Carlton, I’ve been blessed to get to know you over the years, first, through an excellent ThM class that you taught at Westminster on modern theology in 2019, and then through our work together at Reformed Forum. Let’s begin much further back than that, however, with your upbringing in the church. How did you become a Christian and then a confessional Presbyterian?

I grew up in a Christian home in Houston, Texas, where my family attended and I was baptized in First Presbyterian Church, which became a congregation in the PC(USA) denomination but is now a church in ECO. I believe the Lord regenerated me through the ministry of a Sunday school teacher whose name I cannot remember. I have a vague memory of realizing that the gospel was about Christ, that I needed him, and that it was very important for me to trust in him. I was probably five or six years old.

My understanding of Scripture and things of God at a young age came largely through my father, who became very interested in Ligonier Ministries and books by R. C. Sproul. I remember reading The Holiness of God and Chosen by God as a middle schooler, bringing my biblical questions to my dad. His little green leather Bible was often open next to him on his bed (usually with a TableTalk magazine next to it). I spent many evenings lying on that bed, talking with him about the things of God.

Beyond my father’s discipleship and my mother’s example, the Lord very graciously put men in my life who modeled for me Christian love and leadership throughout my time in youth ministry, college, and more formal ministry capacities—first as an intern with Reformed University Fellowship in the PCA then later in seminary and in pastoral ministry.

Not only did I become a believer at a very young age in a Christian home while attending church, but significantly, at the age of twelve, I witnessed my church rent asunder by a debate and ultimately a vote over whether to remain permanently in the then recently formed PC(USA). Six-hundred people, including my family, left that church and formed a church in the EPC, which, incidentally, has since migrated into the PCA.

During those days, I became aware of the significance of orthodox doctrine for the life of the church, and I witnessed its real-world impact on relationships, families, and the spiritual welfare of God’s people. Through my father’s involvement in that controversy, I gained a keen sense that church life could be messy, but it was important. That awareness has only grown over the years.

A confessional Presbyterian identity came much later. As a senior in college on my way to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology at Tenth Presbyterian Church, I stopped at the bookstore at Westminster Theological Seminary and bought my first copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith. I had heard of the Confession but had never read it. The Lord has a little sense of humor because I would later return, obviously, to Westminster as a student then as a professor.

As the years went by, I became more involved in church ministry. I was an intern with Reformed University Fellowship at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and then attended seminary at RTS in Charlotte. It was there that I grew to love systematic theology, and I realized that how important it is for Christians to have a theological structure—revealed in and developed out of the Scriptures—if they are to properly read their Bibles, to think about the Christian life, and to understand the gospel. The Westminster Standards became, for me, the framework in which I would grow in my knowledge of the Scriptures and of the Lord Jesus.

After seminary, I was called back to Dallas to serve as an assistant pastor, but I soon left to study at Westminster. Now I’m back in the pastoral ministry. Through those years, my conviction grew that a confessionally Reformed outlook is not only true and faithful to the Scriptures but also useful and important for believers in the pew.

Amen, brother. There is so much to be thankful for in all that you’ve said. The Lord has led you step by step from one degree of glory to another. What a fitting testimony to his sovereign grace that he would use a faithful Sunday school teacher, whose name you cannot even remember, to bring you the Word of God through which the Spirit gave you a new heart. And he has been faithful to grow you through the preaching of that Word and its reinforcement through family devotions and the example of godly mentors in the faith.

Maybe I could add that one of the most significant mentors in that long line of men the Lord has placed in my life is Dr. Lane Tipton, well-known to Reformed Forum readers and listeners. When I arrived in Philadelphia from Texas, Lane and I started meeting on a fairly regular basis. For years, he patiently listened to me spout what I thought I understood and then graciously and gently dialogued with me to smooth out and solidify what I would call the “wet cement” that remained in my theological outlook. To change the metaphor slightly, he helped to fortify in me many of the steel-beam structures of Reformed, confessional, and covenantal Christianity with a focus on the death and resurrection of Christ. Maybe best of all, he’s really shown me that the deepest friendships are grounded in a joyful, clear-eyed sharing of theological conviction in the love of Christ.

That’s beautiful to have such a brother in arms and so many other saints who have encouraged you in the faith. How do you now as a family man, as a head of a household, strive to carry on their legacy by discipling the next generation in Christ? Introduce us to your family life and tell us how the Lord is working in your lives to mature you in all in Christ.  

I’d be glad to. I’m married to my wonderful wife, Linley, for twenty-one years. We met in college where she became a believer. At every step of the way since, she has devoted herself not only to me but also increasingly to the church and to the raising of our three fabulous boys, ages sixteen, fourteen, and twelve. What we try to do in our home is to make the grace and truth of the Lord part of the warp and woof of everyday life.

Since our boys were babies, we have tried to think and live in terms of a Christian worldview—from my wife taking them to the park, showing them flowers and animals, to doing family devotions and reading from theologians that other children probably don’t hear read in their homes very much. By God’s grace, they’re very patient with me and are willing to listen and even to take an interest in theological and apologetic matters. Of course, that’s a great joy to me. Like John says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” [3 John 1:4]. All three of my sons are communing members of our church here in Atlanta, and it’s just a delight to be their dad.

My serving as a pastor and teacher brings unique privileges to our family. Among the privileges are all the ways that the church and seminary world have introduced our family to friends, books, and voices that we would otherwise never have encountered. And yet, as children of any pastor knows, there are unique challenges as well. Thankfully, the church where I serve loves and cares for our family as any other family. I think our boys would freely acknowledge that our commitment to the church and to Christ is not some performance but born out of the Lord’s design and his grace to each one of us.

Indeed. God has been gracious to you not only as a family man but also as a churchman, even an ordained servant in the PCA. What is your current pastoral call? How is the Lord building up the saints in your midst through the ordinary means of grace, particularly the preaching of the Word?

It’s my great joy to serve as the associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Our church has deep roots in the PCA; it was the host of the original convocation of sessions that helped organize the launch of the PCA back in the 1970s. The church itself was started in 1901. I was called to serve on the pastoral staff in the heart of COVID in 2020. The original and continuing plan was for me to serve in a preaching, teaching, and shepherding function—preaching at our Sunday evening services and working closely with our senior pastor, Aaron Messner. All of it has been, as Lane Tipton says, “an unqualified delight.”

Week to week, I lead in worship, teach a Sunday School class (currently working very slowly through the Westminster Confession of Faith), and preach at our evening service. We also have a gathering on Wednesday evenings, where the pastors share a teaching load. Currently, we’re teaching a series on eschatology, which will lead into a study of the book of Revelation.

I also have the great privilege of promoting good Christian literature among our congregation. I help out with a “book of the month” initiative, where on the first Wednesday evening of the month, we take a break from our normal teaching series, and I give a presentation and lead a discussion on a classic or helpful work of theology. So far, we’ve done everything from Augustine’s Confessions to R. C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation to Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism. And we just started Jonathan Landry Cruse’s What Happens When We Worship.

During the week, I meet with people for lunch, do premarital counseling and, of course, weddings and funerals—and all the wonderful opportunities that the Lord opens up through pastoral ministry to minister to the Lord’s people. Over the years, I’ve grown to love the flock in Atlanta, and I am increasingly thankful for the opportunity to preach and teach God’s Word to them. On the side, I teach about three classes a year at the Atlanta campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. Currently, I’m teaching a class titled Christ, Culture, and Contextualization. I also have the privilege of teaching apologetics and on the Westminster Standards.

Along the lines of your work in the seminary, we know that it’s fitting for a professor to be researching, writing, and producing new scholarship. Are you working on any new books or articles in conjunction with your labors in the local church or RTS?

Brother, I envy those who can find time to research and write while being full-time engaged in full-time pastoral ministry! I find a little bit of time each week, but even that’s been a struggle. Nevertheless, I continue to work on a book on covenant theology and baptism, which has been a thrill and a trial at the same time. I’ll be thankful when that project is finished. But it’s been a blessing to reflect on the topics of covenant and baptism for the past couple of years. The doctrine of the covenant embraces the whole Christian life and all of human history. And I believe that baptism as a sign of the covenant of grace is likewise a window into the full scope of redemptive history with so many implications for the Christian and for the church.

