at the opening of the legislative day 15. It was gratifying to see that so many of our state legislators are open to receiving spiritual input at the opening of their work days.
Mentors Looking back over the decades, one comes to realize one’ s indebtedness to others, particularly the role they have played in molding one’ s character and convictions. Two of the most important of my spiritual mentors passed from the scene in 2016. Dr. Hughes O. Old, who basically taught me everything I know about worship, died in May. First his books, then his classes at Erskine Theological Seminary, 2004-08, in Due West, S. C., were invaluable resources as I plunged deeper and deeper into the subject of Reformed worship. Worshipping with Calvin( 2014) and Serving with Calvin( 2015), Contemporary Worship( 2014) and Reformed Worship( 2015) all owe a huge debt to Dr. Old.
Rev. J. Alec Motyer, the Principle of Trinity College, Bristol, England, and Lecturer in Old Testament while I was a student there in 1977-79, died in August. I have never known a more godly man, or one who loved God’ s word more( especially in Hebrew) than did Mr. Motyer. I wrote remembrances for both of them for the Reformation21 website( you can find them at: www. reformation21. org).
Family 2016 was another year of milestones for the Johnsons. Ben, our youngest, turned 21; our oldest, Drew, married Caroline Boatright in January; Abby, our second daughter, graduated from the Univ. of GA in May and took a teaching job in Atlanta at the Wesleyan School; Sam, our Marine, returned from deployment in Kuwait in April; our first grandchild, Audrey Boone Girgis, was born in Milwaukee in July to Sally and Peter, whom I was privileged to baptize in October. Most milestonish of all, Emily turned 50 in March!
Looking ahead After 30 years I still feel the need to fully utilize our facility. We have a thousand seats. We should fill every one of them. For me, it’ s a matter of stewardship. We are centrally located to all of greater Savannah’ s 250-300,000 people. We have a beautiful, large meeting house. We have well-ordered worship services. Let’ s fill our church.
Millennials The rising generation is proving to be challenging. They, more than any other demographic, have been shaped by the blessings and curses of the internet and social media. Tim Shaw’ s ministry to our postcollege career group through the Thursday night Bible study and New Covenant Sunday School class has been heartening. He is reaching 30 to 40 20-somethings every week. Still, more needs to be done if we are to continue to grow or even maintain our ministry in the 21 st century. We must reach young singles and couples if we are to survive as a church.
College We continue to struggle in this area. We support the local RUF financially, facility use and otherwise, but the undergraduate attendance has waned in recent years and we still desire a greater impact on local campuses. We find ourselves surrounded by 13,000 SCAD students – further afield are Savannah State, Armstrong, South, and others. We continue to pray for wisdom and guidance as we seek to do this work. As a matter of stewardship, if nothing else, we must reach these students with the gospel and see them incorporated into the life of the church.
Impacting Savannah When I was interviewed by the pulpit committee in 1986, I asked,“ Who is doing the John MacArthurtype verse-by-verse preaching in Savannah?” The answer they gave was, no one. This was only partially correct because there was some expository preaching going on in the PCA’ s four churches.“ What about
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