John Carroll
John is the Pastor Emeritus (retired) of Christ Church. He has been an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America since 1995 and served a pastorate at Central Presbyterian Church in Kingstree, SC before coming to Katy to serve at Christ Church in 2000. John is a graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin), Columbia International University (M.Div.) and Virginia Tech (BS). He is married to the former Mary Lackey and they have three adult daughters and three grandchildren.
John’s boyhood was spent in two very different worlds: on the family farm in southwest Virginia where he milked cows and hunted squirrels and in NY where he played the coronet in his elementary school marching band. Although he had been raised in church by godly parents, it was in his junior year at VA Tech that God graciously opened his eyes to the hopelessness of his sinful state and gave him the faith and grace to believe the gospel and be saved. This led to many opportunities to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ. Sensing a call to the ministry, he went on staff with the Navigators and served at the University of the Philippines and the University of California at Davis. After he and Mary were married, the door opened for them to move to Argentina where they served in campus ministry for 16 years.
A turning point for John came when in mid-life and with teenage children, he was able to go to seminary. John says, “Classes like systematic theology, homiletics and church history helped fill in major gaps in my training and knowledge. My beliefs, which had been constantly challenged and eroded through years of evangelistic work in a secular cross-cultural environment, were clarified and strengthened.” As to must-read books, besides the Bible, John recommends The Westminster Confession of Faith, Knowing God (J I Packer), Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (RC Sproul), books by David Wells like No Place for Truth (and the sequels to that), The Pursuit of Holiness (Jerry Bridges), The Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey) and Ryken’s Bible Handbook.
