On Being Presbyterian

The word Presbyterian comes from a word in Greek (the original language of the New Testament) that means “elder.”  In some denominations, bishops govern.  In other churches, a board of deacons governs.  In Presbyterian churches, elders elected by the congregation serve to coordinate and facilitate the activity of the congregation.  The pastor (also an elder) is a member of a larger, regional body called a presbytery.  Bethel is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in the Presbytery of New Covenant.  This does not mean that we necessarily agree with our denomination’s current leadership or endorse the position they take on one issue or another.  In our nearly 185 years, we have seen several denominations come and go.

In America, we trace our roots to the mid-Atlantic states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York), where colonists from Scotland and especially the Scots-Irish of northern Ireland settled in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, bringing with them their Presbyterian way of being church.  This distinguished them from the congregationalist Puritans of New England and the Episcopalian colonists to the south.

We are Presbyterian; we are Reformed Christians.  We are grounded in the Bible.  The Reformation (1517-1648) was a widespread effort to return Christianity to a closer relation to the Bible.  What we believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and Baptism and the Lord’s Supper was explained by the reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), who had settled in Geneva, Switzerland.  The Scottish church reformer John Knox (1513-1572) worked with and learned from Calvin in Geneva, and brought these teachings back with him to Scotland.

During the 1600s, the Presbyterian influence grew stronger in England, also.  From 1643 to 1649, the Westminster Assembly met in London.  The fruit of their labors to give shape to a church based upon and governed by God’s Word was the Westminster Standards, which has historically identified American Presbyterianism.