Celebrating an Enduring Church
Editor’s Note: A Sermon from Psalm 103, Preached on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico (August 24, 2025)
It’s my honor to preach this sermon celebrating our church’s semicentennial—that is, the 50th anniversary of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico. Considering man’s average lifespan is only about 70 or 80 years, a semicentennial is a big deal. Some people get to celebrate 50 years of marriage. But few get to celebrate important markers in a church’s history—such as 50 or 100 or 200 years. Celebrating the 50th year of our church is all the greater because some of the founders are still with us.
I think Psalm 103 is the perfect Scripture passage for me to preach on this occasion, as it looks back on God’s faithfulness but also provides guidance for the future. The first 12 verses look back to God’s faithfulness toward His people, with the first seven verses calling us to praise God (“bless” Him) because of His goodness.
Looking Back on God’s Faithfulness
Psalm 103 begins and ends with praise (vv. 1-2, 21-22). It starts, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits” (vv. 1-2, NASB 1995). We are so prone to “forget” God’s goodness and the good things He has done for us, just as the Israelites used to forget God’s wondrous works after the exodus. So we need constant reminders of His goodness to us.
Notice these great “benefits” of God listed in verses 3-7. He “pardons all your iniquities” (v. 3). God has forgiven us of all our sins, all the bad things we’ve done in life, on account of Jesus Christ. God “heals all your diseases.” Think back to injuries and sicknesses you’ve faced that are no more. God “redeems your life from the pit” (v. 4). Recall those times you thought you weren’t going to make it, but God brought you out and has you where you are today. He “crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion.” The Lord surrounds you with His covenant love.
This leads into other great things that the Lord has done. He “satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle” (v. 5). God has given you feasts and friends and joyous occasions, even refreshing us as we age. Verses 6-7 focus on God’s rescuing of the oppressed, using language that recalls Israel’s exodus from Egyptian slavery—“The LORD performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.”
The Formation of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church
God was good to Israel in the Old Testament. He’s been good to His church since the coming of Christ. And He’s been good to Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church. Think of the “good things” (v. 5) the Lord has blessed this church with. In the early 1970s, when Rev. Wayne Buchtel was pastor of White Rock Presbyterian Church, it was part of the mainline Northern Presbyterian Church at the time (UPCUSA). The Northern Church had tolerated theological liberalism all the way back since the 1920s and 1930s, and then it drove J. Gresham Machen out in 1936, when he started the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Many conservative churches stayed in the Northern mainline church, but over time, it became too much.
In 1973 and 1974, the “Wynn Kenyon case” took place out east, as he was denied ordination as a minister in the Northern Church because he refused to participate in the ordination of women. When that happened, Wayne Buchtel decided that he couldn’t stay in that denomination anymore. And in 1975, he left his pastorate—along with about one-third of the church—and formed Sangre de Cristo Covenant Church in town. (The name was later changed to Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1985, due to some people thinking the church was Roman Catholic!) The organizational meeting took place on August 24, 1975—exactly 50 years ago to the day of this sermon.
But through this hardship, the Lord gave us a church that stood upon God’s Word. A church that rejected the cultural compromise that had taken place in the mainline church, including feminism. And in God’s providence, there was a newly formed Presbyterian denomination called the Presbyterian Church in America (formed in 1973). The story I’m told is that the session called the OPC and the PCA, and the PCA was the first to get back to them. So our church’s history went from the Northern mainline church to joining the Southern Church’s conservative remnant (as most of the initial PCA churches had left the Southern mainline PCUS). Our church became one of the first PCA churches in the West, in what was known initially as the Pacific Presbytery. So the Lord not only gave us a conservative church, but also a church that was part of a new and vibrant denomination.
Growing Pains
However, there were some growing pains early on. The church had 107 people the first year, but it had no building. So our current property was purchased in January 1976, and the church moved into its current facility one year later in January 1977. Along with a bank loan, church members were very generous in paying for this building and assisting in the design and construction.
Another growing pain was deciding exactly what type of church we were going to be. In 1978, John Gerstner—a professor at Pittsburgh Seminary and the mentor of R. C. Sproul—came to the church and gave a set of lectures in which he distinguished between Roman Catholicism, evangelicalism, and Reformed theology. He was a strong proponent of Calvinism and the biblical roles of men and women. While many of the founders of our church held to the inerrancy of Scripture and other fundamental doctrines, not all had embraced Reformed theology. Some wanted this to be a broadly evangelical community church. But after Gerstner’s lectures, this church committed itself to Reformed theology, and many left to go elsewhere.
