Dr. Neil C. Stewart

Senior Minister
Neil grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and came to faith as a teenager through the witness of high school friends. He studied medicine at the Queen’s University of Belfast, where he met and married Catherine Jane Johnson. Through these years, Neil likes to say, “While I met the ideas of the Reformed Faith though the writings of R.C. Sproul, A.W. Pink, and the English Puritans, I met the God of the Reformed Faith in Belfast, worshiping at a little church at the top of the Stranmillis Road, sitting at the feet of Dr. Derek Thomas.”

In his final year of medical school, Neil was awarded the Ulster Hospital Gold Medal for his studies in medicine, general and orthopedic surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology. He was elected a member of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health in 1997. As a pediatrician, Neil served in the historic Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

Sensing a call to ministry, Neil and his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he graduated from the Master of Divinity program at RTS, Jackson in 2002. As a pastor, he has served as the Senior Minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Yazoo City, Mississippi (2002-2006), Kirk O’ the Isles Presbyterian Church, Savannah, Georgia (2006-2016), and Christ Covenant Church ARP, Greensboro, North Carolina (2016-2023).  

Neil has been a keynote speaker at various conferences throughout the United States and Canada. He has written chapters in several other books, including On Reforming Worship (Covenant Foundation, 2018) and Catherine’s two books, Letters to Pastors’ Wives: When Seminary Ends, and Ministry Begins (P&R, 2013) and Surviving the Fish Bowl: Letters to Pastors’ Kids (RHB, 2021). Neil also appeared in Les Lanphere's recent documentary, Spirit and Truth: How Does God Want to Be Worshiped? You can get a flavor of his writing here in the articles he has written for Ligonier’s Tabletalk magazine.

Neil and Catherine have six children: Hannah (27), Benjamin (20), Eleah (18), Josiah (16), Samuel (13), and Eliza (9).