From the Pulpit to the World

The Principle Guiding the John MacArthur Trust Family of Ministries

As John MacArthur introduced his sermon on February 10, 2019, the 50th anniversary of his first Sunday as the pastor of Grace Community Church, he gave this simple, beautiful description of what his ministry has looked like since day one. “I stand in this pulpit week after week all these years, and you take the ministry and spread it around the world. This is how the body of Christ is supposed to function.”

All the ministries connected to John MacArthur have been a manifestation of that guiding principle. His job was simple: feed the flock. As God’s people are fed, they apply what they’ve learned, multiplying the ministry of that truth far beyond a Sunday sermon. When that happens, the spiritual impact is exponentially greater than it would be if John MacArthur was responsible for all of it.

That principle certainly applies at Grace to You, the media ministry of John MacArthur. It began John’s first year as the pastor when volunteers recorded sermons on reel-to-reel tapes, then delivered those sermons to shut-ins. All Pastor John had to do was preach a sermon. Others captured that truth and made sure its ministry would continue far beyond Sundays.

From a ministry to shut-ins, Grace to You (Word of Grace at the time) became a radio show almost by accident. A college friend of Pastor John’s got ahold of his sermon tapes and broadcast them on his family’s radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. John MacArthur did not plan or work to get his sermons on the radio. God used a friend to put them there.

In the coming decades, Pastor John’s radio ministry would expand from Baltimore to hundreds of radio stations across the United States, and hundreds more across the globe. Today, nearly 2,000 stations in English and Spanish carry Grace to You. Millions download Pastor John’s sermons on the internet every month, in English and other languages. That is possible because many capable people came alongside Pastor John to expand the breadth of his pulpit ministry.

As Grace to You and Grace Community Church grew, several young men came to the church, eager to learn how to preach and shepherd. John would have loved to personally train these men, but he knew that he couldn’t prioritize that alongside his preaching and pastoral ministry. So, he sent them to his alma mater, Talbot.

Several times each week, these men would take a bus from Grace Church to the Talbot campus in Orange County. This demand for training through Grace Church became so great that Talbot started an extension campus at the church in the late 70s. At the time, several godly men—including Dr. Irv Busenitz—came alongside Pastor John to lead this campus and prepare these men for pastoral ministry.

This focus on training men culminated in 1986 when the extension campus became The Master’s Seminary. John had always believed the best way he could serve the church was to preach the gospel and train other men to do the same. Grace to You was expanding his preaching ministry. The Master’s Seminary was taking care of the training. Less than 20 years from his first sermon at Grace, Pastor John had already seen far more ministry output than he would have thought possible in 1969. Yet, God was not done bringing other servants alongside Pastor John to expand the ministry.

Around the same time The Master’s Seminary officially opened its doors, a friend came to John MacArthur with a potentially life-changing question: Would you consider becoming the next president of The Master’s University (at the time it was called Los Angeles Baptist College)? The school had been around since 1927. It was in the Newhall neighborhood of Santa Clarita, not far from his home. The school was committed to the authority of the Bible, yet there were financial and enrollment challenges. Despite those concerns, John MacArthur accepted the presidency.

Initially, he intended to lead the college for five years. Yet the opportunity to disciple men and women, to train them to serve the church and be salt and light in the world, was too energizing. Pastor John would stay in the presidency for 35 years. Through the decades, God surrounded him with remarkable co-laborers to help lead the school, including its current president, Abner Chou. Since John MacArthur took the presidency in 1985, thousands have come to the university, been discipled, then gone on to lead families, churches, ministries, and serve Christ in all kinds of industries, including education, business, medicine, law, and much more.

Through Grace to You and The Master’s University and Seminary, God’s truth has been spread far and wide, the leaders of His church have been trained and commissioned, and the people of His body have been discipled and sent into the world as salt and light. There’s one more key element of the family of ministries, one more example of God’s people taking the ministry and spreading it around the world. That’s The Master’s Academy International. Fourteen years ago, Pastor John had asked a fellow elder at Grace, Mark Tatlock, to lead this organization.

At the time, TMAI had a small handful of partner schools and limited reach around the globe. Under Mark’s leadership, TMAI has become a global leader in missions and pastoral training. Today, it has more than 20 partner schools training several thousand men to preach and teach God’s Word. At each partner school, sound doctrine and expository preaching are the focus. As that happens, the same faithful preaching that John MacArthur had prioritized is being replicated and the global church is being strengthened.

John MacArthur wasn’t planning on starting any of these ministries when he had accepted the call to pastor Grace Community Church. He prioritized studying and preaching, and he trusted others to do the work of the ministry. In God’s providence, God has surrounded Pastor John with faithful leaders, and the family of ministries, in order to proclaim the truth, train men, disciple believers, and go into all the world to preach the gospel.

As he looked back on all those decades of preaching and the many people that had come alongside him in the ministry, Pastor John said, “I thank you for being in my life, for all your gifts and all your sacrifices, all your love, all your care for me. I cannot imagine a more wonderful life. The Lord has stood by us, hasn’t He? We had no idea where this ministry would go, and the Lord has blessed your efforts.”

Though Pastor John was speaking to the Grace Community Church congregation, his words certainly apply to each of you who support the John MacArthur Charitable Trust. You, like the members of Grace Church, share a passion for proclaiming truth, training men, discipling believers, and global missions. Thank you for a wonderful year of investment in this ongoing work, one that God continues to bless and expand more than five decades after it began.