What is a Presbyterian?

Presbyterians are Christians who profess Jesus Christ as Lord.

The word “Presbyterian” refers to our form of church government. It comes from a Greek word that is translated in the New Testament as “elder.”

Ruling Elders chosen by God through the voice of the congregation give leadership to Presbyterian congregations alongside Ministers of Word and Sacrament who serve congregations as Pastors and teachers.

We are a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and date our heritage in this country to 1644. Our theological tradition traces back to the Scottish Reformer John Knox and the Genevan Reformer John Calvin. The Reformed tradition was born in the 1500s, but our Christian heritage goes back to the beginning and the earliest followers of Jesus Christ.

What do we believe?
Reformed theology can be summed up nicely through four slogans that were born in the Reformation: grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone.

Grace alone -We are saved, redeemed, justified, accepted by God through no merit of our own and no works of our own but completely by the gracious love of God. God loves us and nothing can separate us from God’s love for us.

Faith alone -Faith is a gift of God, born of God’s grace and not our will. When we discover God’s gracious love for us, we give ourselves fully to the loving grace of God and in service to one another as followers of Jesus Christ.

Christ alone -Jesus Christ is the unique self-revelation of God, not simply a teacher, a mystic, or a holy man. Jesus was Immanuel – God with us. His life and ministry, death and resurrection, reveal the all-encompassing love of God and are examples to us of a Christian way of life.

Scripture alone -Presbyterians study and read the Bible in the company of other believers and in the context of our worship as we seek to discern God’s Word for our life together. God’s Word is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ and scripture is authoritative for the life of faith as it bears witness to Jesus – God’s Word made flesh.

How did we get here?
Presbyterianism came to these shores along with colonists from Scotland and Northern Ireland. Two major areas of Presbyterian settlement were located in the regions around  New York and Philadelphia, and the Carolinas and Virginia. Over time Presbyterians migrated west.

By the late 1830s there was a cluster of Presbyterians living just north of Murray. Many of them had been members of the Apple Creek, Ohio, Presbyterian Church. In 1840 Adam Hatfield walked 80 miles to a meeting of the Presbytery of Miami in Greenville, Ohio to petition for the establishment of a Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery approved the request and the Bluffton Presbyterian Church met for its first worship service on June 10, 1840. The congregation took the name of Bluffton as part of its name even though it was meeting some distance from the town of Bluffton.

A few years later, in 1844, it became clear that members of the church were spread over a large enough area that the log cabin church north of Murray was neither central nor convenient. The decision was made to seed churches in other parts of Wells County in order to better serve the needs of the county. A congregation then known as the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church (now First Presbyterian Church of Ossian) and the Bluffton Presbyterian Church (now First Presbyterian Church of Bluffton) were established. The Bluffton Presbyterian Church was chartered on August 24, 1844 with 22 members. It has been ministering in this community ever since.