Calling & Identity
At Tenth Presbyterian Church, we strive to be:
A Biblical Church. The Bible is the foundation for everything we do as a congregation. We believe that God uses the proclamation of the gospel and expository preaching to win people to Christ and make disciples. We accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as our inerrant, infallible authority for life and doctrine. We receive the Westminster Confession of Faith, along with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as our subordinate standard under the Holy Scripture which is the Word of God and our supreme authority.
An Evangelical Church. Evangelical, from the Greek word evangelion, is the biblical word for the gospel – the good news that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). In the true biblical sense of the word, an evangelical is someone who trusts in Christ alone for his or her salvation.
A Catholic Church. The word “catholic” in its original sense means “universal.” We believe what Christians have always believed about God (the Trinity), about Christ (the mediator), and about the Spirit (the sanctifier). We do not pretend that Christianity began at the time of the Reformation. The church needed a course correction – not the introduction of new doctrine, but, as the reformers were keen to show, the retrieval of original doctrine for the sake of the future.
A Reformational Church. We are a confessional church that affirms the ecumenical creeds of the early church and the confessions of Reformed orthodoxy. These creeds are often summarized by the Five Solas of the Reformation. We honor the principle of sola Scriptura by making God’s Word the foundation of our worship, teaching, and witness. We honor the principle of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone by denying any merit of our own and putting complete trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ for our salvation. We honor the principle of soli Deo gloria by making the glory of God our ultimate aim in all we do.
An Ordinary Means of Grace Church. We express our Christian faith in our Lord’s Day worship, including in the preaching and reading of the Bible, prayer, corporate singing, baptism, and communion. These are the ordinary means of grace by which we grow and are fed and nourished. We see ourselves to be in communion with the saints in glory and around the globe. In our liturgy we use the same elements that would be recognized by the earliest Christians – the Gloria Patri; the Apostles Creed; the Ten Commandments; and the Lord’s Prayer.
A Presbyterian Church. Tenth is a Presbyterian church. We believe that Presbyterianism – rule by elders – is the most biblical form of church government, and we belong to the Presbyterian Church in America, a national church that seeks to reach our country and the world with the gospel. Our theology is Reformed and Calvinistic.
A City Church. Tenth is an urban church. The city is our home, and we are committed to “making God’s Word plain” from the corner of 17th and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia. We understand that our city is a place of great spiritual need and sin, and we believe God placed us in this city to share the gospel and make disciples. We know that God is building his eternal city, and one day it will triumph.
Core Commitments
Jesus Christ is the head of the church, which is composed of his disciples from all nations throughout history. Christ provides everything necessary for the church’s worship. At Tenth, we affirm that Christ’s will for his church is expressly given in the Bible, which is the inerrant and sufficient Word of God. In faithfulness to God’s Word, we believe we should be humbly devoted to the following:
Faithful Proclamation of God’s Word. “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2). Our ordained pastors (teaching elders) seek to proclaim the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) from the pulpit in corporate worship and throughout the week in their teaching ministry.
Joyful Corporate Worship. “O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” (Psalm 95:1). We seek to worship reverently in a way which acknowledges the immeasurable greatness of the Triune God and the unfathomable depth of his love for us in Christ Jesus, according to the elements prescribed in Scripture: the reading and preaching of God’s Word, corporate prayer and singing, confessing our faith, the giving of offerings, and celebrating the sacraments of baptism and communion.
Growing Christian Disciples. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). We seek to offer a comprehensive Christian education program to equip disciples of all ages to live as faithful followers of Jesus in every aspect of their lives.
Gospel Witness. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We seek to win others to Christ, beginning here in Philadelphia and unto the ends of the earth, by sharing the gospel with our neighbors and raising up, sending, supporting, and partnering with local and global missionaries and agencies.
Prayerful Dependence on God. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We seek to be a church where prayer characterizes our relationship to God and one another.
