Theology for Every Person (3 Volumes)

A few years ago, the good people at LifeWay asked me to propose a set of systematic theology books. They allowed me to choose to focus either on the academy or on the people in the churches. I chose to focus on the churches as the primary audience, and from my proposal we together worked up a series entitled "Theology for Every Person." The three volumes are intended to help everyone realize that God calls each person to know and love him with all of one's heart, soul, mind, and strength. These three volumes, when taken together, cover the basic and most important details of systematic theology for the college and seminary classroom.

Volume 1: God

The first volume in the series is entitled God and was published in 2024. This book helps the reader enter the conversation of talk about God. The overarching theme is that of a journey into knowing God. The major doctrines considered are God, revelation, and theological method. I have written about these doctrines in numerous academic works. The academic details are summarized and simplified as much as possible without losing their meaning. My hope is that the reader will be delighted to enter the conversation with and about our Creator. You can find the book on sale with the publisher, B&H, or at a major retailer, such as Amazon.

Volume 2: Word

The second volume of Theology for Every Person is entitled Word and was published in 2026. This book helps the reader continue their journey into knowing God by focusing on the second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word or Son of God. After two chapters on the Person of the Father are two chapters focused on the Person of the Word. Chapters five and six then consider the doctrines of creation and providence, while the next three chapters focus on who human beings are as created in the image of God yet as sinful. The final four chapters consider the work of Jesus Christ, centered in the cross but inclusive of his resurrection, ascension, heavenly session, and eternal reign. You can find the book on sale with the publisher, B&H, or at a major retailer, such as Amazon. 

Volume 3: Spirit

The third volume will be entitled Spirit and is expected to be published in 2028. It will consider the doctrine of the Person of the Holy Spirit, as well as the doctrines of the Kingdom of God, salvation and the Christian life, the church, and the last.

Endorsements

I appreciate how pastor theologians like the late Steve Gaines, as well as Andy Brown, Mark Forrest, Ryan King, and Darin Wood, alongside academic theologians like Glenn Butner, Rick Durst, Adam Harwood, Michael Haykin, and Kenneth Keathley, have kindly endorsed both these volumes. 

Video Sessions

I have taught portions of these books in various churches, testing them out on the laity, and been surprised by the great responses. I have also taught each chapter in the classroom to University and Seminary students, and many before gatherings of Pastors, Ministers, and Missionaries seeking a refresher course in theology. 

Recently, the First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas, led by Dr. Darin Wood, recorded three such sessions delivered to ministers who came from all over West Texas, including as far as El Paso. You are welcome to sit in on those sessions by videos located here:

• Session 1: Theology is for Every Person 
• Session 2: Is God Trinity? 
• Session 3: What Must We Say of the Trinity? 

May the readers be edified and the Lord be glorified by all three volumes of Theology for Every Person.

Theology Is for God’s People

I am happy to announce that the good people at B&H Publishing Group and I have contracted for a major 3-volume popular-level systematic theology.

The Lord has long impressed me with the truth that theology is the responsibility of his people in the local churches.

This conviction began under the preaching of pastor Wayne DuBose, now of Minden, Louisiana.

It was then reinforced by the teaching of James Leo Garrett of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Research on the biblical and historical doctrine of the priesthood of all believers with the ThM at Duke Divinity (on the continental Reformation) and the DPhil at University of Oxford (on the English Reformation) cemented this conviction. (The latter was published by Oxford University Press).

Significant pastorates in Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina showed in practice the truth that our people in our local churches want to know how to think properly about God, his work in the world, and his Word. These pastorates above all developed a deep love to teach God’s Word.

When Lakeside Baptist Church Granbury called me to be their Teaching Pastor, I was overwhelmed with joy to ground academic theology in church theology. The combination of the roles of Teaching Pastor and Research Professor have proved beneficial for both classroom and pulpit.

In important ways, the ongoing Baptist struggle with theological modernism has been exacerbated by a divorce between church and academy. The churches rightly claim theology is for their use in worship, mission, teaching. The academies serve best when we support the churches.

The theological construction undergirding this conviction was written up for academic theological audiences in “The Formation of Christian Doctrine,” a detailed methodology published by B&H Academic in 2007. Theologians in the academy may consult that work for more detail.

Now, in my writing ministry, I plan to turn in the direction that, as my wife Karen Searcy Yarnell recently reminded me, Leo Garrett long hoped I would do: popular theology.

The American Evangelical and Southern Baptist academy is maturing theologically by leaps. Let us now build on that.

Stay tuned for more details from B&H Publishers in the next few years. For now, however, you know where my focus will be dedicated.

Theology is for God’s People.