of the church in October 1993. From 1994 until 2001, the church continued to meet in the renovated houses. The church became debt free in 1996.

In 2001 the Session approved the building of a new sanctuary. After a year of planning with architects and builders, the church broke ground on its new building in April 2002. By early 2003 the new sanctuary was complete and the church held its building dedication service on January 26, 2003. Also in 2003, the church hired its first music minister, Mr. Terry Himebook, who significantly expanded the music ministry of The Rock. During the summer of 2005 the Session decided to form a vision and strategic planning committee to develop new vision and purpose statements for the church and a plan for implementation over the next five years.

Rev. Mark Rowden served as pastor of The Rock from 1993-2005. In 2006, Grace Community Church, a PCA church in McDonough, GA considered a motion to join The Rock. In May, 2006, the Vision Committee presented the vision, mission, and purpose statements, which were approved and adopted by the Session and the Congregation. In the summer of 2006, Grace Community Church decided to split, with approximately half the members of the church joining The Rock in August, 2006. That joining included some members who were originally members of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, an historic Presbyterian church originating in Atlanta whose heritage and history is now joined with The Rock.

In 2007, the church called Rev. Chad Bailey as its pastor.  Also in 2007, the church completed its vision planning process by approving a strategic plan to guide the church in fulfilling its mission and achieving its vision.

Since 1989 The Rock has stood for Biblical, reformed doctrine and held firmly to the authority and infallibility of Scripture and the truths of the Reformed faith. As we continue our life and ministry together, we hope and pray that we will continue to fulfill the vision of our founders, serving our community with a friendly, evangelical, Bible-centered, Reformed church, even as we seek to:

Magnify the Lord our God
Mature together in Christ
Minister to others in His name
Make Him known at home and abroad
So that in all things Christ might be preeminent.

May it be so, and to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

From the History page of The Rock Presbyterian Church, Stockbridge, Georgia.

“To God’s Glory” : A Practical Study of a Doctrine of the Westminster Standards
by Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn

THE SUBJECT : Idols

THE BIBLE VERSES TO READ : Exodus 20:3; I Chron. 28:9; Deut. 26:7; Matt. 4:10; Ps. 96:6; Ps. 29:2; II Cor. 5:9.

REFERENCES TO THE STANDARDS : Confession : II.1 & 2; VII.5; XXI.2 & 6; XXII.1 & 2; Larger Catechism : Q. 7; 34; 97-99; 103-110; Shorter Catechism : Q. 4; 41; 45; 49-52.

The Shorter Catechism, in Question 45, reminds us we must “know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.” This is important for us to accomplish if we are to glorify God as we should.

When the first commandment is read, and especially when we take time to meditate on it as we should, we recognize the danger of having idols in our lives. This is a danger to which every professing believer is tempted. There is always the delight of the world to which a professing believer is drawn. With some it is one weight, with others it is another.

The writer of the hymn, “O For a Closer Walk With God” put it so well when he said,

“The dearest idol I have known,
What’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.”

In order for the believer to know, acknowledge, worship, and glorify God it is certainly of the utmost importance that he know Christ as Savior and Lord of his life. This is the foundation stone, this knowing of the Christ of the Scriptures. But upon that Rock-like foundation there must be added the gold, silver, and precious stones of good works if we would truly give Him the glory due Him. Our salvation is not based on those works, but if we are truly saved, we will bear such fruit—we will give evidence of our spiritual life. This means a life of self-discipline on the part of the believer and much of his success has to do with not putting other “gods” before the Almighty, Sovereign God.

It is so easy for us to put other things before the living solely to the glory of God. We can be guilty of it even in those things that are right and proper in themselves, especially in the eyes of the evangelical world of today. For example, there is the prevalent disease of “running-to-meeting-itis” that so many fall prey to in this day. I am not talking about the local church. I am referring to the many evangelical meetings outside the church that take believers away from their church. God has given us specific instructions regarding the visible church but too many times we have other “gods” that come before His visible church.

Or, as another example, hobbies may be used. It is important to take time off and relax. But sometimes it is hard to understand the justification of the hours spent on hobbies. And even more difficult to understand is when it is on the Lord’s Day! Many of these hobbies have become idols.

The church today is not falling because of the idolatry of old but is falling because of the two popular idols of today : Unbelief and Conformity to the World. It is a different type of idolatry in some of its aspects, but idolatry none the less.

Sometimes the thought never occurs to us of our idolatrous ways. A short list of possible idols might be to God’s glory :

—A particular doctrine that is practically the sum and substance of what we believe;

—A recreation for which we long, one that we suddenly find ourselves spending more time than necessary for relaxation;

—A person, or persons, whom we put on a pedestal where only God belongs;

—A “thing”, whether it be money, a car, a boat, a recreation, etc., that becomes more important to us than the things of the Lord as presented in God’s Word.

