Faculty Focus Interview with Carlton Wynne

The following is an edited interview by Ryan Noha of Carlton Wynne, a new faculty member of Reformed Forum. This is the third installment of interviews highlighting the Lord’s work in the lives and ministries of our Reformed Forum faculty. Carlton sits down with Ryan Noha to discuss growing up in a mainline Presbyterian church, becoming a confessional Presbyterian, and serving his Lord in his family, church, and the work of Reformed Forum. 

Carlton, I’ve been blessed to get to know you over the years, first, through an excellent ThM class that you taught at Westminster on modern theology in 2019, and then through our work together at Reformed Forum. Let’s begin much further back than that, however, with your upbringing in the church. How did you become a Christian and then a confessional Presbyterian?

I grew up in a Christian home in Houston, Texas, where my family attended and I was baptized in First Presbyterian Church, which became a congregation in the PC(USA) denomination but is now a church in ECO. I believe the Lord regenerated me through the ministry of a Sunday school teacher whose name I cannot remember. I have a vague memory of realizing that the gospel was about Christ, that I needed him, and that it was very important for me to trust in him. I was probably five or six years old.

My understanding of Scripture and things of God at a young age came largely through my father, who became very interested in Ligonier Ministries and books by R. C. Sproul. I remember reading The Holiness of God and Chosen by God as a middle schooler, bringing my biblical questions to my dad. His little green leather Bible was often open next to him on his bed (usually with a TableTalk magazine next to it). I spent many evenings lying on that bed, talking with him about the things of God.

Beyond my father’s discipleship and my mother’s example, the Lord very graciously put men in my life who modeled for me Christian love and leadership throughout my time in youth ministry, college, and more formal ministry capacities—first as an intern with Reformed University Fellowship in the PCA then later in seminary and in pastoral ministry.

Not only did I become a believer at a very young age in a Christian home while attending church, but significantly, at the age of twelve, I witnessed my church rent asunder by a debate and ultimately a vote over whether to remain permanently in the then recently formed PC(USA). Six-hundred people, including my family, left that church and formed a church in the EPC, which, incidentally, has since migrated into the PCA.

During those days, I became aware of the significance of orthodox doctrine for the life of the church, and I witnessed its real-world impact on relationships, families, and the spiritual welfare of God’s people. Through my father’s involvement in that controversy, I gained a keen sense that church life could be messy, but it was important. That awareness has only grown over the years.

A confessional Presbyterian identity came much later. As a senior in college on my way to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology at Tenth Presbyterian Church, I stopped at the bookstore at Westminster Theological Seminary and bought my first copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith. I had heard of the Confession but had never read it. The Lord has a little sense of humor because I would later return, obviously, to Westminster as a student then as a professor.

As the years went by, I became more involved in church ministry. I was an intern with Reformed University Fellowship at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and then attended seminary at RTS in Charlotte. It was there that I grew to love systematic theology, and I realized that how important it is for Christians to have a theological structure—revealed in and developed out of the Scriptures—if they are to properly read their Bibles, to think about the Christian life, and to understand the gospel. The Westminster Standards became, for me, the framework in which I would grow in my knowledge of the Scriptures and of the Lord Jesus.

After seminary, I was called back to Dallas to serve as an assistant pastor, but I soon left to study at Westminster. Now I’m back in the pastoral ministry. Through those years, my conviction grew that a confessionally Reformed outlook is not only true and faithful to the Scriptures but also useful and important for believers in the pew.

Amen, brother. There is so much to be thankful for in all that you’ve said. The Lord has led you step by step from one degree of glory to another. What a fitting testimony to his sovereign grace that he would use a faithful Sunday school teacher, whose name you cannot even remember, to bring you the Word of God through which the Spirit gave you a new heart. And he has been faithful to grow you through the preaching of that Word and its reinforcement through family devotions and the example of godly mentors in the faith.

