Chad is a passionate preacher, teacher, writer, and church leader. He has directed discipleship programs, youth ministries, worship teams, and street evangelism teams for over twenty years. He is also an Operations Research Scientist, specializing in supply chain and logistics mathematical modeling. He graduated from Grove City College (B.S.), Youngstown State University (M.S.), and Master’s International University of Divinity (M.Min, D.BiblicalStudies). He has an amazing wife and three sons. They currently live in Ocala Florida.
For a long time I was a staunch Arminian. My Calvinist friend and I would debate back and forth, each holding forth the “obvious” scriptures which supported our positions, and then doing as many hermeneutical gymnastics that we could to explain the opposing side’s scriptures. Although these conversations were frustrating at times, I learned several things:
- The importance of dealing comprehensively with an issue, looking at all related passages rather than a mere handful of verses that supported my position
- How to appreciate someone else’s well-thought-out position, and take the time to respectfully dialog about it rather than quickly (and ignorantly) discarding it as a “heresy”
- How to be gracious towards other views, especially those with deep historical footing. None of these debates are new, and it would behoove modern Christians to learn when, why, and how different views arose in theological history.
After rigorous study and prayer, I found that both sides had a mix of truth and error in their assumptions, logic, and exegesis. I landed in the Middle Ground, which I believe is where the truth often lies. The heartbeat of the Middle Ground is to continue this journey through other theological topics…
The Middle Ground 