CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

200 Year Anniversary

1810 - 2010



Photos by Lynn Walters September 2004 at Montgomery Bell State Park

 
This year (2010) marks the 200th anniversary of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination - the only Christian denomination founded and headquartered in Tennessee. Services throughout the state will celebrate the two centuries of history. First Cumberland in Jackson, pastor Terry Hunley will feature the Bethel University Renaissance Blue Grass Group who will perform during the regular service, following an old-fashioned potluck meal. At 7 p.m. at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Lexington Tennessee will host a concert of the Bethel Renaissance Gospel Quartet. If you have never seen the Renaissance group of Bethel before -- make it a "must do" the first opportunity you get. This is no doubt the most talented group in the state. Many of us attended the concert and it was awesome !!

An article in the Jackson Sun Feb. 7, 2010 by Tracie Simer tells of the history of the church. Here is an "excerpt" from what she wrote. " Three men who met together in Montgomery Bell, now Montgomery Bell State Park, founded the denomination on February 4, 1810. They met during a period of religious revival in America, and churches were popping up everywhere. Rev. Terry Hunley (Jackson) said, "as a result of the revivals, people were being called into ministry". In the Presbyterian church, requirement for ordination was to have a seminary degree, which at the time you had to go overseas for. That was one area of reasoning for breaking away."

Cumberland Presbyterians differ over issues about predestination, Hunley said. "It's what we call double predestination," he said. "God knew who would choose him, and they were the only ones who could be chosen. We're a 'whosoever will' church. We have the opportunity to choose. We believe God knows, but he allows us to choose. he chooses all of us, but only some of us choose him. That's where we differ."

Robert Rush said the denomination has 50,000 members in 730 congregations around the world - including South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and South American. Rush is stated clerk of the denomination's General Assembly. We were one of the first denominations to go west on the frontier -- we sent our first missionaries in the 1880's to Japan. Some to South America in 1925. Today we have 23 missionaries in 17 different countries. Today the church's headquarters are in Cordova. The church was ahead of its time when it ordained its first female minister and elder in 1889.

 


The Old Log Home
Replica of the home of Rev. Samuel McAdow, where and the Rev. Finis Ewing and Rev. Samuel King, founded the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, February 4, 1810. Outgrowth of "The Great Revivial of 1800", the new denomination arose to minister to the spiritual needs of a pioneer people who turned from the doctrine of predestination to embrace the "Whosoever Will" gospel of the new church. "Cumberland" was for this Cumberland region "Presbyterian" described the form of government.