December 26 Today in OPC History

When Rollin P. Keller married Barbara Lucille Piper on this date in 1957, he became the fulcrum of what would become three generations of Orthodox Presbyterian pastors. His father-in-law, Russell D. Piper, was a young Methodist who embraced the Reformed faith when taught by Dr. J. Gresham Machen and others at the newly opened Westminster Theological Seminary. Russell Piper’s only daughter, Barbara Lucille, born just six months after the start of the OPC, had grown up in a South Dakota manse furnished with a wood stove for cooking, a hand pump in the kitchen, and outdoor plumbing. Rollin met Barbara when her father served as pastor of Westminster Church in Los Angeles. At that time, Rollin was earning his bachelors from Los Angeles Baptist College. They married and after he graduated in 1958, the newlyweds moved to Philadelphia where Rollin earned his masters of divinity from WTS in 1961. Rollin preached on alternate weekends to a new church plant in Neptune, New Jersey, then served as a home missionary in Neptune in June 1961. The following June, Rollin was ordained by the Presbytery of New Jersey as pastor of Good Shepherd OPC in Neptune. Barbara kept busy with sons Phillip, Calvin, and Paul. The family enjoyed a week at the Wildwood shore every summer that Rollin preached at the Boardwalk Chapel. In March 1966, the congregation became organized as Good Shepherd OP Church and Rollin was called as their pastor in May.

In 1967, Rollin answered a call to serve as the twelfth pastor of Emmanuel OPC in Wilmington, Delaware, where Jonathan was born. By 1974, Rollin and Barbara headed back West where he became pastor of Grace OPC in Modesto, California. The Kellers bought a house, welcomed foster children Robert and Donna into their home, and helped to establish a four-week summer Bible school program that combined remedial reading and arithmetic with Bible stories. In 1983 they moved to Carson, California, where he ministered to Grace OPC. Rollin knew some of the oldest members because in the summer of 1957, Rollin was one of four young men who had taken turns preaching at evening worship to the nascent group. Rollin also was blessed to see his son answer the call to the gospel ministry. Calvin graduated in 1991 from Westminster Seminary in Escondido, California—then known as “Westminster West.” With Russell Piper’s graduation from WTS in 1938, Rollin's in 1961, and Calvin's thirty years later, they were among the first three-generation graduates of Westminster.