FOREST PARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OUR HISTORY
OUR MISSION
OUR DENOMINATION
Forest Park Presbyterian Church began from First Presbyterian Church of Statesville as a new church development in 1960. It began with 163 charter members, her organizing pastor was Eugene Witherspoon, and she held her first worship service on October 30, 1960. The congregation worshipped at Mitchell Community College until the fellowship hall was completed in 1961. In 1962 the Grier Educational Building was completed, named in honor of R.D. Grier, and the sanctuary was finished in 1965.
In addition to the organizing pastor, the church was served by Dr. Albert McClure (1966-71), Rev. John Watkins (1971-87), Dr. Thomas Miller (1988-98), the Rev. Walter Taylor (2000-07), and currently by Rev. Scott Jeffreys (2009-present). The Lord has been faithful to Forest Park Presbyterian Church since her inception, and we trust that Almighty God will continue to be faithful to her in the future. May God continue to be praised and glorified in the life of this church!
​
Our mission as a church is succinct, Biblical, and challenging: “Rooted in Christ, Growing in Faith, and Loving Our Neighbor.” It is based on Colossians 2:6-7 and Matthew 22:34-38.
We strive to be a church that is inwardly strong, with deep life-giving roots, thus we seek to be “rooted in Christ.” We also strive to be upwardly focused, by "growing in our faith" through worship, prayer, Bible study, fellowship. Practicing these spiritual disciplines help bring us close to Jesus. Thirdly, we seek to be outwardly focused by "loving our neighbor;" for we as individuals and collectively as a church have been called by God to be the hands and feet of Christ to and for the world, so that people may come to know the love of Christ and experience his salvation and abundant life.
While denominations are not the “be all and end all” of everything, we as a church do believe it is best for us to not fly solo. We don’t want to be an island unto ourselves; therefore, we choose to be in fellowship with and held accountable by a wider body of like-minded Christians, in a denomination for common mission, support, encouragement, and discipline.
Our congregation is a member of A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO), a denomination that is reformed, evangelical, and egalitarian. We uphold Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, and the Bible, the Word of God written, as our final authority for faith and practice. These two Words sing in harmony with one another and never contradict one another. We value the wisdom of our reformed confessions of faith in helping us to understand and live out our Christian life. As an evangelical congregation, in response to the Great Commission, we seek to grow flourishing churches that make committed disciples of Jesus Christ.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Jesus Matters. This man is more than a man of “good deeds” and “ethical teaching.” Jesus who is fully human, “the Word made flesh,” is also the eternal Son of the Father, God incarnate, who has come down to us on our level so that we might be reconciled unto God by his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus Christ is “King of kings” and “Lord of lords,” not just one lord among many. He has no equals. He is the one who saves us; therefore, we worship, adore, and submit ourselves to the will of God through him, so that we might become “the new creations in Christ” that God has saved us to be.
People Matter. God made man in His image and declared His creation to be “very good,” including us. This means that though we humans have made a mess of ourselves and God’s pristine creation by our sin and rebellion, the Lord still loves us and is on a passionate mission to redeem and save us in Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel is that you matter to God and to us!
The Bible Matters. We believe the Bible is the Word of God written, from beginning to end, all of it. As a church we want to learn the Bible in a deep and consistent way, through our personal reading of the Word in our quiet times, our study of it in Sunday School and other Bible studies, and in our hearing and responding to the preaching of the Word in corporate worship on the Lord’s Day.
Prayer Matters. In the strength of the Spirit, we will strive to be a community of Christians who pray to our Heavenly Father in a way that is faithful to Scripture and glorifying to God. We will seek to do this not only in our personal time with the Lord but also corporately together in our regular gatherings as a community of faith.
The Church Matters. The church is the body of Christ which is comprised of the people of God throughout all human history. Our local church is just one part among many in the wider one body of Christ and God calls us to be together as Christians so that we can worship Him, hear His Word proclaimed, partake of the sacraments, pray together, share in fellowship with one another through the joys and sorrows of life, and be built up together in the faith, so that we can go serve as the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
Now more than ever, in an increasingly fractured, isolated, and technological world, we want to be intentional about being together in the Lord. We make it our aim to “forsake not the assembling of ourselves as some are in the habit of doing, but rather to meet together regularly to encourage one another and spur one another on in love and good deeds.” (Heb. 10:25)
The Reformed Tradition Matters. Every church has an ethos and tradition, even churches which pride themselves on not having one! While we know that our own tradition is not the only Christian tradition, nor is it perfect, we are still grateful for the way it continues to shape who we are as a church. Ours is a living tradition and we cherish the great Biblical doctrines that re-emerged during the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation that taught us that we are to live to the glory to God alone in our lives, that we are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith in Christ alone, and that Scripture alone is to be our final authority in all of life. Furthermore, we are grateful for our particular tribe within the wider Protestant tradition, the reformed and Presbyterian tradition, and for our spiritual ancestors such as John Calvin, who taught us to live the Christian life faithfully, boldly, humbly, and simply.
Relationships Matter. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one Triune God is relational and made us to be in relationship with one another. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “The believer feels no shame when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body… The believer praises the Creator for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, sick person, and Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the Triune God.”
We joyfully believe, affirm, and confess what Christians have always believed from the beginning, as expressed in the ancient creeds of the church, such as The Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed.
​