About Us 

Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church began in the Fall of 2001 with a group of men meeting together to study the Bible and discuss church planting in Knoxville. In God’s providence the result was the founding of an evangelical congregation enthusiastically committed to loving and serving our Lord Jesus Christ through recapturing the great doctrines of the Reformation; its bold, biblical preaching; robust liturgical worship according to biblical norms; the restoration of our children to the Lord’s Table; and the cultivation of a culture of joy & feasting which encourages and strengthens families as families--and the men who lead them. 

A Reformational Church

The term “Reformed” defines both our system of doctrine as well as our historic 16^th century Reformation-al roots. As an historical church, we stand in a long line of believers who embrace the ancient Apostolic, Nicene, and Chalcedonian creeds; while as a Protestant church, we are in essential agreement with the great confessions of the Reformation, including the Augsburg Confession, the 39 Articles, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646.

As a Bible-believing, Reformational church, we hold that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone on account of the completed cross-work of our Lord Jesus Christ alone. As a community of believers, we are committed to:

· The verbal, plenary inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures.
· The “solas” of the Reformation:  Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solo Christo, and Soli Deo Gloria.
· The Westminster Standards (1646)
· The preaching of the Word, the exercise of church discipline and the right celebration of the sacraments 

Honoring The Lordship of Jesus Christ

As a Bible-believing church, we enthusiastically affirm the all-encompassing authority of our sovereign Lord Jesus Christ over all aspects of life. Because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to our resurrected Messiah (Matt. 28:18), we believers have the responsibility and the privilege to preach the Gospel unto the ends of the earth and to confess Christ's authority over every aspect or sphere of life. There is no place on earth where Christ is not king - though many do not acknowledge his all-encompassing authority - and no person who is not obligated to bow his or her knee in submission to him. Because Christ reigns, the earth and everything in it belongs to him. We therefore believe it is the duty of believers to bring every aspect of life into conformity with the standards of His reign; that is to say, the Bible - which is Christ speaking through his inscripturated Word. As such the Bible applies to every aspect of life (II Timothy 3:16-17), not just to some narrowly defined "religious" or spiritual side of it. It speaks to art, education, commerce, technology, and politics no less than to worship, prayer, evangelism, or Bible study. In short, the Gospel transforms not simply individual lives; but when consistently applied, transforms whole cultures, creating a distinctly Christian civilization.

A Worshipping Church 

The most important thing that any of us will ever do is worship God. Worship is a God-centered, not a man-centered activity; and as such, it involves the participation of all worshippers—the man in the pew no less than the one behind the pulpit. Rather than viewing the congregation as an audience and ministers as performers, in corporate worship, the LORD is the only member of the audience and we the worshippers are the performers. The magisterial Reformers—Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Bucer, Knox, and others—applied this principle by restoring the reading and preaching of God’s Word in the vernacular (rather than in Latin); the singing of Psalms, the Ten Commandments & the Creeds; the use of unison, written prayers; and the frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Reformational worship is participatory.

But the Reformers were guided by an even more fundamental principle: Worship must be according to and limited by biblical commands, patterns, precepts and examples. The only worship, therefore, that is glorifying and honoring to the LORD is that which he prescribes in his Word. In practice this means that not only are images of God improper means by which to approach Him (the 2^nd Commandment), but so are skits, second rate night club acts masquerading as religious entertainment, children’s church, and a host of other well-intentioned but fundamentally misguided modern “innovations.”

In worship according to the biblical pattern, God renews his covenant with his people weekly by calling them into his presence, cleansing them of their sin through confession and absolution, consecrating them by the reading and preaching of his Word, communing with them at his Table, and commissioning his people to take his kingdom into the world. We respond to God's call by confessing our sin; offering our praise, our prayers, ourselves & our tithes; confessing our faith; eating at his table; and marching out to serve the Lord.

A Feasting Church

At CRPC, our goal has been to restore full participation in worship to God’s people in accordance with biblical standards. In today’s parlance, that means a more or less “liturgical” style of worship. In actual practice, it means a service where sin is confessed corporately, the Word is read and preached from both Testaments, the Lord’s Supper is observed weekly, and the children of believing parents are welcomed gladly, along with the elderly and the mentally handicapped, to the Table (Mt. 19:14). “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17); and yet there is a lot of eating and drinking going on in the kingdom. The fellowship we have together as the Body of Christ around our Lord’s Table overflows into a lifestyle of joy and feasting with one another throughout the week!