Q&A on the LSB Translation
Shepherds Conference 2022
Sermons in this series
31 Messages
The mission of Shepherds Conference is to provide the opportunity for men in church leadership to be challenged in their commitment to biblical ministry and to find encouragement as together we seek to become more effective servants of our chief Shepherd.
Visit shepherdsconference.org for more information.
John MacArthur was the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church from 1969 to 2025, as well as an author, conference speaker, chancellor of The Master's University and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry.
In 1969, after graduating from Talbot Theological Seminary, John came to Grace Community Church. The emphasis of his pulpit ministry is the careful study and verse-by-verse exposition of the Bible, with special attention devoted to the historical and grammatical background behind each passage. Under John's leadership, Grace Community Church's two morning worship services fill the 3,500-seat auditorium to capacity. Several thousand members participate every week in dozens of fellowship groups and training programs, most led by lay leaders and each dedicated to equipping members for ministry on local, national, and international levels.
From John’s earliest days at Grace Church, his sermons were recorded for the sake of homebound church members. Eventually those recordings made it onto Christian radio, and the ministry of Grace to You was born. Today the sun never sets on John MacArthur’s preaching, as the Grace to You radio broadcast airs around the globe in both English and Spanish. His full sermon library is available for free download on the Grace to You website.
In 1985, John became president of what is now known as The Master's University (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College, then The Master’s College until 2016). Located in Santa Clarita, California, it is a distinctly Christian, accredited, liberal arts institution offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Through the decades under John’s leadership—first as president, then as chancellor, the University developed into one of the premier academic institutes in the country, equipping thousands of young men and women for the work of God’s kingdom with an education grounded in His Word.
When John came to Grace Church, he told the elders he wanted to do two things: preach the Word of God and train up other men to do likewise. To that end, in 1986, he founded The Master's Seminary, a graduate school on the campus of Grace Community Church dedicated to training expositors for full-time pastoral and missionary work. To date, the school has graduated more than two thousand men who are faithfully ministering across the United States and in almost seventy other countries around the world.
Much of that global work takes place through another ministry that John has helped establish and lead, The Master’s Academy International. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a group of Ukrainian pastors requested John’s help in withstanding the flood of false doctrine that was sweeping into the country. In 1991, graduates from The Master’s Seminary began training pastors in the Ukraine. Nearly thirty-five years later, more than nine hundred pastors across the country have been trained. That school, which continues to this day, became the model for what would become The Master’s Academy International. Officially founded in 2004, there are currently nineteen member schools operating all around the globe, with plans to add several more in the coming years.
John’s faithfulness in the pulpit also resulted in a prolific writing ministry. Since completing his first best-selling book The Gospel According to Jesus in 1988, John wrote nearly 400 books and study guides including Our Sufficiency in Christ, Ashamed of the Gospel, Twelve Ordinary Men, The Jesus You Can't Ignore, The Truth War, The Vanishing Conscience, Strange Fire, The War on Children, a systematic theology entitled Biblical Doctrine, and many more were the products of John’s verse-by-verse Bible teaching. In 2015, John completed The MacArthur New Testament Commentary series—thirty-four volumes covering every verse of the New Testament. Without a doubt, the cornerstone resource of John’s ministry is The MacArthur Study Bible, which provides nearly 25,000 study notes to help readers better understand what Scripture says and means. First published in 1997, it is now available in several English translations, as well as Spanish, Russian, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and Chinese.
Through the years, many individuals have approached John with a desire to support these ministries in their areas of greatest need. In response to this growing request, the John MacArthur Charitable Trust was formed in 2017 with the sole purpose of providing support for the ongoing and expanding work to the MacArthur family of ministries.
In God’s providence, all of that—and much more—has been the direct result of John MacArthur’s pulpit ministry. As he often said, it was beyond anything he could have ever planned or schemed to create on his own. He focused on the depth of the ministry and left the breadth of it to God. “Faithfulness,” he said, “is its own reward.” Only heaven will fully reveal the rich harvest God has brought forth through the faithfulness of John MacArthur.
On July 14, 2025, Pastor John MacArthur’s faith became sight, as he entered into the eternal presence of his Savior. He had been dealing with some significant health challenges dating back to early 2023, and God, in His perfect wisdom, determined that John had completed his earthly ministry. John is survived by his wife Patricia, his children Matt, Marcy, Mark, and Melinda, and their spouses, along with fifteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. He was eighty-six years old.
Joe was born in Russia, but in 1990 his family immigrated to the U.S. and joined Grace Community Church soon after. In his pursuit of education, Joe earned a B.A. in English and Russian literature, an M.Div. in Bible, a Th.M. in Old Testament, and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible. In 2016, Joe became an associate professor of Old Testament at The Master’s Seminary, teaching Hebrew and Aramaic as well as exegesis courses, such as “The Messiah in the Old Testament.” At Grace Church, he serves in Foundation Bible study on Fridays and in the Sojourners fellowship group on Sunday mornings.
After pastoring a church for seven years in Pennsylvania, Will came to The Master’s University in 1996 to teach Old Testament Studies as well as higher divisions of biblical languages. He also has directed the IBEX (Israel Bible Extension) program at TMU and has taken more than fifty trips to the land of Israel. In 1998, Will began serving as a shepherd for the Sojourners fellowship group, where he taught through the Old Testament four times and led five groups from the class to Israel and other European countries.
Dr. Varner earned his M.Div. and Th.M. from the Biblical Theological Seminary. Additionally, he received a master’s degree in Jewish studies from Dropsie College and holds a Doctorate in Education from Temple University. He has authored more than a dozen books, including The Chariot of Israel, Jacob’s Dozen, and Awake O Harp, as well as his recent book, Passionate about the Passion Week. Will and his wife, Helen, have two grown children and one with the Lord, as well as four grandchildren.
Paul Twiss is the teaching pastor at Bethany Bible Church in Thousand Oaks, California and serves as Assistant Professor of Bible Exposition at The Master’s Seminary.
Mark grew up in Russia until 1990, when his family immigrated to Los Angeles and joined Grace Community Church. Having grown up at Grace, it was natural for him to prepare for ministry at The Master's Seminary, where he earned his M.Div. and Th.M. degrees. In 2017, Mark earned his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Mark joined the church staff in 2007 and currently serves in church administration and leads the young professionals ministry, Foundation.
Jason Beals is a Bible professor at The Master’s University and a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in systematic theology. Previously, he served for fourteen years as the college and missions pastor at Church of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. Jason is a graduate of both The Master’s University and Seminary.