This was a sort of winnowing. But it produced a theologically sound church that stood not only upon the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, but also upon the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church, from that point on, would be committed to the system of doctrine known as Calvinism, to covenant theology and infant baptism, to male leadership, and to the Reformed tradition.
Some today would say this was a fool’s errand—“You can’t survive like that! You need to be a broadly evangelical church, especially in a small town.” In fact, one man in PCA leadership told our session that this church wasn’t “viable.” But God has been faithful. Ruling elder David Forslund recently put together a chart showing membership over the years. And it’s amazing that the membership has been very stable throughout our history. We’ve had about 75 to 100 members over the last 40+ years. And we’ve ministered to over 500 total members in our church’s history.
We are always happy to grow our number. But we aren’t going to sacrifice principles. And God has blessed that. We’re a small but stable and healthy, conservative Presbyterian church in a small town in Northern New Mexico. And when you put it that way, all we can say is, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
Numerous Blessings
Let me mention some other blessings of God over the years. The Lord gave this church a school, Covenant Christian School, which lasted 17 years. Though it closed, that school was influential upon many children who grew up in this church. And now homeschooling and homeschool groups have grown in access and in popularity. Other blessings to note—when the RPCES joined the PCA in 1982, this church held the first meeting of the Southwest Presbytery with the additional churches. Also, our ruling elder, David Forslund, a physicist and fellow at the Los Alamos Nuclear Lab, served on the 1984 PCA study committee that produced the report, “Christian Responsibility in the Nuclear Age” (serving along with D. James Kennedy).
After Rev. Buchtel left for a church in Arizona, LaVerne Donaldson served as the interim pastor from 1986 to 1987. And then Rev. Henry Fernandez was called as pastor in 1987. And praise God for Pastor Fernandez—he served this church for 34 years. He basically spent his entire career here. And he faithfully preached the Bible. I can testify to Pastor Fernandez’s faithfulness because I walked into one of the healthiest churches possible. His long tenure here is one of the reasons why this church has been so stable. So praise God for His work in and through Pastor Fernandez. There was another hardship in 1992—a fire caused by arson. But God got the church through that. And the Methodist church kindly allowed the use of their building.
We should also recall the great men whom the Lord brought to speak at our church over the years. G. Aiken Taylor—the longtime editor of the Presbyterian Journal (a conservative voice during the decline of the PCUS) and a founder of the PCA—came and spoke in 1976. Carl Bogue, a Jonathan Edwards scholar, spoke in 1977. Morton H. Smith came multiple times, first in 1978—he was the first Stated Clerk of the PCA, the first professor of Reformed Theological Seminary in 1966 (teaching at its predecessor, the Reformed Theological Institute in 1964), and the founding professor of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1997. Other men who have spoken at our church include Joseph Pipa (the first president of GPTS), Dominic Aquila, Jay Adams, Paul Kooistra, Charles Krahe, Ian Hamilton, and Jonathan Master (the current Greenville Seminary president).
Then we think of the great families the Lord has given us here. That includes long marriages. We have many marriages that have lasted 50 years or more. And I must say a word about the long-serving officers who have blessed this church far more than I can convey. Randy Rowan has served as a deacon here for 48 years, and Mike Inbody for 23 years. David Finnegan served as a ruling elder for 31 years. Charlie Bell has been an elder for 50 years, 48 at this church. And then David Forslund, a founding elder—still serving on this session. I mean, that’s amazing. How good has the Lord been to us?
God’s goodness to us is too much to recount. As Psalm 40:5 says, “Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.”
God’s Grace to the Undeserving
We also see from Psalm 103:8-12 that God does not deal with us as we deserve. It’s not because we’re so great that this church has been blessed. I think we do have great people here. But they’re great because of God’s grace. As the Apostle Paul said in the verse I preached last week said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). God has not dealt with us as we deserved. From birth, we merited death and condemnation. And we only deserved it even more as we grew older and sinned more. But God is gracious.
Psalm 103:8 says, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.” This echoes language from Exodus 34:6-7, when God proclaimed His being to Moses. Then what great words continue in verses 9-12 of Psalm 103:
He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
God has shown His grace and compassion to over 500 people at this church in the last 50 years. Not all who were here received His grace. We’ve had to discipline some people. Some people have left on bad terms. But God has certainly shown us His grace—“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” In other words, He hasn’t dealt with us as we deserve. But rather, He has removed our transgressions. And He has blessed us in and through His Son Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised from the dead.
