June 4, 2024 Show with Derrick Brite n “A Pastor’s Heart: Essays in Memory of Harry L. Reeder III”

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Introduction and Tribute to Proverbs 27:17

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

And now, here's your host, Chris Arnson.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth. We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this fourth day of June 2024.

Before I introduce my guest and topic for the day, I want to remind all men in ministry leadership that my next free biannual Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Pastors Luncheon, featuring for the very first time our keynote speaker, Dr. Joel Beeky, founder and chancellor of Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and author of over 100 books, and very highly sought after conference speaker.

Well, that's being held this Thursday, June 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. And the deadline to register was supposed to be yesterday, but I thought I'd give it one more day.

It's definitely going to be the largest crowd we've ever had. In fact, the registrations keep coming in, even though they're late. And if you are a man in ministry leadership and you'd like to attend this free event, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and the Pastors Luncheon in the subject line not only is the admission free and your lunch free, but every man attending will receive one and perhaps maybe even two very heavy sacks of free brand new books personally selected by me and donated by Christian publishers all over the United States and the United Kingdom, all absolutely free of charge.

So if you want to register, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. Well, today I am delighted to have a first time guest. I remember very vividly on May 18th of last year hearing the tragic news that Pastor Harry L. Reader III, senior pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and also a professor at Birmingham Theological Seminary, he died suddenly in a car crash.

And I remember when I made the announcement to my listeners, I knew right away that I had to conduct a special broadcast in memory of him, and God has provided the ideal guest today to do that a little over one year later.

And I'm thankful to George Grant, the pastor of Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, for publicizing the book we are addressing in social media, the book which I'm holding in my hand, which just arrived at my doorstep actually five minutes before the show started, A Pastor's Heart, Essays in Memory of Harry L. Reader III, edited by my guest today, Derek E. Bright.

And Derek is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Aliceville, Alabama, which is a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Pastor Derek Bright.

Well, thank you, Chris. I guess you could say a longtime listener, first time caller.

Wow, I'm glad that you are a longtime listener. I was unaware of that until just now.

And yeah, yeah, I've known about you for quite a long time, actually. In fact, I believe the first time I ever became acquainted with you and with your program was actually when you, a long time ago for a James Watt debate, I was watching on YouTube and I thought, this guy's cracking me up and it may have even been the Bill Shishko pedo-baptism debate.

And you made some you made some hilarious comments about all the Presbyterians are wondering what that big tub is in the back. And I just, I died laughing. So ever since then, I've been listening. So I'm honored to be on your program.

Well, I am glad that even though you and I are on opposite sides of the infant baptism issue, that you still found my routine humorous.

Yeah, yeah, well, I have a good, you know, when you're a Presbyterian, especially growing up where I did, where Baptist dominate, you kind of have to have thick skin and a good sense of humor.

So, yeah.

And more folks in our theological camp should learn that lesson. Absolutely. Too many, too many Reformed people seem to never crack a smile. But I'm glad that there are remnant like you and I who do. That's right.

Well, first of all, tell our listeners more about First Presbyterian Church of Aliceville, Alabama.

Yeah, thank you. I've been here almost five years and it was my first call out of seminary. And it's really a wonderful community. It's a small town population floating around 2000 people in West Alabama, almost dead center of the state, all the way west, close to Mississippi.

And we're about 45 minutes outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And so for any Alabama fans, we're right down the road, if you will. And it's a small town. It's a historic church. The church was founded in 1837 and it was one of the first churches to be a part of the PCA when the PCA started.

So it's got a lot of historical background to it and heritage. And they called me here about five years ago. And the Lord has really blessed our time. It's a wonderful group of people. And we could see ourselves being here for a very long time if the Lord, if the Lord and the people allow it, if the Lord allows it and the people can put up with with me, we my wife and I would be certainly happy to be here for a long time.

It's a it's a really a sweet town, a sweet spirit, very generous. And they just love love Christ and love the gospel.

