It has landed in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church – with its property and with a buoyant young minister who is committed to bringing the church back to the Reformed track. The story of the congregation and the pastor are untypical.

The church was organized in 1770 – 238 years ago – as Rocky Creek Presbyterian Church. In 1844, it was renamed Rock Presbyterian Church. The latter name has held fast, well, like a rock.

For 203 years, the congregation was in Presbyterian Church U.S. and its predecessor denominations, including the Confederate Presbyterian Church during the Civil War. In 1973, the Rock joined a host of congregations in the then-fledgling National Presbyterian Church, later renamed the Presbyterian Church in America.

But that relation soured in 1999 "due to unfortunate circumstances," according to the Rock's history published on its Web site. The Rock Church dropped out of the PCA in 1998 and became an oxymoron: an independent Presbyterian Church. A key Presbyterian doctrine is the connectionalism of the church.

As an independent church, she began to lose her Presbyterian flavor. Though Presbyterian in name, and confessing the Westminster Standards, the Rock had a Baptist minister for five years.

In 2007, there was a convergence of Joseph Johnson, who taught in a Christian school, and members of Rock, whose children attended the school. Children and parents liked his teaching. They began to court the young Bible teacher.

Johnson had earned his master of divinity degree at Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, S.C. He was a member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, a small, traditional denomination, and was waiting for an ARPC call.

Rock leaders wanted to call him to the historic church. There was discussion about the Rock becoming a member of ARPC, but Johnson said the congregation, aware of the acrimonious property disputes in the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), shied away from joining the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church because it also has a constitutional property trust clause.

So Johnson was in a quandary. He couldn't be ordained by his denomination to serve a congregation that opposed that denomination's property requirements. And, being unconnected to any other Presbyterian Church, the Rock had no policy for ordaining a minister. But the Rock's session gerrymandered a way. The elders said they would lay their hands on him and ordain him as their pastor. And, after conferring with his presbytery leaders, he agreed.

Thus, in December 2007, the elders ordained Johnson and the congregation voted unanimously to call him to be its first full-time minister in 12 years. (Johnson notes that several ARPC ministers participated in the ordination even though it wasn't legit in the eyes of the denomination.)

In June, the congregation voted to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and reconnect with other Presbyterians. Johnson, now in the process of being ordained by the EPC, was delighted to be connected again. A traditionalist and an evangelical, he says he has settled in for the long haul. Although membership is small, the church has a large bank account and needs no financial help from the presbytery.

And now they have a growing family to support. He and his wife Toby have two children, ages 7 and 1.