July 8 Today in OPC History

Born in Glendale, California, in 1949, Stuart R. Jones graduated with a bachelor’s of art degree from the University of Nebraska in 1971. Since becoming a Christian in college, Stuart had a growing desire to learn and teach the Bible and to preach. He earned his masters of divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1974. The Presbytery of New York and New England ordained Stuart on June 1, 1977, to serve as associate pastor of Calvary OPC in Schenectady, New York, where he ministered for five years. While in Schenectady, Stuart met Sandy Longin when they both were helping a campus ministry at Union College. They were married on July 8, 1978.

In 1982 Stuart was called as pastor of First OPC in Baltimore, Maryland, a position he held until the church closed in 2007. While at First OPC, Stuart also worked for a couple of years at the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. Currently he teaches apologetics and civics at a classical Christian school in Maryland. Sandy teaches developmental reading to incoming students at the Essex Campus of Community Colleges of Baltimore County. She also has taught women’s Bible studies, Sunday school, and showed hospitality to their congregations.

Stuart served as moderator of both the PNYNE and PMA and for seventeen years as stated clerk of the PMA. He was appointed as parliamentarian at a General Assembly and served on the Committee for Appeals and Complaints for more than twenty years. An instructor for the Ministerial Training Institute of the OPC (MTIOPC) since 1999, Stuart taught Presbyterian Polity, which later focused solely on the Book of Discipline. He has written articles in the Presbyterian Guardian, New Horizons, Ordained Servant, Kerux, and Confessional Presbyterian 2. He and Sandy live in Rosedale, Maryland, near their two children, Jerry and Sarah, their spouses, and five grandchildren.