Benjamin Lee, Director of Youth Ministry at Oakwood Presbyterian Church (PCA), announced (via Twitter) that he had accepted this new position. He also indicated that he had left his Baptist convictions to adopt the Reformed confession (including the Reformed view of the sacraments). Below is our interview. This is the second in what might become a series.

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1. Where did you grow up and how did you come to faith?

I grew up in Madison, Indiana on a small sheep farm. I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home with parents who were faithful to share the gospel with me and my sisters. My exposure to the gospel came in large part through their faithful ministry, which included taking us to church every time the doors were open. By God’s grace I heard the gospel proclaimed each week from faithful preachers in the SBC church I attended as a child. I made a profession of faith around age 7, which was when I was baptized.

2. Small world. Do you know Collin Welch? He is a student at Westminster Seminary California? He’s from Madison and he’s hoping to plant a URC congregation there.

I do know Collin, though not well. He was a few years behind me in school, but we didn’t interact much then. We found each other on Twitter last year sometime and have been in contact since. I’m glad he’s at WSCAL!

3. How did you discover the Reformed faith?

I’ve been Calvinistic for as long as I can remember, but the first hint that there was more to being Reformed than the five points came in a church history class at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary during my MDiv studies. During a lecture on baptism I realized for the first time that Baptists did not have a monopoly on it. I was stunned to learn that the vast majority of Christians throughout church history have held the paedobaptist position, and it’s not even close. I was further stunned to discover that the Baptist position was a relatively new position in the Church. Though that discovery did not initially change my convictions it did stick in my mind.

After my seminary education was completed I began pastoring a Baptist Church near State College, PA. During my first few years there I discovered the Reformed Confessions, particularly the Heidelberg. As I studied the Confessions I realized that what I had been hearing from some of the “Reformed” preachers and authors, who had influenced me over the years, did not jibe with what had been handed down to the church by the Apostles and Prophets. What a relief it was to learn that I wasn’t the only person who was troubled by the language of initial justification! Though I didn’t realize it at the time, jumping it to the Reformed Confessions was the beginning of the end of my life as a Baptist.

It was the next event, however, that proved to be the decisive falling domino that pushed me full force into the Reformed world. I was at a gathering of Reformed pastors (P&R and Baptists) when we began discussing how the Bible fit together. I was taught Progressive Covenantalism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but realized in this meeting that I wanted to understand the positions better. This led to a long investigation into covenant theology. As I studied the Bible I came to believe that the Bible teaches one covenant of grace revealed to us in multiple administrations. And I, being a novice of covenant theology, assumed that everyone who professes to be covenantal believes the same. I wanted to understand how Baptists arrived at believers-only-baptism while holding to covenant theology. So I returned to the primary sources of the Particular Baptists. In doing so I discovered the vast differences between Particular Baptists and the Reformed, especially that PBs do not consider the Abrahamic Covenant to be part of the Covenant of Grace. I was stunned. After that I was fully in the Reformed covenant theology camp. The jump to pedobaptism wasn’t too great of a jump after that, though it did take some time.

4. It seems as if the turning point for your was your reading of primary sources in the Particular Baptist tradition. Whom were you reading?

It was definitely the turning point. I assumed I would read the Particular Baptists and be more deeply rooted in Baptist distinctives. My primary source was Nehemiah Coxe along with Pascal Denault’s book on Particular Baptist covenant theology. As it turns out, however, far from convincing me of the baptist position, Denault’s book pushed me quickly into the Reformed camp.

5. So, you were pastoring a Baptist congregation when you started to adopt Reformed convictions? How did that go?

I was pastoring a Baptist church at the time. Telling the elders at BEBC of my theological shift and desire to be part of the PCA was the most difficult conversation I’ve ever had. They were disappointed I had to resign, but they were gracious. I love those men and the church.

6. How have your family and friends responded to your adoption of the
Reformed confession?

My wife has been fully on board. Actually, having been born into a Presbyterian Church she has been telling me since seminary to become Presbyterian. She was a sounding board as I worked through my positions. I am sure this would have been a much longer and more difficult process without her by my side. My father is a Baptist minister, so telling my parents was difficult, but they have been supportive of the transition.

7. What was it about the Reformed confession that drew you to it?

Two things come to mind. The first is the pastoral nature of the confessions, especially the Heidelberg Catechism. The confessions are not intended merely to impart knowledge (thought they certainly do). They are intended to help believers understand what that knowledge means for us. I experienced the benefits of this pastoral quality personally. Several years ago I found myself in the midst of a long period of spiritual anxiety. For years I could not escape a severely debilitating pattern of being turned in on myself, to use Luther’s language. In fact, I had much in common with Luther’s early experience as a monk. I was constantly afraid I wasnt repentant enough, that I hadn’t confessed all my sins, that my faith was fake. I know what Luther meant when he said, “No one knows the terror of those days but myself.” But then, in God’s providence I stumbled across Heidelberg 60: How are you righteous before God?

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me thatI have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.

Faith came slowly, but come it did, in God’s timing. The confessions have been a close friend since.

Second, what drew me to the confessions was their comprehensive nature. The doctrinal statements I had encountered in the past were purposefully minimal; usually just 10 or so simple statements on key doctrines. These statements, though fine, are not comprehensive enough to provide a robust understanding of Christian piety and practice. What I’ve found in the Westminster Standards [i.e., the Westminster Confession, the Shorter Catechism, and the Larger Catechism], the Heidelberg, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort have put the flesh on my theological skeleton, as well as encouraged my faith.

8. Tell us about your new call and congregation.

When I began to question my position on baptism I reached out to some trusted pastor-friends at a nearby PCA church. As we worked through it together and I realized I was going to have to resign from my church, they graciously invited me to be the Director of Youth Ministry at their church. I resigned my position mid-December of 2019 and began at Oakwood PCA in January. God was so gracious throughout the process. I began speaking with those men about my theological shift in June 2019, and by October they had offered me the position. It is difficult to express our level of gratitude both to them and to God. Over the next few years I’ll be serving the youth their in a bi-vocational capacity while I work through the ordination process. I also work for a reclaimed wood company outside of State College, PA called Antique Building Solutions. The church has welcomed us with open arms, and we’re excited to be part of what God is doing at Oakwood.