Vanguard Presbytery was birthed on February 6, 2020 with the reception of two ministers, TE Dewey Roberts and TE Michael Frazier. The congregation of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL soon voted to follow their pastor, TE Roberts, into Vanguard Presbytery. Other congregations and pastors began to follow and Vanguard held a Convocation in Nashville, TN in July of 2020. The Presbytery now has 17 particular churches, 10 mission churches, 2 mission works, and one pastor serving at a church that is expected to follow him into Vanguard. Additionally, the denomination is regularly discussing our distinctives with both pastors and churches who are interested in Vanguard.
At the 14th stated meeting of Vanguard Presbytery on Friday, October 18, 2024—held at Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church in Snellville, GA—the court voted unanimously to divide the denomination into three presbyteries and call for a General Assembly to be held no later than the end of August in 2025. Those presbyteries will be more regional in nature. One presbytery will be in the southwest and will encompass Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Missouri. A northern presbytery will encompass all the congregations north of Tennessee and North Carolina (with the exception of Pathway Presbyterian Church (mission) in Clarksville, TN). The presbytery in the southeast will cover all the states east of the Mississippi River and south of the northern borders of Tennessee and North Carolina. All three presbyteries will soon have organizing meetings to elect a Moderator and clerk as well as decide on a name for their body and other business as necessary..
The retiring Moderator of Vanguard Presbytery, RE Mark Grasso, was given the authority by the court to appoint the convening Moderator and convening Stated Clerk for the General Assembly. The convening Moderator will be TE Dewey Roberts and the convening Stated Clerk will be TE Joshua Light. Both men will have to be elected by the General Assembly when she meets or others will have to be elected in their places. Moderator Grasso also appointed the convening Moderators and Stated Clerks for each of the presbyteries as they will need to meet soon to establish themselves as separate presbyteries.
This move to divide into three presbyteries and call for a General Assembly was the right move at the right time. It was becoming increasingly difficult to do the work of both a national presbytery and a denomination. There are some important distinctives of Vanguard Presbyterian Church which contributed to that decision. First, Vanguard does not allow standing committees at the General Assembly level because church history shows that such committees become unaccountable to their denominations and function as administrative hierarchies in their respective spheres of responsibility. Hierarchy is contrary to the Scriptural principles of church polity. Second, Vanguard believes that the Scripture establishes that the missionary work of the church is to be carried out by congregations and presbyteries—not the General Assembly. It was the Church at Antioch that sent out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3). Presbyteries have the authority to ordain and conduct oversight of ministers and their work (1 Timothy 4:14 and 2 Timothy 1:6) which includes the responsibility to oversee their work as evangelists and missionaries. Yet, the responsibility of the General Assembly is more legislative and judicial in nature (cf. Acts 15:1-35), especially in deciding such issues that affect the spread of the gospel. Thus, the General Assembly of Vanguard Presbyterian Church will be interested in receiving reports from each presbytery concerning how they are carrying out the Great Commission and how they are encouraging and helping every member congregation to do the same.
There are other unique positions or principles by Vanguard Presbyterian Church, particularly in light of the heterodox positions taken by many modern reformed denominations. Vanguard holds to the Genesis account of creation supported by the Westminster Shorter Catechism that God created “all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.” We believe those days were all the length of our days—twenty-four hours—since the Scripture says concerning them all that “there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Vanguard also holds to the office of evangelist as a special gift of some elders after the same views of the New Side Presbyterians in the 18thcentury and the Old School Presbyterians in the 19th century. Indeed, the office of evangelist has great support in the history of the church, in Christian writings, and in the various books of polity of reformed denominations—even if most of those denominations today completely ignore the office of evangelist. Vanguard additionally identifies with the theological positions of both the New Side Presbyterians and the Old School Presbyterians. Those two movements are mirror images of one another. The New Side Presbyterians during the First Great Awakening emphasized support for that revival while also holding to orthodox theology. During the Second Great Awakening, the Old School Presbyterians opposed the “strange fire” and the heretical positions taken by some people who were actively promoting it, but they believed in God sent revival. The only real difference between the New Side Presbyterians and the Old School Presbyterians is the particular circumstances they faced and the times in which they lived. At heart, they were agreed on all matters. Also, Vanguard requires full subscription to the Westminster Standards which is a great aid in promoting the unity of the denomination.
