About

Hi, and welcome to ChuckWarnock.com. I was selected by the editors of Outreach magazine in 2006, to write a post a week for 2007, under the title “Confessions of a Small-Church Pastor.” The title was not my choice, but it worked well for several years.

Now, however, it’s 2023, and I’m addressing the idea that small churches can engage with their communities and transform them with the power of love.

Debbie and I were called to Chatham Baptist Church in Chatham, Virginia 19 years ago. We live in a old Victorian house on Main Street, which is a lot busier than you might think for a town of 1200. Debbie is an artist. She says we live a life of art, writing, and encouragement. I like that.

I’m an alum of Mercer University (BA), Southwestern Baptist Seminary (MDiv), and Fuller Seminary (DMin), where my studies integrated missional church thought with social and community engagement and reconciliation.

On January 1, 2019, I became the first Minister in Residence for Small Churches for the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV). I was honored to be selected to serve as a resource to small churches and small church pastors.

Sermons

My sermons are posted on this blog under the category SERMON. Sermons are also categorized by book of the Bible, so you can click on Categories for the book of the Bible you’re looking for.  For lectionary preachers, I also have categorized sermons by the Lectionary Year A, B, or C.  Again, find those categories on my Home page.

You can email me at chuckwarnock [at] gmail [dot] com.

Writing, Speaking, Conference Leadership

A book version of my DMin dissertation, The Reconciling Community: The Missional Mending of Spiritual and Social Relationships, came out in September, 2013. Previously I was contributing editor for Outreach magazine from January, 2008 through June, 2011, and wrote the Small Church, Big Idea column for each issue.

I also have written for Leadership Journal, and other Christianity Today publications:

• Getting To Your Marketplace is the story of how we founded and grew a new church in Greensboro, NC.
• The Bowl of Hope tells about our success in revitalizing a wonderful United Methodist Church in Tennessee.
• Learn To Partner is in Leadership’s Spring 2007 issue. Christianity Today featured the article on their site here.
• ChristianityToday.com posted my article, Where Is God? about the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, where 33 faculty and students died.
• Outcomes magazine published my article on community collaboration.
• I wrote the chapter “Deacons Leading In Church Ministry” for the book, Deacons As Leaders, now in its 5th printing. Chapter 2 details how we formed and maintained an effective deacon ministry in the church we founded, Cornerstone Baptist.

I have done church consulting and spoken at national conferences, although I have since hung up my traveling shoes. Speaking and writing includes:

• The Billy Graham Schools of Evangelism at The Cove near Asheville, NC.
• The National Outreach Convention for several years.
• The Thriving Rural Communities Initiative, a program of Duke University Divinity School.
• Keynote speaker for The City Mission of Cleveland, Ohio at their conference, “Building Without a Blueprint: Walking Alongside Others to Transform a City.”
• And now the obligatory disclaimer: Everything here is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted (although sometimes it should be). Opinions, conclusions and other information expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of  Chatham Baptist Church or any other organization. — Chuck