About
I serve as an Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where I’ve taught since 2006. My primary areas of scholarly interest include the history and theology of revivals and spiritual awakenings and Baptist history and theology. I’m especially interested in eighteenth-century British Baptists and twentieth-century Southern Baptists. I also serve as the Theological Advisor and Coordinator for Southeastern’s faculty blog, Between the Times, which I co-founded with four of my SEBTS colleagues in 2008.
Most of my writings have been in the field of Baptist Studies. See the “Books and Essays” and “Book Reviews” tabs above. I also love to edit. I am the church history and historical theology book review editor for Themelios and serve on the editorial board of several scholarly journals, including The Journal of Baptist Studies, The Andrew Fuller Review, and The Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry. I also serve as an associate editor of the Works of Andrew Fuller project (forthcoming from Walter de Gruyter) and as a consulting editor for Wipf and Stock’s series Studies in Baptist History.
I’m a member of several scholarly and professional organizations related to church history, theology, and Baptist Studies. I’m a member of the steering committee for the Baptist Life and Thought Study Group of the Evangelical Theological Society and a member of the continuation committee for the International Conference on Baptist Studies. I serve as a Fellow of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern Seminary, where I contribute to Historia Ecclesiastica, the Fuller Center’s blog, and help convene a Pastor-Historians Study Group. Over the years, I’ve been quoted in media outlets such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Christianity Today, the Raleigh News and Observer, Daily Kos, Urban Faith, Huffington Post, and Associated Press.
In addition to my teaching and writing ministry, I’m an ordained minister who has previously served in ministry positions in several Southern Baptist churches in Georgia and North Carolina. I’m currently one of the elders of the First Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina, where I teach classes on systematic theology and church history and oversee new member assimilation. I periodically preach and teach in other local churches and speak at various types of conferences. I also currently serve as a member of the board of directors of the Biblical Recorder, the official news journal of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
I’ve been married to my gorgeous wife Leah since 2001. Leah is a full-time homemaker. We’re the parents of four children: Georgia, Baxter, Eleanor, and an unborn boy named Fuller due in April 2013. My hobbies include watching movies, enjoying Broadway musicals (we have season tickets to a local Broadway series), listening to all kinds of music ranging from Allison Krauss to Mumford and Sons to Johnny Cash to Jars of Clay, and rooting for my beloved Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta Braves.