As we celebrate the Tricentennial of the Reformed Church in the United States, we look to the founders who overcame great hardship to bequeath to us a church faithful to the confessions, and faithful to the gospel. Our church was founded by John Philip Boëhm, an unordained schoolteacher who finally heeded the pleas of his neighbors to organize the first three congregations and serve as their pastor. On October 15, 1725, they celebrated their first Lord’s Supper; three hundred years later, we celebrate as well.
Their faithfulness not only humbles us, but causes us to reflect upon how God will preserve his word and sacraments as means of grace, even without benefit of classis, synod, or formal ordination. Theirs was not an act of rebellion, but of godly Reformed men meeting the hour. These same men would adopt a constitution, avail themselves of ordination when it became available, and willingly submit themselves to the oversight of our Dutch brethren for a season.
Likewise, their eagerness to support the cause of American Independence was not rebellion, but an affirmation of their God-given rights. It began with the German Reformed Palatine, John Peter Zenger, whose acquittal laid the foundation of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and religious liberty. It continued after Lexington, when 20% of our church’s pastors volunteered as chaplains in the Continental Army, weathering the deprivations of Valley Forge. Our forebears rescued the Liberty Bell from the advancing British and hid it in the basement of our Allentown church.
Baron von Steuben would turn a ragtag band of farmers and tradesmen into a Continental Army that secured independence. After the war, von Steuben would settle in New York and serve as an elder in our Reformed church. Upon his inauguration, President George Washington would, in an open letter, thank the pastors and elders of the church for their labors in the cause of liberty.
They gave us a free church in a free land. As I write these words, I cannot predict whether the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk will spark genuine spiritual renewal and revival in our land. His name may have long ago faded into obscurity, but the impact he had for the gospel on millions of young people is undeniable. Awakenings are messy, and we cannot know what form this spiritual quickening will take. Perhaps it will fade quickly, but our prayers are that amidst all the political discord, the gospel message that Christ died to save sinners will be heard around the world.
What kind of men and women, boys and girls will read this letter? Will the Reformed Church as we know it still exist, a church committed to the inerrant word of God and the Reformed confessions? Will her young people be catechized? Will the gospel ring from her pulpits? Or will it be read as an historical curiosity, or even an embarrassment that your fathers believed – truly believed – that the God who created the heavens and the earth in the span of six days, so loved us that he sent his own Son to die in our place, that our sins may be forgiven? If you have not heard the gospel, perhaps in years, hear it now. Jesus is Lord and Savior. He laid down his life as an atonement for our sins, and we can have eternal life if only we repent and believe.
This is not the hope and prayer of one man alone, writing across the ages. It is the hope and prayer of our people. It is what we confess and, by God’s grace what our children will confess, and their children after them. As we enter our fourth century in this land, we are a small communion of churches, but by God’s grace and Spirit, from small streams mighty rivers may flow. With Zechariah (4:10), we ask “who has despised the day of small things?”
God does not demand riches, or rituals, but a broken and a contrite heart, that we may be faithful. This is our prayer for you.
In Christ Alone,
Wayne Carington Johnson,
Chairman
Synodical Tricentennial Committee
Reformed Church in the United States