About the Rev

This blogger is the husband to Kim, father to Hannah and Emma, pastor to the family of faith called Madison Heights Baptist Church.  Here, you can check out what is going on with our missional journey as a church.  Grace and Peace.

2 Responses to About the Rev

  1. Kirk Farmer says:
    March 14, 2012 at 2:14 am

    Dear Todd I have never had the pleasure of meeting you but I pray we will soon have opportunity to do so. My name is Kirk Farmer and I attended Madison Heights Baptist Church for the majority of my early childhood. In your church I have many members of my family and many friends. Many preachers that are associated with MHBC are related to me such as my cousin Charles Stinson and my cousin Cameron Bryant who was once head of the Southern Baptist Association in Alabama. When you run through names such as Vera Bryant she was my Grandmother. People like Bill Pearce and John Marks and Charles Irvin are all related to me. I simply say this to give you a little background and connection to me and my affiliation to your ministry.. On your very street I Pastor Providence Bible Church at 189 Main Street Madison Heights,Va. We are Calvinist and I teach the Grace Doctrines as set forth in the Westminister Confession.Having said that we are totally autonomous and do not worry ourselves about external authorities outside of Christ and his word. We are old-line English Baptist. Let me ask a question, for I feel I must and please do not take this as an attack it is not! I simply want us to meet to speak to one another on what appears to me to be a gleefull attitude on the part of your ministry at the ordination of Women Preachers. I have never understood as a literalist how one can say on one hand as Baptist we believe in the Baptist distinctives and that the Bible is the soul authority for all we believe and practice and then treat the scriptures with such a cavilear attitude. I once again am not seeking anything but reason of mind. I left MHBC years ago because of this and simply was looked upon as a trouble maker, He that troubleth Isreal. Todd I wish you in Christ nothing but Gods blessing. Wasent this a strange way for introduction Yours in Christ Rev.Kirk Farmer

    Reply
    • revtoddblake says:
      March 14, 2012 at 5:15 pm

      Rev. Farmer,

      Thank you for introducing yourself. I am encouraged by your comment because I have evidently represented well my support of women as preachers and their service in ordained ministry. Though you may not agree with my convictions, your concern reveals that I have not misrepresented myself.

      As a Baptist, I believe firmly in Baptist distinctives such as soul freedom, church freedom, religious freedom, and in this case, Bible freedom. Dr. Walter Shurden articulates this distinctive well in his book The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms. In this book, Shurden defines Bible Freedom as this:

      Bible Freedom is the Baptist affirmation that the Bible, under the Lordship of Christ, must be central in the life of the individual and the church and that Christians, with the best and most scholarly tools of inquiry, are both free and obligated to study and obey the Scriptures.

      Bible Freedom acknowledges that under that Lordship of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are free to interpret the Bible on an individual basis. Therefore, I acknowledge your freedom to come to a different conclusion as you read the Bible. I would simply ask for the same.

      To understand how I read and interpret the Bible, I would direct you to one of my recent blog posts entitled “Some confessions and convictions about how we should read the Bible.”

      Grace and peace,
      Rev. Todd Blake

      Reply

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