Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church - The ARPC Today

The ARPC Today

In 2008, the ARPC had 39,681 members in 296 churches. The denominational office is located in Greenville, South Carolina. Also, the denomination operates a conference center, Bonclarken, in Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina. The conference center is surrounded by private property owners, many of whom trace their ARP roots to the beginnings of the denomination. Membership in the ARP Church is concentrated in the Southeastern United States, especially North Carolina and South Carolina. There are also numerous congregations in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. The ARPC has churches in Canada and in most states of the United States. Separate synods exist in Mexico and Pakistan. The ARP Church was among the first to send missionaries overseas to China as early as 1880. The ARP Church sponsors missionaries internationally through World Witness.

The ARP Church is affiliated with the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council and shares a common theology with conservative Presbyterian denominations. It holds to the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible. The church does not ordain women as ministers or elders, though it does permit local sessions to determine whether to ordain women deacons. Having been originally formed by a merger of two denominations holding to exclusive psalmody, this was the practice of the ARP Church until 1946, when its synod allowed for the use of hymns other than the Psalms; each congregational session has right of discretion concerning the matter of music in worship. At the 207th General Synod, a new ARP psalter was approved for use in the denomination to encourage the increased use of Psalm singing in public worship.

In 1837 the church established an academy for men in Due West, S.C., which in 1839 became Erskine College, the first four-year church-related college in that state. The small liberal arts college is highly ranked for academic quality .

Erskine Theological Seminary, established as Clarke and Erskine Seminary in 1837, is the professional school of Erskine College; it was incorporated into Erskine College when the latter was founded two years later. The Seminary became a separate but associated school in 1858, and was reincorporated into the College in 1925. Erskine merged with the Due West Female College in the first decade of the 20th century. Erskine became the first private denominational school in South Carolina to allow women instructors at that time. Since its inception, Erskine has provided training for students of the ARPC as well as other denominations. Recent years, however, have witnessed ARP ministers graduating from other seminaries.