Keynote Speakers

Dr. James Anderson

Dr. James Anderson is an ordained minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dr. Anderson came to RTS from Edinburgh, Scotland, and specializes in philosophical theology, religious epistemology, and Christian apologetics. His doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh explored the paradoxical nature of certain Christian doctrines and the implications for the rationality of Christian faith. His research and writing has also focused on the presuppositionalism of Cornelius Van Til, particularly his advocacy of the transcendental argument.

Dr. Anderson has a long-standing concern to bring the Reformed theological tradition into greater dialogue with contemporary analytic philosophy. Before studying philosophy, Dr. Anderson also earned a Ph.D. in Computer Simulation from the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers, the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Prior to joining RTS Charlotte, Dr. Anderson served as an assistant pastor at the historic Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh where he engaged in regular preaching, teaching, and pastoral ministry. He is married to Catriona and they have three children.

Dr. Kevin DeYoung

A native of Jenison, Michigan, Kevin graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, with a B.A. in religion. He earned his Master of Divinity degree at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He received his doctorate in Early Modern History at the University of Leicester in the UK. His research has focused on the theology of John Witherspoon, a Scottish-American Presbyterian theologian who was a founding father of the United States. Before accepting the call to lead Christ Covenant, Kevin served as pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan,

Kevin regularly speaks at churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in North America and overseas. He has published more than a dozen books for adults and children, including Just Do Something and The Biggest Story. His book, Crazy Busy: A Mercifully Short Book About a Big Problem, was named the 2014 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Book of the Year. In addition, Christianity Today has awarded Book of the Year honors to three of his books in 2009, 2010, and 2013. World Magazine named What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? one of its 2015 Books of the Year.

In addition to his primary responsibility as Senior Pastor at Christ Covenant Church, Kevin is an Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He was formerly a Chancellor’s Professor for the Seminary.

Kevin and his wife Trisha are the parents of nine children.

Dr. Mark mcdowell

Mark McDowell is ordained as a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and has served at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, since 2012. At FPC Columbia, he has ministered alongside current and former RTS faculty including Sinclair Ferguson and Ralph Davis. Mark earned his MDiv from RTS Charlotte, his Th.M. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and his Ph.D. from Kings College at Aberdeen University in Systematic Theology under the supervision of the late John B. Webster. Dr. McDowell’s research interests include Christology, political theology, and ethics.

In addition to giving leadership to RTS Dallas and RTS Houston, Dr. McDowell serves as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology.

Mark is married to Monica and they have four boys: Nicholas, Cameron, Patrick, and Oliver. He is a native of Northern Ireland and avidly follows Manchester United and Ulster Rugby.

Dr. Blair Smith

Dr. D. Blair Smith is the Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at RTS Charlotte.

Blair earned his Th.M. in Theology from Harvard Divinity School, where he wrote his thesis on “Athanasius’s Trinitarian Theology of Redemption, with Special Reference to the Holy Spirit.”  He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Theology (Patristics) at Durham University in England under Professor Lewis Ayres, one of the world’s leading patristic scholars. The working title of his dissertation is “The Fatherhood of God in Fourth-Century Pro-Nicene Trinitarian Theology.” During a portion of his doctoral studies, Blair served as a Research Visitor at The University of Notre Dame.

Blair is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and served for more than seven years as the Pastor of Adult Education at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD. He also served as a part-time associate Pastor at Michiana Covenant Presbyterian Church near South Bend, IN, preaching throughout the Great Lakes Presbytery of the PCA and ministering to graduate students at Notre Dame. Blair is married to his wife, Lisa, and they have six children.

Dr. Chad Van Dixhoorn

Dr. Chad Van Dixhoorn is Professor of Church History and Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. A leading expert on the work of the Westminster Assembly, he completed a five-volume work of The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1652 (Oxford University Press). He is currently working on a major monograph on the Westminster Assembly, having recently completed an edition of John Lightfoot’s journals, also published with OUP. He is the editor most recently of John Arrowsmith’s Plans for Holy War, and serves as general editor of Works of Samuel Rutherford, which is to be published by Reformation Heritage Books in 22 volumes.

Van Dixhoorn studied at Huron College, The University of Western Ontario (B.A.) and received his ministerial training at Westminster Theological Seminary (MDiv, ThM). After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Van Dixhoorn was awarded two post-doctoral fellowships, the second granted by the British Academy. He was a member of the Faculty of History of the University of Cambridge and has held two fellowships at Wolfson College, Cambridge. Since 2014, Dr. Van Dixhoorn has also served as an honorary research fellow at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., and since 2023 as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto.

At RTS Van Dixhoorn teaches three courses on church history, as well as regular courses on ecclesiology and sacraments, church polity, worship, personal sanctification, pastoral theology, expositional preaching, and the Westminster Standards.

Ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Dr. Van Dixhoorn has served as a pastor at Cambridge Presbyterian Church in the U.K. and at Grace Presbyterian Church in Vienna, Va. He and his wife Emily have been blessed with five children and a son-in-law.