Amen. I’m looking forward to a taste of some of the fruits of your years of labor on the subject of baptism at our upcoming theology conference where we’ll be unpacking the ordinary means of grace that God uses for extraordinary ends. How did you first get to know about Reformed Forum? And other than your participation at our conference, how are you actively engaged in promoting our Colossians 1:28 mission as a faculty member?

Well, thanks, brother. It’s been an honor to be involved in the work of Reformed Forum. I first started listening to Christ the Center when I was a pastor in Dallas and a very fresh MDiv graduate. I don’t know how I found it, but I do remember one thing—going to Best Buy and buying the longest extension cord for earphones that I could find. We had an elliptical machine in my small study space at home, and I took some duct tape and taped that long extension from the elliptical around to the side of my desk and up to my laptop to plug it in so that I could listen to Christ the Center while exercising. That’s how I got to know Camden and Reformed Forum. For years, I listened to those interviews. I eventually stumbled upon Lane Tipton’s lectures on union with Christ. I still remember where I was when he walked through the benefits of our salvation as laid up in the person of Christ, explaining how the benefits are not abstracted from the Benefactor. I had zero idea that these guys whom I was listening to would eventually become my good friends. My meager contributions to Reformed Forum began when I came to Westminster [Theological Seminary] to study and participated in one or two interviews as a student. The next formal step was when Lane, Camden, and I began recording the Van Til group, walking through The Defense of the Faith, which has been a great joy. I love talking Van Til with those guys. We need to be more regular with our recordings, but life is busy! Now I have the great privilege of serving as a faculty member with Reformed Academy, contributing a course on Calvin’s Institutes. And I’m looking forward to my first Reformed Forum conference in Chicago this month [September 2024]. So, I’m a big fan of Reformed Forum. And I’m not alone; it’s exciting to hear our church members talk about Reformed Forum’s podcasts and courses. Many of them found Reformed Forum apart from knowing me, so it’s encouraging to see the reach and the influence that the ministry is having today.

I can confirm from all my time on the road, whether at the PCA GA or on the conference circuit, that folks are appreciative of your own labors through Reformed Forum. There’s lots of anticipation for your next course on Calvin’s Institutes, Books 3–4, for example. We’ll have to find a time to bring you back to the studio in 2025 to finish that series. As we look to the future, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, how might our readers remember you, your family, your church, and all your labors in the Lord in prayer?

Ah, yes! I’d love to finish the course. We can’t leave out Calvin on union with Christ! In terms of prayers, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Lord would enable me to be faithful in the ordinary things—loving my wife, raising my boys, preaching faithfully the Word. I just finished preaching through the Gospel of John, and I’ve picked back up in the book of Proverbs. So, I would ask for prayer that I would be a faithful preacher of Christ, a zealous teacher of God’s Word, and a loving shepherd of God’s people.

Secondly, I would appreciate prayer for overall physical stamina. The Lord’s been very merciful in giving me energy and strength. But I don’t mind sharing that my father gave me one of his kidneys back in 2006. Like many, I feel the weakness of the outer man in unique ways as we maintain a watchful eye on my own health, and I would appreciate prayer that the Lord would sustain me for many years before I go to glory. That is definitely my hope and my plan.

And thirdly, please pray that the Lord would enable our church in Atlanta and the church at large to persevere in fellowship with Christ through suffering with a heart-stirring heavenly vision of our inheritance in Christ.

Lane, I’m familiar with your background and how you came to know the Lord, but it’s always a joy to hear of the old, old story of the gospel and how the Lord brings the finished work of Christ to bear effectually upon his people. Would you tell us how you were converted and then eventually became a minister in the OPC?