Amen. Well, if anybody lives in or near Allistown or if you are traveling through that city, perhaps on vacation in Alabama, or you have family, friends and loved ones who live in or near Allistown, Alabama, the website to find out more details is FirstPrezAllisville .org FirstPrezAllisville .org and first is spelled out the full word F-I-R-S-T.

Well, we have a tradition here on Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio, whenever we have a first time guest, before we go to the major theme that we have scheduled to address, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony, which would include the religious atmosphere, if any, in which they were raised and the kinds of providential circumstances our sovereign Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and save them.

And I would love to hear a summary of your story.

Salvation Testimony and Early Discipleship

Yeah, thank you. I'd be honored to do so. I it really starts with I need to mention that my my parents divorced when I was about six months old. And so from that time, I really was split between two different households, primarily living with my mother.

And we for the first, I don't know, probably 13 or 14 years of my life, went to church very rarely. We were Easter and Christmas Christians at a minimum. And even then, it was very short and it was an independent fundamental Baptist church.

And we went primarily because my grandparents were very devoted to that church. And once they passed away, my family really sought no or they felt no need, I guess, to go to church any further. But I always had an interest in religious things.

I always had questions about church and the Bible and the gospel. Well, about eighth grade, I moved in with my father and stepmother, and they are very active, faithful Christians. And they were going to a church.

And so I started attending church with them and a Southern Baptist church. Unfortunately, that church went through a nasty church split. We went to a really a mega church that was in a small town, but it was in North Georgia and it was somewhat modeled after Rick Warren.

But you'll get a kick out of this, Chris. The pastor, though, he really modeled his church after a purpose driven life. The youth pastor is a very serious, godly 1689 Reformed Baptist. And he believed it was his job to without, you know, without creating division, but to teach the next generation the truth of the faith.

And so that's exactly what happened. And I can specifically remember on a Wednesday night, a Wednesday night youth service, there was about 200 kids and him teaching about propitiation from First John and thinking, why have I never heard this?

And we went on a youth trip a few months later. It was New Year's and we went to a hamburger restaurant in a local town. And I remember just sitting there and I was thinking about propitiation and all of a sudden it dawned on me.

I need propitiation. I need this. And there I prayed to the Lord for him to save me right there in the middle of that restaurant. And about six months later, that same youth pastor, who's still a dear friend of mine, and ironically, his son is my youth pastor now, funny enough.

But he he handed me some very sound, solid theological resources and began discipling me into the Reformed faith. And he does somewhat regret that I went into the PCA. He'll often tell students now, listen, you can follow Derek, but don't follow him all the way.

So but yeah, I was I was really a recipient of a faithful, a faithful youth pastor who just taught the Bible verse by verse, taught us theological truths and taught us really the greatness and holiness of God.

And that's really what what what drew me in, if you will. That's what the Lord sought fit to use in my life.

Well, praise God for that. And we are, as I've already announced today, paying tribute to the late Harry L. Reader, who I have had the privilege of interviewing twice on this program. And he wrote a glowing endorsement for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

I was so honored with the privilege of receiving that from him. He was such for a man of his stature, his prominence in Reformed circles, he was an extremely humble and accessible man. There was no air of celebrity about him.

When I met him, he immediately remembered who I was on the several occasions where I met him in person. The last one being at Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, when he was on the speaking roster at a Reformed conference there.

And in fact, if you've seen the promotional post on Facebook for our interview today, the photograph is not of me and my guest today, Derek Bright. It's me and Harry L. Reader at the Grace Bible Fellowship Church in Quaker Town the last time I saw him.

And if anybody would like to hear my interviews with Harry Reader on August 22nd, 2022 was the last interview I conducted with him. And the one prior to that was November 7th, 2018. But if you just type in Reeder, R-E-E-D-E-R, in the search engine at Iron Trip and Zion Radio dot com, you will get those two audio links immediately pop up.

