the homes of the Church members. Even so, the church was too small to host all the delegates, so the oth- er churches in the area, Methodist and Baptist, hosted delegates, fed them, and made this an event to be remembered by the entire pioneer community for decades to come. Some ARP ministers stayed for the duration of their careers, and others only stayed for a short time. The lack of replacements for those who left early or who died while serving, proved to be a continuing problem for the Presbytery. One was the Rev. W. W. Orr, Synod’s Home Missions Secretary. Rev. Orr was an amazing man. Dedicated to the ministry at birth by his mother, he was the pastor at Huntersville ARP Church in NC. There he found- ed and directed the Huntersville High School, and in the next years, preached throughout the Synod as an evangelist. In his time in Texas, he preached at all the churches, and in three months of preaching in Cor- the ARPs. Dr. Orr gave up traveling and became pastor of the Corsicana, TX Church for three years. He saw
the church grow to 109 members with a fully paid-for building before re- turning to Charlotte to lead the East Avenue Tabernacle. Tabernacle contin- ues today as the King’s Cross Church.
Yet, for all the arrivals, new ministers, and churches being organized, all was not well. The Texas churches were small, and there was little money they were not alone. In addition, the ARP Church was unsettled by two ma- days were holders to exclusive Psalmnody, and there was the question of what the denomination should do. Some wanted to hold to the exclusive Psalmnody and merge with the Northern branch of the ARP Church, known then as the United Presbyterian Church, North America. Some wanted to abandon exclusive Psalm singing and merge with the Presbyterian Church, US, the ‘Southern Presbyterians.’ And, of course, many did not want to merge with anyone or change anything. Over the life of the Texas Presby- tery, the UPCNA had taken on more and more of the costs of paying the ARP missionaries to Texas, including paying for the construction of build- ings, especially the Corsicana Church.
Ultimately, the ARP Church decided not to merge with anyone. This had
the UPCNA decided to cut off funding for Texas churches. In the crisis that followed, the Texas Presbytery voted 7-1 to ask the ARP Synod to dismiss the Presbytery to the UPCNA, which was approved at the ARP Synod meet- ing of 1908. Eventually, the UPCNA merged with the Presbyterian Church, USA. Some of the old ARP congregations survive today as part of the PCU- SA; some have closed.
There are a few things that we might draw from this story. Church plant- ing by ARPs moving from one place to another has been the foundation of our church extension efforts. However, rural churches, in general, have suf- fered as most people have now moved to cities. The 19th Century ARPs were willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep the Sabbath, and to keep their Psalms. But the small numbers of people, small numbers of ministers, and lack of funds were, in the end, too much to over- come for the little churches in Texas. However, dedicated ministers can see the hand of God at work even in the most severe conditions, as each of the ministers in Texas experienced. God is adding to our ARP Church new con- gregations in Texas and Oklahoma. Perhaps this is the season when God will raise up in the west a strong body of believers committed to Re- formed theology and ready to spread the light of the Gospel throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Let us commit to support and encourage them and look in faith for ministers to send their way. May such commitments to faithful service to God be blessed with new growth of churches and Chris- tians in this area.
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