In 1975, the PCA’s committee on Christian Education surveyed PCA ministers and asked what teachers or pastors they would particularly like to sit under. Of those ministers most mentioned, the only minister who was not a Presbyterian was the Rev. Al Martin. 

Albert N. Martin passed away on April 7, 2026, at age 91. His death was announced by Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, where he served as pastor for 46 years before retiring in 2008. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, his ministry and books were influential among many church leaders in the PCA, even , as the 1975 pastors survey indicates, from the PCA’s earliest years. 

Harry Reeder cited Al Martin as one of the formative influences on his own ministry. In an interview, Reeder said his decision to attend Covenant College was one of the most important in his life:

“While I was there, I came under the discipleship of a fellow by the name of Al Martin. And Al discipled me, and that’s how I became the Reformed Baptist,” Reeder said. “Working through some issues on the sacraments and church government, I ended up coming into the PCA in 1980 upon finishing Westminster Seminary.”

Reeder named Martin as the most significant influence on his own ministry. 

Nancy Guthrie cites Martin’s impact on her life and ministry after suffering the loss of two children.

“I’ve read my share of books on grief and death, but the only one I’ve bought in bulk to provide to grieving couples we minister to through our Respite Retreats is “Grieving, Hope, and Solace” by Albert Martin, which uniquely offers comfort less in the intermediate state in God’s presence and more in our confident hope of resurrection.”

Kevin DeYoung names Martin’s book as one of the best books on preaching because “in this short book, the well-known Baptist preacher directs our attention to a much-needed and sorely neglected topic.” Elsewhere, DeYoung specifically notes Martin’s definition of preaching in the power of God’s Spirit as “a heightened sense of spiritual realities, an unfettered liberty, an enlarged heart, and a heightened confidence in the word.”

Martin’s ministry became accessible to many in the PCA through the Mt. Olive Tape Library. Started around 1970, the Mt. Olive Tape Library was the primary way many Christians became familiar with the ministry and teaching of men like Martin and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. For a fee, listeners could select and borrow cassette tapes from the library through a mail-order system. Apart from the radio Bible preachers, this library was one of the only ways to access teaching outside the local church before the emergence of the internet. 

Martin was invited to be a guest preacher in multiple PCA congregations and at many conferences. He was a featured speaker at some of the PCA’s earliest youth conferences held at Covenant College in the 1970s, where Reeder and others found themselves shaped by his approach to ministry. Over the decades, he was also a speaker at Reformed Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Ligonier conferences.

Pastor Martin had a particularly close relationship with Second Presbyterian Church in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he visited and spoke on multiple occasions. He found a friend and ambassador in James Peaster, one of the elders of the church, who encouraged students at RTS to learn from Martin’s ministry as a model for their own. 

Today, you can still hear people across the PCA recount how their Christian experience was profoundly shaped by Pastor Martin’s ministry. Dr. David Irving, president of RTS Jackson, has heard many such stories during his time as a minister serving in Mississippi.

As Irving puts it, “Al Martin played a significant but under-appreciated role in the earliest years of the PCA – preaching at RUF, RYM, and RTS in the early 1970’s. In a time when young Christians were learning the new (to them) doctrines of the reformed faith, Al Martin preached those doctrines with new force, precision, and urgency, shaping the way many PCA members and ministers have thought about the Reformed faith, and especially preaching, for more than half a century.”