Senior Minister
Terry L. Johnson
Beginnings and Ends
I wrote extensively about the completion of 30 years as the senior minister of I.P.C. in the 2016 Annual
Report. 1 We celebrated the 30 th anniversary on October 22, 2017 in a beautiful, understated and
wonderful morning of events that included my whole family. Amy Martin and her committee did an
excellent job of pulling together all the moving parts and making it a day to remember. The perspective
from this year’s Annual Report will be that of 2017 as the beginning of the second block of 30 years, a
time of beginnings and ends.
Ends
Two extensive sermon series came to an end in 2017. We completed the Gospel of Luke, a series that
began November 21, 2010 and completed February 5, 2017. Over seven years were required to complete
the longest book in the New Testament. The completion of Luke also marked the completion of a 30-year
project. It began on May 5, 1987 with the Gospel of Mark. My goal from the beginning for our
congregation included preaching the four gospels plus Acts on Sunday mornings. It took 30 years, but the
goal was reached.
Mark – 1987-1989
Acts – 1990-1992
John – 1992-1996
Matthew – 1998-2006
Luke – 2010-2017
The only significant disruption to the Gospels/Acts pattern occurred in 2006-2010 when we preached
through 1 John, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Philippians.
The other sermon series that ended in 2017 was on “The Identity and Attributes of God.” The original
intention behind that series was to greet incoming and returning students at SCAD with 10 sermons on
God’s attributes in conjunction with our partnership with Reformed University Fellowship. My life was
forever changed by reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God as an undergraduate. I hoped for a similar impact
upon local college students. On September 15, 2013 I preached on “The Study of God.” Seventy-two
sermons and 3 ½ years later I preached the last of seven sermons on “The Wisdom of God,” completing
the series on May 18. This undoubtedly was personally the most meaningful series of sermons I have ever
preached. Weekly I was reading the Puritans, such as Stephen Charnock’s The Existence and Attributes of
God, Richard Baxter’s A Divine Life, William Gurnall’s A Christian in Complete Armour, and George
Swinnock’s The Incomparableness of God, plus dozens of other Puritan and Reformed authors. Alas, our
collaboration with RUF was ineffective and few college students attended, yet I am hopeful that the study
of the attributes was a blessing to our people.
Beginnings
New church plant
In January we launched our seventh area church plant. The Rev. Ronald Gleason was installed as our
church planter on January 15. This effort has gotten off to a rocky start, though not so rocky as to topple
our high aspirations for that work. Our motivation for local church-planting is enhanced in knowing that
the six Savannah area daughter-sister churches that we have had a significant role in planting (Grace of
the Islands, Kirk, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Beaufort, Bluffton), enjoyed an average Sunday morning
attendance of 840 in 2017.
1
Accessible at www.ipcsav.org.
2