So we're going to continue today with what we started last week with something of a membership class. And so today looking at a brief history of our church together. And so let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter six. 2 Corinthians chapter six. And let's take as an opening scripture reading The end of the chapter beginning at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. This is the word of God. And be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial And what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we pray that you would help us today to perfect holiness in the fear of God. to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We thank thee that when we have no, nothing of ourselves to cleanse ourselves with, that you have provided the cleansing blood of Jesus. Help us to avail ourselves of the forgiveness that he promises and that he has purchased. And we pray that this day would be a day of increasing holiness in each of us and that you would bless your word to our hearing Open our eyes, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. So as I explained last Sunday, I want to take a unit of our adult Sunday school class and go through a membership class for a couple purposes. This gives me an opportunity to get these things all together in a kind of a curriculum for future use, we can record it. And so until I do another live class, it'll be available for those who are interested in membership of our church. And it's just good for us to all be reviewing these kinds of things. And we've all entered the church at different times and have different backgrounds and knowledge of these things. And so It's healthy for us to spend some time doing this. So today, last week we set down some foundations of what is a church and what is the foundation of the church. And so today, we're gonna go through a brief history of the 71 years of Reformation Bible Church. Got some pictures from way back to show you. Of course, this is always an intimidating thing to talk about when I'm talking to people who have lived this history. So there's certainly at least three, but more than that even, but especially three in the sanctuary this morning that have lived just about all of this history. And we'll see some of their pictures in some of these old photos. So hopefully I do it justice and I'm accurate in what I say and you can correct me later if I've gotten some things wrong. So the catalyst of this church, its beginning, in 1952 was what we just read from 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through 18. There was a theological drift away from the scriptures in the 20th century that you're well aware of. The theological liberals, they were called modernists back in that day, They denied the inerrancy of scripture. They denied core truths of scripture such as the virgin birth and the reality of hell and the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the substitutionary atonement. And that apostasy began to filter down out of the seminaries and out of the leadership of the mainline denominations and into rural parts of America in the 1940s and the 1950s. So when you drive around Harford County, predominantly the kinds of churches that you see scattered throughout northern Harford County you know, are Methodist churches. There were a lot of Methodist churches here. This was a bastion, I guess, of Methodism, but the Methodist church in its upper echelon had begun to deny these things. In the 40s and 50s, it was filtering down into these local congregations, oftentimes through the Sunday school curriculum that was being designated for use by the higher ups. And so, enter into this equation our first pastor, Pastor Don McKnight. Pastor McKnight was a lay preacher and Sunday school teacher in the area Methodist churches. The Dublin Methodist Church, which is down here across the street from the elementary school that many of you pass. on your way to the sanctuary. The Mount Vernon Methodist Church, which is up there a couple miles on Deep Run Road, you can see it from 136, and is basically a neighbor to where Pastor John and Diane live. And other churches in the area, he was skilled in his speaking ability. He was young and energetic, and he was often relied upon by those Methodist preachers to teach Sunday school, give them a Sunday off and to preach. And so he began to grow in his giftedness with the word. But as he began to see the theological compromise that was coming down through the Methodist church leadership, He began to be vocal about that, and he began to be ostracized by the Methodist ministers in Harford County. So in 1952, there were a group of people from the Dublin Methodist Church down the street here, and from the Mount Vernon Methodist Church up the street here, and they came together to begin assembling under Don McKnight's leadership at a farmhouse on Macton Road. And so this farmhouse was just, I don't know, maybe a mile and a half, two miles that way. Macton Road is the first road on the left after, the second road on the left is Scarborough Road, and then the next road is Macton Road. And so you turn left on Macton, and it's just a couple lots in on the right. was where this abandoned farmhouse was. And this was the beginning of our church over 70 years ago. On that second