Joshua Eugene Harris (b. 1974) was a leading figure in the “Christian Purity” movement. His father, Greg Harris, was a leader among Christian homeschoolers in the 1980s and 1990s, a movement that his son, Joshua, enthusiastically embraced. At the age of 17 Harris began to speak at his father’s homeschooling events, and from 1994–1997 he published New Attitude Magazine, a resource for homeschooled teenagers. In 1997 without any formal theological training, Harris moved from Oregon to Maryland to place himself under the mentorship of Charles Joseph (C. J.) Mahaney, pastor of Covenant Life Church and Sovereign Grace Ministries.
The same year, Harris published his bestseller I Kissed Dating Goodbye at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three. A year later, 1998, he married Shannon Boone with whom he has three children. His second book, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship (2000), recounts the history of his relationship with Shannon.
Harris served as senior pastor of Covenant Life Church from 2004 to 2015. In January 2015 he announced that he was stepping down from his pastoral role to pursue formal, theological training at Regent College, Vancouver:
In reflecting on my own story, I can’t help but think that I have lived a sort of backwards life. Without meaning to, I have experienced life out of the normal order and sequence of events. At the end of last year I turned 40 years old. Yet it is only now that I am going to school. I haven’t completed any post-graduate study. I don’t even have an undergraduate degree. In fact, I have never attended a formal school full-time in my life.… Seven years after I arrived at the church I was set in as the hand picked replacement for C.J. I was 30 years old, with no formal theological training and no formal training in organizational leadership, and I was the Senior Pastor of a 3,000-member church. That, my friends, is a crazy, backwards life!2
For God's Glory and the Church's Consolation: 400 Years of the Synod of Dordt Coming October 2019! Among Reformed Christians, the celebration of the anniversary of the Synod of Dordt (1618–1619) is second only to the commemoration of the...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
COMING IN OCTOBER! A new book by a new author! DATING DIFFERENTLY: A GUIDE TO REFORMED DATINGby Rev. Joshua Engelsma Chapter 4: Who's the One? In many ways this chapter gets right to the heart of Christian dating. What I write here is devoted to...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
DATING DIFFERENTLYA Guide to Reformed Dating by Joshua Engelsma Coming October 2019! We’re bombarded with antichristian messages everywhere in life, and from casual hookups to casual sex, our culture’s messages on dating are no...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Powerless Alternatives Two other things mentioned in verse 6 do not avail. According to verse 6 there are two kinds of people “in Jesus Christ.” There are two kinds of Christians, two kinds of believers or two kinds of church members:...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
The issue in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians is justification. How is a guilty sinner declared righteous before God? The answer: a sinner is justified before God on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ received by or...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Works occupy a prominent place in Scripture; in fact, Scripture is from beginning to end a book of works. Scripture attributes works to the triune God, Christ, angels—wicked and holy, and men—wicked and holy. We begin our examination...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Thoroughly covenantal, consistently biblical, and beautifully Christo-centric, Jehovah’s Mighty Acts chronologically highlights stories from Old Testament history for the elementary-aged child, explaining how each story displays a wonder of...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Dead to the Law Paul begins Galatians 2:19 with this assertion, “I am dead,” or (better) I died.” The difference between “I am dead” and “I died” is the difference between a state of being (dead) and a...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Question 56. What believest thou concerning "the forgiveness of sin"? Answer. That God for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long; but will...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
