Senior Minister
Terry L. Johnson
“ Thirty Years”
Thirty years as the senior minister of the Independent Presbyterian Church were completed as of December 31, 2016. It has become cliché to lament how the time passes so quickly. Thirty years is a long time. Yet to me, it doesn’ t seem so long ago. Can it really be 30 years ago that Emily and I were married? That we candidated for the pulpit of I. P. C? That the pulpit committee, Session, and Trustees voted unanimously to call a 31 year-old assistant minister and his 20 year-old bride to lead the congregation? How young we were, and naïve, and foolish … and grateful.
Looking back The early years in Savannah were both exciting and rough. We grew rapidly, adding lots of new members. Yet I have also termed these the“ seven years ' war.” We weathered those storms, brought five children into the world, nurtured and educated them, and now our nest is empty. About what am I most thankful? I trust you won’ t think me vain for listing them, as all the glory goes to God and none to his feeble servants.
* tone – that after 30 years I. P. C. is essentially a happy and healthy congregation. Though trials and disappointments have and will continue to come, we are a growing and God-honoring church. We are blessed with an exceptional concentration of merciful, gracious, thoughtful, sensitive, loving people.
* attendance – that we have raised the average Sunday morning attendance from the low 200’ s to over 500, and tripled and quadrupled the Sunday School and Sunday evening attendance. Attendance is only one measure of impact, but it is an important one. It is unsatisfactory that we’ ve been on the Sunday AM 500 plateau for eleven years, but it is a healthy number.
* means – that we have placed God’ s word at the center of our congregational assemblies: – we’ ve preached 46 books of the Bible – we’ ve read a chapter of the Bible in each service, having now read together 63 of 66 books of the Bible – we’ ve sung at least one psalm in every service, two every Sunday – we’ ve administered the Lord’ s Supper monthly – we’ ve been content to have a simple, unostentatious, word-centered ministry
* church planting – that we have planted or played a significant role in planting seven churches in our area( Golden Isles, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Kirk, Grace Church, Beaufort, Bluffton) and five elsewhere in the nation. The Savannah area churches had a combined Sunday morning of 750 in 2016, 50 % attendance greater than ours downtown. This may somewhat explain our own attendance plateau.
* auxiliary ministries – that we started RUF at SCAD back in the fall of 1996 when we approached the presbytery asking,“ We want to do college ministry through RUF. Are you interested?” They jumped at the opportunity, we provided much of the funding, and the ministry thrived, especially under Tom Cannon and Michael Gordon. Still today RUF is reaching about 50 students a week with the gospel and we continue to partner with them by providing funding and facility use. Our hope is that this ministry will continue to grow and prosper. – that we have encouraged the efforts of Veritas Academy to provide a classical Christian education in Savannah since it started in 1997, channeling Jenkins foundation funds in its support and allowing use of our facilities. After a failed attempt by some of our members to start a Christian school in the late 1980’ s and early 1990’ s( the old Westminster School) and after Providence School eliminated its tie to the Reformed Faith, it is encouraging to see Veritas thriving today. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the existence of the Habersham
2