I grew up in a Southern Baptist home. My mother was a devout and godly woman. Her parents were both wonderful Christians. My father was not a believer, but my mother would have us attend worship with her every Sunday morning. From the earliest time I can remember, I was sitting under the gospel, but I did not accept and embrace it. After I hit about age 13, my mom did not require me to go to church but gave me the opportunity to either go or not go, and I decided I wouldn’t go. I went through my junior high and high school years without really going to church at all, without attending any worship services at all. I played a year of football on a scholarship out of Tascosa at Eastern New Mexico State University. I was thinking about pursuing a law degree and thought when I came home that summer that it would be a really wise thing to read my Bible and get a little bit of familiarity with the Judeo-Christian ethic, given the fact that I was wanting to pursue law.

I turned to Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees almost instantly where he was denouncing them in Matthew 23 and following for being whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones. I recognized that he was speaking in his word to me, and that I was in danger of the judgment. A few days later on a Sunday morning, I turned on the television, and a man was preaching on Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement. He then talked about the blood of a sacrificial offering, a sin offering, being brought into the most holy place and satisfying the wrath of God. He talked about a scapegoat, having the sins of Israel confessed over its head and being driven outside the camp, bearing away the guilt of God’s people. He said these were types of Jesus. And I instantly recognized that my release from my sin, and my fear, and my guilt, and my burden was found in the wrath-propitiating, blood sacrifice of Jesus who bore away my sin. I saw instantly in that typology that Jesus was like the scapegoat, who had taken my sin away from me as far as the east is from the west. He had shed his blood for my sin and satisfied God’s wrath. And I repented of my sin; I asked the Lord to forgive me. I was elated. I thought, goodness, how could I have not seen this all of these years? I instantly told my mom who just came into the room and was weeping tears of joy. She had been praying for this for 19 years. And the Paul Harvey aspect of the story is that of all people to preach that sermon, it happened to be Jimmy Swaggart, believe that or not.

So I was converted and within a few months had found my way toward the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I had received through some men, who were in Amarillo at the time, interested in Reformed theology, some literature that led me toward the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. As I read systematic theologies—Louis Berkhof, some B. B. Warfield, a little bit of Van Til—I was very quickly led by conviction to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I came to appreciate immensely Machen’s commitment to the spirituality of the church, his critique of liberalism as a different religion, the militancy of the OPC, its self-conscious embrace of being a pilgrim people, maintaining faithfulness to the gospel, not seeking cultural influence or affluence, but seeking rather to worship the Lord as engaged pilgrims, taking every thought captive, making it obedient to Christ, seeking the things above by faith, entering Sabbath rest, and being concerned most of all for the worship of the Triune God and giving a consistent, faithful witness to the world and calling all men and women, boys and girls everywhere to repent. That sent me on a path toward going to seminary.

It was a strangely quick movement from my conversion to pursuing the OPC and coming to a profound appreciation of Machen and his militancy and humility, and the church as it has been called by Charlie Dennison, “the church of the brokenhearted,” the church that mourns. This is not the norm, this kind of policy and worship and doctrine and this heavenly-mindedness. I have been in the OPC years and years now. I joined the Abilene congregation in 1989, if my memory serves, so it’s been a while.

I rejoice to hear of the Lord’s grace in your life afresh, not only that he was pleased to raise you from the deadness of your sin, but to grant you such rapid growth and maturity, even that you would see Christ in all of Scripture from day one and then dive right away into the deep end of Reformed theology with Machen and all the greats. This is truly a wonderful grace and profound mercy. I’d love to hear about the Lord’s gracious work in your family, as well. Would you introduce us to the Tiptons and share with us how the Lord is leading you all through this current season of life?

I met my wife, Charlene, when I came back from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She has five uncles who have been or still are Orthodox Presbyterian ministers. We met in Abilene, Texas in 1992. About 10 months later, we were married. Everyone was saying, you guys need to get married. And I was all excited about us—you didn’t have to encourage me! She’s a beautiful, godly, intelligent, wonderful woman. Soon after that, we went to seminary, Westminster California. And by the time 1998 came around, we had our first child, Lauren; a few years later, Lyle; a few years after that, Trevor; a few years after that, Katie or Kaitlyn. And so we have four children. The oldest, Lauren, is now married. Lyle and Trevor are at Geneva playing basketball. And I will admit, tearing it up, and I’m very thankful for that. They’re godly young men walking with the Lord. Katie is class president just flourishing at Phil-Mont school founded by Cornelius Van Til. It’s all worked out in an amazing way.  Char and I are coming up on our 30th anniversary this next year. She works in the OPC home offices. She has been working there for several years now and does a fantastic job.

