News

This morning a lifetime member of our congregation passed into Glory. Jim turned 90 last October and lived a long and full life. As part of our congregation’s 150th Anniversary celebration last fall, I interviewed the older members of the congregation. Below is the short article written about Jim.

Just down the street from the church right before Patterson Elementary School is a house that Jim Wenkhous has lived in for his entire life. He remembers being a little guy who had to ask permission to cross Darlington Road to see his buddy Bob Lash. “And there wasn’t traffic like there is today,” he said. “Probably only three or four cars a day!”

Jim has fond memories of his friendship with Bob Lash (who married his first cousin, Jean), which continued until Bob died in August. Jim served the church with him. Bob was a deacon and Jim served as treasurer from 2000–2004 before the church merger.

Jim went to Geneva College after high school, but his time was interrupted by the army. He was able to finally finish his degree in chemistry under the tutelage of Roy Adams in 1960.

Jim is probably best known for his passion for flying. He learned to fly in high school when there was an airport where the golf course is now. He recalls flying to Canada for fishing trips with his buddy Rex Downie. He had part ownership of a number of airplanes before having to give up flying a few years ago due to his health. Jim does not get out to church services anymore, but joins us by phone. He just celebrated his 90th birthday.

The First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Beaver Falls, Pa., was organized on November 10, 1874, in downtown Beaver Falls–moving permanently to the Patterson Heights location in 1924. On November 10, 2024, we will celebrate our church’s 150th Anniversary!

Events include:

• Morning worship at 10 a.m. with the Lord’s Supper. If you would like to commune, please meet with the session between 9 and 9:30 a.m.
• Fellowship lunch at noon. Bring a dish to share if you are able or join us anyway and we will provide
• Evening Psalm Sing at 6:30 p.m. followed by a time of fellowship and sharing about the history of the church

If you have memories of the church that you would like to share in written or video form, please send them to the pastor at pastormatt@firstrpchurch.org or share via Messenger on the church’s facebook page.

We hope to see you there!

Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer… (Revelation 6:1-2 (ESV))

2022 provided many wonderful example of the amazing ways that Christ is riding ahead building His church!

First, He brought through our doors many visitors! I was recently looking back over the last three years of attendance records, and in 2020 we were blessed to enjoy 39 visitors, in 2022 He brought us 85 visitors, and in 2022 more than 170 people visited our congregations!

Second, of those whom He drew into our midst. He was pleased to see 11 become communicant members at First RPC (3 covenant children professed faith, 3 were received by transfer from other RP churches, and 5 adults professed faith). In addition to those additions to our fellowship, He saw us baptize six people (1 adult and 5 covenant children).

Third, he graciously preserved the lives of our members.

Fourth, He was pleased to draw more people into worship this year by increasing attendance in both morning and evening services.

Fifth, He has preserved and expanded our ministry opportunities at the RP Home and the Franciscan Manor. In addition to weekly services, I am also hosting a weekly Bible study at the manor. In recent months, I have been called upon to provide a memorial service for one of the residents. A request from another area nursing home is now being considered.

Sixth, He allowed us to enjoy more times of fellowship and study together in 2022. We saw the resurrection of the monthly men’s prayer breakfasts, multiple midweek book studies and membership classes, and the Kids’ Quest program. It is so great to see these programs resumed after the Pandemic!

Seventh, I am thankful for His enabling us to make it through the book of Revelation in just a bit more than a year. I appreciated the feedback from the congregation and certainly was encouraged myself as I worked through that book. In the coming year, we’ll be working through the Gospel of Luke and will keep working through the Minor Prophets.

Lastly, I give thanks to God for the love exhibited amongst the congregation and that they so lavished upon my family.

This afternoon, we had a psalm sing at the Franciscan Manor. This is a nursing home a quarter of a mile from the church. We’ve held many psalm sings here, but the road to ministry at the Manor has been long, windy and sometimes even interrupted.

It was probably 8 years ago that retired pastor and then church member, Ken G. Smith reached out to the people at the Manor. Ken lived in the neighborhood and had been doing outreach for years. Around the time these inroads were being made, Ken moved away.

Our former pastor Steve Miller came in and picked up where Ken left off. He took an invitation to have services weekly at the manor and rolled with it. He and the associate pastors faithfully ministered week after week—even when it made the Lord’s Day exhausting.

As you remember, Pastor Miller’s ministry was cut short at First RPC because of a battle with ALS. Though ALS eventually took him home to his Lord and Savior, the ministry at the manor continued under our next pastor, Lucas Hanna, though primarily under the care of Associate Pastor Filbert.

We have met many neat people at the manor. One of them was a retired missionary from Africa and he took great interest when the Hannas accepted the Lord’s call to minister in South Sudan. Still services continued.

Then COVID.

So many of our stories are punctuated with those words today. “Life was moving along swimmingly, then… COVID.” “I was an accomplished football player, then…COVID.”

Then COVID caused the shutdown of all ministry to the nursing home—a nursing home that was spared much of the horror of the pandemic until last fall when they lost a third of their residents to the dreaded disease. The doors were closed and rightfully so.

In the spring of 2021, as soon as he was allowed, Pastor Filbert (elected during the shutdown) got right back to the manor. His services were to be held on Thursdays and the room was limited in occupancy.

The first week back, they maxed out the room. And the week after that. A few months later, Pastor Filbert added a Tuesday Bible study.

Over the summer, he brought a group of young people from all over the nation to sing psalms for the retired folk.

Today, we repeated that endeavor with a few church members and a bunch of college students. A few at a time, we arrived on the front lawn with psalters and umbrellas in hand. The Lord was gracious and held back the rain for the hour that we sang WITH the residents—us on the lawn, them on the veranda.

It may have been a long and windy, sometimes interrupted, quarter-mile road to the Manor, but the Lord has made the path straight. We have been blessed by our ministry to them and hope to continue it for a long time to come.

—Mrs. Filbert

The RPCNA Synod will meet from June 14-June 17 on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. Because of a skipped Synod in 2020 and many weighty issues this year, our ruling and teaching elders will be very busy with the work of the church. Please pray for them as they do this important work.

In 2004, Geneva RP Church merged with First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Beaver Falls, Pa., becoming the congregation we have today.

There were many reasons for the merger of the congregations, but the rerouting of Highway 18 directly in front of the former Geneva RPC building and the mounting costs of repairs and renovations helped make the decision to leave that building and head to the newer building in Patterson Township.

This was a return to our roots as the First RPC had planted Geneva RPC years before.

This week, Geneva College tore down the old church building. We had plenty of warning that this would happen so members and former members had the option to claim stained glass windows from that building.

The church claimed the old Blue Banner Window. This week, the same week the church came down, this window had new life breathed into it as it was installed in the First RPC building.

It looks like it has always been there. It is a definite celebration of the Lord’s faithfulness to this congregation.