WHAT IS ARC?
African Reformed Churches (ARC) is the provisional name of a new Reformed denomination based in Cape Town, South Africa.
ARC envisions renewing the confessional Reformed witness in southern Africa and beyond through church planting and providing a new home for like-minded churches. We are launching ARC because contemporary Christianity in our context has, for the most part, re-read Scripture, creed, and confession through worldly lenses that compromise Apostolic and Reformed theology, piety, and practice.
The doctrine and practice of ARC are shaped by the faithful summations of Scripture found in the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards. We seek to recover the best of Reformed confessionalism for a robust Christian witness that promotes God-honoring gospel preaching, church governance, worship, and fellowship.
ARC will launch from Cape Town, initially in English, the language of the founding church. Over time, and as ARC extends her reach into southern Africa and the African continent, we hope to welcome congregations of all languages.
WHO FOUNDED ARC?
African Reformed Churches (ARC) was founded at the end of 2023 by a steering committee drawn from the consistories of Reformed Church Southern Suburbs (RCSS) in Cape Town, the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA), and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). RCSS was previously a congregation of the Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika (GKSA), and now plans to enter into ecumenical relations with Classis South-West of the URCNA.
The launch and initial growth of ARC depends on various kinds of support from the URCNA, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), PCA, other churches affiliated with the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC), as well as sympathetic individuals. This support entails doctrinal and pastoral accountability, the equipping and continuing education of ministers, the provision of interns and ministerial candidates, and financial support.
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WHAT DO WE MEAN BY
‘CONFESSIONALLY REFORMED’?
Since it is our conviction that Scripture, creed, and confession regulate every aspect of the church, we believe these creeds and confessions:
Are fallible, subject to correction and refinement by the ultimate authority of Scripture, and valuable only insofar as they are faithful to Scripture.
Are objectively true and, therefore, not subject to contextually relativising interpretations.
Faithfully summarize the biblical doctrines of God, man, sin, salvation, worship and church governance.
Are fundamentally cruciform: Christ’s power through weakness, suffering and death casts its shadow over all we believe and confess, from the pilgrim nature of the Christian life to the ministry of church officers.
Teach that the church as an institution is on a distinct spiritual mission, while her members are also resident aliens called to love one another and serve in vocations.
Have a spiritual nature and doctrinal focus that unite believers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Provide the standards by which the beliefs and practices of church officers and laity alike may rightfully be assessed.
Are the binding documents for ecclesiastical subscription: to promote love, truth, unity, and accountability.
Within this regulatory framework, we envision African Reformed Churches (ARC) recovering the best of historic Reformed and catholic confessionalism: a means by which God has preserved the proclamation of Christ crucified and his Apostolic system of doctrine.
THE REFORMED TRADITION REJECTS RACISM
We acknowledge and repudiate the systemic racism that gave rise to Apartheid (segregation) in civil policy and at the Lord’s Table. We recognise the intersection of this evil with the continental Reformed tradition in South Africa. Pertinent to this history is the 1982 suspension of the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk) by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches for the legitimization of Apartheid in theology and practice, and her subsequent readmission after repentance in 1998. We also do not overlook the early Dutch colonial and later English imperial churches that endorsed, albeit more indirectly, a system of racial prejudice that became law in 1948.
In the fourth decade since the official fall of Apartheid in 1994, we firmly reject racism of any kind on the basis of Scripture, confession, and the light of nature.
We also reject postmodern critical theories that make certain ethnicities, genders, and sexualities irredeemable perpetrators or victims. We believe that all Christians should make a positive contribution toward cultivating society according to the objective truths of God’s moral law.
WHAT ARE ARC’S OBJECTIVES?
African Reformed Churches’ (ARC) initial objectives include to:
Develop ecclesiastical documents, including vision statement, prospectus, book of church order, etc.
Identify strategic locations for church planting.
Network with Reformed-leaning churches in Cape Town to assess their interest in ARC.
Continue developing donor relationships.
Continue forming relationships with seminaries and churches - locally and abroad - to supply interns, advice, and other support.
Our longer-term objectives include helping provide a quality Masters in divinity, networking with neighboring countries, and resourcing churches within ARC.
HOW CAN ONE SUPPORT ARC?
Given South Africa’s deep social and political challenges, we expect that African Reformed Churches (ARC) will rely on long-term external funding. Costs will include compensation for ministers and interns, and ARC operational expenses, including overseas travel. The travel expenses will be significant as we establish and maintain donor relationships, and ensure the credentialing of ARC ministerial candidates through NAPARC channels.
