Hello!  My name is Jeremy Thomas Kerr, and I am the editor of TrueCovenanter.com, a library of Protestant, Reformed, and Covenanter resources which I have been compiling since the 1990s.  Probably you already know a few things about my website, and would like to know more about who I am, my purpose for the website, and who the church is which is represented by the website.

Who I Am ~ Where I Came From

So I’ll start by telling you a little about me.  I grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, and was taken to various “main-line” churches throughout my youth.  While I was in high-school I gradually became more interested in religion, and initially took interest in the Lutheran reformation, since I was attending a Lutheran church at the time.  I can’t point to a specific day of a conversion experience, but my beliefs during those years became more defined, I started reading my Bible more often, and started listening to Christian radio, albeit with minimal discernment at first.

I went to Gettysburg College, planning to major in Mathematics, minor in Religion, and then go on to Gettysburg Seminary.  Those plans all changed, as my interest in the Christian Faith became more immediate, eclipsing other studies, and my understanding of the Bible made me realize that neither Gettysburg College, nor Gettysburg Seminary, (both affected by theological liberalism and other compromising influences,) would be a good place to study religion or prepare for the ministry.  Consequently, I only finished my first year of college.

I would have liked to have found a good Bible college or somewhere to continue my studies.  My priority, however, became finding a good church.  I was quickly becoming persuaded of the doctrines of Presbyterianism, and the principles of the Covenanters.  I managed to find that there were some people who professed to be Covenanters about an hour north of where my mother lived in Cecil County, Maryland.  So I started attending their meetings.  I was learning a considerable amount of doctrine and history.  But some practical things were missing, and no means were encouraged for continuing a formal education or preparing for the ministry.  It was suggested that perhaps the things that other people saw in me and interpreted as implying I had a call to the ministry, were really just things that meant I was a real Christian.  With a curious knot to untie, concerns of that sort were kept under a cloud.

At the end of 1998, I married Jill, a friend from Gettysburg College who had also taken interest in the Reformation and in the Covenanters.  We started our family young, but this provided something of a way for me to exercise a “ministry.”  Jill was, and is, as avid as myself about reading and learning.  She wanted to know the Bible better, and read all the same good theological material I loved to read.  We read together:  Lots — Sermons — Treatises — Histories, etc.  She has been a great blessing from the Lord.  I never could have imagined how great a blessing she would be.

From 2000 to 2024 the Lord has blessed us with twelve beautiful and healthy children — four boys and eight girls, to be a little more precise.  We home-school our children, sharing in the conviction of many that the schools of our day are not a fit place to send children whom we would raise up for the Lord Jesus.  Most of the credit for the schooling-effort has to go to Jill.  The project of raising children has turned out to be considerably more intense than we expected at the beginning.  We thank the Lord for his very needed help.  In the meantime, there’s much that he teaches us about ourselves in these children and in our experiences with them.  There’s a lot of training and shaping of ourselves, and an abundance of circumstances that necessitate us to draw near to the Lord and depend on him more and more.

By the end of 2001, there was something of a “falling-out” among the Covenanters and others with whom we were meeting.  There was nothing of the nature of what some folks like to suggest in the slanders they load upon us as overly precise and ready to divide over a small difference of opinion.  Over the years, we have known people who would take great offence at small matters, and we have seen they are to be found in many different circles of Christians.  But when it comes to the conflicts we have seen to divide Covenanters who were formerly united, our own observation has been that weighty matters were always involved.  As for the outcome of events in 2001, a group of us started meeting elsewhere, with grounds and practices very similar to what had been held by the whole group previous to this intrusion.  The intrusion was disastrous, and within a year the preacher was no longer preaching.

In early 2002, our family and others were meeting on Lord’s days following an order pattered both on our previous meetings, and the historic covenanter fellowship meetings.  Our doctrine was the same, and our goal was still to persevere in the old Reformed Presbyterian testimony, hoping to form a covenanter congregation.  Since then my family and I have spent time fellowshipping with other Covenanters, and also spent a few years worshipping alone.  From 2007 to 2017 we enjoyed worshipping with a few Covenanter families in south-central Pennsylvania.  I’ll get to that in just a moment, as the second item to explain, mentioned above.

