History of Cloughmills Reformed Presbyterian Church

The village of Cloughmills in County Antrim lies to the north side of the A26 Road, approximately twelve miles from Ballymena and eight miles from Ballymoney. The Reformed Presbyterian Meeting House, built in 1805 during the ministry of Rev. William Stavely, is located on the edge of the village. Reformed Presbyterians have been associated with the village of Cloughmills for more than 200 years.

In 1765, when the Cullybackey congregation was organised, there was a Covenanting Society in Cloughmills under its care. By 1800 two societies were active in Cloughmills and these were established as a congregation. Cloughmills and Cullybackey became a united charge and continued as such until 1840, at which point the work in Cloughmills became the increasing responsibility of the Kilraughts congregation. Despite attempts in the 1850s to consolidate the work, it had by the 1930s no regular membership, and in 1934 the Northern Presbytery listed the congregation as a preaching station. From then until the early 1990s no new initiatives were undertaken although evening services took place monthly and weeks of mission were carried on occasionally whilst the building was refurbished in 1971.

Following a decision by the Kilraughts Session in 1992 to do door-to-door visitation to invite villagers to attend evening evangelistic services, with a view to seeing the work in Cloughmills become a self-sufficient congregation, a new vision for the work in Cloughmills began to be fostered. The climax of this initial phase of outreach work was a two-week mission in November 1995, following which the decision was made to commence weekly morning and evening services on 3rd December 1995. By that stage three families from the Kilraughts congregation, comprising of seven adults and five children, had come together and were ready to become core families. On the Lord's Day of 3rd December, the Lord brought another Reformed Presbyterian family and three people from the local community. In 1997 an interim session was appointed by the Presbytery, which included Jim Calderwood and David Loughridge who were part of the core group. About the same time a development fund was set up to assist with the future work of the congregaton.

God continued to add others to the Cloughmills fellowship so that, by the year 2000, the body of regular worshippers at morning service numbered between 35 and 40. It was early in the year 2000 that the fellowship decided to proceed towards organisation as a congregation. And so it was that, after careful preparation by the fellowship, the Northern Presbytery met on Friday 28th April to organise the work and witness as a congregation. On 6th June 2000 Mr David Loughridge and Mr Jim Calderwood were installed as elders. On 26th November Mr Andrew Aicken and Mr Thomas Loughridge were ordained and installed as deacons. Rev. Peter Jemphrey was installed as the minister on Saturday 9th December 2000. On 30th September 2007 Mr Andrew Aicken and Mr Andrew Lytle were ordained and installed as elders. At the Sabbath evening service on 9th January 2011, Jonathan McKelvey, Peter McKelvey and Philip Robinson were ordained and, along with Thomas Forgrave, installed as deacons. On 26th August 2011 Mr Andrew Lytle was ordained and commissioned for mission work in Nantes, France and ceased to be an elder of the congregation. On 14th January 2012 the Galway Fellowship issued a call to Rev. Peter Jemphrey to be their pastor; this call was accepted on 11th February and the pastoral tie was disolved.

The Congregation sees itself as having a two-fold function: to strengthen disciples and to make disciples. The task of strengthening disciples is accomplished through the pulpit ministry on the Lord's Day, the administration of the Sacraments, and the provision of meetings for Bible Study, prayer and fellowship.

The task of making disciples is pursued through leaflet distribution, an annual Holiday Bible Club, the Friday Night Clubs for two eight-week periods each year and the Parents and Toddlers group run on Wednesday mornings during term time. Since the early 1990s there have been private housing developments, which means that the village is growing and people are moving in from other areas. The Congregation is greatly encouraged at what God has done in its midst during the past years. It is also deeply challenged by what yet remains to be done in the village. To that end it asks you to pray for the following matters: