In fact, we can tell you who we are and what we believe by explaining our name to you. CHRIST is the Lord, Redeemer, and King of the Church. COVENANT is the bond that unites us as a community that is living life in Christ before a watching world. CHURCH is the name given to God’s people, the chosen bride of Christ. While we are grateful for the unity of all believers who are in Christ, we are also
grateful for the denominational distinctiveness that flavors our experience of Christian fellowship. This roots us in an experience that transcends our contemporary evangelical age in America and connects us with a rich legacy of steadfast Christian witness. We are a part of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian tradition:
ASSOCIATE refers to a part of our denomination’s heritage connected to the Seceders of Scotland, who left the church because of their belief that the free offer of the Gospel was for all men. They would leave to form the Associate Presbytery. REFORMED is a word that refers to our historical link to the Reformation of the 16th century and intends. We are heirs of a tradition which comes from Luther, Calvin, Knox, and other Reformers. More specifically, we are connected in lineage to the Reformed Presbytery, a group that left the Church of Scotland in 1743 because the king of Scotland would not sign the Solemn League and Covenant – which affirmed that Christ alone was head and king of the church, not the civil magistrate. PRESBYTERIAN churches are led by a session of elders, men elected to oversee the spiritual and leadership needs of the church. The elders also represent the church in the “presbytery” of the denomination (all churches in a particular geographic region) and in the “synod” (all churches from the various presbyteries). So, we are Christ Covenant Church: a body of Christ-followers committed in a covenantal relationship with God – and consequently committed to loving one another in Christ in a way that honors His bride. And we are a congregation of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The denomination itself was formed in Philadelphia in 1782, and is considered to be the oldest conservative Christian denomination in America. Today, the ARP Synod has ten presbyteries in North America.
