From Wales to America and Back Again: Lessons from a Life in Ministry with Derek Thomas
Life and Books and Everything
Clearly Reformed
4.5 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Kevin is joined by his friend and RTS colleague, Derek Thomas as the two of them talk about pastoring, preaching, and why Derek loves Columbia, South Carolina. Derek shares about his conversion (through reading John Stott), some terrible advice from his vicar, and the differences between pastoring at a small church and at a big church. You’ll also hear the story of how Derek and Ligon Duncan were finalists for the same ministerial position (which went to Ligon!). As Derek nears retirement, this episode is a great opportunity to listen to some of the lessons he’s learned in almost five decades of ministry.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Greetings and salutations. Welcome to Life and Books and Everything. I'm Kevin DeYoung. |
| 0:17.5 | Glad to have you here. I'm going to introduce my guest in just a moment. |
| 0:23.1 | Derek Thomas, who I'm very glad to have with us. |
| 0:25.7 | But I do want to thank our sponsor, Crossway, |
| 0:30.8 | and mention this new book by Michael Reeves called Evangelical Pharisees, |
| 0:37.2 | the Gospel as Cure for the Church's Hypocrisy. |
| 0:41.9 | There's obviously more issues than just Phariseeism in the church, and yet that's a perennial one. |
| 0:48.6 | And in this book, Mike studies three essentials of Christian doctrine that Pharisees misunderstand. Their approach to |
| 0:56.1 | scripture, understanding of salvation, and disregard of regeneration. So that's a new |
| 1:01.5 | Crossway book. Grateful to Crossway for their support of life and books and everything. |
| 1:07.2 | And Michael Reeves books are always edifying. |
| 1:13.3 | Derek Thomas is the senior minister at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South |
| 1:19.5 | Carolina, and he's from the great land of Wales. |
| 1:25.1 | We'll talk about that in a moment and give a little bit more of his background. |
| 1:29.2 | Derek, thank you for joining us on this sunny Carolina morning. |
| 1:36.6 | It's a great pleasure, and it's a cloudless guy here in Colombia today. |
| 1:42.2 | So it's wonderful. |
| 1:42.8 | Yeah, just an hour and a half south of here. Now, |
| 1:46.8 | you have an evening service. We have an evening service. So if your scruples allow after the |
| 1:54.1 | evening service, did you watch any of the Super Bowl? No. It wasn't anything to do with |
| 2:00.6 | scruples, but I... |
| 2:02.6 | Just don't care? |
... |
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