picture over there, you see Pastor Don McKnight and his wife June. They're in the middle of the picture. Here's Pastor McKnight and here's June. These are Pastor John's parents. And then Pastor Don's mother is here. And so Pastor John's grandmother and others in that photo that I don't think any of us would know any of the names except for maybe a few of the other ones in that photo. But there's the beginnings of Evangelical Methodist Church 1952. The church grew rapidly. It became really a refuge in this area for concerned Bible believers who were convinced that their duty in light of the theological drift of the modernists was to come out from among them and to be separate according to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Within five years, there were 200 people gathering under Don McKnight's leadership, and they came from seven Methodist congregations in Harford County. In 1953, this is one year then after the founding of the church, this group of people purchased this, a piece of property here where we are on Whiteford Road, and they built the original sanctuary building. And so we'll go back to that in a second. So the original sanctuary building is that building over there. This is an addition, and the back is an addition, the brick part. And so the stucco part, which is a concrete block underneath, that's the original church building. And so you can see in these pictures the original building. So here it is under construction, an aerial view they somehow achieved in 1953. You see this is from the back of the building. So this doorway right here, this window, would be the window that looks into Shane Burge's office. Okay, so the restrooms now are right here. And you see that window? There and it looks into chains office. That's that window that doorway is the doorway into that hallway now Okay, and so there's the original building being constructed. There's the front of the building So that's that's how it looked the inside of the building was oriented like this so it would have been this pulpit then is sitting back there on Shane Burgess side of the of the building, so the preacher faced the road, and the congregation had their back to the road in that building over there. Don McKnight, who was pastor here for 40 years, is a picture of the family in 1964 outside the original church building, and another picture of him preaching. He was a man full of energetic zeal for ministry. He covenanted early in his days here to visit every home within a five mile radius of the church so that it had a faithful presentation of the gospel. He published a monthly newsletter called The Exalter And in 1961, that had a subscription of 6,000. He led a weekly radio program out of a radio station at Red Lion that was called Evangelical Tidings. And in 1960, April of 1960, so this is just eight years after the founding of the church, the church set a record for Sunday school attendance. They were 405. for Sunday school on one Lord's Day in April 1960. So, of course, that necessitated plans for a new building because you're not going to very easily fit 405 people over there where now we have three classrooms and two offices basically. That's a small area for 400. and five. So before I get to that part, a couple of just interesting photos that I found in going through things. Here is a classic photo. Mrs. Jones knows this photo. This is in the basement of that building over there. You see before it had a floor, a dirt floor. And you see the kids are sitting on cinder blocks and planks over the cinder blocks. And there is a teacher here teaching this, and this is Gladys Jones teaching her Sunday school class in the basement of the old sanctuary building. I found this picture as well of the Reformation Bible Ladies Group meeting in the home of Don and June McKnight. June McKnight is down here and on the floor. That's Pastor's mother, Pastor John's mother. And then central in this photo, which I spotted immediately, but I can see it up close, maybe far away you can't, but those two figures, can you see who that is? So this is Gladys Jones, and this is Barb Edwards in that RBW meeting. So I enjoyed finding that picture in the archives as well of the early meeting of the RBW. There's Pastor McKnight, Pastor Don McKnight in his car with the horn on top. And you've heard about how he would go around and invite children to Sunday school or to Bible school and had a loudspeaker mounted on the top of that vehicle. Just shows his zeal and energy for ministry and for souls. Early years, tremendous growth here, the need to build a new sanctuary here. So, in 1967, this sanctuary was dedicated. It was built in 66, and so you get this wing, the brick wing out here, and then the sanctuary in the basement, of course. 