Recently, I ran across Pastor MacArthur’s statement below reflecting on the development of Grace Church and the importance of anchoring the ministry doctrinally in the early years. 

“The first 10, 15 years of Grace Church, maybe even heading toward 20 years, we were really working hard to crystallize and clarify doctrine. That’s why the church has such an extensive doctrinal statement, which is also the doctrinal statement of the college and seminary. 

We worked as a staff at writing papers on all kinds of theological issues. We’d have a staff meeting and I’d assign guys to write papers on various theological things that we needed to hammer out and discuss, and we called them “position papers.” 

And we still develop those kinds of things. But that first generation was primarily committed to the development of the truth, to understanding the truth, to systematizing the truth, thoroughly, consistently with Scripture, not imposing it upon Scripture. Establishing the truth, discovering it, refining it, and establishing it.”

In the same manner, I think this first generation of EA over the past ten years has crystalized and clarified our mission, goals, strategies, and core values, all of which centered around two foundational aspirations to serve Christ’s Church and remain faithful to Scripture. 

Amid increasing cultural pressure to accommodate prevailing societal norms, evangelical institutions must establish stable and transparent convictional moorings anchored in God’s timeless and all-sufficient Word.