Our History

We can talk about the history of our church in different ways; we trace our heritage all the way back to “Covenanters” in Scotland in the mid-1600’s. The Scottish churches created an American Presbytery in 1798, which eventually became the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.

If we talk about the history of our local congregation, however, the story is much shorter. During the 1980’s, several families desired to see a Reformed Presbyterian church planted in Manhattan. While this first attempt didn’t immediately result in a congregation, it did create a backdrop for what would happen around 20 years later, when two families located in Manhattan were traveling up to Clay Center, KS each week for worship.

These families were interested in seeing a local congregation in Manhattan planted, and the Clay Center congregation agreed. With the help of our Presbytery, Bible studies and eventually regular evening worship services in homes were started. Over time, our gathering grew through K-State students staying after graduation and others coming to join with us, and we became too big to all fit in someone’s home for worship.

In 2011, we called our first pastor to help us plant a church. Two years later, in 2013, we were formally established as a congregation with local elders. Since then, we’ve continued to grow bit by bit. After our first pastor was called to another congregation in 2021, we called Robert, our current pastor, in 2022.