1967, it was dedicated. Here are some photos from the dedication service. And so this 1967 dedication service, the guest speaker there was Dr. Carl McIntyre, who was a very influential speaker in that time of the 20th century, and who had a tremendous following. I'm told, you know, people that have done research on the on the impact of Carl McIntyre's radio ministry and newsletter ministry in the 50s and 60s. Compare it, of course populations change, but compare it to the outreach and following that Rush Limbaugh had in the 90s. So it's that kind of national impact in his radio ministry. So he, so there's, and I'm told, and I don't know how this was possible, But I'm told 1,500 people were here for that dedication. So you can see the picture of the people that were here. They have seats in the aisles. So you've got every spot on the pews full and then a seat here and a seat here all the way up the aisle. Originally, this building had pews all the way to the back wall. So those windows in the sanctuary and the windows in the nursery you can see are actually windows in the back of the room here. It was also a balcony. That balcony area was not closed in as it is now. It was open, and there was seating upstairs in that balcony as well. So somehow they fit 1,500 people in here, or I don't know how accurate that number was that I saw, but in some of the things that have been written about the church. But anyway, that's the number I saw. So that was 1967, this building. Two years before that. Pastor Don's wife, June, started a kindergarten. In 1966, that became Harford Christian School with 90 students spanning eight grades. Originally, the entire school met in this building. They would meet downstairs in the basement of this building. But in 1970, they broke ground on the high school building up on the hill. And there's some stories about the purchase of that land and a farm that burned down that I can't get into at this point, but in God's providence. And so that building was built in three stages. If you're familiar with the layout of that building, it's a big cross. So there's a north wing, a south wing, and a gym. The north wing was built first. So you can see the north wing is completed in this picture. And in 1972, they were building the gymnasium off the back. And then after that, then the south wing was done. And so by 1975, that building took its present shape. So over about a four-year period, that building was built. Originally, the lobby was open air. And, you know, you left one wing and went out in the cold and went into the other wing. It was enclosed at one point. So the high school building, early 70s. And then in 1980, this is a little bit later than 1980, but 1980 the kindergarten was built. You see it's changed shape now. There's a new roof on there, new portico out front. But that building was built in 1980. Pastor Don McKnight. was a champion of religious freedom. In the late 1960s, just early on in the history of Harford Christian School, the state, the Maryland Department of Education attempted to keep HCS from issuing diplomas and stated that they required a license to be able to issue diplomas. And that began a series of legal battles over religious freedom in Annapolis. And in 1975, a bill was passed in the Annapolis State Assembly that gave schools like ours a church school exemption from state regulations so that the state of Maryland Due to Pastor Don McKnight's leadership and many others, I'm sure, in the state, but really his leadership, enjoys really more religious freedom for Christian education and church-run schools than almost any other state in the union. You would think that Maryland, in the politics of Maryland, it would be a difficult place to run a Christian school. It actually is one of the freest places. to Brennan Christian School because of those battles fought in the late 60s and early 70s. Another story that kind of shows his champion of religious freedom as well and his influence is that in the summer of 1981, the church planned to have a tent revival in a newly acquired property up there that borders 440 and 136 where the soccer fields are now. The story of acquiring that property is another wonderful story of God's providence and answer to prayer. But it was newly acquired and they wanted to put up a tent and have a series of meetings there and have a special speaker in. And the county zoning department attempted to require various expensive permits. And the congregation here viewed that as an overstep of their authority and a violation of their religious freedom. And the congregation voted unanimously to have the meetings without the permits and to just, and to let the Lord work in that. And so, due to all the unfavorable press of that summer in Harford County and due to all the community sympathy with the church here and with Pastor McKnight, that tent permit regulation was revoked by the county. later in the fall of 1981, and they were able to have their meetings. I think they ended up acquiring one very inexpensive permit, and without all the hundreds and hundreds of dollars that they were being told that they had to spend to have that meeting. So, just two, you know, stories about how Pastor McKnight really was a champion of religious freedom, a leader in the state. John McKnight became his father's associate in July of 1979. In 1986, he moved with his family to South Carolina to work on a graduate degree and then became, was called to the pastorate of Cleveland Park Bible Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he pastored for six years. And then on June 25th, 1991, Pastor Don McKnight died very unexpectedly in a home prayer meeting as they had gathered there to pray for an upcoming special meetings that summer. He was in a home in Aberdeen of one of the members of the congregation and the men of the congregation were on their