The list could be much longer. It is impossible for me to list all the ways you can make idols out of things even as it would be impossible for you to list all for me. The point is : We must be careful, sensitive, in this area so that we do not disobey and sin against a holy God!

Paul approaches the question in this way : “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (disapproved).” Not that he was in danger of losing his salvation, but that he was in danger of losing his salvation, but that he was in danger of losing approval by God.

We must discipline our lives so that idols do not creep in. When they do, we must put them to death. Otherwise we will find ourselves dedicating our lives to other things, rather than living to His glory.

Tragedy Turned to Triumph

It was on this day, December 10th, in 1815, that the Rev. J. J. Janeway wrote in his journal,

“It has pleased the Lord to send to this city the Rev. Drury Lacy [of Virginia] to die, and to edify us by his exemplary behaviour in his last illness. He submitted to a painful operation, which proved fatal. He was raised entirely above the fear of death, and repeated, on one occasion, with emphasis, two verses of the 116th hymn:

‘How can I sink with such a prop 
As my eternal God, 
Who bears the earth’s huge pillars up, 
And spreads the heavens abroad?’ &c.

“I stood at his bedside about an half hour before his decease; and as I stood looking on him, then in a state of insensibility, I reflected. There is the servant of God just going to receive his reward; there is that mouth which was employed so often in proclaiming salvation to sinners, just about to be closed in death. But it will be opened again in celebrating the praises of our Redeemer in a new and nobler strain. There is that minister just about to receive his crown of life. Oh, may I profit by such occurrences! While meditating on something to say at his interment, I was refreshed; my soul melted within me; my eyes were filled with tears.”

Drury Lacy was born on 5 October 1758, in Chesterfield Co., Va., and died on 5 November 1815, at the home of a friend, Robert Ralston, in Philadelphia, PA. Death was caused by the effects of an operation for kidney calculi. Rev. Lacey had gone to Philadelphia in order to obtain the best medical service available. The operation was on a Monday and by Tuesday he was very low and said that he trusted in the Lord. He requested Robert to write a letter to Mrs. Lacy in case of his death to comfort her. By nightfall, he was in great pain and expired the next day. He was interred in the cemetery of the Third Street Presbyterian Church, later the Pine Street Presbyterian Church.

Drury was reared on his father’s farm in Chesterfield County in meager circumstances, with the full intention of following in the footsteps of his father as a farmer. But an accident in his youth, which at the time appeared catastrophic, abruptly changed the course of his life, to his great benefit , and to all of his descendants as well. The story of the accident is as follows:—

At a muster of the militia, a soldier had overloaded his musket and feared to discharge it himself. Without informing them of the over-loading and the consequent danger of firing it, he asked some boys if they would like to discharge it. Young Lacy volunteered; the weapon exploded, terribly mangling and tearing off Lacy’s left hand. The wound healed but, without the use of two hands, Lacy felt that he would be unable to earn a living as a farmer, and so turned his thoughts to the profession of teaching or clerking. This would require an education and he had not the funds to pay for tuition at a private school—there were no public ones—or to hire a tutor. His mother had died when he was about 12 years of age, and his father never remarried. His sisters, Keziah and Dorcas, assumed the duties of running the household as his elder sister, Agnes, had married in 1764.

At the age of 18, he secured a position as tutor in the family of Daniel Allen in Cumberland County, who was an elder in the Presbyterian Church of which Rev. John Blair Smith, President of Hampden-Sydeny College, was pastor. Here Drury became acquainted with Rev. Smith and his ministry. Shortly thereafter, he joined the church of which Rev. Smith had charge. This was an important move in Drury’s life, for Rev. Smith, noting his ability, took him “under his wing”. At this time, he was self-taught for the most part and had acquired a fair working knowledge of geography, grammar, algebra, geometry and surveying. He later became a tutor in the family of Col. John Nash of Prince Edward County, and while there, enjoyed the instruction of Rev. Smith one or two hours a week. With this assistance, he acquired a sufficient knowledge in Greek and Latiin so that at the age of twenty-three, he was offered the position of “tutor” at Hampden-Sydney College. He continued his studies there privately, leading eventually to his entrance upon the ministry.

In The Collections of the Virginia Historical Society“, Volume 5, it states that “he possessed marked powers of oratory. He could lift up his voice like a trumpet, and its silvery notes fell sweetly upon the ears of the most distant auditors in large congregations, wherever assembled, in houses or in the open air.

His son, Rev. William Sterling Lacy said of his father:

“He left but few sermons, and those not entirely finished, and far inferior to his ordinary pulpit performances, having been written in the earlier years of his ministry. During the last fifteen years of his life, the period of his greatest ministerial success, he rarely, if ever, wrote his sermons, and but seldom prepared even short notes for the pulpit. His preparation was almost exclusively mental and spiritual. He thought intensely upon his subject, and arranged the matter carefully in his mind, and then trusted to the occasion to suggest the appropriate language.

