Denominational Growth: Minutes from an RPCUS church plant in Michigan Wayne Rogers Covenant Presbytery of the RPCUS met on Jan. 27-28,2001, in Hasl ett , MI, to organize the Chalcedon Christian Church. A petition to be organized as a particular church was submitted to the RPCUS by eight households. These families nominated Rev. Brian Schwertley, former Associate Pastor of the Southfield RPCNA, as their minister. Mr. Miguel Gutierriez and Mr. Ed Burley were also nominated to serve as Ruling Elders in the newly forming church. Prior to the organizational meeting of the church, the three nominees for the offices of Teaching and Ruling Elder were thoroughly examined in an all day session of the Presbytery. They were unanimously and enthusiastically approved to be presented to the congregation as eligible for election by the congregation. All three men demonstrated exceptional knowledge of the system of doctrine and gave evidence of maturity, wisdom, and genuine pastoral experience and concern. The Presbytery reconvened on Sunday to organize the church and conduct the elections of officers. Following the worship service and sermon preached by Rev. Schwertley, those who had petitioned the Presbytery to organize them into particular church entered into covenant to walk together as an organized church, on the principles of the faith and order of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the US, and ... be zealous and faithful in maintaining the purity and peace o f the whole body. The moderator, Rev . John Otis, pronounced them a constituted church according to the Word o f God and the faith and order of the Refonned Presbyterian Church in the US. Following the organization of the church, the Ruling Elder nominees were presented for their election by the male heads o f households. Both Mr. Burley and Mr. Gutierriez were unanimously elected. The elders were then set apart by the Presbytery with prayer by Rev. Wayne Rogers, ordaining Mr. Ed Burley and installing them both as ruling elders in the church. Following the election and installation of ruli1ig elders, the male heads of households also voted unanimously to call Rev. Brian Schwertley as minister o f the church. Rev. Otis charged the ruling elders and past or. The co ngregation was charged by Rev . Rogers. The newly elected minister, Rev. Schwertley, dismissed the congre gation with the benediction. t was truly a joyful time for these families and for us as a Presbytery to organize and receive this congregation. Rev. Schwertley said that one of the things that attracted the group to our denomi nation was our strict subscription to the historic Westminster and Refonned standards. They are delighted to be in a denomination that is explicitly theonomic, postmillennial, and presuppositional in their apologetics. The new church is also dedi cated to promoting the covenant headship o f fathers and appreciates the head o f household voting practiced in the RPCUS. And, although the RPCUS allows the singing o f hymns as well as Psalms in worship, Chalcedon Christian Church is permitted to practice exclusive acapella psalmody in corporate worship. Rev. Schwertleyis a 1986 graduate o f Re formed Episcopal Seminar y, Philadelph ia, PA with a Master o f Divini ty. Beginni ng in 1995 he served as Associate Pastor-elect for Church Planting i n the Southfield U>c o f North America and was ordained as Teaching Elder by the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery o f the RPCNA in 1996. He labored as a church planter in the Reformation Fellowship (RPCNA) Mission Church, Lansing, MI, from 1995-2000. During this time he started several local outreaches: Reformation Campus Ministries (MSU), Reformation Forum Cable TV Program, and Bible studies in East Lansing, Hartland, Ypsilant i, and Gra nd Rapids. He has been a guest preacher at over a dozen RPCNA nd other reformed churches across the country. Brian has also authored a number o f scholarly books and monographs including Sola Scriptura and the Regulative Principle o f Worship; The Neopresbyterian Challenge to Confessional Presbyteri an Orthodoxy: A Biblical Analysis o f John Frame;Y Worship in Spirit nd Truth; The Christian Family (in press); A Brief Critique of Steven M. Schlissel's Articles Against the Regula tive Principle o f Worship (printed in The Counsel of Chalcedon Fall 1999); Sovereign Grace : An AprillMay, 2001 THE COUNSEL o Chalcedon 19