Topic Archives: Pastoral Biography

I. Valera Oichanko has been leading the work in Tiumen very successfully for the past eighteen months. Here is his latest report. We are very glad to be able to share with you the experiences and blessings we have had in our service for the Lord in Tiumen. We also thank you for your prayers […]

I hope never to forget the night the Lord brought my soul out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the gospel. It was on a Lord’s Day evening. I went in the morning to the house of God in a very distressed state of mind, and remained so all day. The preaching only tended […]

[Canadian pastor Robert Widdowson has in the past decade made a journey from being an unregenerate liberal minister to believing and preaching the doctrines of grace, and in a recent interview with John Van Dyk, the editor of Christian Renewal, he described the steps of this long pilgrimage (Christian Renewal November 24, 2010).] The United […]

This interview is with a retired minister of the Free Reformed Churches of North America (FRCNA), the Rev Henry Van Essen and his wife, Engelina. It took place in their home on Thursday, August 11, 2010. Rev and Mrs Van Essen live in a ‘granny suite’ that’s part of the home of Walter and Marsha […]

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of the martyr John Bradford (1510-55). As a broken-hearted sinner, a self-condemning saint, a firm believer, a man of prayer, a sharp reprover of sin, a preacher with power, a comforter of others and a staunch martyr ‘for Christ’s gospel’s sake’ (his own words), Bradford was […]

The Rev. Arthur W. Kuschke, Jr., passed into glory at his home on July 1, 2010 at the age of 96. A native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Mr. Kuschke graduated from Wheaton College in 1936, after which he earned the Th.B. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. Ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1940, […]

This is the final section of a paper given at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 2008. Its full title was, ‘James Fraser of Alness and the Preaching of the Gospel’. The previous two sections were: (1) James Fraser, the Man, and (2) James Fraser’s Magnum Opus.1 3. James Fraser […]

The first section of this paper, given at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 2008, dealt with ‘James Fraser, the Man’, and can be found here. The third and final part – ‘James Fraser as preacher and on Preaching’ – can be found here.1 2. His Magnum Opus The great […]

On 12 September,1983, the Rev. William Still, Gilcomston South Church, Aberdeen, universally recognized as the senior parish minister, both in years and influence, among evangelicals in the Church of Scotland, gave the following address to some fifty ministers at an In-Service course of his denomination, convened at St Andrews. The address was published in The […]

A paper given at the Theological Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 2008. Its full title was, ‘James Fraser of Alness and the Preaching of the Gospel’. The subject was divided into three sections: (1) James Fraser, the Man; (2) James Fraser’s Magnum Opus, and (3) James Fraser as Preacher and on […]

John Newton first went to sea at the age of just 11. His godly mother had died when he was only 6 and his father was a ship’s captain. After that first voyage he kept on going to sea, and over the years he had many adventures and many difficulties, but his own foolishness lay […]

Thomas Scott1, the commentator, that holy man of God, in The Force of Truth2 (which is his personal testimony), says Till the 16th year of my age, I do not remember that I ever was under any serious conviction . . . but about my 16th year I began to see that I was a […]

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. (Proverbs 31:10) Richard Baxter, the tireless, heavenly minded Puritan minister of the seventeenth century, was a confirmed bachelor,1 devoting himself completely to the ministry of the gospel in Kidderminster, England. When going there in 1641 the parish was notorious for godlessness and […]

During this year [2009] of commemoration of John Calvin and the many discussions of his remarkable work for the Lord, one element of his ministry has been neglected. Calvin was a counsellor – par excellence. I have just read through all of his letters as they were carefully collected, edited, and published by the Parker […]

An extract, with slight editing, from Memoirs of the Rev James Fraser of Brea.1 Being at the University, and being at the age of 17 or 18 years, our minister proposed to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, of which he gave warning the Sabbath preceding the celebration thereof. I purposed (I know not […]

The Lord has given and now the Lord has taken away one of the most faithful, and fruitful ministers of the Word who has ever served in the Church of Christ. On 12 March, 2009, James Philip was called out of this life and into the nearer presence of the God whom he loved and […]

Until the age of twenty-six I knew nothing of vital religion, although I lived an outwardly religious, moral and respectable life . . . Brought up under sacramental teaching, I was totally in the dark concerning the grace of God, although . . . I realize that he was leading me all the time. To […]

Jeremy Brooks is the recently appointed Director of Ministries at the Protestant Truth Society, for whom I work on a part-time basis. We discuss his new role and matters of Protestant interest. GD: Hello Jeremy Brooks and welcome to ‘Exiled Preacher’. Please tell us a little about yourself. JB: Hi Guy, and thank you for […]

This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of Bavinck’s Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the appearance in English of the final volume of his four-volumed Reformed Dogmatics1. The time is ripe, therefore, to get (re)acquainted with Bavinck. Bavinck’s Early Life and Education Herman Bavinck was born in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands, on December 13, […]

Although the name of Herman Bavinck may be unfamiliar to some readers, his labours have probably affected all those reading these lines. Bavinck’s legacy to the Reformed world, like that of his contemporary, Abraham Kuyper, was disproportionate to the size of his native Netherlands. I write these lines on the eighty-seventh anniversary of Bavinck’s death […]

Matthew Else, the pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Peel, in the Isle of Man received his homecall on 18th May 2008 after a very short illness. His sudden death came as a great shock to his family, and his passing leaves a huge gap in the life and work of his church and its associated […]

[On Saturday 14th June 2008 the graduation took place of the London Theological Seminary, and at the end there was a service of thanksgiving for the retiring principal Philip Eveson who for decades has been the resident tutor at the Seminary, the pastor for years of the adjoining Kensit Church and then for a long […]

Philip Eveson is Principal Emeritus of the London Theological Seminary. GD: Hello Philip Henry Eveson, please tell us a little about yourself. PHE: Hello Guy. It was good to meet up with you, Sarah and the children last Saturday at the LTS End of Year Service and the special service for my retirement as Principal.1 […]

John E Marshall – Life and Writings1 is published by the Banner of Truth Trust and most of the book is taken up with a selection of papers delivered at various conferences. These papers begin with one on John Rogers, the first martyr in England during the time of Queen Mary. It ends with a […]

I was somewhat hesitant in writing this review of John R. Muether’s Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman (CVTRAC) since I fear that you, the reader, could have devoured three-quarters of this biography of Cornelius Van Til (CVT) in the time it took you to read my review. (This assumes, among other things, the […]