We’ve been here in Glenside since 1998, and it’s wonderful. I’m serving at Trinity OPC in Easton. It’s about 50 minutes from here. The family is doing great. They are a delight to my heart. They love the Lord and are all flourishing. I am so thankful. I’ve joked around before; I’ll adapt it, transpose it into this: I’m the George Bailey of Glenside, brother. I am just so thankful, so happy, and so richly blessed to have this family. They are, outside of the Lord, just the truest and purest joy of my heart.

Now as long as you mentioned Phil-Mont Academy and Van Til, I’ve got to ask, did you and Char have a devotional yet over that 1961 Van Til editorial I shared with you? The one that was published by Willow Grove Christian Day School, “The Whole Armour of God”?

Not yet. But talk about a letter that just states all that my wife has said before! Char has said before a number of times that she loves obviously loves Van Til. She and I married in part around a passionate commitment to Christian education. When I was in seminary out in California, Char taught at a Christian school. She taught years before that in Reformed Christian schools. She is just a fantastic teacher. We homeschooled our children. But when we first met, she and I read Van Til’s Essays on Christian Education as devotional literature and would marvel at the wonderful, robust, Reformed Trinitarianism, and Covenant Theology, and antithesis, and understanding of common grace, and the proper and indispensable role of Christian education from a Reformed world-and-life view. We fell in love around that. And so when we came to the Philadelphia area, and Phil-Mont was within ten minutes of our house, founded by Van Til—it’s just wonderful. So we’ll get around to that essay. I’m sure we’ll have numbers of discussions about it. Char has said, and I agree in certain ways with this, that Van Til might be at his very best when he’s talking about Christian education. You know, there’s a lot of “best” about Van Til, but one of his brightest points is talking about a consistently Reformed theological education for covenant children.

I couldn’t agree more. Now, you mentioned that you’re currently serving as pastor of Trinity OPC in Easton, Pennsylvania. What is your beloved congregation like and how is the Lord using the ordinary means of grace to gather and perfect the saints at Trinity?

I’ve been at Trinity in Easton for around a decade. Right before I arrived, the pastor left to join the Roman Catholic communion, which was a devastating blow to the congregation. For the past decade, I’ve had the unparalleled privilege of pastoring and shepherding and encouraging the saints in their walk with the Lord. As I said, apart from the Lord, my family is my chief delight, but just right in there, just as an unqualified delight is the service of the saints at Trinity. The elders, Charlie DeBoer, Joe Olliff, Luke DeBoer, Ian Parkin—a dear brother passed away about a year ago, went to be with the Lord—serving alongside those dear brothers in such a loving and giving congregation has been an oasis in the wilderness for me. I have delighted in my service, to know and love the congregation, to preach, teach, and serve alongside those brothers on the Session. The congregation over the years has grown to be what I would consider now to be a thriving, vibrant congregation filled with delightful people. I don’t want to overuse the George Bailey allusion, so I’ll change here, but I’ve been spoiled. And there is no end in sight from my side in terms of the service there. It continues to be an increasing joy for me. To see the way the Lord blesses through slow, steady, self-conscious means of grace, through Word and sacrament, through visiting and getting to know them as brothers and sisters in the Lord, walking beside them, bearing burdens, turning them to the sufferings and the comfort that are in Jesus Christ. I’ve always wanted to be a pastor; I was never initially aspiring to be a professor. And the Lord has granted me one of the deepest desires of my heart. Once again, I’m just so thankful for it.

That is tremendous, brother. To follow up for those who don’t know, who is George Bailey? And would your elaborate a bit upon what you’re preaching and teaching through these days and share any particular insights you might have from your studies in the Word?

