When it comes to the continental United States, Fargo is the Presbyterian Church in America’s final frontier.

The landlocked state of North Dakota is the last in the U.S. to get a PCA church, and Fargo — North Dakota’s most populous city with nearly 240,000 people in the metropolitan area — is the logical place to put a pin on the map.

But for Brock Larson, leading the church planting work in Fargo is not about the pin in the map; he is excited to share the gospel and Reformed faith with family and friends.

Larson grew up in Fargo and attended an evangelical church in the city. While studying at North Dakota State University he felt God leading him into ministry and also developed more Reformed theological convictions. A friend recommended Reformed Theological Seminary so he and his wife Katie moved to North Carolina to attend RTS Charlotte.

“The people we stayed with [during seminary] went to a PCA church, and we joined them at their church our first Sunday there and stuck around,” he said. 

Larson interned at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina. As he concluded his studies, Larson could have easily found a call at a PCA church in the Southeast, but from the start he was focused on returning home.

“My wife and I always had desires to be back up in this area since we saw the need for faithful churches to be planted in North Dakota,” he said.

For many people, North Dakota is not an attractive place to pastor, he admits. The winters are harsh; there are no ocean beaches, and it lacks the purple-mountained majesty of neighboring Montana. But Larson couldn’t shake the burden God placed on him for his home state.

While still in seminary, he was excited to learn that a PCA church planter was preparing a new work in Fargo. Larson connected with the planting pastor, and immediately after graduation Larson moved back to Fargo to help launch the ministry. 

Richard Lee moved to Fargo in December 2019 and has been a part of the Fargo church from its early days. He said the church plant got off to a strong start, but then was hit hard by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the church lost its meeting location, the number of people attending the fledgling church quickly dwindled. 

About three months after Larson arrived to help, the pastor who had been leading the plant took a different call.

With just a core group left, Lee said they were faced with the decision: persevere or pack it in.

“It was an easy decision for me,” Lee said. 

“Let’s go. Let’s persevere, guys,” Lee encouraged the others. “Let’s see if we can find someone else to take over.”

Larson was the obvious person in Lee’s mind, despite Larson’s limited experience in full-time ministry.

Fresh out of seminary and only 31, Larson was unsure if he should step into a senior pastor role. The church embarked on a nine-month pastoral search that only led to one applicant. Ultimately Larson got the job.

For all intents and purposes they started a new church, he said. They rebranded, renamed, and went back to a core group phase. 

“In the eyes of the presbytery, it’s technically the same work, but in the eyes of the city and Fargo, it’s a new church plant,” Larson said.

The core group started public worship services again as Christ Covenant Church in the fall 2023. (That the new congregation bears the same name as the church where Larson interned is a coincidence, he said.) The congregation meets at a middle school where it rents the gym and another multipurpose room. Larson’s brother is an assistant principal at the school, so securing the location was a smooth process. After three years, the church has grown to about 70 members.

Lee said the church has been a blessing to his family, including his four children, who hear solid theology and play active roles in the church, helping set up and tear down each week.

“My kids, when they’re adults, the only thing they’ll know is … you go and you serve the church, you work for the church, because it’s the only thing they know,” he said. 

The majority of the church’s growth has been young families, despite the church not offering a nursery or large youth programs. Larson produces a children’s guide to the Westminster Shorter Catechism in a podcast called “The Little Pilgrim’s Catechism.”

“It’s almost like a weird movement that we’re seeing where young families are seeing the importance of actually having their children in church and participating and being with God in that environment,” Lee said.

Matthew Qualley, another member, also appreciates that his children are able to take an active role in the church services by singing hymns, reciting creeds, and listening to the preaching.

“It’s been a delight to see them grow in their understanding of worship of our Lord by simply being present,” Qualley said. 

Qualley heard about the church through past connections with Larson as well as other family members who attend the church.

“Over time, we had a growing interest and conviction toward Presbyterian theology, children in worship, and being part of a confessional church,” Qualley said. “We wanted to be somewhere that took worship seriously and had a clear, historic grounding.”

He said Christ Covenant Church has offered that and more.

“We praise God for bringing us to Christ Covenant, it’s been a blessing beyond what we could have asked for,” he said.

Larson said it has been a bit of a challenge introducing the PCA church to a region where many have never heard of the denomination. 

“When I’m talking to people about the church or the denomination and I say we’re Presbyterian, either they have no idea what that is, or they correlate it with the PCUSA.” 

What has helped is his pre-existing connections in the community, including family and friends. Those connections have led to grassroots growth.

“We haven’t done a whole lot of advertising,” he said. “It’s been really by word of mouth and spread through people finding us online.” 

Larson said it is through the Lord’s kindness that the church has grown. In the community, he can see a desire for the type of preaching and teaching the church offers. 

“I think there’s a hunger and thirst for this confessionalism, rather than a sort of smoke, flashing lights, and shallow theology that seeks simply to meet the felt needs of people,” he said.

He knows that success is never guaranteed with a church plant, but in many ways he thinks being from the community has helped. 

“If you’re not from an area, it doesn’t necessarily matter where your church plant is, it can be isolating, but for me and my wife being from here, this is very much home to us,” he said.“That takes a lot off because we have so many friends; we have family in the area. And so that’s been a huge help and a huge blessing.”

As the church continues, Larson’s desire is for “the Lord to continue to grow the saints here in holiness and Christ’s likeness first and foremost, regardless of the size of the church.”

He would like to see the church particularize in the next couple years and have its own ruling elders. He’s trusting the Lord to bring the right men for that.

“We want people to come to know Christ. We want to be a light to this city, which needs more faithful churches planted in it.”

Christ Covenant Church might be the first PCA church in North Dakota, but Larson hopes it won’t be the lone PCA church for long. He would love to see the church train pastors and elders who can be sent out to other places like Bismarck and Grand Forks. But he knows that to plant more churches in North Dakota, he needs more native leaders.

“I don’t think we’re going to get people coming from the outside to come and plant right in North Dakota,” he said. “I think that’s probably going to come through raising up internally and training up internally and sending them out.”

For now, the work begins in Fargo.