I’m a pastor who is the product of parachurch ministries.
I have a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I’m working on my PhD at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Both my parents taught Precept Bible studies when I was growing up. As a student at Texas A&M University, I participated in Breakaway Ministries and served as a counselor at Impact Camp. As an adult, I taught Precept myself, I have served on the board of multiple parachurch ministries, and I graduated from Downline Ministries’ Discipleship Institute. God has used parachurch ministries to shape me into the pastor I am today.
Over the last two years, as I prepared to plant our new church in College Station, my understanding and love for the local church have grown. This has made me reevaluate the roles that parachurch ministries have played in my spiritual formation, and left me asking the question, “Where was the church?”
This question hits at the heart of the tension between the church and the parachurch. But before we address that tension, let’s ask a preliminary question: what is a parachurch organization? Here is a working definition: any organization that is not a local church,
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