There is as well this account of him from the pen of his intimate friend, Dr. (Archibald) Alexander:

‘About the time that Mr. Lacy entered the ministry, commenced that remarkable revival of religion, which extended more or less through every part of Virginia where Presbyterian congregations existed. And although Dr. J. B. Smith was the principal instrument of that work, yet the labours of Mr. Lacy were, in no small degree, successful. His preaching was calculated to produce deep and solemn impressions. His voice was one of extraordinary power. Its sound has been heard at more than a mile’s distance. His voice was not only loud, but clear and distinct; in the largest assemblies convened in the woods, he could always be heard with ease at the extremity of the congregation.

Words to Live By:
God can take great tragedies and turn them to His purposes, redeeming the wasted years (Joel 2:25). The Lord is not limited; His ways are not our ways. Our place is but to look to Him in all things, regardless of what may come. A reward awaits, an eternity in His presence, enjoying Him forever.

The full hymn by Isaac Watts:

How can I sink with such a prop
As my eternal God,
Who bears the earth’s huge pillars up,
And spreads the heav’ns abroad?

How can I die while Jesus lives,
Who rose and left the dead?
Pardon and grace my soul receives
From mine exalted Head.

All that I am, and all I have,
Shall be for ever thine;
Whate’er my duty bids me give
My cheerful hands resign.

Yet if I might make some reserve,
And duty did not call,
I love my God with zeal so great
That I should give him all.

The Rev. Dr. Donald Bray Patterson was a son of the manse, his father having served for many years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States. He was graduated from Wheaton College and Columbia Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of the Commerce, Georgia Presbyterian Church, Perry, Georgia Presbyterian Church, West End Church of Hopewell, Virginia and the McIlwain Memorial Church of Pensacola, Florida and lastly as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi.

Dr. Patterson was Chairman of the Steering Committee for a Continuing Presbyterian Church and Chairman of the provisional Committee of the Mission to the World, while also serving as a member of the Mississippi Valley Presbytery of the Continuing Presbyterian Church. Unable to attend the 26th General Assembly (1998) due to declining health, he was named Honorary Moderator of that Assembly. He died on December 25th of that same year.

It was Rev. Patterson who brought the central sermon in the week of the first General Assembly for the Presbyterian Church in America. His sermon was titled, At the Crossroads. As with the Message to All Churches, this sermon serves to set the standard for the young denomination, a standard which we would do well to regularly review. As Dr. Patterson states, “the primary purpose of Jesus Christ in the world must never become a secondary cause in His church.”

At the Crossroads
by the Rev. Donald B. Patterson, B.A., B.D., D.D.

No other figure of speech describes more adequately our situation tonight than does the one that states that we are “at the crossroads.” Having come to this place because of a deep conviction we have been laughed at, criticized, maligned, made fun of and even harassed, yet we have come. Some of us face uncertain days, while others breathe more easily for their “lives have fallen in pleasant places.”

None of us would deny that we are living in a new day with all kinds of exciting opportunities for Christian witness at home and overseas. The future is as bright as the promises of God. I am impressed by the fact that those giving thought to the formation of a new denomination are facing up to the principle that the primary purpose of Jesus Christ in the world must never become a secondary cause in His church.

As the apostle Paul set out on his third missionary journey he carried with him the half-Jewish, half-Asian-Greek Timothy and the Gentile Titus. He was joined by others as they visited churches established earlier. In the spring of 54 A.D. they came to the strategic city of Ephesus. The story of the evangelization of that city is one of the outstanding missionary accomplishments of history. We do not have all the records, but two years later it was said ” … all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10)

Since the beginning of the Christian Church, it has been at its best when it is militantly evangelistic. Refined by violent opposition, a fierce dedication to take the Gospel to every man at any cost characterized our predecessors.

Unfortunately, the Church has not been able to maintain its most dedicated missionary enthusiasm for very long, and having failed to polarize public opinion about Jesus Christ it has retreated from the arena of open evangelism. The Church has hidden behind symbols of strength and power — protected by its theological positions — while whole generations of unimpressed, uncommitted and unevangelized people go by outside.

I may have misunderstood the Scripture, but my impression of the Church was that it was never meant to be some kind of a fortress out of reach of the people. The Church was to be an outgoing, proclaiming, evangelistic body of believers dedicated to the passion for the the world-wide evangelization of people.

As I understand the command of Jesus, we are to preach the Gospel to every person, but no generation of Christians has ever come close to fulfilling the Great Commission in its own times. The likelihood of our evangelizing the world seems so remote that few of us even think about it — much less pray about it.