Loving Care and Fellowship. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). We seek to be a church family where no one is a stranger, to love one another sacrificially, and to offer every member the full benefit of pastoral care and other privileges entitled to them as members of Christ’s Church.
Extending Mercy. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:17-18). As we have received mercy through Jesus Christ, so we seek to extend mercy within our church body and into the community around us through deeds of service and acts of practical Christian love, sometimes in partnership with other ministries.
Parish System
Tenth is unique in that we are a regional church located in the center of a major city. In order to promote discipleship and community amongst our members, we have developed a parish system. Each elder at Tenth has selected a group of families within his parish and committed to praying for and communicating with those families. Our hope is that this system will ensure that every member at Tenth has at least one elder whom he or she knows and can approach to receive prayer, discipleship, hospitality, and support.
Each of our five geographic parishes includes weekly small groups that meet for discipleship, fellowship, and prayer. Additionally, parishes often have social events for their members. Our five parishes are:
- Brandywine Parish. Members in the Brandywine Parish live in northern Delaware and the Pennsylvania suburbs that are southwest of Philadelphia.
- Metro Parish. Our largest parish in terms of members, Metro Parish includes Center City Philadelphia (the neighborhood where the church property is located), as well as South Philadelphia and West Philadelphia.
- New Jersey Parish. Composed of our members who live in New Jersey, this parish has small groups in Cherry Hill, Haddonfield, Moorestown, and Mullica Hill.
- Northern Tier Parish. Members of the Northern Tier Parish live in the suburbs above Philadelphia, as well as the neighborhoods of Philadelphia that lie north of Center City.
- Western Suburbs. Situated due west of Philadelphia, this parish includes small groups that meet in Drexel Hill, Havertown, and Wayne.
Ministers & Ministry Leaders
Tenth is blessed to have a group of faithful ministers who are ordained in the PCA.
Brock Garrigan
Assistant Minister – served at Tenth since 2022
Brock serves as our minister of youth and small groups and received his MDiv from Westminster Seminary in 2023. Prior to attending seminary, he worked as a strategy and operations consultant at Deloitte after graduating from the University of Georgia. Brock spearheaded our recent effort to organize our membership rolls and have every elder select a group of members to shepherd.
Tim Geiger
Assistant Minister – served at Tenth since 2024
Tim has served as Tenth’s executive pastor since February 2024. He previously served as the executive director of Children’s Jubilee Fund, a Tenth ministry partner that provides scholarships for children to attend Christian schools, and he was also the president of Harvest USA.
Colin Howland
Assistant Minister – served at Tenth since 2015
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Colin is an accomplished organist who has served as Tenth’s music director for the past decade and was ordained as an assistant minister in 2023. He is serving in an ex officio role on the search committee.
Enrique Leal
Associate Minister – served at Tenth since 2013
Enrique leads the church’s mercy ministries and is the primary preacher at Tenth’s afternoon services, which seek to reach and disciple Spanish speakers. He has served as a minister at Tenth since 2013.
Josiah Vanderveen
Assistant Minister – served at Tenth since 2021
Josiah serves as our minister of college and young adults. He received his MDiv from Westminster Seminary in 2023, and he was ordained as an assistant minister that same year.
Additionally, Tenth has two ministry directors who serve at the church.
Pam Nothacker
Served at the Tenth Preschool since 2012
Pam has faithfully served as the director of the tenth church preschool since its launch in 2012. A graduate of Bucknell University and the University of Pennsylvania, Pam taught elementary school for a decade and homeschooled her four children from grades K-12. Today, the preschool serves approximately 65 students and represents a key way that Tenth seeks to reach non-believing families.
Kelci Rose
served at Tenth since 2022
A native of Michigan who has studied at Moody Bible Institute and Reformed Theological Seminary, Kelci came to Tenth in 2022 and serves as our director of christian education and women’s ministries.
