The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) experienced growth during the first three months of 2013, adding 26 congregations to its increasing list of church affiliates. With the addition of the new churches, and others are seeking dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to align with the EPC, the denomination now has 444 churches and 135,000 members in 11 presbyteries across the nation.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) experienced growth during the first three months of 2013, adding 26 congregations to its increasing list of church affiliates.

With the addition of the new churches, and others are seeking dismissal from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to align with the EPC, the denomination now has 444 churches and 135,000 members in 11 presbyteries across the nation.

“Obviously, we continue to have churches interested in the EPC that like what they see,” said the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey J. Jeremiah, stated clerk of the EPC Office of the General Assembly (OGA). “Our presbyteries continue doing a good job equipping, examining and securing these churches interested in joining.”

The EPC formed in 1981 from mainline Presbyterian denominations like the United Presbyterian and Presbyterian Church in the United States after leaders of the new Reformed denomination became distressed by the liberalism creeping into the denominations.

The formation of the EPC, headquartered in Livonia, Mich., created a denomination that took heed of the words of Scripture, the theology of historic confessions of the faith and the evangelical fervor of Presbyterian founders.

It started with 12 churches as part of the denomination, which touts the motto of “In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty; In All Things, Charity; Truth in Love.”

The denomination more than doubled its number of congregations in a five-year span. From 2007 to 2012, the EPC grew from 182 congregations to 364 following the addition of 61 from the 31^st General Assembly in 2011 to the 32^nd in 2012.

And the growth of the denominations continues on into this year with the addition of more churches that broke away from the PCUSA. Jeremiah said some planning showed the EPC’s congregational membership could reach 450 in 2013, but updated data reveals that as many as 500 could be part of the denomination  by the end of the year.

“We are committed to being a denomination of Presbyterian, Reformed, evangelical and missional churches,” Jeremiah said, noting that reasons churches are leaving the PCUSA are as varied today as they were six or seven years ago. “The way we define these is attractive to churches. They have a choice in where they go.”

He noted that EPC’s polity is relational and decentralized, that the denomination adheres to a single confession that believes the Scriptures to be the inspired and infallible Word of God, that salvation is found by no other way than through Jesus Christ, and that the denomination emphasized world and local missions, seeking to plant and revitalize churches on a worldwide scale.

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