Those present at this year’s General Assembly might recall a startling statistic: 2023 was the first year in the PCA’s history that denomination lost more churches than new churches particularized. This stat is jarring, but it’s not the end of the story. Faithful, courageous brothers and sisters are still planting churches, spreading the gospel, and making church accessible to new believers and non-believers. In the first half of 2024, six new churches were particularized in the PCA. Here are their stories.
King’s Cross Community Church – Springboro, Ohio
Casey Cramer came to faith when a teammate on the Carolina Panthers introduced him to Christ. After retiring from the NFL, Cramer attended Covenant Theological Seminary where he “fell in love with the local church,” as he describes it. He became chaplain to the Tennessee Titans and served on the pastoral staff of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville and later Christ Community Church, in Franklin, Tennessee.
When Cramer and his wife, Kelsey, wanted to return to her home state of Ohio, they began learning about the need for church planting in the Buckeye State. After participating in Mission to North America’s Church Planter Assessment, the Cramers connected with South Dayton Presbyterian Church, and in 2021 they moved to the fast-growing area to plant a daughter church. King’s Cross began meeting in the fall of 2022 and particularized on March 3, 2024. The Cramers targeted the community of Springboro because it is projected to grow by 10% to 20% in the next decade.
“We planted this church to plant more churches,” he said. “We want church planting to be in our ethos.”
King’s Cross has been blessed to see new believers come to faith, and today it is a multigenerational church that recently purchased its own building. Not surprisingly, this church pastored by a former professional athlete reaches many families who are deeply involved in sports. Cramer asked for prayer that he and his wife and King’s Cross’ leadership would disciple the next generation to love Jesus more than sports.
St. John the Beloved – Cincinnati, Ohio
St. John the Beloved is a neighborhood church serving and shepherding the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in urban Cincinnati. Pastor Billy Otten, who was shaped by the evangelism of Young Life and the discipleship of the Navigators, moved to Over-the-Rhine in 2012 to work in campus ministry at the University of Cincinnati. Over the next 10 years, he and his wife, Julie, made inroads and planted seeds not just on campus but also in their community. In 2022, Trinity Presbyterian Church, across the Ohio River in Ludlow, Kentucky, called the Ottens to plant in the neighborhood they already loved. A group of five families began worshiping together soon thereafter.
St. John the Beloved was a scratch plant of Ohio Valley Presbytery, planted without an existing core group, and Otten cites the presbytery’s strong support as a major factor in his church’s success. And St. John has successfully reached many urban Cincinnati subcultures that were previously unengaged by the gospel and has seen new believers come to faith. The leadership at St. John seeks to create a community founded on “ordinary means and patience,” Otten said, one that is accessible and supportive to nonbelievers on “a long-term journey toward faith.”
St. John the Beloved particularized on March 17, 2024, and the church continues to evangelize, shepherd, and grow patiently. The church recently installed two new elders and will soon add a deacon. Otten asked for prayers for wisdom to know how to disciple people unfamiliar with the PCA and church in general, while also investing well in more mature followers of Jesus.
Grace Presbyterian Fellowship – Park Hills, Missouri
Pastors Allan Harmening and Tyler Hendley became friends in a seminary Hebrew class, discussing the finer points of animal sacrifice in the Old Testament. Harmening is a former dairy veterinarian, and Hendley grew up on a cattle farm.
After graduating from Covenant Seminary, Harmening moved to Farmington, Missouri, 75 miles southeast of St. Louis, to serve as a hospice chaplain. His personality and background made him a good fit for the rural, agricultural community, and in 2019 he planted Grace Presbyterian as a plant of Missouri Presbytery. Harmening soon invited Hendley to join him in the work, and with the financial support of MNA and Twin Oaks Presbyterian in Ballwin, Missouri, Hendley took the call. Harmening, and Hendley proved to be complementary, compatible co-planters. Grace particularized on May 19, 2024.
Harmening and Hendley have seen God care for their church in many ways. “We’re continually amazed at the Lord’s provision,” Harmening said. “From chairs to coffee makers to hymnals to a sound system, he’s met so many of our practical needs.”
