The Rise of the Next Generation of Gospel Leaders

It is May 2023, and it is graduation season. Many schools are celebrating the class of 2023 and it is an exciting time. I teach at Reformed Theological Seminary, and we also had our recent graduation ceremony. It was a fantastic time of reflection on the Lord’s work in the lives of a wonderful group of people. They learned so much, grew leaps and bounds in so many ways, and now they move onto a new stage of life. Naturally, like our grads, I have also wondered what that next stage will be.

This is no ordinary graduation year. In the Lord’s divine providence, this is also a time when the church mourns the loss of some spiritual champions of our faith. Harry Reader, longtime pastor of Briarwood PCA, was tragically killed on May 18 in an auto accident. Steve Smallman, the second Executive Director at Serge (formerly World Harvest), also died earlier that same week. Of course, Tim Keller passed away on May 19 after battling cancer for several years. Even as I am writing this entry, the word just broke about the passing of the illustrative Dr. Donald MacLeod, a prominent Scottish theologian whose writings on the atonement are unsurpassed. The social media sights have been buzzing with countless tributes to these men and their lifetime of ministry. When attention is appropriately drawn to graduating classes, it is hard not to mention these spiritual leaders. They have made that huge of an impact!

Tim Keller made a particular impact on me. From him, I learned the phrase “Gospel-centered” and “Gospel-purposed” (did he coin these terms?). When he shared that, a light went off in my head. All of a sudden, the mission of the church was as clear as day. His sermons on the Prodigal Son (of course, he would correct me at this point to say it is actually the parable of the two sons) changed my life. I now understood how and why years of faithful obedience was so dissatisfying. He saved me from my pharisaic self-righteousness and led me through a time of repentance that was life-giving.

Perhaps there is something fitting, proper, even providential about the timing of these pastor’s passing and the graduation season. I work in a theological school that prepares leaders for the gospel ministry. I just participating in RTS/DC’s graduating ceremony that saw an amazing group of individuals move on from their theological education into the unknown world of ministry. Many schools celebrated their graduating classes as well. When I saw this current group of graduates, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Is there another Harry Reader, Steve Smallman, Tim Keller, or Donald MacLeod within this group?” It is hard to imagine such a thing. After all, these men were intellectual and ministerial giants! Who could replace the work that they have done? It sounds impossible. But then again, they all were once in the same place as our graduates. They once experienced the thrill of graduating from seminary and were facing an unknown future. I wish I knew these guys at that time. What does a budding spiritual giant look like when they were seminary graduates? Did people know what Tim Keller would become, did his professors expect him to make the impact that he did? Even MSNBC had a brief report about his death! That’s amazing: a secular news site reporting on the death of a conservative, reformed, presbyterian pastor? WOW! Did people know that Harry Reeder would become so foundational to the church? Did they know that Steve Smallman would touch as many lives as he did? Did they know the amount of theological books Donald MacLeod would write and the foundations he would set for historic orthodoxy?

The need for the continuity of solid godly leadership is a well-established truth, as far back as the book of Deuteronomy. When Moses knew his days were numbered, he immediately prepared Joshua as the new leader to help Israel continue in covenantal fidelity as they entered the hostile land of Canaan (Deut 31:7, 23; 34:9; Josh 1:1-9). Deuteronomy also encouraged parents to disciple their children to love the Lord (Deut 6:7-9, 20-25) so that no generation would ever arise that did not know the Lord or what He had done for Israel.

The history of the church is marked by the same call to establish a tradition of orthodoxy and godliness by raising up new generational leaders to take up the mantle of the previous generation—to continue the good work of Christian discipleship of proclaiming, preaching, and promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, Tim Keller, whom I knew best of the group mentioned above, was heavily influenced by Edmund P. Clowney and C. John (“Jack”) Miller. Ed Clowney, in turn, was influenced by the generation of pastor-scholars before him, Cornelius Van Til, John Murray, Ned Stonehouse, E. J. Young. And his teachers were influenced by their teachers, J. Gresham Machen, Geerhardus Vos, B. B. Warfield, O. T. Allis, etc. What did all these people look like when they completed their theological educations? Maybe, just maybe, they looked a lot like our current class of seminary graduates.

At the time of the passing of great spiritual leaders, I suspect the church pondered the same thing we are asking today: what will the church be like without them? I asked myself this question when I heard the news about these pastors. Then I remembered the words of our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, when he said: “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her” (Matt 16:18). We honor this past generation of pastor-scholars, for they blessed us. But, at the same time, the gospel and theology they taught is the same orthodoxy that has been passed on from generation to generation, ever since the days of Jesus Himself. The Lord is the one who made Tim Keller into the Tim Keller we all knew and loved, Harry Reeder into Harry Reeder, Steve Smallman into Steve Smallman, and Donald MacLeod into Donald MacLoud. The Lord knows that we need pastors, theologians, shepherd, and teachers. So, He was the one who gave to us these men. This is what He has been doing every generation for centuries. Today, we mourn for now is the time to mourn. These amazing teachers have blessed us, and we grieve their loss. But tomorrow, we will get back on our feet and watch how the Lord will raise a new generation of pastors, scholars, missionaries, teachers who will continue the good work of these pastors whom we mourn today. Who knows? Someone that we saw receive their diploma recently might become the new Tim Keller of the next generation. The Lord can do that!

It is worth noting that not everyone will have the same success as these men. When the next generation hears this call to take up the ministerial baton and to continue the gospel-race, I fear that they think they need to have the same accomplishments as Tim Keller et al. That is not at all what I am trying to say. Few are gifted with their insights, intelligence, and discipline. For these, they should write books, speak at conferences, and train numerous disciples. Successful ministry, however, is not always measured by the number of bodies that fill our churches, the size of our church buildings or budgets, nor by degrees that have been earned. Success is measured by our faithfulness to our calling. Some will be called to pastor the local church, which is just as significant as the celebrity who is on preaching tours throughout the nation. Besides, these statistics are not what defined the success of people like Tim Keller and et al. They longed for nothing more than that God’s people would know Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:1-2). I suspect that if we knew their dying wish, it would NOT be that we speak of them and their accomplishments. It would be that we speak of how they preached Christ and His accomplishments! This is best captured in the words of John the Baptist when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). We honor their legacy by exalting the name of Jesus Christ and proclaiming His glory, the God-man that our spiritual forefathers spent a lifetime proclaiming.

As a Korean American, I’m very sensitive and appreciative of this call for the next generation to arise. This is the air that I breathed growing up in the ethnic Korean church, where the generational transition is a substantial ministry concern. Perhaps, this is why I constantly think about the next generation of church leaders. I probably have another twenty years of productive ministry left within me before I also join these men in glory. Just twenty years, or so! What will the church look like then? Who will minister to my children and my children’s children? My call is to prepare future leaders to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to make sure that my future family will hear the same gospel that Tim Keller proclaimed. That is what we need now, and that is what they will need then.

This is one reason why I feel very privileged (and overwhelmed) in my current call of ministry—being a seminary professor. When I see a classroom of thirty students, I don’t see merely thirty students. I see thirty future leaders of the church for the next generation. I see thirty churches, nations for missionaries, campus ministries, counseling agencies, even professors of theological seminaries, authors of Christian books that will make an impact for their future generations. The Lord did this before. He can certainly do this again.

            So, I plan to keep a watchful eye on our grads—to see what the Lord will do in their lives. Whatever that may be, I have no doubt that it will be amazing as they embrace Christ as their Savior and share His good news to the ends of the earth.