Editor’s Note: Endurance in ministry doesn’t come without trials. Dr. Jon Payne, preaching from 2 Corinthians 12, shows us how God sustained Paul and will sustain us amidst “thorns in the flesh.” To labor in gospel ministry is an unspeakable joy yet filled with much suffering. The ballast of our souls during these seasons of suffering must be the all-sufficient Christ. As Dr. Payne says, “Fellow Pastors, when we are filled with self, we cannot be filled with Christ. When we are filled with the world, we cannot be filled with the Spirit. When we are filled with pride, we cannot be filled with the love of God. And so God, in His severe kindness, sends His ministers thorns and trials to empty us of ourselves, and to fill us with His all-sufficient grace and power.”
My Grace Is Sufficient for You: Endurance through Trials
GRN National Conference 2026
Jon Payne
Rev. Jon D. Payne is senior pastor of Christ Church Presbyterian (PCA) in Charleston, South Carolina. He planted Christ Church in 2013. Before moving to Charleston, Rev. Payne was senior pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Douglasville, Georgia from 2003-2013. Rev. Payne has served in the role of executive coordinator of the Gospel Reformation Network since 2015. In addition, he is the founding director of the Oxford Church Planting Institute, a division of Westminster Seminary UK in Oxford, England. Rev. Payne also serves as chairman of the Heidelberger Society, a Reformed and confessional church planting effort in Germany. He has preached and served the cause of mission in over twenty countries. Rev. Payne is series co-editor (with Joel Beeke) of, and contributor to, the Lectio Continua Expository Commentary on the New Testament (Reformation Heritage Books), and author/editor of numerous articles, chapters, and books including John Owen on the Lord’s Supper (Banner of Truth), In the Splendor of Holiness: Rediscovering the Beauty of Reformed Worship for the 21st Century (Tolle Lege; trans. into nine languages), A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism’s Enduring Heritage (RHB), and A Faith Worth Defending: The Synod of Dort’s Enduring Heritage (RHB). Rev. Payne is a regular contributor to TableTalk magazine. He and his wife, Marla, have been married for 27 years and have two children in college.