About John Chester

John serves the saints of Piedmont Bible Church, a Grace Advance church plant in Haymarket Virginia, as their shepherd, a position he has held since 2012 and hopes to serve in the rest of his life. Prior to being called to ministry John worked as a lacrosse coach, a pizza maker, a writer, a marketing executive, and just about everything in between. John is a graduate of The Master’s Seminary and The Grace Advance Academy. He hails from The City of Champions, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and is unbelievably blessed to be married to his wife Cassandra.

Reprise: The Christian and the Gun

Posted on January 22, 2020 by John Chester

One of the things I have come to realize in my first few years of pastoral ministry, is that unexpected questions of all kinds come, and often as a pastor my job is not to provide an answer so much as provide a road-map to help the questioner come to a biblical answer for themselves. Lately, I think because of events that have recently been in the news, I have been hearing a question I never anticipated, “Pastor should I, as a Christian, get/carry a gun?”

Now before I get into the nitty gritty, in the interest of full disclosure, let me give you a little bit of personal background.… Continue reading

On Politics and The Binding of Consciences

Posted on January 8, 2020 by John Chester

The binding of a fellow Christian’s conscience is strange business. For the purposes of this discussion I’ll define the binding of conscience this way: to tell a fellow believer that their conviction or practice in an area of adiaphora (something that is neither prohibited or mandated by Scripture) is wrong and that they must change their conviction and practice in order to be right.

It seems like a no brianer, right? Well it is a no brainer, for one simple reason. Scripture says not to.

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother…The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.

The Comforting Doctrine Of Election

Posted on December 25, 2019 by John Chester

It is Christmas day. And for many that means spending time with extended family. And there is great joy in that. It is great to see and enjoy time with family members. But for believers there can be a tinge of sadness. For many of us getting together with family means getting together with unsaved family members; for some of us it means getting together with only or mostly unsaved family member. And often after the last present is unwrapped and the left overs are cleared away and you are in the car on the way home often a wave of sadness comes; those people you love so much are headed to hell.… Continue reading

Reprise: Don’t Be a Lone Wolf

Posted on December 11, 2019 by John Chester

It was one of the most uncomfortable meals of my life. I had called a semi-local likeminded pastor in order to make him aware of a situation that may impact his small, rural church. After a brief phone conversation, we agreed to meet for lunch the next week. And after some initial pleasantries, he thanked me for calling him, and then he began to weep, and he kept weeping for well over an hour. The reason he wept was this, he felt utterly alone in ministry and his small little church, only a little over an hour away from us, felt utterly isolated from the universal church.… Continue reading

Shepherding & Suffering

Posted on November 27, 2019 by John Chester

For the best several years I have been privileged to participate in The Grace Advance Mid Atlantic (GAMA) equipping conference. The theme of this year’s conference was a biblical view of suffering (you can listen to some conference audio here with more to come in the near future) and I was blessed to give a seminar on shepherding someone in the midst of suffering.

Unfortunately this is something I know a lot about. My wife suffers profoundly from an MS-like demyelinating disease of the brain. She has significant gait problems, diplopia, bouts of optic neuritis among other symptom, but the most impactful symptom is chronic extreme neurogenic pain.… Continue reading

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Author Archives: John Chester