About WPC

Meet the Pastor and His Family!

Rev. Kevin McGinnis and his family came to us in August 2013 from Quincy, IL where he served as Associate Pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church for 15 years. He holds a Master of Divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. Prior to seminary, he served in missions with Campus Crusade for Christ in Moscow, Russia.

Kevin's wife, Amber, is a licensed professional counselor. She is a stay-at-home mom who has volunteered with a jail ministry and served as a counselor for women coming out of incarceration.

Kevin and Amber have four children: son Alex, boy/girl twins Braden and Ashleigh, and son Conner.

Come meet the family!

Our Elders

From our members, we've elected leaders to guide the church in all matters spiritual and physical. This Session meets monthly and works with Pastor Kevin McGinnis to decide how to best meet the challenge of presenting God's grace to the world we live in, and to help believers grow in maturity and grace.

Our History

In October 1816 Stephen Bliss and George May, both New England teachers, settled at Decker's Prairie (now Orio). On April 11, 1819 twenty pioneers met at the log cabin of Stephen Bliss to begin the first Sabbath School in the state of Illinois. They also started prayer meetings, reading sermons and other religious articles.
Rev. David Choate Proctor stopped at Mt. Carmel (then know as Palmyra) in 1822 enroute to Missouri from New Hampshire. He learned of the two Presbyterian families on the Prairie. He preached to a gathering and on Tuesday, March 5, 1822 helped organize a church with five members (Stephen and Betsy Bliss, George May, Cyrus and Polly Danforth) called First Presbyterian Church of Edwards County (later Wabash County). Bliss and May were elders.

Writing east for a minister, the Wabash congregation was informed that the ideal man to be their pastor was one of their own members, Mr. Bliss, who had trained for the ministry in his native New England. Bliss was subsequently ordained and had a vigorous and fruitful ministry lasting twenty-five years. (One indication of his strong will and hardiness was his fifty-day 1200-mile walk back to New Hampshire in 1820 to find a bride.)
In 1833 Adam Shepard of New Hampshire settled on land joining the Bliss farm. Shepard and his wife gave two acres of land to be used as a church site and cemetery, where in May, 1837, Mrs. Bliss was buried.

Adam Corrie from Scotland offered $125.00 toward construction and a neat plain building was constructed among the trees in the fall of 1838 using native sandstones for door steps. Rev. Isaac Bennett, of the Pisgah Church, an accomplished builder, helped plan and build the church. This building was used until 1884 when a brick building was erected using local-made bricks.
In 1979 a new manse was built on the same site as the original manse. In 1982 a new sanctuary, was constructed adjacent to the old sanctuary and the entire outside covered with Bedford stone. The old sanctuary was remodeled into a fellowship hall.
The large oak cross on the wall behind the pulpit was installed during the 150 year celebration of the founding of the Wabash Presbyterian Church. It was made from a beam from the old Bliss house as a visual reminder of our history.