Maybe I could add that one of the most significant mentors in that long line of men the Lord has placed in my life is Dr. Lane Tipton, well-known to Reformed Forum readers and listeners. When I arrived in Philadelphia from Texas, Lane and I started meeting on a fairly regular basis. For years, he patiently listened to me spout what I thought I understood and then graciously and gently dialogued with me to smooth out and solidify what I would call the “wet cement” that remained in my theological outlook. To change the metaphor slightly, he helped to fortify in me many of the steel-beam structures of Reformed, confessional, and covenantal Christianity with a focus on the death and resurrection of Christ. Maybe best of all, he’s really shown me that the deepest friendships are grounded in a joyful, clear-eyed sharing of theological conviction in the love of Christ.

That’s beautiful to have such a brother in arms and so many other saints who have encouraged you in the faith. How do you now as a family man, as a head of a household, strive to carry on their legacy by discipling the next generation in Christ? Introduce us to your family life and tell us how the Lord is working in your lives to mature you in all in Christ.  

I’d be glad to. I’m married to my wonderful wife, Linley, for twenty-one years. We met in college where she became a believer. At every step of the way since, she has devoted herself not only to me but also increasingly to the church and to the raising of our three fabulous boys, ages sixteen, fourteen, and twelve. What we try to do in our home is to make the grace and truth of the Lord part of the warp and woof of everyday life.

Since our boys were babies, we have tried to think and live in terms of a Christian worldview—from my wife taking them to the park, showing them flowers and animals, to doing family devotions and reading from theologians that other children probably don’t hear read in their homes very much. By God’s grace, they’re very patient with me and are willing to listen and even to take an interest in theological and apologetic matters. Of course, that’s a great joy to me. Like John says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” [3 John 1:4]. All three of my sons are communing members of our church here in Atlanta, and it’s just a delight to be their dad.

My serving as a pastor and teacher brings unique privileges to our family. Among the privileges are all the ways that the church and seminary world have introduced our family to friends, books, and voices that we would otherwise never have encountered. And yet, as children of any pastor knows, there are unique challenges as well. Thankfully, the church where I serve loves and cares for our family as any other family. I think our boys would freely acknowledge that our commitment to the church and to Christ is not some performance but born out of the Lord’s design and his grace to each one of us.

Indeed. God has been gracious to you not only as a family man but also as a churchman, even an ordained servant in the PCA. What is your current pastoral call? How is the Lord building up the saints in your midst through the ordinary means of grace, particularly the preaching of the Word?

It’s my great joy to serve as the associate pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Our church has deep roots in the PCA; it was the host of the original convocation of sessions that helped organize the launch of the PCA back in the 1970s. The church itself was started in 1901. I was called to serve on the pastoral staff in the heart of COVID in 2020. The original and continuing plan was for me to serve in a preaching, teaching, and shepherding function—preaching at our Sunday evening services and working closely with our senior pastor, Aaron Messner. All of it has been, as Lane Tipton says, “an unqualified delight.”

Week to week, I lead in worship, teach a Sunday School class (currently working very slowly through the Westminster Confession of Faith), and preach at our evening service. We also have a gathering on Wednesday evenings, where the pastors share a teaching load. Currently, we’re teaching a series on eschatology, which will lead into a study of the book of Revelation.

I also have the great privilege of promoting good Christian literature among our congregation. I help out with a “book of the month” initiative, where on the first Wednesday evening of the month, we take a break from our normal teaching series, and I give a presentation and lead a discussion on a classic or helpful work of theology. So far, we’ve done everything from Augustine’s Confessions to R. C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation to Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism. And we just started Jonathan Landry Cruse’s What Happens When We Worship.

During the week, I meet with people for lunch, do premarital counseling and, of course, weddings and funerals—and all the wonderful opportunities that the Lord opens up through pastoral ministry to minister to the Lord’s people. Over the years, I’ve grown to love the flock in Atlanta, and I am increasingly thankful for the opportunity to preach and teach God’s Word to them. On the side, I teach about three classes a year at the Atlanta campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. Currently, I’m teaching a class titled Christ, Culture, and Contextualization. I also have the privilege of teaching apologetics and on the Westminster Standards.

Along the lines of your work in the seminary, we know that it’s fitting for a professor to be researching, writing, and producing new scholarship. Are you working on any new books or articles in conjunction with your labors in the local church or RTS?