knees as they prayed for the Lord's blessing and that is where he passed away on his knees at that prayer meeting. He was only 66 years old and this was a tremendous shock to the congregation, to many of you. Many of you remember that day vividly. I was talking to Barb Edwards this past week in their home visiting them and she was just telling me all about that day and with tears in her eyes. It was a day that will never be forgotten by so many in this congregation that were here in the early 1990s. So, the church was without a pastor for the first time in its existence. It was in its 40th year and no pastor. The choice of Don McKnight's successor unfortunately polarized the congregation. A majority endorsed Pastor Don's son, John, the former associate pastor, to return to take up his father's pastorate, but a vocal minority ended up opposing Pastor McKnight's return. And that vocal minority they used as their excuse, Pastor McKnight's reformed convictions, which was a difference in emphasis and philosophy from his father, but really a lot of it came down to personality conflicts and envy and wrangling over power. in that moment of the church's history. So over the next several years, after Pastor John McKnight came in 1992, many of the church left and they became members of the area Baptist churches around here in northern Hartford County. But the Lord's blessing continued to rest on John McKnight and on the ministry here and his 30 year pastorate as the senior pastor here. You know, in ministry, God's blessing is not so much measured in numbers, but in people. And you can see over the course of Pastor McKnight's ministry here, the leadership that God raised up here as tokens of his blessing on the congregation. So in early after Pastor John's return in 1992, Don Nixon followed him here who was His associate in South Carolina, he came here as an assistant pastor and a music, a minister of music, and ministered here faithfully for something like 20 years. In 1997, Brian Wilson came to lead the Christian school, leaving public education and the fast track to administrators. positions there and coming back to his alma mater to lead the Christian school and what a blessing it was to have Brian Wilson on the team. In 2000, in the year 2000, Shane Burge came as the Director of Finance and now he is the Assistant Principal of the school and a leader in our congregation and our ministry. In 2004, the Lord led my wife and I here. So you can see that the core leadership of our ministry, we've all been here for 20 years or longer, which is a real sign of health and stability and the Lord's blessing on the ministry here. All this time, the church continued with the name Evangelical Methodist Church. and we were supportive members of the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference. But in 2012, so now we're getting to recent history here, 2012, the leadership of the EMC, which is based in Tennessee, they published in their monthly magazine a blatantly anti-Semitic article. And the congregation here was appalled, the leadership was appalled, We met with the superintendents that summer. The editor of the magazine allowed Pastor McKnight to publish a retraction in the next monthly magazine, but they showed no remorse over their original decision to publish that article. There really was a digging in of heels and a lot of conflict over something that should have been a very easy issue. And so through that, the leadership of the church here, the congregation as a whole, really lost trust in the leadership of the Evangelical Methodist Church Conference. So in October of 2012, the congregation voted to sever ties with the EMC and we became an independent church. In 2013, then, we adopted the new name of Reformation Bible Church. And through the next decade or so, we worked very meticulously to set up our church bylaws, our constitution, our bylaws, our confession of faith. And so after a long process, the church unanimously voted in 2022 to adopt that book of church order, which contains our bylaws, and the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, which with a few minor alterations is our congregation's statement of faith. In July 2021, Pastor McKnight announced his intention that that 30th year of his pastor would be his final year. And so I had been ordained in 2017. And I had served as the associate pastor here for those years. And so in 2022, the congregation voted for me to become the third pastor of this church. And Pastor McKnight continues as Pastor Emeritus since that time. And so that is a brief history. of our church, I'm taking you through some of the old days and the emphases of our church and getting you up to speed on some of the new things. I'm sure that there's obviously so much more that could be added. If you're interested in other things, Pastor McKnight has a biography of his father that he presented to the congregation a few years ago. That is on sermonaudio.com. If you search in our church's on page on Sermon Audio for Don McKnight. You'll see the legacy of Don McKnight, an hour-long presentation of a pastor on his father, and of course, all the early days of the church here. And so, but appreciate your attention to that, and I'm going down memory lane with me, and let's prepare now for our morning prayer time.