Our Church

The witness of the Gospel in Prince George, British Columbia, was commenced as Fundamental Bible Fellowship, and through the work of Canadian Revival Ministries with weekly radio broadcasts in several towns in Northern BC.

The very first Church service was held on June 10th, 1990. During those first years the congregation had invited Rev. Ian Goligher and Dr. Frank McClelland to hold special preaching services. This fellowship led to a formal application with sixteen charter members to join the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church in North America. The application was duly approved by Presbytery in June 1995, and in the same month the congregation was able to purchase a church building located in the north end of the city at our present location 4020 Balsum Road. That was an exciting and blessed step forward for the nucleus just formed.

The Church was constituted on October 8th, 1995. Ministers taking part in the service were Rev, Larry Saunders, Rev Ian Goligher, Rev Phil Owen and Rev Dave Mook. Dr Mark Allison, then Moderator of the North American Commission and Rev John Greer, then Clerk of the Commission officiated, on behalf of Presbytery. Dr Frank McClelland represented the Canadian churches and Dr. Alan Cairns preached on the text, “Buy the Truth and sell it not.”

Rev Andrew Simpson was ordained and installed as the congregation's minister in January 2019 after a long vacancy in the Church. Since 2021, the Church has enjoyed the Lord's hand of blessing upon it, with several families being added to the congregation, souls being saved, and a Mission Church being planted in Williams Lake, BC.

Denomination History

Two resources you can visit to learn more about our denominational history are:

The Birth And Early History Of The Free Presbyterian Church Burning Yet Flourishing (youtube.com)

God Came Down DVD (sermonaudio.com)

The historical roots of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America begin in a small village in Northern Ireland called Crossgar. The following is a brief history of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and how its formation led to the establishment of the FPCNA.

Early in 1950, the Committee of the Crossgar Mission Hall approached the 24-year-old Rev. Ian Paisley to determine whether he would conduct a Gospel Campaign in the town. After careful consideration and prayer, the date was fixed for February 1951. The Campaign Committee, the majority of whom were office-bearers or members of Lissara Presbyterian Church, feeling that the Mission Hall would be too small, decided to ask their Kirk Session for the use of the local Presbyterian Church Hall for the campaign. This was unanimously granted at a meeting of Session.

However, in what local people saw as evidence of the liberal agenda that was becoming increasingly evident in their church, the Down Presbytery meeting on Monday January 8th1951 ruled that the mission should not go ahead in Lissara Church hall. It is doubtful that the local elders were ever properly informed of this because the plans for the mission continued. Certainly, the ordinary members knew nothing about the ruling.

Matters were drawn sharply to a head when on the evening of Saturday 3rd February 1951, just 90 minutes prior to a march of witness to advertise the mission, Down Presbytery held a special meeting to which Lissara’s Church Session were summoned. At this meeting the Moderator of Down Presbytery demanded that the Lissara Session reverse their decision to grant the use of the church hall to the missioners.

The evangelicals, who had already been battling against liberalism in their own congregation, saw these moves as further evidence of the downward trend in their denomination. They could not believe that the Presbytery would ban a gospel mission in their own church hall. For two of the elders, Hugh James Adams, and George K. Gibson the high-handedness of the Presbytery was too much. They refused what they saw as an anti-gospel demand by Presbytery officers to immediately cancel the gospel campaign. For this they were suspended.

These events were as yet unknown to those who were at that time gathered for a March of Witness. They made their way to Lissara Church Hall only to discover that the Down Presbytery had closed the doors of the hall to the preaching of the gospel and to them. One of the abiding memories of those who were on that March of Witness is having to shelter from torrential rain in the porch of their own church hall from which they had been locked out.

The Mission, however, went on in the Killyleagh Street Mission Hall and was blessed of God in the salvation of 94 precious souls. Dr. Paisley speaking in the Crossgar Church in 1997 said, “My memory of those meetings was not the packed house that we had overflowing each evening, the great spirit of blessing and the joy of leading precious souls to Christ but it was of the continued sessions of prayer – one on Tuesday night and one on Friday night when we went on past midnight and past two o’clock in earnest intercessions before God. For a crisis would arise at the end of the campaign- back to the Church that put out the light of the gospel or outside the camp to bear reproach for the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the decision and choice that had to be made.”

The Formation of the Free Presbyterian Church

The opening service and constitution of Crossgar Free Presbyterian Church was held on the 17th of March 1951. The Newsletter carried the following:

“Every seat was taken in the Killyleagh Street Church Hall, Crossgar on Saturday afternoon, when the Rev Ian R K Paisley of Ravenhill Evangelical Church, Belfast conducted the opening service constituting the Crossgar congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church. Extra forms had to be brought in to accommodate the congregation. Five elders of Lissara Presbyterian Church, from which the seceding Church is a breakaway, were inducted as elders of the congregation. They are Messrs James Morrison (clerk), William Miscampbell, Hugh J Adams and George K Gibson. Mr William Emerson was ordained and installed as elder.” Rev George Stears was installed as minister pro tem.

That year saw the formation of the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. From four congregations in that first year, the growth of the new church continued until its witness spread to all parts of Northern Ireland. The church was founded to faithfully preach and defend the gospel of Christ in an age of growing compromise and apostasy. That determination is still to be found in every Free Presbyterian Church.

The church has now spread well beyond the boundary of Northern Ireland. Today there are over one hundred Free Presbyterian churches and extensions throughout the world; in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, the Irish Republic, Australia, Canada, USA, Germany, Jamaica and Spain with missionaries in many other places. Recent years have seen the formation of sister Presbyteries in North America and Nepal.

The Free Presbyterian Church of North America is the fruit of the vision and ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (Northern Ireland). From its inception, the Free Presbyterian Church has been Protestant in its convictions, Presbyterian in its government, Reformed in its theology, Separatist (that is, anti-ecumenical) in its stand, Biblical in Worship, Evangelistic in its outreach and Fervent in Prayer. Its distinctive stand has been marked by its opposition to the work of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the WCC’s national arms, its international agencies, and organizations with similar goals.

In 1982 the presbytery established a branch of its theological seminary in Greenville for the training of young men from the United States who felt called to the Free Presbyterian ministry. It also formed the ministers and elders of the North American churches into a standing commission, charged with the oversight and development of the work in Canada and the United States but answerable to the presbytery. The presbytery of Ulster looked on this arrangement as temporary and frequently exhorted the North American brethren to move toward the formation of an autonomous presbytery for the better government of the churches under its care.

In May 2000 the North American Commission made the decision to begin steps toward the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, and in May 2004 it formally presented a unanimous petition to the presbytery for the formation of its North American churches into a new presbytery. The following month, a delegation of ministers from the North American churches met with a special commission of presbytery in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The special commission made the following recommendations:

• That a Presbytery be set up in North America as a distinct new entity and that we seek ways to foster and maintain fraternal relations between the two churches.

• That those ministers who have already been sent out by the General Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster to works in North America should hold dual membership in both Presbyteries.

• That a consultative committee be established to consider what implications the formation of a separate presbytery would hold for missionary work and to consider possible ways of co-operation in missionary work so as not to needlessly duplicate the work of our brethren.