Let me highlight verse 11—“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.” God’s covenant love is beyond measure. But notice that it is shown “toward those who fear Him.” If you fear God, it’s because He’s opened your heart to do so. Your fear of the Lord is a sign of His sovereign mercy upon you. And He just continues to lavish His lovingkindness on you as you fear Him. He started His covenant relationship with you, and He keeps it up.
Looking Forward to What God Calls Us to Do
So that’s looking back. Now let’s look forward to what God calls of us as a church. Psalm 103:13-18 teaches that God shows covenant love to those who keep His covenant. Continuing the point from verse 11 about God’s lovingkindness, verse 13 says, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.” God’s compassion must be understood as being directed toward weak beings. One thing we see in verses 14-16 is how frail we are and how temporary our lives are—“For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.”
This transient nature of ours is contrasted with the Lord’s lovingkindness, which verse 17 says “is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him” (cf. Isaiah 40:6-8). What beautiful words of assurance for us who face impending death. The Lord is compassionate and understands that we are like the flower that grows up and is cast into the wind. Yet though we die, God’s covenant love is forever. He takes His people to be with Him and then promises to raise their bodies from the grave at Christ’s return.
We have the genealogical principle in verse 17 as well, supporting the Reformed reading of Scripture—showing “His righteousness to children’s children.” The Lord works intergenerationally. He saves our children and our children’s children—by His grace. And He’s shown that to many of you. Of course, our posterity must remember God and His covenant. And that is the message for us—God will be faithful as long as we look to Him. The future of our families—the future of this church—is dependent upon future faith.
God’s righteousness is to “children’s children”—but as verse 18 adds, “To those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them.” Faith is trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And faith keeps God’s covenant and seeks to follow His Word. Putting this all together, the Bible calls this “the fear of the Lord”—which as Proverbs says, is “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
Psalm 103 emphasizes “fear.” We see this three times in the psalm—“So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him” (v. 11); “So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him” (v. 13); “But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him” (v. 17). God’s love is tied to our “fear” of Him. This may sound odd, even paradoxical. But that is what Scripture teaches. It is those who fear God who receive His loyal, covenant love. So do not “forget” God’s benefits (v. 2), but “remember” His commands (v. 18).
Depending on the Sovereign Lord
This brings us to our final verses, which show that we must praise and serve the Lord who reigns over all (vv. 19-22). The conclusion to Psalm 103 proclaims God’s sovereignty. It reminds us that God is the one who reigns. As verse 19 says, “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” Other translations say, “His kingdom rules over all” (KJV, ESV). Notice also that verse 22 refers to God’s “dominion,” which is a noun form of the verb “rule” in verse 19. So there is clearly an emphasis on the Lord’s sovereign rule in the conclusion of this psalm. It is because the Lord reigns that we should bless His name. He is the King and Creator. We are the works of His hands and His subjects. So Psalm 103:20-22 says:
Bless the LORD, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the LORD, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!
The future is dependent on God—not us. Which means the future of this church is not dependent upon us doing anything other than looking to the Lord. Our job is to praise God, serve Him right now, and leave the future to His providence. We care for the future by focusing on the present. By repenting of our sin on a daily basis. By training our children in the faith. By praying for God to bless our church, to uphold it and grow it.
Brothers and sisters, we have a rich inheritance in Christ, or as the King James Version says in Psalm 16:6, a “goodly heritage.” So do not squander your inheritance. And yes, this church is part of your inheritance. The church is our earthly inheritance as Christians—the Bible, the creeds and confessions, the theology, the stories, the buildings, the people. We have inherited these things from former generations. And Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church and the PCA is part of that inheritance. Do not squander your inheritance, but thank God for it and build upon it.
The future is dependent on God. But we ensure the health of this church by depending on Him— by looking to God, by remembering His covenant, by blessing the Lord all our days.
If God so chooses, this church will continue another 50 years in faithfulness. If He so chooses, this church will continue in faithfulness for even 500 years or until Christ returns. However long that may be, it will only happen by His sovereign grace. But you can also be sure of this—it will only happen so long as the people of this church continue to look to God and His grace shown forth in Jesus Christ. May it be so, O Sovereign Lord. May it be so.
