Blue Ridge Presbytery

Report on the Twenty-sixth Stated Meeting   

Wayne M. Dym`aˇcek 

The Blue Ridge Presbytery was hosted by Harvestwood Covenant Presbyterian Church in Floyd, Virginia on January 10, 2009. This church is in the middle of Floyd County and if a church can survive there, we should have at least two or three more PCA churches in Rockbridge. Theo van Blerk, pastor at Harvestwood, opened with a sermon on Isaiah 44:1–22.  

Attending this meeting from Grace were Paul Carter, John Pearson, Tony Nix, Jon Talley, and me. As John Pearson said: This presbytery meeting was uplifting since every major report was on ministry.  Our new treasurer, John Furman of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, informed us that the Presbytery is currently in the black. 

Our askings for the presbytery are $4152 but we are giving more. The Blue Ridge Presbytery has seven committees and a summary of the report of each follows.  

Facilitating: The Presbytery is going to have a web site. Our new moderator is Don Ward of Grace Community Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville.  He replaces Jim Creech of Eagle Heights in Winchester because Jim had to withdraw.

Church Planting: The Presbytery welcomed a church planter, Joe Holland, for a church in Culpeper. He and his wife have four sons, all younger than seven. I will keep you informed on the progress of this plant.  The new church in Harrisonburg, Christ Presbyterian, had its first service on January 11 and the Spanish speaking church, Alianza that meets at Covenant Presbyterian in Harrisonburg is in need of men to serve as elders and deacons. Church plants or multi-site church plants (ask me if you wish to know what these are) are already underway or soon will start in Forrest (west of Lynchburg) and Staunton. There are hopes of starting a church in or near Radford, Crozet, and Farmville.

Imagine having PCA churches in the county seat of each county in the bounds of our Presbytery (from Winchester to Pulaski) and cities or villages!

Discipleship and Evangelism: This committee is chaired by Tony. I am still responsible for administering the Walthall-Wood Scholarship which is for any student attending a college or university who is interested in full-time Christian service as a minister, missionary, or director of Christian education.  

There will be a presbytery-wide women’s retreat on October 23 and 24 (I believe at Covenant in Harrisonburg).

Our Modgnik (kingdom backward) youth retreats attracted almost 800 middle and high schoolers last year. The next retreat is for high schoolers and will take place in April. All these retreats are at the Young Life Camp here in Rockbridge.

Leadership Development: The major focus of our meeting was the transfer of Joe Holland to be the church planter in Culpeper. We also took Steve Bohannon under care of the Presbytery and approved Brian Whited as an intern.  

Shepherding: This committee was asked to help Covenant in Harrisonburg with a problem.

World Missions: One of the members of our presbytery, Stan Armes who is a missionary in South Africa, is coming to the USA on his home mission assignment. Gordon Woolard, another missionary of our presbytery, is giving a missions conference at Draper’s Valley on January 30–February 1.  

Our next presbytery meeting is at Draper’s Valley in Pulaski County on April 3 and 4.