One of the most unusual differences between Vanguard and other denominations is the amount of time spent on worship and prayer at every meeting. Preaching and prayer in Vanguard is not perfunctory, but lively and worshipful. At the most recent stated meeting, presbytery heard two excellent sermons and spent 90 minutes in prayer before conducting our business. The prayer time was an especially meaningful time with heartfelt prayers being offered for matters that are not usually a part of public prayers. Vanguard believes that if presbytery is to be the church of the ministers, then it needs to focus on the two things that the apostles determined should be the main focus of their energies—prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4).
Vanguard is composed of some churches that left the PCA, but most of them came from other denominations or were started as mission churches of our new denomination. We have some solid churches in cities where no other reformed churches exist, such as Clovis and Roswell, New Mexico. There are some exciting things that have happened in some of the churches. For instance, the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Live Oak, Texas under the pastoral leadership of TE Dick Jones was organized as a particular church in March of 2021. They recently bought and paid for three acres of land in a choice area which cost them $550,000. The church still has assets in addition to the property of over $600,000. We look forward to seeing them erect their first phase of a building program.
TE Ryan Denton, ordained as an evangelist by Vanguard, has taken the admonition of Paul to Timothy very seriously: “do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). Under his faithful evangelistic efforts, there are several churches that have been raised up. He preaches most Sundays to the Lubbock Reformed Church in the morning and the Grace Covenant Reformed Church (mission) in Clovis, New Mexico in the afternoon. Clovis is 100 miles from Lubbock. Thankfully, Ryan has mentored a young man, TE Erick Welsh, who passed his ordination exam at our recent presbytery meeting. There are other works that have been started through Ryan’s efforts or through his faithful follow-up to opportunities brought into his path. This is what Ryan said about why he is in Vanguard today: “I joined Vanguard because of their culture of prayer, national revival, church planting, and evangelism, along with its commitment to the WCF and historic Presbyterianism. As Vanguard continues to grow, these principles continue to be reinforced and unleashed.”
TE Mic Knox is the founding pastor of Gospel Reformed Church (Mission) in Marietta, Georgia. Before coming into Vanguard, his leadership team looked into several denominations and talked with a representative of every Vanguard congregation. They chose Vanguard because, as they told me, “This is the best denomination for us. There really is nowhere else that would be right.” TE Knox preached at presbytery last Friday a message that I will long remember from 3 John 2. He transferred into Vanguard a year ago and his congregation came into the denomination earlier this year. He gave the reasons for his congregation being in Vanguard as follows: “Our Trinitarian, Covenant Lord—who has saved us by grace—providentially guided Gospel Reformed Church to Vanguard because the Holy Spirit has engendered an encouraging, evangelistic ecosystem where the gospel of Jesus is faithfully preached inside the church as well as in the community—which is the Biblically balanced mandate from Scripture. Vanguard’s regenerate and humble Teaching and ruling Elders galvanize one another in local, national, and foreign evangelism; while Vanguard is filled with godly men who love, glorify, and enjoy the Lord, each other, His Bride, and their local communities with deep compassion for the lost.”
The newest transferring minister is TE Sterling Brown who is starting a new church in Richmond, Ohio—Geneva Reformed Church (Mission)—which was ‘birthed from a body of believers fleeing the growing corruption in many of the well-known corporate Presbyterian denominations.” When he and his congregation were looking for a denomination faithful to the Scriptures and the WCF, he chose Vanguard for the following reasons: “We were thankful to join Vanguard Presbyterian Church because of their strong stance on the Word of God, their commitment to the Reformed faith (Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms) and the devotion to God in their understanding that the local church for whom Christ shed His blood is more important than corporate Presbytery.”
Space would fail me to write of all the inspiring young ministerial candidates and licentiates as well as the number of students in the Vanguard School of Ministry. Perhaps, the best way to end this article is to refer to a statement that TE Al Baker, one of the founders of Vanguard, made to his wife this week, as he told her: “Vanguard is the very best denomination in our country and I would not want to be in any other one.” His sentiment is universally shared by others in our denomination.
For more information about Vanguard Presbyterian Church, please visit www.vanguardpresbyterianchurch.com. You can also email Dewey Roberts at drob9944@aol.com or you can call him at (850)376-3166. Joshua Light can be emailed at josh@refglobal.org or you can call him at (423)797-0060.
Dewey Roberts, Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL
www.vanguardpresbyterianchurch.com
Please send any donations to: Vanguard Presbytery, PO Box 1862, Destin, FL 32540.