Young Men Study The Reformed Pastor

The NCFIC interns and some of the young men from Hope Baptist, accompanied me to a pastor's conference this weekend, titled “The Reformed Pastor.” Held at Springs of Life Bible Church, the conference featured speakers, Andy Davis, Sam Waldron, and Nathan Finn at Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Durham. It was hosted by pastor Stan Geyer and produced by the people of the church, who furnished facilities and wonderful meals for us. The conference included biographies of Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, Andrew Fuller, and Charles Spurgeon. It provided a wonderful view of pastoral leadership from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. The thematic thread in my mind was the defense of the gospel through the diversity of pastoral gifts and roles. Baxter was the quintessential pastor. Edwards: Scholar and evangelist. Fuller: Defending biblical evangelism and arguing against hyper-Calvinism and decisional regeneration. Spurgeon: pastor evangelist. I wanted to bring these young men with me to this pastor's conference because I wanted them to soak for a while in the biographies of men who were faithful to Christ early in life, and who redeemed the time in the days of their youth. I wanted them to see and understand a vision for godly pastoral leadership in the church.