Need help finding church.

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Life Mathers

Puritan Board Freshman
I am moving to Garden City, Kansas next year for college. I have found a Calvinistic Non-Reformed Baptist church, however I would prefer something more confessional, if anyone has any suggestions I would certainly appreciate them.
 
Wow... to the middle of nowhere... maybe you have your well-thought-out reasons, and if that's the case, ok... but please humor this "old man" and hear me out: What college are you planning on attending? All I see there is a community college... there are plenty of community colleges here in TX and you'd get the benefit of in-state tuition! If you come to the Houston area you can go to a number of good schools, and there are a number of good churches in the area... you can get away from home and have some space, but not subject yourself to out-of-state tuition and life as a stranger in a small town (unless you'll be living with relatives). Just a thought. Maybe come to our church and we can plug you in. There's a gal who comes all the way from A&M to attend our church. Plus there's a UofH student and a couple who go to HCU... plus a small contingent at LoneStar... You wouldn't be the only student. :)
 
Wow... to the middle of nowhere! What college are you planning on attending? All I see there is a community college... there are plenty of community colleges here in TX and you'd get the benefit of in-state tuition! If you come to the Houston area you can go to a number of good schools, and there are a number of good churches in the area. Just a thought.
To make a long story (somewhat) short I started working diesel mechanics at a John Deere shop when I was 14 in return I am getting free college where I will get certified in welding HVAC and general electrical and mechanical work, I am mainly doing this as I desire to get married young and go into pastoral ministry. However, when I signed my contract I had found a prospective church but now I seems as though they have closed.
 
Here is the best tool I know of for finding confessional Reformed Baptist churches:


There looks to be a couple in the area of Garden City but maybe an hour and a half drive however.
 
My starting point for looking for a Reformed Baptist congregation

https://farese.com/

Things don't look promising where you are going.

Bible churches come in various flavors of dispensationalism, you might look at the Bible churchs there and see if either is tolerable for a short term. (One emphasizes that it is non-charismatic, the other pictures folks waving their hands in the air.

The PCUSA church appears to be a clear 'avoid at all costs' - they use code words such as 'diverse' and 'affirming'.
 
One of the saddest parts of that PCUSA that a lot of ex-Mennonites go there, as one person told me, it seems as though western Kansas is lacking in Reformed Theology, it is quite saddening to me.
 
There's this EPC - at least all men elders though with women deacons about an hour away. https://www.ccleoti.com/worship.htm. It's about an hour away. That's a bit closer than the RPCNA already mentioned, but it's still a haul.

You may have already found the soundest option out of a very limited pool from a Reformed Baptist perspective. That looks to be squarely in Fundamentalist Baptist or Lutheran country. This is exactly the kind of location where I'd attend a church and be either an associate member or regular accounting for conscience issues and then drive a significant way 1+ times a month to a body I could wholeheartedly worship. Those are some slim pickings.
 
Not exactly what you are looking for, but there are a few PCA churches in Kansas. Unfortunately none west of Wichita/Salina. https://evangelpca.org/ is the closest at 3 hours and 20 minutes away from Garden City generally, and there is a missions church in Salina https://www.salinapca.org/ around 3 hours 26 minutes distance. For whatever reason, I can not find the Minneola RPCNA church on the denomination's website: https://reformedpresbyterian.org/congregations/state/ks. There are congregations listed in Sterling https://reformedpresbyterian.org/congregations/info/sterling (2:42), and Quinter https://reformedpresbyterian.org/congregations/info/quinter (1:53).

You are absolutely right that Kansas is lacking much of a reformed presence whether Presbyterian or Baptist.

By the way, in answer to your question on the other page, I have found Sinclair Ferguson, at a more popular level, to be of immense help. He may not be the best jumping in point, but Devoted to God and The Whole Christ have been personally very helpful to me.

 
Thank y‘all so much for your kind words, I am afraid that I am stuck with either Calvinistic dispensational Baptist churches or the Mennonites (kidding). In all seriousness however I will pray and monitor churches to see if one pops up.
 
Minneola appears to have an RPCNA church


In God's providence, this local church is closed and no longer meets.
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I will second our brother Ben's counsel and would encourage you to reconsider relocating to an area with no viable local church options in reasonable distance. You did mention a contract so you may have to honor that, but if there is any way to justly get out of that contract, then you should find another school where there are solid church options. As you are new to the reformed faith you will also need to slow down your pursuit of pastoral ministry until you can solidify your own convictions, but that is probably for another thread. May the Lord bless you as you seek to honor Him.
 
Interestingly enough, I was planning a trip to right near there a few years ago for a wedding, but the wedding got cancelled. After not being able to find a church I ended up planning to leave Saturday evening for Oklahoma City to worship there (on the way back for me). The best option seemed to be LCMS, which may work for a week or two, but not for long term.
 
Brother Ben is right.

You need to think first about your church situation, ESPECIALLY if you are a young man who wants to learn a trade so you can marry early and enter the ministry.