But tell us how you first became familiar with Dr. Harry L.

Reader. Yeah, so like many, when I came into the PCA, Harry cast something of a long shadow. He was seen immediately. I mean, everybody knows he was a leader in our denomination. He pastored for a very long time, the flagship church of the PCA, where the first PCA General Assembly was held.

And so I've always known of him in that way. When I came to Aliceville, we support financially the work that's being done at Birmingham Theological Seminary, which is housed at Briarwood Presbyterian Church.

And specifically, the prison ministry is something we're involved in. And so the president of Birmingham Theological Seminary, which is I. Reader, Harry's son, when I first came here, he took me out to lunch and wanted to meet me, and we became fast friends.

And he's become one of my dearest and closest friends, brother in the Lord. And that propelled that relationship with the Reader family, and that ended up leading to time spent with Harry, whether it was one on one or via conference and various other avenues and just being connected to the family.

And so I first came to be associated with him through just PCA work. And then through his son, I became closer to him and closer to that family. And he was also Harry was also a board member or rather an executive council member of the Gospel Reformation Network, which is a great organization of PCA minded people trying to further healthy, reformed confessional church plants and churches in our denomination.

And he served on that executive council and being affiliated with them. That also allowed me to to get to know him a little better as well.

Contributors to A Pastor's Heart

So tell us about at least some of them, the contributors to this memorial that you have edited a pastor's heart essays in memory of Harry L. Reader, the third. Tell us about some of the contributors and why specifically you were you selected them.

Are you there, brother? For some reason, I do not have my guest with me. I have no idea why. And can you hear me now?

Oh, yes.

Now I do.

I have no idea what happened there. OK, I apologize about that. Maybe I hit a button or something. But we do really do have a great number of contributors for the book, and they were chosen for different reasons.

For example, we have Kevin Young, pastor of Cross Covenant Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kevin is obviously a leader in our denomination and in the broader reformed evangelical world. However, he pastors a church that Harry himself planted in accordance with that Presbytery.

So we also have David Strain, who pastors First Presbyterian Jackson, another leader in our denomination, but pastors a major church who's a faithful, godly man committed to expository preaching, very humble man.

We have John Payne, who's the he's actually the convener of the Gospel Reformation Network that I mentioned earlier, and someone who is known as a very sound, conservative and confessional voice. And we just have we actually also have one of Harry's daughters, Jennifer Toomer Hay.

She pastored, or I'm sorry, she pastored.

You're really going to cause trouble for me.

Interview's over right now. But she authored a chapter at the end. And so we picked people who were not only close to Harry personally and who were a lot of them were discipled by him, such as Brian Cosby, pastor of Wayside PCA in Signal Mountain.

A lot of these men were discipled by him. Others were close to him ministerially, whether it's his assistant pastor or perhaps they were family members. It was people who had been impacted one way or another by his ministry and who knew him well enough to be able to say, here's a topic like George Grant.

Obviously, you've mentioned him before, but George obviously knew Harry. But George was qualified to write on that particular topic as well and be able to bring in not only his own insights, but bring in what he learned from Harry and kind of marry the two and and put it in there.

So it was interesting editing the book that all of these contributors, one of them actually told me recently when he got his copy and he said, there seems to be a unified voice in all of these chapters.

And I said, well, that's exactly right, because the unified voice ultimately is Harry's. We were all discipled by him one way or another, and we're just applying what we learned in these chapters. So so, yeah, it was it was a mixture of reasons, but primarily people who were impacted by him and closest to him.

Well, I just want to read a couple of the a few of the endorsements written for this book. And all of these men whose endorsements I'm going to read have been guest on Iron Radio in the past. Chris Larson, who is the president and CEO of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida, the ministry founded by the late Dr. R .C. Sproul.

Dr. Reader's zeal for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is beautifully honored in a pastor's heart, celebrating God's kindness and calling and raising up this courageous shepherd and leader of God's people.

