Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America
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The Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA) is a denomination of Protestant churches that was founded March 11, 1997. The association's churches all ascribe to the London Baptist Confession of Faith, which was originally adopted in 1689 by the Particular Baptist Association of London. The ARBCA originally consisted of 24 member churches, and has grown to 44 member churches in 2003. Their home office is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Though fairly recently founded as an organization, the ARBCA is part of the long history of English speaking Particular or Calvinistic Baptists which began in the sixteenth century. The association encourages education through the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies, which closely cooperates with the Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. Serving in the area of foreign missions is the Reformed Baptist Missions Service. The RBMS is older than the association; it was established in 1984. ARBCA has two publishing arms, the Calvary Press and Reformed Baptist Publications.
THE ASSOCIATION OF REFORMED BAPTIST CHURCHES OF AMERICA was founded on March 11, 1997. On that day the first General Assembly met to establish a charter membership of 24 churches from 14 states. Since then ARBCA has grown to over 60 member churches and continues to expand.
PURPOSE AND MEMBERSHIP ARBCA is an association of churches. It is designed to advance Christ's kingdom by providing a fellowship in which churches of common confession may find mutual encouragement, assistance, edification, and counsel. There are ARBCA member churches in twenty-six states (as of 2008) and British Columbia. Some of our churches are smaller in size (less than 50 members and attendees) and some larger (250+ - but no “mega” churches); some are new starts (less than 3 years old) and others are more established (30+ years). Some have several pastors and others have one (a distinctive of our churches is a belief in a plural eldership), and some of them are young men (less than 35) and others are older (60+). Some are in rural settings and others in metropolitan areas with very dense populations. However, this diversity is a strength of our association because of the strong unity we enjoy due to the doctrine of Christ that we hold in common.
CONFESSION ARBCA’s uniqueness is in its member churches holding a full subscription to the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. A strong foundation of Calvinism shapes the God-centered worship and evangelism of these churches. They preach and practice the fuller expression of the Reformed faith evident in the 1689 Confession. These churches believe the Scriptures set forth a Baptist understanding of Covenant Theology in contrast to our Presbyterian brothers’ view of Covenant Theology and in contrast to the more modern system of hermeneutics many Baptists embrace called Dispensationalism. The emphasis on sound doctrine among the member churches is expressed in several ways. We embrace the biblical teaching on worship, referred to as the Regulative Principle of Worship, which provides the means for worshiping in spirit and in truth and gives the prominence in worship to the preaching of God’s Word. In addition, we believe the Scriptures teach that the Apostolic Revelatory Gifts ceased with the Apostles. The authority of the Apostles is passed to the Word which they, by the Spirit’s inspiration, wrote. It is communicated to churches today by the faithful preaching of that Word.
EVANGELISM ARBCA is strongly evangelistic. These churches take seriously the Great Commission given them by Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel to every person and to plant New Testament churches. ARBCA churches actively seek to plant Reformed Baptist churches domestically in the United States and Canada, as well as around the world. The Reformed Baptist churches that formed ARBCA began to cooperate in world missions in 1985 when 14 churches came together to form Reformed Baptist Missions Services (see below: MINISTRIES).
LOCAL CHURCH CENTERED ARBCA churches resist any idea of denominational control over the member churches. Each member church is fully self-governing, yet voluntarily makes herself accountable to sister churches in order to be faithful to the Scriptures and to the faith once delivered to the saints. Every church-planting effort, every missionary sent to a foreign country, and all Special Projects of ARBCA is constructed and carried out by one of the member churches. ARBCA has no mission board per se. An ARBCA missionary’s home church is his mission board and his primary sending agent. Member churches assist one another in sending evangelist church planting missionaries to accomplish the call of missions at home and abroad.
MINISTRIES ARBCA churches have established four arenas of cooperative efforts:
1. Home Missions – church planting efforts in the USA and an approved endorser for military chaplains.
2. Reformed Baptist Missions Service – the foreign mission arm of ARBCA, providing services to member churches which have sent out missionaries. RBMS services churches with men involved in church planting efforts and support of national pastors in other countries (past or present), including Quebec, Columbia, Argentina, Chili, Jamaica, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and Israel.
3. Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies – training new ministers of the Gospel, exists in cooperation with the Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. Credits for Reformed Baptist courses are accepted by the seminary toward the Master of Divinity degree . 4. Publications – publishing literature consistent with our view of the Gospel and the work of the church. We have translated and published the 1689 Confession of Faith in eight different languages and published a number of other books, e.g. Baptism of Disciples Alone, Baptist Catechism, Baptism in the Early Church, and Denominations or Associations.
Our churches are also involved in individual efforts – publishing, missions, conferences, seminars, education, benevolence – both in the USA and abroad.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ARBCA member churches meet annually in General Assembly. The location of this meeting is in a different region of the United States each year. The gathered churches involve themselves with preaching, prayer, missionary reports, theological papers, and fellowship, and they vote on an operating fund budget, officers, policies, and projects.
CONTACT ARBCA has an office in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and employs a Coordinator who facilitates the cooperative relationships and efforts of the member churches. Contact information for ARBCA is:
Postal address: P.O. Box 289, Carlisle, PA 17013
LINKS
1. Official Web Site: www.arbca.com; including Directory of Member Churches, our Constitution, sermons, and more extensive descriptions of our Ministries.
2. Our Seminary: Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies – http://www.reformedbaptistinstitute.org.
3. Sermons from our General Assemblies: www.sermonaudio.com/arbca.
4. Reformed Baptist books/literature/CDs for sale or download: • Solid Ground Christian Books – http://solid-ground-books.com. • Reformed Baptist Academic Press - http://www.shop.rbap.net. • Reformed Baptist Theological Review – http://www.rbtr.org/. • Reformed Reader – http://www.reformedreader.org/. • Phil Johnson’s Web Sites - http://www.spurgeon.org/. • Calvary Press – http://www.calvarypress.com/home.asp. • Cumberland Valley Bible Books Service – http://www.cvbbs.com. • Truth for Eternity – http://www.girbc.org/truth-for-eternity. • Banner of Truth - http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/home.php.
5. Other endeavors by ARBCA member churches: • Grace Covenant Baptist Church, Gilbert, AZ sponsors the Building Tomorrow’s Church – http://www.buildingtomorrowschurch.com/; for Young Adult Singles and Married Couples. • Heritage Baptist Church, Owensboro, KY sponsors the Midwest Center for Theological Studies – http://www.mctsowensboro.org/; seminary level academic studies.
6. Fraternal State Associations – other associations to which some of our member churches belong: • New England Reformed Fellowship – http://newenglandreformedfellowship.org. • Southern California Association of Reformed Baptist Churches. • Texas Area Association of Reformed Baptist Churches – http://www.taarbc.org/.
7. Friends of ARBCA – other organizations with whom we much in common: • Alpha and Omega Ministries (Dr. James White apologetics) – http://aomin.org/. • Doxa Press (Packages: Reformed Baptist Vol. 1 – twenty RB titles running under Wordsearch) – http://www.doxapress.com • Founders Ministry – http://www.founders.org. • Reformed Baptist Church Directory (John Farese service) – http://www.farese.com/rbcd/rbcd.htm. • Reformed Baptist Fellowship – http://reformedbaptistfellowship.wordpress.com/about/. • Reformed Baptist Seminary (http://www.rbseminary.org) • Reformed Reader – http://www.reformedreader.org/ • Westminster Seminary California – http://www.wscal.edu.
Authors: Pastors Bob Selph and Larry Vincent February 2009