I feel your pain on planning to move to a community and then learning the local church you planned to attend was no longer an option. In my case, I failed to understand (this was over two decades ago) that the PCA name on a church sign may mean very little, and I ended up driving well over an hour to the closest confessionally Reformed church that would accept my infant baptism. In your case, the church you planned to attend has closed.

I had the choice of where to move. Our military personnel go where Uncle Sam sends them, and I'm sick and tired of over two decades of pastors calling me and saying, "We have a frustrated young family at Fort Leonard Wood, can you help them?"

Driving an hour to church is not ideal. I know that very well. Any idea why I'm trying to do church planting here in the rural Ozarks?

Perhaps you could contact the former pastor of that now-closed church and see if there are people who used to attend there who still live in the area and might be open to at least a Wednesday night program or a Sunday evening program that doesn't compete with the main Sunday services at whatever church they are now attending. Caution: Churches close for a reason and the reason may have less to do with doctrine or finances than personality issues or personal failures. There may have been problems that should not be discussed publicly on this board. The Reformed Baptist pastor an hour away may not know things that shouldn't be talked about in public, or others in the Reformed Baptist world may have good counsel for you via private messages.

Wow... to the middle of nowhere... maybe you have your well-thought-out reasons, and if that's the case, ok... but please humor this "old man" and hear me out: What college are you planning on attending? All I see there is a community college... there are plenty of community colleges here in TX and you'd get the benefit of in-state tuition! If you come to the Houston area you can go to a number of good schools, and there are a number of good churches in the area... you can get away from home and have some space, but not subject yourself to out-of-state tuition and life as a stranger in a small town (unless you'll be living with relatives). Just a thought. Maybe come to our church and we can plug you in. There's a gal who comes all the way from A&M to attend our church. Plus there's a UofH student and a couple who go to HCU... plus a small contingent at LoneStar... You wouldn't be the only student. :)

I am moving to Garden City, Kansas next year for college. I have found a Calvinistic Non-Reformed Baptist church, however I would prefer something more confessional, if anyone has any suggestions I would certainly appreciate them.
 
Here is the best tool I know of for finding confessional Reformed Baptist churches:


There looks to be a couple in the area of Garden City but maybe an hour and a half drive however.
And here's a decent backup: https://church.founders.org/
They can't vouch for every church that submits its name to this list, but it's managed by Tom Ascol, one of the leaders of the Reformed wing of the SBC, so most churches that volunteer for this map probably know they're making a statement in doing so.
 
And here's a decent backup: https://church.founders.org/
They can't vouch for every church that submits its name to this list, but it's managed by Tom Ascol, one of the leaders of the Reformed wing of the SBC, so most churches that volunteer for this map probably know they're making a statement in doing so.

Just a caution -- these lists are good but they are not perfect and need to be used with caution.

In our area, there are four churches which appear on various "Reformed Baptist" lists.

One is a solid Reformed Baptist church, mostly homeschoolers -- Briarwood Baptist on Highway 28 between Dixon and St. Robert. I've known the church for over twenty years and watched its former pastor, now deceased, as he took the church from being a typical conservative SBC and brought it to a Reformed position. The men are brothers and while I don't agree with them on everything, and obviously I disagree on baptism, I have referred Reformed people there and will continue to do so. They are led by two lay ruling elders who have shared the preaching duties after their former pastor, now deceased, lost his vision and could no longer do so.

Another, the Assignment Community Reformed Church off I-44 near the Pulaski/Laclede county line, was pastored by a godly Black man who was originally ordained as a charismatic pastor, became Reformed, and over time lost most of his members. The church closed quite some time ago when the building they were renting was discovered to have a serious black mold infestation and the owners decided that for liability reasons they couldn't have people continue to meet there. Their former pastor is a godly man who has significant medical issues in his family, which are not secret and he has made them public. He would appreciate prayer, but his former church no longer meets and needs to be deleted from that list.

In doing some additional research, I discovered today two other area churches that appear on "Reformed Baptist" lists, one in our county and one close to it. I'm not going to name the churches or the lists. I personally know one of the churches and I was not aware until today that anybody in the church considers themselves to be Reformed. I am all but certain this is an error. The other church is a traditional Baptist church that may have recently moved in a Reformed direction, but if it were known for being Reformed, I am all but certain I would know. I plan to privately speak with leaders in the first church that I know, and reach out through mutual friends in the second church, to see if this is a mistake or if the churches have recently made major changes in their doctrinal positions.

I'm not trying to attack or criticize but rather to remind people of the need for caution. Almost by definition due to the polity involved, "Reformed Baptist" is a pretty broad term. It's not like the list of NAPARC churches for which there is a vetting process and accountability. That's not perfect either -- one PCA congregation may look very different from another PCA, and there are solid local churches outside NAPARC in denominations like the EPC and CRC -- but people need to do their research and check churches out.

I speak from personal experience here, having moved several times for employment and found out after I moved that things were not what they appeared to be in the local church. That was (mostly) before the modern internet and many more resources are available today to check out a church than used to be the case.
 