If you remember, Jimmy Stewart played George Bailey in an all-time Christmas classic, It’s A Wonderful Life. And the long story short is that he finds that the money, the influence, the opportunity for notoriety, that all of those things pale mightily in comparison to having a group of people, family and friends, who gather around and love you and rejoice when you rejoice and mourn when you mourn. I don’t want to spoil it in case there are some younger folks out there who haven’t seen it, but at the end of the movie, when everyone’s coming into the house, doing something that’s just beautiful—I can’t resist the analogy. It’s delightful, whether it’s you brothers at Reformed Forum, whether it’s a number of dear brothers throughout the world, my loving family, the dear congregation, the Lord has just blessed me. And so I really do mean it, partly as a joke, but partly true: I’m like the George Bailey of Glenside, brother. I’m very thankful for it.

I’ve been preaching for some time on the book of Ephesians. I took about a one-year break and did some work on Hebrews 12 during the pandemic to talk about the unshakable kingdom. No matter what happens in this world, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Over the past several months, I’ve been preaching through the armor of God and Ephesians 6, which is Christ, and have looked at how that armor is fundamentally putting on Christ, his ordinances, his Word, his Spirit, and by faith rising up with his people to fight against the principalities and powers of this present evil age, to set forth the truth of the gospel and its antithetical, full-orbed glory, and to recognize that no matter what happens in terms of the escalation of evil around us in the culture or in the world, Jesus Christ has established his Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it because the Lord who is our armor has gone before us, destroyed his and our enemies and is in the process of making them a footstool for his feet, which will reach its climax in his glorious, visible second coming.

It’s been a delight to preach through that that book, and I’m kind of coming up on the end of it. You never know; I can’t ever calculate how many more sermons are in the hopper for it. But we’re moving toward the end of the Ephesians 6, and it has been an unusually rich feast for me to preach through. You think you understand the text until you work on it week in and week out for weeks, months, or years, and so it has been peculiarly rich for me. I’ve been very encouraged doing it. Of course, I have—I don’t want to diminish any other congregations in the world—but I might have the most patient and loving congregation in the OPC. They have stayed through it all, and we’ve taken a slow, careful look at that text and just feasted on the Christ who is revealed in it. It’s been a delight.

Now you’re a bit unusual as a minister in the OPC because you not only have the privilege of preaching twice every Lord’s day and doing Sunday school and visitation and serving the saints in Easton, but you’re also a Fellow of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Reformed Forum. How are you actively engaged in the Colossians 1:28 mission of Reformed Forum in that particular capacity?

Let me begin by saying Reformed Forum has been and always will be a pure labor of love for me. You do not find anything like it anymore. In the past, there were some that were striving for this, but the combination of militancy and love, distinctive commitments to the Confession, Van Til, Vos Kline, and the development of what you might call the old Westminster theology or the first generation OPC theology, enriched by people like Kline, Gaffin, Strimple, and others—that’s unique to Reformed Forum. The ministry is so distinctive, while at the same time not succumbing to these biblicist, mutualist perversions that you find in the evangelical and ostensibly “Reformed” world of contemporary vintage in the last 20 years. At Reformed Forum you’ve got a catholic, Reformed, robust ministry of Reformed theology with Colossians 1:28 as the mission, seeking to present everyone mature in Christ.

My service, whether it pertains to the Reformed Academy and teaching courses on Van Til, Reformed Forum conferences—we’ve got one coming up that I’m so excited I can barely contain myself over—or the books that I’ve been graciously given the opportunity to write for Reformed Forum—Foundations of Covenant Theology, the Van Til book [The Trinitarian Theology of Cornelius Van Til], and several on the way—all continues to be a joy in the Lord. I don’t feel like in any of this that I’m working. I’m serving with joy, gladness, and peace and would not want to be anywhere in the whole world serving in except Reformed Forum. So again, I said about pastoring that the Lord’s given me the desire of my heart. Serving with Reformed Forum, though, it’s just been a delight that the Lord has brought. There are people that I won’t mention by name, but they have engaged in extraordinary giving and continue to give in ways that astound me to enable this kind of ministry. They have my deepest gratitude and admiration in the Lord. So, brother, as long as the Lord continues to cause Reformed Forum to flourish, and I have the ability and capacity and strength to serve, the duty is delight. They go right together.