Brother, I envy those who can find time to research and write while being full-time engaged in full-time pastoral ministry! I find a little bit of time each week, but even that’s been a struggle. Nevertheless, I continue to work on a book on covenant theology and baptism, which has been a thrill and a trial at the same time. I’ll be thankful when that project is finished. But it’s been a blessing to reflect on the topics of covenant and baptism for the past couple of years. The doctrine of the covenant embraces the whole Christian life and all of human history. And I believe that baptism as a sign of the covenant of grace is likewise a window into the full scope of redemptive history with so many implications for the Christian and for the church.

Amen. I’m looking forward to a taste of some of the fruits of your years of labor on the subject of baptism at our upcoming theology conference where we’ll be unpacking the ordinary means of grace that God uses for extraordinary ends. How did you first get to know about Reformed Forum? And other than your participation at our conference, how are you actively engaged in promoting our Colossians 1:28 mission as a faculty member?

Well, thanks, brother. It’s been an honor to be involved in the work of Reformed Forum. I first started listening to Christ the Center when I was a pastor in Dallas and a very fresh MDiv graduate. I don’t know how I found it, but I do remember one thing—going to Best Buy and buying the longest extension cord for earphones that I could find. We had an elliptical machine in my small study space at home, and I took some duct tape and taped that long extension from the elliptical around to the side of my desk and up to my laptop to plug it in so that I could listen to Christ the Center while exercising. That’s how I got to know Camden and Reformed Forum. For years, I listened to those interviews. I eventually stumbled upon Lane Tipton’s lectures on union with Christ. I still remember where I was when he walked through the benefits of our salvation as laid up in the person of Christ, explaining how the benefits are not abstracted from the Benefactor. I had zero idea that these guys whom I was listening to would eventually become my good friends. My meager contributions to Reformed Forum began when I came to Westminster [Theological Seminary] to study and participated in one or two interviews as a student. The next formal step was when Lane, Camden, and I began recording the Van Til group, walking through The Defense of the Faith, which has been a great joy. I love talking Van Til with those guys. We need to be more regular with our recordings, but life is busy! Now I have the great privilege of serving as a faculty member with Reformed Academy, contributing a course on Calvin’s Institutes. And I’m looking forward to my first Reformed Forum conference in Chicago this month [September 2024]. So, I’m a big fan of Reformed Forum. And I’m not alone; it’s exciting to hear our church members talk about Reformed Forum’s podcasts and courses. Many of them found Reformed Forum apart from knowing me, so it’s encouraging to see the reach and the influence that the ministry is having today.

I can confirm from all my time on the road, whether at the PCA GA or on the conference circuit, that folks are appreciative of your own labors through Reformed Forum. There’s lots of anticipation for your next course on Calvin’s Institutes, Books 3–4, for example. We’ll have to find a time to bring you back to the studio in 2025 to finish that series. As we look to the future, entrusting ourselves to the Lord, how might our readers remember you, your family, your church, and all your labors in the Lord in prayer?

Ah, yes! I’d love to finish the course. We can’t leave out Calvin on union with Christ! In terms of prayers, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Lord would enable me to be faithful in the ordinary things—loving my wife, raising my boys, preaching faithfully the Word. I just finished preaching through the Gospel of John, and I’ve picked back up in the book of Proverbs. So, I would ask for prayer that I would be a faithful preacher of Christ, a zealous teacher of God’s Word, and a loving shepherd of God’s people.

Secondly, I would appreciate prayer for overall physical stamina. The Lord’s been very merciful in giving me energy and strength. But I don’t mind sharing that my father gave me one of his kidneys back in 2006. Like many, I feel the weakness of the outer man in unique ways as we maintain a watchful eye on my own health, and I would appreciate prayer that the Lord would sustain me for many years before I go to glory. That is definitely my hope and my plan.

And thirdly, please pray that the Lord would enable our church in Atlanta and the church at large to persevere in fellowship with Christ through suffering with a heart-stirring heavenly vision of our inheritance in Christ.