The Need for Theological Education: James Montgomery Boice as Influencer
Rev. Dr. James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) remains a well-known and influential Presbyterian minister. His preaching ministry at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, underscored by a litany of books, especially Biblical commentaries based on sermons, outlasts his life. After all, this author always notes the place in a pastor's library reserved for Boice commentaries. To be forthright, the author of this article knew Dr. Boice and sat under his ministry for the first 12 or 13 years of his life, which is why he can't quite bring himself to call him "Jim," as was Boice's preference, and he always notes Boice commentaries on shelves.
Many of the chief exploits of James Boice's ministry have been catalogued. He began the Philadelphia Conference of Reformed Theology (PCRT) in 1974 and The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy in 1977, which produced the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. In the 1990s he merged two ministries to form the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and in 1996 orchestrated the writing of the Cambridge Declaration. He also began or was influential in supporting several ministries in the city of Philadelphia: an inner-city High School, a crisis pregnancy center, and a ministry to the sexually broken. All of this through a little more than three decades of ministry at Tenth, a center city church when orthodox churches were fleeing city centers.
While many aspects of Boice's ministry could serve as an influence on Theological Education at Warfield Summer Institute––certainly his whole body of work illustrates a doctrine for life model to the glory of God alone––it is PCRT that is under investigation here. After all, PCRT brought theologically rich teaching to congregants. As the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals notes on its website, PCRT continues to serve under its three original purpose statements, laid down at the start: 1) Awaken interest in Biblical theology and the doctrines of grace. 2) Establish a forum at which men and women in the Reformed tradition might meet and be encouraged. 3) Marshall resources to strengthen the church.
Who was PCRT for? The original pillars for the conference, which inspired all the other Reformed conferences in the last several decades, shows the answer clearly. PCRT, from 1974 onward, was and remains for men and women in the church who desire to be equipped and encouraged in the Reformed tradition, a most beautiful tradition indeed! It was not to platform a young and mostly unknown R.C. Sproul, although that was a good outcome. It was not a chance for Boice to rub shoulders with famous theologians like J.I. Packer. The point of PCRT was to build up the body of Christ in the faith and to inspire deeper knowledge of the gracious savior, Jesus Christ.
At WSI, we aim to do all three of PCRT's purposes statements in our own way. We desire that men and women in the church would be able to handle the Bible and theology with confidence, inspiring them to dive even deeper. We also strive to be an educational community for Birmingham, encouraging one another in synchronous education. We, likewise, desire that those we teach would serve the Kingdom and the church in a variety of ways to proclaim and minister the gospel to the lost wherever they are called.
To God be the Glory!