Also, Jonathan Master, president of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylor, South Carolina, one of the few biblically sound seminaries left in the United States. Jonathan says, yes, Jonathan says the chapters contained in this book encompass so many of the things that Harry Reader stood for, a love for people and ability to teach a love of ideas, all of it in service to Christ and to his church.

And last but not least, Peter A. Lilbeck of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also author of an enormous biography of George Washington. He says of this book, our brother Harry Reader is missed, but his legacy is cherished and will yield fruit for generations to come.

So some powerful endorsements by some powerful leaders in Christ's church. Well, we are going to our first commercial break right now. And if any of you have a question for my guest today, Derek Bright about Harry L.

Our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail dot com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail dot com. Give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence in your country of residence if you live outside the USA.

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We are now back with my guest today, Derek Bright, who is the editor of a new book that should be in the hands especially of every pastor, but much more than that, A Pastor's Heart, Essays in Memory of Harry L. Reader III.

And if you have a question, send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. Well, I'd like you to continue letting our listeners know, what is it about Harry L. Reader that the Lord basically instilled in his mind, heart, and ministry that makes him someone that many pastors looked up to as their mentor?

Harry Reeder's Pastoral Strengths and Mentoring Example

Yeah, there's quite a bit I could say to that, but I would say that Harry had a unique ability to preach and teach those things that were confessionally orthodox and sound doctrine, but also do it in such a way that it affected people in the pews.

So he wasn't an egghead preacher, if you will. I hate to use that term, but a lot of us geek out over sound doctrine. I do as well. But he was one who could say, now let's take it to your heart and let's apply it to your hands and feet and get out and apply this.

How does the Reformed faith and how does the Bible teach us to live as Christians? And so he had a unique way of speaking to both the person who would be a pastor, but also the person in the pew and applying both of those things.

There's an oft repeated mantra of Harry's, which is on mission and on message and in ministry. That was really how everything applied. You wanted to be a person who was on mission, who had the message right, but also was active in ministry.

And so he was very good at that and conveying that and conveying how the Bible applies to our daily lives. He was a natural disciple maker. And that's something that I've learned personally from him and have been challenged on by him is how to make disciples and do it in a way that has the long-term health of the church and the person in mind.

And he was uniquely gifted in that. I share a story in the editor's note of the book that several people have commented on, including his wife, Cindy Reeder. When I first met Harry, now I had actually met him before and we'd talked, but the first time I actually got to sit down one-on-one with him and pick his brain, I was a new pastor and I emailed him and I wanted to sit down with him and say, listen, I pastor a small church in a small town, help me.

Here's some things I'm dealing with, help me. And he took the time and here's a guy who speaks at Ligonier conferences and all these other things and he didn't hesitate. And he said, yes, please come by and we scheduled a date and time.

I drove an hour and a half to Birmingham. I walked in and I said, Dr. Reeder, it's such a pleasure to meet with you. And he said, please don't call me doctor. I'm not even good enough to be a nurse. And I really, yeah, it was so funny.

I laughed right then and he was being somewhat serious about that. And he said, please just call me Harry. And we went into his office and it was really almost like a waiting room and we're surrounded by these pictures of godly men of the past.

And he says, so tell me brother about your ministry. And I begin to tell him what I'm dealing with and what I feel the Lord is doing here in Allison, all these things. And he began to just pour wisdom into me.

And it was this faithful, here's how you stick to what the Bible says and not fall into any kind of traps that progressive Christianity or some kind of neo-evangelical would have you to do. Don't follow what the church growth gurus tell you.

Here's how you follow the Bible. And here's how you put it basically in the pew. And it was such good advice. And I think he's done that for everybody. He had pastored for so long and so faithfully that no matter where you were in ministry, you were able to come to him and say, here's what I'm dealing with.

Whether you were at the beginning of your ministry or nearing the end, he had some kind of wisdom for you that was sound and biblical. And that's something that I think is somewhat lost in many today.

