What is a Presbyterian?
Presbyterians are Christians. The word “Presbyterian” refers to our form of government. It comes from a Greek word that is translated in the New Testament as “elder.” Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders chosen by God through the voice of the congregation give leadership to the life and ministry of Presbyterian congregations.
There are a number of denominations that identify themselves as Presbyterian. (That’s because the name is reflective of the leadership style we, and others, follow. Leadership is shared between the clergy and laity.) We are a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed by the reunion of two of the major branches of the Presbyterian Church in this country in 1983. That reunion ended a division that had existed since 1861 when our denomination, like our nation, was torn asunder by the Civil War.
We trace our theological heritage through the Scottish Reformer Knox to the Genevan Reformer John Calvin. Although the Reformed Tradition was born in the 1500s, the community of which the Presbyterian Church is but a part traces its heritage farther back in history. Because we spring from the church that was centered in Rome, we claim among our theological forebears such great thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and many others who gave shape to the thought and practices of the early Christian church. In fact, we would trace our heritage to the earliest followers of the risen Christ, without whose witness and faithfulness, the Christian church would not have come into existence.
And as we know, there would have been no Christian church without Jesus Christ who was a faithful child of the people of God known as Israel. So, in addition to the likes of Calvin and Knox, Aquinas and Augustine, we lay claim to names such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, Esther and Ruth, Abraham and Sarah.
Presbyterians are Christians. The word “Presbyterian” refers to our form of government. It comes from a Greek word that is translated in the New Testament as “elder.” Teaching Elders and Ruling Elders chosen by God through the voice of the congregation give leadership to the life and ministry of Presbyterian congregations.
There are a number of denominations that identify themselves as Presbyterian. (That’s because the name is reflective of the leadership style we, and others, follow. Leadership is shared between the clergy and laity.) We are a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed by the reunion of two of the major branches of the Presbyterian Church in this country in 1983. That reunion ended a division that had existed since 1861 when our denomination, like our nation, was torn asunder by the Civil War.
We trace our theological heritage through the Scottish Reformer Knox to the Genevan Reformer John Calvin. Although the Reformed Tradition was born in the 1500s, the community of which the Presbyterian Church is but a part traces its heritage farther back in history. Because we spring from the church that was centered in Rome, we claim among our theological forebears such great thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and many others who gave shape to the thought and practices of the early Christian church. In fact, we would trace our heritage to the earliest followers of the risen Christ, without whose witness and faithfulness, the Christian church would not have come into existence.
And as we know, there would have been no Christian church without Jesus Christ who was a faithful child of the people of God known as Israel. So, in addition to the likes of Calvin and Knox, Aquinas and Augustine, we lay claim to names such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, Esther and Ruth, Abraham and Sarah.
What do we believe?
The theological underpinnings of Presbyterian theology may 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. That means there is nothing we have to do to make God love us and nothing we are able to do to make God love us. We believe that God loves humankind and all creation because it is God’s nature to love us.
Faith alone -Faith is the means by which we know that news to be the good news that it is. Faith is a gift of God. That means that faith is born of God’s grace and not by our will. Faith is also the manner in which we respond to God. That means when we discover God’s gracious love for us, we cast ourselves fully into the loving arms of God. Faith in God’s grace enables us to live now for God and one another in the radical posture of Christian discipleship instead of worrying about what may or may not happen to us in the life that awaits us in God’s future.
Christ alone -Jesus Christ is God’s unique act of self-revelation and saving activity. Jesus Christ was not simply a teacher, a mystic, or a holy man. Jesus was Immanuel – God with us. In him we discover the fullest expression of who God is. His life and ministry, death and resurrection, reveal the all-encompassing love of God. At the same time, he is also the fullest expression of the pattern of living God ordains for humanity. It is a pattern to which we will not fully be conformed until God’s future for creation comes in fullness. It is the pattern to which we are daily being conformed by God’s grace and through God’s Holy Spirit.
Scripture alone -Presbyterians are people of the Book. We are people who read the Bible – both the Old Testament, sometimes called the Hebrew Scriptures, and the New Testament. We believe scripture to be the place where we are encountered by the living God who made heaven and earth. As we faithfully read and study scripture in the company of other believers and in the context of our worship, by God’s grace and God’s Holy Spirit we discern God’s Word for our life as a community of disciples. We make a distinction between the written words on the pages of scripture and the Word of God who comes to us by means of those words. 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.
The theological underpinnings of Presbyterian theology may 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. That means there is nothing we have to do to make God love us and nothing we are able to do to make God love us. We believe that God loves humankind and all creation because it is God’s nature to love us.
Faith alone -Faith is the means by which we know that news to be the good news that it is. Faith is a gift of God. That means that faith is born of God’s grace and not by our will. Faith is also the manner in which we respond to God. That means when we discover God’s gracious love for us, we cast ourselves fully into the loving arms of God. Faith in God’s grace enables us to live now for God and one another in the radical posture of Christian discipleship instead of worrying about what may or may not happen to us in the life that awaits us in God’s future.
Christ alone -Jesus Christ is God’s unique act of self-revelation and saving activity. Jesus Christ was not simply a teacher, a mystic, or a holy man. Jesus was Immanuel – God with us. In him we discover the fullest expression of who God is. His life and ministry, death and resurrection, reveal the all-encompassing love of God. At the same time, he is also the fullest expression of the pattern of living God ordains for humanity. It is a pattern to which we will not fully be conformed until God’s future for creation comes in fullness. It is the pattern to which we are daily being conformed by God’s grace and through God’s Holy Spirit.
Scripture alone -Presbyterians are people of the Book. We are people who read the Bible – both the Old Testament, sometimes called the Hebrew Scriptures, and the New Testament. We believe scripture to be the place where we are encountered by the living God who made heaven and earth. As we faithfully read and study scripture in the company of other believers and in the context of our worship, by God’s grace and God’s Holy Spirit we discern God’s Word for our life as a community of disciples. We make a distinction between the written words on the pages of scripture and the Word of God who comes to us by means of those words. 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 1) New York and Philadelphia and 2) the Carolinas and Virginia. Our church springs from the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and the work of the Scottish Reformer John Knox.
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 the 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 their 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 meet the needs of the congregation’s members. The parent congregation became known as the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church (now the Presbyterian Church of Ossian) and a daughter congregation was established in Bluffton, taking the name of the Bluffton Presbyterian Church. The Bluffton Presbyterian Church was chartered on August 24, 1844 with 22 members. It has been ministering in this community ever since.
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 1) New York and Philadelphia and 2) the Carolinas and Virginia. Our church springs from the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and the work of the Scottish Reformer John Knox.
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 the 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 their 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 meet the needs of the congregation’s members. The parent congregation became known as the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church (now the Presbyterian Church of Ossian) and a daughter congregation was established in Bluffton, taking the name of the Bluffton Presbyterian Church. The Bluffton Presbyterian Church was chartered on August 24, 1844 with 22 members. It has been ministering in this community ever since.