Why I Maintain the Website

As for the TrueCovenanter.com website, this is a project of my own.  It is not the assignment of any church or other organization.  I started the website long ago hoping it would be a means stirring a love in many for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as a means of promoting knowledge of the Covenanted Reformation and gathering others to the same cause.  I remember how much the Lord used free online literature to help me in my early Christian life, and I’ve always wanted to provide the same blessing for others.

About My Occupation

That might leave the reader with a question about what I am otherwise: how do I make a living? what is the rest of my time taken up with?  Most of my time is not taken up with this website.  I’d love to be able to put more time into it, and into printed publications.  A very large part of my time is dedicated rather directly to my family.  But my occupation is actually that of a Software Developer and DBA (Database Admin­istrator). For the past two decades and more, the majority of my labor in this field has been in behalf of three different businesses in the Home Improvement industry.  In 2023 I was laid off from the second of these three businesses, and found it difficult to obtain new work.  During this time I caught up on some projects with my home network and this website.  I also did a variety of work in other fields: landscaping, occasional carpentry, tutoring, and assistance with tree service work.  For now, (2024-2025,) I am back into software development.  The Lord has taken care of our family many ways, and sometimes the generosity of Christian friends was of particular importance.

In the Software Development field, my old interest in mathematics gets a little exercise, but it is only a little, and in recent years my “academic” interest has taken a definitive shift toward Koine Greek.  By incorporating this into our homeschool efforts, I managed to learn Greek fairly well, enough to read through the New Testament, gradually needing less helps in that effort.  I would be happy to have some kind of work in this field, but without a degree, it has been hard to find any open doors that way.  I run a small Christian publishing effort, but thus far it is only at a scale that serves as a ministry, not a means of support.  Computer programming has always shown the most potential that way.  But I have to confess, the tendencies of this field having become a little sour to me.  On the one hand there are the many tech fads, which can quickly cause a swing from one technology to another, without regard to what the individual developer prefers, or even what is beneficial.  And on the other hand, the push toward remote work, which was once an important convenience to me, eventually brought two very hurtful outcomes: (1) Very stiff competition for work, with every developer who makes himself available on the internet; and, (2) Isolation from other people, and a consequent impediment to being a light in the world.

About the Church this Website Represents

As for the Church which is represented by this website, it is a church, essentially considered, but it is not locally organized at present, and for the most part consists of scattered families.  And, to be more plain, any representation by the website is entirely unofficial.  Brethren of varying degrees of agreement with the old principles of the Covenanters would see this website as more or less representing themselves.  Those who are truly attached to the teachings of the Bible and cause of the Reformation cannot generally point to organized churches of our day, or their websites, as representing their faith.

But that said, there is no pretension to representing the exact beliefs of all “true covenanters” in our day.  In general, the authors of articles and publications are indicated, and each is responsible for his own writing.  I would not pretend that I agree with everything in every page on this website  In any case there are a number of individuals and families in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia who are generally dedicated to the main principles and beliefs promoted here.  Some of us hope to start a Covenanter Church in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, while others would gladly enjoy fellowship in other locations: Washington State, Scotland, etc.  Some presently enjoy the regular preaching of the word, others read historic Reformed sermons full of precious lessons and powerful exhortations.  Where we cannot follow the old Presbyterian Directory for Public Worship item-by-item, we make an effort to implement the practices of the Reformed Presbyterian Short Directory for Religious Societies. Those who can, read the scriptures together, sing psalms together, pray together, and either read old sermons together, or else engage in Christian conference on religious questions.  Some people would call us “Steelites.”  We are Christians who are Reformed Presbyterian, and see clearly that modern churches called “Reformed Presbyterian” need to go back to being more reformed.  To be sure, we need some reformation too — we’re not trying to boast about anything or be too good for existing churches and pastors.  Some day, we’ll have proper congregations and pastors.  Some day, the whole Christian Church is going to be very different from what it has become since the Protestant Reformation came to its end.

Such, it is hoped, will suffice for an explanation of my background, the reason for this website, and the church it represents.