One of the challenges to ministry in Park Hills is that the area is saturated with churches in mainline denominations. Harmening, who found Reformed doctrine to be a rich, renewing influence in his own faith journey, asked for prayer that many in Grace’s community would hear the gospel and grow in the whole counsel of God’s Word.
New City Fellowship Beechwood – Rochester, New York
Pastor Chris Holdridge grew up not far from the neighborhood where he now ministers. In 2002 he began attending Grace Church (PCA) in Rochester, New York. A public school teacher at the time, Holdridge was soon volunteering with the youth ministry at Grace and becoming increasingly involved at the church. Over the years, he felt a deepening desire to pursue the Beechwood neighborhood where he lived and worked. After completing Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando’s hybrid master of divinity program, Holdridge was ordained as an evangelist and commissioned by Grace to go reach the neighborhood on his heart.
What would eventually become a church plant began as 441 Ministries, a community development corporation in Beechwood. Holdridge served as the corporation’s first director, and his time in the role allowed him and his family to further relationships and invest resources in the community. In 2016, Holdridge handed the corporation over to a new leader and planted New City Fellowship Beechwood.
Soon a diverse community that included Black Lives Matter activists and police officers, religious skeptics and long-time evangelicals, was learning how to live and worship together. New City began the process to particularize in late 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges and unexpected delays, but it never derailed the church, which held its first service as a particularized church on June 21, 2024.
Holdridge asked for prayer for unity, support, and continued growth in a context that is quite socioeconomically diverse; and for God’s providence around the upcoming need for a building in the neighborhood, which will likely be expensive.
Capital Presbyterian Fairfax – Fairfax, Virginia
In the second half of the 2010s, the leaders of McLean Presbyterian Church, located just west of Washington, D.C., recognized that a number of members were commuting from Fairfax, Virginia.
“Christians will drive 30 minutes to come to church, but non-Christians won’t,” said Pastor Rob Yancey. In 2017, Yancey was hired as a church planting resident at McLean. He spent a year learning from its leaders, making connections in the church, and gathering a core group.
In March 2019, Yancey led the first worship service of a Fairfax-based congregation, which McLean treated like a second site that would eventually particularize. He and his launch team were confident the philosophy of ministry that was working at McLean would translate to Fairfax. They borrowed and built upon the existing approach and systems, and innovated as opportunities to do so arose.
Yancey cited the pandemic and the political climate around 2020 as major challenges for the young church. The support and encouragement of their mother church, he said, were critical: “We never felt alone in this… We might not have made it as a scratch plant. But the [McLean] elders walking alongside us gave us constant support.”
Capital Presbyterian particularized on July 14, 2024. Yancey asked for prayer that the church would continue to reach the lost in Northern Virginia with the good news of Jesus; and for God’s wisdom to navigate the various transitions that growth brings.
Trinity Church – Collierville, Tennessee
God used a quarter-life crisis to redirect Pastor Hunter Brewer toward gospel ministry and church multiplication. Bothered by the fact that he didn’t have adequate answers to life’s big questions, Brewer left law school in 1998 and returned home to Gadsden, Alabama, where he began attending Rainbow Presbyterian Church. He soon developed a friendship with the late Bill Whitwer, which burgeoned into a mentorship, a role at the church, and eventually seminary. After completing his studies, Brewer served as assistant pastor at Lakeland Presbyterian in Flowood, MS, where another mentor, the late Jim Baird, encouraged him to consider church planting. In 2003, Brewer planted Madison Heights Church in Madison, Mississippi.
In 2013, Brewer became the first coordinator of the Midsouth PCA Church Planting Network. Now he was the one mentoring young pastors to plant across the region. Brewer loved the work, but talking about planting day after day, year after year, eventually reignited his desire to plant himself.
In 2019, he left the network position to plant Trinity Church in Collierville, Tennessee. The years that followed were difficult, as the Brewers cared for multiple family members with health problems and navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. Brewer said that while these challenges slowed the progress of the plant, they served to deepen friendships and commitment in the core group. The Brewers have come through those challenges to a season of respite. Trinity Church particularized on March 3, 2024, and is growing healthily. Brewer asked for prayer that Trinity would continue to be “a gracious place for the unchurched and de-churched;” and that the church would retain its passion to plant other churches in the future.
Trip Smith serves as assistant pastor at Hope Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.