The Nobleford Preaching Station

A congregation gathered

The account published on the Presbytery’s page for Nobleford begins: “Organized and instituted in early 2023, we started out small. A handful of families from reformed churches in Southern Alberta with a concern about the preaching in the churches to which they belonged, came together, united with a desire for the full Word of God to preached simply and clearly, without doctrinal bias or partiality.”¹

It continues: “As the Word went forth, our group grew and in August of 2023 we submitted a petition to, and were received by, the Presbytery of the United States to become a Preaching Station (church plant) under their care within the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).”²

Erected a preaching station

The Presbytery’s later petition to the General Assembly records that it “erected the Nobleford Preaching Station in the summer of 2023”.³

The Presbytery explains: “A preaching station is the beginning of a congregation. It is a missionary endeavor, seeking to develop and try the necessary substance of a fully sanctioned charge (a congregation). The aim of a preaching station is to faithfully and earnestly evangelize and disciple, observing a proper order with respect to the sacraments, especially. First, the word of God, then baptism and the Lord’s Supper.”⁴

The first year

Reporting to the General Assembly of 2024, the Presbytery wrote: “In addition, the Presbytery raised two new preaching stations, in Fredericksburg, Virginia and Nobleford, Alberta, Canada. Services have continued weekly in both locations, with Rev. Paul Backhurst serving as permanent pulpit supply in Nobleford. This group began with around thirty people and has grown to a regular attendance nearing one hundred. They have the use of a suitable building and are in negotiations with a Strict and Particular Baptist Church that no longer meets, to purchase the property.”⁵

The same report counted “seven Congregations within the borders of the United States”, and “two preaching stations just over our Southern and Northern borders in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Nobleford, Canada respectively.”⁶

The Church’s Committee on Publications noted a rise in airmail subscriptions to its magazines, “primarily due to an increased order from the Preaching Station in Alberta, Canada. We pray that the Witness magazine would be blessed to the brethren there.”⁷

At Glasgow on 22 May 2024 the General Assembly noted “the developments in the new preaching station in Nobelford [Nobleford], Alberta”, and commended “the work to the prayers of the Church”.⁸

Growth, and a building of its own

The Committee on Home & Foreign Missions reported to the Assembly of 2025 that at the Presbytery’s last annual Conference “there were visitors from Canada, part of a group formed by the Presbytery into a Preaching Station of our Church.” It went on: “… this Preaching Station, at Nobleford, Alberta, is presently without a Pastor and under the care of Rev. Gavin Beers, who serves as their Interim Moderator. They are a gathering of around 100 souls and, amazingly for those of us in Scotland, the vast majority are under 60 years of age! They have now purchased their own church building.”⁹

On 21 May 2025, the day after it raised Nobleford to a sanctioned charge, the General Assembly noted “with thankfulness the formation and growth of the preaching station in Nobleford, Canada”.¹⁰