Well, unfortunately the closest church I found on this list is an hour and thirty minutes away. Though I will definitely keep looking for other reformed churches.
 
To make a long story (somewhat) short I started working diesel mechanics at a John Deere shop when I was 14 in return I am getting free college where I will get certified in welding HVAC and general electrical and mechanical work, I am mainly doing this as I desire to get married young and go into pastoral ministry. However, when I signed my contract I had found a prospective church but now I seems as though they have closed.
The education part sounds awesome, perfect to have a high paying job whenever you need one, either full-time or, part-time as your ministry is more or less your full-time. Nobody wants to get into construction today. Plus getting married young is a big advantage. Especially in a day where people wait to be 35 or 40 to get married sometimes. My wife and I were married at 21, but I often say I wished I got married at 18 or 17.

I own a construction estimating company and my office manager made $35 an hour plus a $6,000 bonus, which is pretty good in the Poconos, were loads of people are in food lines and making $15 to $18 an hour at Walmart or a similar retail store. My manager got paid over $100,000 a year, plus bonuses, plus a car, plus gas, plus expenses, plus almost 2 months off a year. And he could have made a lot more if he went 75 miles East towards New York City.
 
I took a follow up look at a few churches, and this one struck me as having a few positives:


It's got a Dispensational doctrinal statement along with an email us to get the full doctrinal statement, but the pastor is getting an MDiv at Southern seminary, so that's a relative positive sign. It's also low number of ministries + worship on Sunday mornings and evenings, which has become quite rare, so that I think is a positive sign as to priorities. You'd have to take a look at it on the ground, but it's a low information but less actively negative church in my opinion. But I've definitely been wrong before.

Church deserts are really challenging places for church planters and missionaries. Laypeople simply in place face a whole different set of challenges, especially if there's friendly enough people or a heavily-compromised-but-could-be-worse congregation. The catch is that you yourself can easily end up adapting and sleepily settling for a church and practice you never would have considered under clearer preaching.
 
This is the church I found in garden city. I think it’s my best shot to be fully immersed (pun intended) in the church.
 
Church deserts are really challenging places for church planters and missionaries. Laypeople simply in place face a whole different set of challenges, especially if there's friendly enough people or a heavily-compromised-but-could-be-worse congregation. The catch is that you yourself can easily end up adapting and sleepily settling for a church and practice you never would have considered under clearer preaching.

Sadly, I know all too well.

As I said on a different post, speaking as someone who "drove almost two hours to attend an Orthodox Presbyterian church in New Mexico, and over two hours to attend a different Orthodox Presbyterian church in Texas, and about 40 minutes to attend a RPCNA in Iowa, obviously I believe being Reformed in doctrine is more important than being Reformed in church government. I considered driving almost three hours to attend a Congregational church in Texas, and did actually drive there one Sunday and found they were closed. (This was before the modern internet and verifying service times in church directories was pretty difficult if a church didn't have an answering machine.)"

I can't begin to count the number of times over the last two decades I've had pastors or fathers call me and say, "My church member (or son) is being stationed at Fort Leonard Wood. Where can he go to church?"

Fort Leonard Wood is no longer just a basic training installation -- which some remember it as being during the Vietnam War era -- but for decades now has been the home of the US Army's Engineer School, Military Police School and Chemical School, as well as home of the largest Marine Corps Detachment off a Marine Base, and also the home of significant detachments for the Navy (think Seabees) and Air Force (think runway construction).

We've become known as the "Black Hole for the Reformed Faith" in Reformed military circles.

And there are plenty of other places as bad, or worse.

Let's just say there are reasons we bought a church building and began Hazelgreen Reformed Chapel. I'm sick and tired of complaining about "why doesn't somebody do something," and since my wife and I are both business owners and perfectly capable of writing checks, we can do things that don't make financial sense for a denominational home mission agency. If I were on a denominational home missions board, there are more likely places for success and people need to be good stewards of God's money. I wouldn't put money here if I didn't live here.

But perhaps our brother Colton should consider, once he gets done with his diesel mechanic training, whether God might be calling him to use his well-paying diesel mechanic training to start a church in Kansas.

"Tents" sometimes come in the form of diesel fumes.

I am moving to Garden City, Kansas next year for college. I have found a Calvinistic Non-Reformed Baptist church, however I would prefer something more confessional, if anyone has any suggestions I would certainly appreciate them.
 
I have found a Calvinistic Non-Reformed Baptist church, however I would prefer something more confessional, if anyone has any suggestions I would certainly appreciate them.

As you keep looking, don't forget to give this church a visit. Presume nothing. Not all Calvinistic non-Reformed Baptist churches are staunchly so. Speaking from experience, some have pastors that are "ecumenical" for want of a better term about confessions and non-confessions. These tend have a diversity among elders where one is NCT and one is PC and one is 1689. It happens all the time. I am not saying this setup is healthy nor ideal; it is neither of those things, but God may use you in ways you cannot imagine or know.
 
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