Dromore RP Church was delighted to host a special joint midweek meeting with neighbouring congregations Lisburn, Dromara and Bailiesmills. Rev. Andrew Kerr, a former pastor of our Knockbracken congregation and now minister in Ridgefield Park RP Church in New Jersey, USA, was our guest speaker. Andrew gave us an overview of his ministry and particularly the opportunities for gospel witness in his area.
Ridgefield Park is located just across the Hudson River from New York City. The congregation is small in number but meets in a heavily-populated area. Andrew and some of the church members engage in street evangelism in Ridgefield Park, sometimes setting up a whiteboard outside Dunkin’ Donuts – a good spot to engage in conversation with happy passers-by! Andrew told of how, on one occasion, a group of young people had begun asking questions about the Lord Jesus but said they would go and get some more friends and come back. Some of us perhaps know the feelings of doubt that arise when passers-by make such claims but, wonderfully, they did indeed return and listened intently to explanations of who Jesus is and the truths of Scripture.
Ridgefield Park also neighbours a large Jewish population, with local Jewish schools and synagogues nearby, and Andrew and his congregants have also spent time seeking to respectfully engage Jewish neighbours with the gospel, utilising their knowledge of Hebrew to good effect. The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel: of the 7.5 million Jews who live in the United States, approximately 2 million of them live there.
Andrew has also been involved in the formation of a new RP ‘mission church’ in Flushing, NYC borough of Queens. In this majority-Asian area a group of Chinese believers are eager to be part of a Reformed denomination and have been granted ‘mission church status’ by the Atlantic Presbytery of the RP Church of North America. Andrew meets with them weekly, currently preaching on Revelation with the sermon translated into Mandarin. Andrew spoke of the joy it has been to minister to this group, to hear them sing psalms in their own language and to see them soak up both the preaching of the Word and the summary doctrinal statements of the Reformed faith, such as the Westminster Standards. One young man in the group is soon to begin studying at Geneva College in Pittsburgh and hopes to eventually train for gospel ministry. These brothers and sisters have experienced persecution for practising their faith and are grateful to be benefitting freely from the means of grace.
Andrew shared several points for prayer:
- Pray for encouragement for the Ridgefield Park congregation, particularly that the Lord might add believers to the small group who can be part of the work and witness
- Pray for God’s blessing on the witness of Ridgefield Park in their own community, whether to secular unbelievers, Jewish men and women or others
- Pray for the mission church in Flushing and for leaders to be discipled to serve them. Though only about 20 miles away from Ridgefield Park, New York City traffic means it is about a two-hour drive!
- Pray for Andrew and his wife, Hazel, serving the Lord in a different land and far from family. Pray for their encouragement in Christ’s service.
Those who attended took time to engage in corporate prayer for the work of the church in New Jersey and New York City, before enjoying tea and coffee together. An encouraging evening, reminding us of the priority of mission, wherever the Lord has placed us.
Philip Dunwoody
This article first appeared in the Covenanter Witness, and it is reprinted here by kind permission.
