In early 2020, a group of Presbyterian Christians in Bryan/College Station began meeting to discuss the formation of a new Reformed congregation in Bryan/College Station that would be faithful to Scripture while also seeking to build an evangelistic outreach in our region.
Even with the continued growth of Brazos County, there are only a handful of confessional Presbyterian or Reformed churches in the area. With this in mind, we prayerfully sought to plant a new congregation. By the start of 2020, two different men, without awareness of one another, reached out to leaders of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC ) asking about the possibility of planting a new congregation here. In the meantime, long time OPC minister Neil Lodge found himself remaining in the community as the result of health issues, and he also began making contacts about starting a church. This resulted in the formation of a core group in the spring of 2020.
We held our first worship service in May 2020, with Rev. Lodge leading us in worship. He died a month later, but his legacy remains an important part of our church, where his wife Susan continues as our pianist. Since that time, the Southwest Presbytery of the OPC helped with a variety of resources, including supplying ministers to lead in worship. In January 2021, we were accepted as a mission church of the Southwest Presbytery. In September 2021, the presbytery received us as a particular church, and our church officers, three elders and two deacons, as well as a pastor, were installed at our service of recognition in October of that same year.
Like everyone else, we had little understanding at the start of 2020 that we were in the early stages of a long public health emergency. We are grateful that God provided us with a meeting space at the headquarters of Kent Moore Cabinets that allowed us to spread out and care for the safety of attendees. We are now looking forward to what we hope will be the end of the pandemic so that we can invite more to attend and quickly outgrow our space! In the meantime, we are grateful to God for sustaining us through the challenges of that first year. There is a reason that the name “Providence” is appropriate for our church.