Our History
Tenth Presbyterian Church was founded in 1829 at the intersection of 12th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia. Our second pastor, Henry Augustus Boardman, served at the church from 1833 to 1876. A close friend of Charles Hodge and a leading Old School Presbyterian, Boardman was a faithful expository preacher who served as the moderator of the General Assembly. Boardman led Tenth during the construction of our current building at 17th and Spruce Streets, the sanctuary of which was opened and dedicated on the first Lord’s Day of 1857. In 1872, Boardman gave the keynote speech at a celebration honoring Hodge’s fifty years of teaching at Princeton Seminary.
Following Reverend Boardman’s tenure, the Lord continued to bless Tenth with gifted expository preachers, including Marcus Brownson, who led the church from 1897 to 1924 and served on the board of Princeton Seminary; Donald Barnhouse, who pastored Tenth from 1927 to 1960 and invited J. Gresham Machen to preach at the church in 1936; James Montgomery Boice, who led the church from 1968 to 2000; and Philip Ryken, our senior minister from 2001 to 2010. During Dr. Boice’s pastorate, the church joined the Presbyterian Church in America, and one of our elders, Dr. C. Everett Koop, became a leading advocate for unborn children and served as the nation’s Surgeon General under President Ronald Reagan. Additionally, the Lord used members of Tenth to help start several ministries, including AlphaCare, Harvest USA, and the Philadelphia Summer Medical Institute.
Over the past decade, Tenth has weathered public scandals that have led to the departures of multiple ministers. Yet by God’s grace, we remain a church where approximately 600 attendees hear the Word preached each Sunday morning, and we devote about 15% of our budget to supporting global missions and church planting. We are grateful to be a multi-ethnic and multi-generational church with approximately 100 children in nursery and children’s Bible school on Sunday mornings, and to have older saints who worship with their children and grandchildren on the Lord’s Day.
Senior Ministers of Tenth Presbyterian Church
| Thomas A. McAuley | 1829-1833 |
| Henry Augustus Boardman | 1833-1876 |
| William Pratt Breed* | 1856-1889 |
| John R. DeWitt | 1876-1883 |
| William Brenton Greene, Jr. | 1883-1892 |
| James D. Paxton | 1891-1896 |
| Marcus A. Brownson | 1897-1924 |
| John D. McNeil | 1924-1926 |
| Donald Gray Barnhouse | 1927-1960 |
| Mariano DiGangi | 1960-1968 |
| James Montgomery Boice | 1968-2000 |
| Philip Graham Ryken | 2001-2010 |
| Liam Goligher | 2011-2023 |
* In 1856, Tenth planted West Spruce Street Presbyterian Church, where Boardman and Breed shared the pulpit. Following Boardman’s retirement, Dewitt and Greene pastored Tenth, while Breed continued to serve at West Spruce Street. In 1893, the two congregations merged and began worshiping together at our current location at 17th and Spruce Streets.
Profile of our Senior Minister
The senior minister will lead and oversee the ministry of the Word, corporate worship, strategic decision-making, and the other ministers, our ministry directors, and our administrative staff. We are seeking a senior minister who:
- Demonstrates a godly character and is above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6)
- Loves to shepherd and disciple others, especially the other ministers and officers of the church (1 Peter 5:2)
- Practices hospitality (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8)
- Manages his household well and seeks to raise his children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (1 Timothy 3:4; Ephesians 6:4)
- Is a gifted expository preacher (2 Timothy 4:2)
- Believes that the mission of the local church is to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20)
- Believes that churches should focus on the ordinary means of grace
- Is committed to a robust theology rooted in Reformed doctrine and the Westminster Standards
- Aspires to lead and shepherd a healthy, confessional church in an urban context
- Wants to continue Tenth’s legacy of supporting local and global missions
- Celebrates the goodness of complementarian theology (Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Timothy 2:12-13)
- Supports continuing Tenth’s historic practice of worshipping on the Lord’s Day in the morning and the evening with God-centered liturgy and hymnody