In 1966 I attended the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin where a population clock clicked off the increase in the world’s population while we sat in that meeting. Nothing made a more profound impression on me that week.

When Christ was on earth there were approximately 300 million people on earth. 1500 years later it is estimated that there were 500 million. 300 years later there were one billion. Then man doubled his number in the next one hundred years. In 1930 there were 2 billion people! Between 1930 and 1960 man added another billion. They are now estimating that by the year 2000 there will be 6.5 billion people.

There was a day when preachers were called the “prophets of doom,” but the title now goes to the scientists. The scientist with his charts and carefully researched prognostications is in the limelight. It has become obvious that if the Church is ever to evangelize the world it must greatly increase its level of missionary activity, or it will be too late to fulfill the Great Commission.

Facing the command of our Saviour and with some knowledge of the work of various mission organizations down through the years, it is my opinion that our fledgling denomination must search for a workable plan for world-wide evangelization. We must go back to the New Testament and base our global ministry on apostolic patterns and standards. Listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy: “I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” (I Timothy 1:16)

In that first century Paul provided a working model that we would do well to follow — “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10). He reached the whole province — all the people! He effectively fulfilled the Great Commission for that time and place by carrying the Gospel to all the inhabitants of what is now Turkey.

You know the history of the church in that area. Luke wrote: “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” (Acts 19:20) Whatever Paul did at Ephesus needs to be repeated again throughout the whole 20th century world.

God’s command to Adam was “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion.” (Gen. 1:28). Man has done that. He is now walking on the moon, living at the bottom of the ocean, doubling his store of knowledge every few years and now he says that he is close to reproducing living matter in the laboratory. He has so thoroughly carried out his original assignment that he has now produced a terrifying ecological imbalance that threatens to destroy him.

With the coming of Jesus Christ a new commandment was given. He discussed it often with His disciples. Listen to it again:

Matthew 28:18-20 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

Mark 26:15 “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”

Luke 24:46-48 “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.”

John 20:21 “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”

Acts 1:7,8 “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Matthew 24:24 “And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Obviously, the task of world evangelization is to continue until the end of the world. The obligation is still binding. The Great Commission has not expired and is applicable today.

We have taken a strong stand on some of the complicated facets of Christian theology, but in the Great Commission there is a wonderful simplicity. Jesus is calling for uniformity of action and singleness of purpose: Christians are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every living person. It is a call to action — a command to total evangelization — a commitment to proclaim the Gospel to every person.

The message of that first century Church was uncomplicated. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified and buried, but on the third day He rose from the dead. Forty days later He ascended to the Father and He promised to return. The early declaration of faith did not reply to all the questions that men were asking, but it did give an understandable series of concepts for the evangelization of the people.

We must believe that we are justified in changing the religious beliefs and the moral behavior of the people. We must believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and that all other religions, beautiful and presently helpful as they may appear, are inadequate. Man is separated from God by his sins and he will invent substitutes. Without a living knowledge of God man has degenerated and developed his heathen religions and cultures. Underneath the surface there is still a hunger that is not satisfied apart from Christ.

The primary motivation for world evangelization is a love for our fellow men and a firm belief that all who do not accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ are hopelessly lost and condemned to eternal separation from God. If Jesus Christ is right, then all the world must be evangelized and we must make converts among all other religions.

The magnitude of the Great Commission is a frightening challenge to our embryonic denomination, especially in view of the lack of missionary vision in our time. We cannot answer for the ages that are past, but we are responsible for every man, woman and child in every community in every cultural group in our generation. It is for today that we must answer to God.

What we need today is a fresh look at what the Scriptures have to say about the sovereignty of God. He knows the end from the beginning and is working all things after the counsel of His own will. He is able to make the wrath of man praise Him. No man can stay His hand or say to Him: “What doest thou?”

Anybody can believe in the sovereignty of God when the situation is under control, but when things get out of hand, when right is on the scaffold and wrong is on the throne, it is then that the purposes of God are being worked out according to His plan.

This is no time for retrenchment — no time for retreat. The doors ARE open. The fields ARE white. The laborers ARE few. The closed doors are God’s responsibility while the open doors are ours! We are to pray the Lord of the harvest to send the laborers.

The success of world missions is not to be measured against past accomplishments or present gains, but by the realistic progress toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the response of the Church to pursue its task with faith and vision.

What will you do about it? As you stand at the crossroads, what will your decision be? I promise you difficulties and dangers. Messengers of the cross have been hunted and hounded, whipped and flogged. Some have given their lives. But the mandate has not been rescinded.

Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and the Lord of history. Leaders come and go — nations rise and fall — civilizations wax and wane, but the worldwide mission of the Church will continue to the end of the age.