To have over 3800 students in 75 countries involved at Reformed Forum, and to see it exploding in terms of worldwide outreach and ministry and serving the global church so profoundly, that especially gives me unbridled joy in the Lord. I pray that the Lord will continue making Reformed Forum this growing servant of the universal, worldwide Church. I love everything about Reformed Forum, but that, in particular, really is close to my heart to be able to serve brothers and sisters in different countries, under great persecution, who otherwise don’t have access to this kind of theology. To be able to serve them with rich, Reformed theology in the way that Reformed Form enables, and with the quality in terms of the platform and the presentation, as men committed to the deeper Protestant conception, it’s very exciting. I’m thankful to be a part of it, and I’m thankful to see the way the Lord has been blessing it. I’ve been amazed at the way that the Lord is causing Reformed Forum’s ministry to explode throughout the world. And it’s all of the Lord, so we give him glory.

In terms of that worldwide explosion, would you at liberty to share about any of the work that you’ve done with our brethren in China or Cambodia?

I’ll give you just one example. I’ve had an opportunity with a dear brother to talk to numbers of brothers in China, engaging in the training of pastors. I’ve taught a course to brothers in the Lord who are serving and pastoring. I just recently recorded some sermons that will be a part of a conference coming up, and I believe that there are going to be around 1200 people attending. For the last decade, I’ve had opportunities pre-COVID to go to Hong Kong to engage in service of these Chinese brothers and sisters. I can just testify to this: the Lord is giving them extraordinary grace and deep conviction. If Reformed theology in seminaries in this country is on the decline, which it is, and if the broad evangelicalism of this country is strangling true piety and vibrant doctrine, which it is, if liberalism and Barth and the post-conservative evangelical, post-liberal movements are divesting the system of doctrine of its vitality and substance, which it is—as you see a relative decline in the West, these brothers are on fire. The persecution that they are receiving is only causing more and more joy and vigor and militancy to make Christ known and to have an opportunity to serve. I’m going to stop because this gets me choked up, brother, but to have the honor and the privilege to serve such brothers whose hearts are so clearly cruciform and cross-stamped, serving the Lord, not seeking treasure on Earth but in heaven, it’s amazing. That opportunity and ongoing attempts to partner with those brothers, it’s just a delight.

Amen, brother. What you’re saying resonates in a peculiar way with me as I’ve had the great joy of regularly corresponding and working with many brothers and sisters in mainland China and Taiwan through our Reformed Academy. I’m consistently blown away by how they are willing to joyfully lay their lives down for the gospel. They often suffer much hardship for the sake of our Savior in their families and work, and yet at the end of the day, they still have the Spirit-wrought energy and zeal do the difficult work of translation and subtitle correction for us at Reformed Forum. They labor for nothing but for the glory of God and to see the riches of the Reformed faith flourish in their land. I’m truly in awe of what the Lord is pleased to do in bringing Reformed Forum these connections with saints that weren’t on my radar, but they were on the Lord’s radar. He is bringing the Church, his global family, together even while the world is at war. Chinese believers and Western believers are loving one another and are growing unto perfection in Christ.

It is of the Lord. They are the dearest of brothers and sisters, so praise the Lord for them.

As we come to the close of our interview, how might our friends and supporters around the world pray for you and your ministry?

I really appreciate you asking. Pray for my wife to continue to flourish and for our relationship to grow; for my children to continue to flourish and walk with the Lord as they’re doing; for faithfulness in ministry at Trinity, preservation of the elders and growth of the congregation. Pray also for the work at Reformed Forum to move forward with people recognizing that we give all of our resources up front for free. Pray that the Lord would raise up people to support Reformed Forum’s work so that this global outreach, these 3800 plus students from 75 countries, could continue to be served. Pray that the Lord would make Reformed Forum faithful in serving the church and not be distracted by any other mission outside of the mission of Colossians 1:28, to seek to present everyone mature in Christ through the presentation of what the Scriptures teach as received and expounded and enriched in our Reformed confessional tradition. Prayer along all those lines, and that the Lord would make me personally faithful in love and in truth for the sake of Christ would be deeply appreciated.