What Does Presbyterian Mean?
29
Aug
The Presbyterian Church was an offspring of a religious movement called the Reformation, which occurred in the 1500s. Two of the leading reformers of the time, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564) had no intention of forming a new church; at least not initially. Their desire was to reform their present-day Catholic Church, to make corrections, and to set it more in line with the traditions and teachings of Scripture and the early church. The Reformers became known as Protestants because their requests for change sounded like protests.
The Presbyterian church is one of several churches that trace its origins to the Reformation. While the Lutherans were greatly influenced by the teachings of Luther, Presbyterians and others in the Reformed tradition were greatly influenced by the teachings of John Calvin. Presbyterians get their name from the Greek word presbuteros, which means elder. The term refers to the system we see in the New Testament of choosing leaders from among the wisest members of the church. A prominent doctrine of the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. Reformed churches organized themselves in ways that gave more power to the congregation. They designed a system of representative government that greatly influenced the writers of the United States Constitution as they instituted the representative system of our national government.
In our church today are teaching elders (the pastors) and ruling elders (those from the congregation who serve on the Session, or governing board). Pastors, therefore, are teaching elders but not ruling elders. Elders are ordained for life. They serve Communion and help govern the church. They will serve one or more three-year terms on the Session.
The French organized the first congregation in 1555, and the French Huguenots were some of the first Presbyterians to reach America, followed closely by the English, Dutch, German, Irish and Scots. In 1706 the first American presbytery was formed in Philadelphia.
In the United States, just as the country did, the church knew westward expansion. Sadly, the church was divided during the Civil War into a northern and a southern group. This split was repaired in the 1980s when the northern and southern churches reunited forming The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).
The seed for SPC was planted by such an itinerant minister, the Rev. Isaac Reed, in the log cabin of John B. Smock located at what is now the intersection of Madison Avenue and County Line Road, where Greenwood Park Mall now sits. A historical marker indicates the spot. In this cabin, on December 31, 1825, Rev. Reed constituted the Greenfield Church, the first Presbyterian church to exist in the wilderness area south of Indianapolis. (In the early 1800s, the Greenwood area was known as Greenfield.) Nine persons made up the congregation, eight of them Smocks, one a Brewer. They met for Communion on the following day, January 1, 1826.
In 1831 the Presbytery (a group of local churches) divided the Greenfield church into two congregations – one to serve Southport, the other to serve the Greenwood area. The Southport church has had various names. For a time it was called New Providence because some of its members had moved from New Providence, Kentucky. Later it was known as First Presbyterian Church of Southport. When the congregation moved to the current worship site, they changed the name to Southport Presbyterian Church.
In 1833 the congregation began worshiping in a school building, known as the “Old Mud Schoolhouse,” which stood on the corner of Banta and McFarland Roads.
Later, the church relocated to a log building on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and Union Street which is now Southport Road. This sanctuary, in time, was succeeded by two on the south side of Union Street east of the railroad at the corner of Church Street. 
By 1956 the congregation had outgrown the facilities there and moved to the new church at 1427 Southview Drive in Homecroft.
In the 1980s during a leadership retreat, the elders sensed that God had greater things in store for SPC. During several years of discernment and change, the congregation worked, prayed and planned for a new move and a new future. 
The result of this was the move to the McFarland site and the refit of the old building for several new ministries, including the administrative offices, the pastors’ offices, Welcome Place Child Care, the Adult Day Center and the Counseling Center.
In 1997, the congregation began worshiping in the new church near the intersection of Stop 11 and McFarland Blvd. 
God has greatly blessed SPC and our present congregation benefits greatly from the prayers, sacrifices and hard work of earlier generations who loved God and served Him at Southport Presbyterian Church.