What is a Reformed Presbyterian Church?

One way to answer the question, “What kind of church is Waypoint?” is to say it’s a Reformed Presbyterian Church. But in order for that answer to make sense, you have to know what the words reformed, presbyterian, and church mean!

We Are a Church

Churches have existed since Jesus came, died, and rose again to new life. Christians are followers of Christ. A gathered fellowship group of Christians is called a church.

Waypoint falls in a long line of Christian churches following Jesus. We believe the same things those churches did thousands of years ago. The best places to find what we’ve believed for thousands of years is through ancient creeds, for example, the two most common ones: the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.

The three key teachings of those creeds are:

The Trinity | God is three persons in one: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Incarnation | Jesus came to Earth as fully God and fully man.

The Atonement | Jesus’ death in our place.

We Are a Reformed Church

We believe in a big God. A God who is all powerful and Almighty. Another word for that is “Sovereign.” There is no one who tells him what to do—he is in charge, and whatever he wills will be accomplished. He is the Sovereign of life and salvation.

Providence | The world unfolds exactly as he wills.

Salvation | The ultimate cause of our salvation is that God acted. Without his action, we would be lost in our sin and rebellion from God.

Another characteristic of being “reformed” is belief in the Five Solas (“Sola” means “only” in latin).

Sola Scriptura | Scriptures alone are our rule of life and faith. The Scripture is God’s authoritative word—accurate/infallible and sufficient.

Soli Deo Gloria | Everything is for the glory of God alone. We were made in the image of God and were created to reflect him to the world, to magnify him, to glorify him. So we are not our own but belong to him (i.e., we submit our will to his will).

Solo Christo | Salvation by Christ alone. Christ’s work was full and complete. That means we don’t add to our salvation, but he alone is the one who allows us to be saved. He took the punishment we deserved; he gives us the righteousness that makes us acceptable to God.

Sola Gratia | Salvation by the grace of God alone. There was nothing good in us, we deserved none of it, but by grace, he extends salvation to the undeserving.

Sola Fide | Salvation by faith alone. The instrument of our salvation is faith. And even faith is a gift. Salvation comes from trusting in the work of Christ. It’s not the strength of our faith that saves us but the object of our faith that saves us—not by works, but by faith alone.

Rooted in the Reformation. During the 1500s, a group of people set out to reform “the” church: the Catholic church. But attempts at reformation didn’t happen, so people broke from the Catholic church in protest (i.e., the Reformation led to Protestants).

The church set out to prove the break that occurred in the Reformation was not politically motivated or an act of rebellion but truly an attempt to align their life and beliefs with the scriptures. They wrote confessions to articulate those biblical beliefs. The confession our church subscribes to is the Westminster Confession of Faith.

We Are a Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian comes from the Greek word Presbuteros, which means “elder.” Presbyterian churches aren’t led by one person and aren’t led by a vote of the entire congregation. They are led by a board of elders. And these elders all have an equal vote.

The Bible is clear that men are to be examined on character, gifting, and calling in order to serve in the office of elder (Titus 1, 1 Tim 3), and those qualified are to be shepherds over the church. They are elected by the congregation based on those qualifications, and their duty is to care for the church body.

We also have “courts” of elders that help us function as a larger church body beyond just the local congregation. We see in Acts 15, when controversy arose in the church, that all the local elders traveled to Jerusalem to decide on the matter and then returned to their local congregations to share their conclusions.

We model that with regional “Presbyteries,” where local elders gather in regions (our region is Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana) and care for churches in those regions, train new men for pastoral ministry, initiate new church planting works, and encourage one another.

We also gather globally for a “General Assembly” where local elders from our entire denomination gather to decide matters that affect us all. We don’t have a hierarchy in leadership, but all elders get one vote. They function less like legislative bodies, i.e., they don’t create rules for the denomination, but they serve instead as courts, ruling on matters appealed to them for decision, and those court decisions can be binding on local churches (just as we see in Acts 15).

That's the short version of how I’d explain what it means to be a Reformed Presbyterian Church. There’s more to the story, but as you join our community, over time, you’ll learn even more about what it means to be part of Waypoint Church.