Furthermore, it would be very useful to have pre-funded visits by pastors and ministerial interns to assist existing and prospective ARC churches. We also welcome with open arms visits from individuals and families looking to serve ARC on the office-bearing, evangelism, hospitality and diaconal fronts.
Finally, please pray for the needs expressed in this vision statement. May Christ be glorified in fulfilling the Great Commission through the founding church, RCSS, and her expansive ARC mission.
Yours in Christ,
The ARC Steering Committee.
Meet the Steering Committee
LOCAL
Steering Committee
Simon Jooste
Rev. Dr. Simon Jooste is the Minister of Word and Sacraments at Reformed Church Southern Suburbs (URCNA). He returned to his native Cape Town in 2010 after fifteen years in the USA, during which time he played Division I tennis, had a career in accounting, married, and earned his MDiv from Westminster Seminary California. Simon then earned a PhD in historical theology (his thesis can be read here) from Stellenbosch University. He is married to Nevada-born Deana, and has two boys: Andrew (17) and Adam (13). When Simon is not pastoring or writing his latest book, Pilgrim Politics, he enjoys spending time with his family, exploring the outdoors and playing padel.
Mark Bechard
Mark Bechard has been a ruling elder of Reformed Church Southern Suburbs (URCNA) since 2021. In his day job, he does marketing for a national risk management and compliance company. Mark is married to Charlene, and they have two boys, Reuben and Luca. He enjoys gardening and working around the home and is a history buff.
Alex Hewitson
Alex Hewitson is a ruling elder and ministerial intern at Reformed Church Southern Suburbs. Several years into a career as a Chartered Accountant, he moved to the United States to study a Master of Divinity at Westminster Seminary California after sensing the call to ministry in Christ’s Church. Having returned from his studies, he is preparing for ordination to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments and plans to pursue a PhD in Biblical Studies in the future. He enjoys playing squash and padel, referees squash on the pro tour, and loves exploring the outdoors in Cape Town.
Rudolf Botha
Rudolf Botha is a ruling elder at Reformed Church Southern Suburbs (URCNA).
INTERNATIONAL
Steering Committee
Dan Borvan
Rev. Dr. Daniel Borvan is pastor of preaching ministry at Christ Reformed Church (URCNA), Anaheim. Dan is also chairman of the Heidelberg Reformation Association. Some of his published articles are on the Heidelblog website. He earned his MDiv and MA (Historical Theology) degrees from Westminster Seminary California, and his PhD from Oxford University in England. Dan is married to Marcy and they have two daughters and a son.
Adam Kaloostian
Rev. Adam Kaloostian was ordained to the Ministry of the Word & Sacraments in the URCNA in 2001. He was born and raised in Pasadena, California, took his bachelor’s degree in English from Biola University in La Mirada in 1997, and his Master of Divinity degree in 2000 from Westminster Seminary California in Escondido. Adam and his wife Lena were married in 2000, and welcomed their happy surprise, a son, John, in 2010. After Adam graduated seminary, he served as an intern then outreach pastor of the URCNA congregation in Ontario, California for three years; then from 2004 until 2021 served as the Senior Pastor there. Adam was called and sent by the URCNA congregation in Pasadena to be the church-planting pastor in Ventura (URCNA) in Spring of 2021.
Gary Sinclair
Rev. Gary Sinclair serves as a pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi. He is married to Petula, and they have two sons and a daughter. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gary worked in finance and business before his ordination to Gospel ministry in the UPCSA in 2002. In 2014, he and his family moved to the United States where he earned an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary in 2018 and a ThM (Historical Theology) from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in 2023. Gary has served First Presbyterian Church since 2014 in various pastoral roles, and counts it a privilege to serve the Lord Jesus.
Mark Stromberg
Rev. Mark Stromberg is a native Montanan, and the pastor of Lynden URC (URCNA). He is married to his lovely wife, Krista, and God blessed them with three beautiful children. Mark studied at Montana State University, Evangel College, and then obtained his MDiv from Westminster Seminary California. He is very thankful the Lord has provided him with a great passion for ministering the Word and the sacraments to those under his care. Mark loves spending his free time with his wife, adult children and grandchildren. As a family they enjoy all kinds of water sports, downhill skiing, reading aloud, watching movies, and their annual Thanksgiving backyard football game. Mark also enjoys fishing and is an avid reader.
Roy Mukai
Roy Mukai is a ruling elder at Grace Torrance (URCNA).
Steve Perkins
Steve Perkins is a ruling elder at Grace Torrance (URCNA).
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