He did not capitulate to the spirit of the age. And he stayed steadfast to the word of God and poured out everything he had, like Paul says, poured out like a drink offering. That was Harry's really his mentality.

And he did that for a lot of people and he made time for people. And so there's a lot of things, again, I could say he was but he was very contagious in his approach.

Well, we've had you already provide a summary of your salvation testimony. What can you tell us about Harry's upbringing and how he came to know his Lord, God, Savior and King Jesus Christ and anything that you may know about when he believed that he had the call from God to enter into pastoral ministry?

Harry Reeder's Conversion and Call to Ministry

Yeah, it's interesting because Harry was somebody who if you knew anything about Harry, he loved baseball and his whole life. He went to college and played baseball and wanted to play pro. And he was he was a true athlete.

And when he met Cindy and they started going together and it got serious, you know, she was a very serious Christian and wanted to bring him wanted to make sure that she was with somebody who believed that same thing.

And he was somebody who I think I remember him saying something about, well, we can't we needed a church to go to. I think they had gotten married. And he said, you know, we can't go to the church that I that I had grown up in because they all knew who I really was.

And so they picked a church happened to be a Presbyterian church and where nobody knew.

Them.

And the pastor that day basically keyed in on him and really forced him into a discipleship.

Situation.

And and so Harry really came to cross and came to a an understanding of a biblical Christianity and ministry under the the faithful work of a, you know, a regular pastor who wanted to disciple him. And that really changed his life really forever.

That changed the whole trajectory of of everything he cared about and everything he wanted to.

Do.

So he he, you know, he mentions he he lived he lived a very worldly life for a long time. And and of course, Cindy, his his dear wife, helped him out with with getting on the right track. But a faithful, a faithful regular pastor really discipled him and and brought him into the faith.

Well, we have Gerard from Hoboken, New Jersey, which I believe is the birthplace of Frank Sinatra. Just a little trivia there. Gerard asks, what was Dr. Reader's reaction when the Revoice controversy raised its ugly head in the Presbyterian church in America?

That's a very good question. And why don't you explain to our listeners who may be completely ignorant of what that even is? Why don't you tell them about what Revoice was or is?

Yeah, absolutely. So Revoice was a or is I think it's still in existence as a ministry that is geared towards those in the LGBTQ plus, you know, rainbow coalition, if you will. And originally, when they started out, their mission statement was to help people continue in a biblical view of marriage and same sex relationships.

Unfortunately, what happened, what we saw was really some bad fruit from that. And we saw what it became known as is something that promoted side B, quote unquote, gay Christianity.

Yeah.

In fact, I don't know if you're aware, I just fairly recently arranged a debate over that heresy between Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries.

That's right.

A very, very long time, dear friend of mine who debated Dr. Gregory Coles, who identifies himself as a gay Christian and a side B Christian, which is basically among the folks that are in that realm of activity or mindset, people who believe they have a proclivity or an inclination towards same sex attraction.

But they do believe that to bring that to a physical consummation is sinful and even to lust towards anyone, whether it's your same sex or somebody else from an opposite sex, that is sinful. But there's nothing wrong with the innate state as if there were such a thing.

And there's nothing that needs repenting from if you're not involved physically in homosexuality or lusting. There's nothing to repent from. And so that's what that's so. So anyway, Dr.

Yeah, that's right.

And he made it clear that that was identity. Yeah, I was just going to say Dr. White made it clear in that debate that Dr. Coles had no legitimate biblical support for that. But I'm sorry, I interrupted you.

No, I interrupted you.

I apologize.

This is you're absolutely right. And you're right. James, I did a great job of that. It became an issue of identity. And there's really it became really a Roman Catholic view of concupiscence and sin.

And some of the speakers in that conference and that ministry tried to equate being physically disabled with having homosexual attraction, which there's no correlation, of course. And it really rocked our denomination and rocked other denominations.