As mentioned before, some exciting things are happening in the life of Midland Reformed Church. This past Friday, April 25th, we had our Particularization Service.  A few Elders from one of our Sister Churches in Clovis, NM, came down to facilitate particularizing our church, complete the ordination and installation of our first Ruling Elder, Bob Stitzel, and install our Pastor (Teaching Elder), Cody Pope.

What does it mean to be particularized?  Since our inception in late 2023, we have been what is known as a Mission Church, or Church Plant.  That means we were considered under the care of our denomination, and our Session (or Elder Board) was comprised of men from other churches within our denomination from all over the United States.  With the installation of our first Ruling Elder and Teaching Elder, we now have our own local Session.  This means we are now locally governed.  However, this does NOT mean we are on our own, as we are still part of Vanguard Presbyterian Church.

Here are a couple of images from the ceremony.

Here is a portion of the ceremony.