Meet Aaron Prelock

Jake Mentzel - Church Planting & Godly Ambition

In our fifth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Jake Menzel of Church of the King in Evansville to talk about the word Reformed men are afraid of: ambition.  Ambition they've been trained to distrust. Ambition that draws on the Father's pleasure instead of earning it. Ambition for a man's sons and grandsons, and the church he's been given. Jake, Stephen, and Aaron talk through why a man who won't believe his sanctification has not believed his justification, why Reformed devotion becomes a contest over who feels worst about himself, and why feeling bad is not the same as repenting. Or, as Jake puts it: before you die, let the world see the best you that you knew how to become. 00:00 — Meet Jake Menzel and the Frontier Shepherds conference 01:46 — Why Evansville is a hard place to plant a church 07:10 — Why plant here at all: "God was calling me home to my people" 09:24 — Coming back to the Lord at 17, then off to IU 12:04 — Trial by fire at a secular university; charisma that outruns character 14:55 — Three years at NGA and seven years of campus ministry 16:51 — Godly ambition and how young men have changed in twenty years 22:24 — Bloomington vs. Evansville; when a church never grows past campus ministry 28:46 — A hard demographic shift and the cost of defining who you are 32:46 — How do you fuel ambition without burning out? 34:32 — The baptism of Jesus: the Father pleased before the Son has done a thing 36:22 — Haddon and the center-field fence 39:39 — If you don't believe in sanctification, you don't believe in justification 42:03 — The feedback loop of self-loathing — and why it isn't the gospel 45:39 — Godly ambition rooted in the fatherhood of God 49:43 — The little-league coach who can't let his son fail 53:47 — Better or bitter 56:41 — The smallest, most fearless kid on the team 1:00:36 — Ambition for growth, not greatness

Books That Shaped Us

In our fourth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock take turns naming the five books each of them would call life-changing.  Books worn through. Books read more than once. Books given away, replaced, and underlined cover to cover. Aaron and Stephen talk about why the relationship between justification and sanctification keeps surfacing in the books that mattered most to them, why good fiction belongs on a pastor's nightstand, and why the man who only reads what was assigned to him in seminary has already stopped growing. Reading is good for the soul. 0:00 — Introduction 2:50 — The format: five books each 3:00 — Aaron: Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor 7:10 — Stephen: John Piper, Desiring God 11:30 — Aaron: Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church 16:30 — Stephen: Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life 22:30 — Stephen: Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Peace and God's Way of Holiness 25:30 — A cheat: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment 27:30 — Stephen: C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength 34:45 — Aaron: J.C. Ryle, Holiness 38:30 — Stephen: Ian Murray, Revival and Revivalism and Evangelicalism Divided 46:10 — Aaron: Edward Fisher and Thomas Boston, The Marrow of Modern Divinity 49:00 — Stephen: Edith Schaeffer, L'Abri 56:30 — Aaron: Harold Senkbeil, The Care of Souls 1:00:00 — An exhortation to read 1:02:30 — Refuge or retreat

The Mess

In our third episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down to talk about the part of ministry that many traditional seminary programs simply cannot simulate: the mess. Theological mess. Historical mess. The mess of sinners and the mess we ourselves bring to the work. Aaron and Stephen talk about why so many young men set out to be the pastor whose church will not have these problems, why preaching and pastoral care cannot be split apart, and why the "clean machine" expectation — that Christians do not sin and good pastors do not either — quietly shuts down the work of sanctification it claims to protect. An old line surfaces near the end: a pastor should smell like his sheep. 0:00 — Introduction 1:30 — What do we mean by "the mess"? 4:15 — Church history is not historical reenactment 7:00 — The young pastor with stars in his eyes 10:45 — Theoretical theology vs. practical theology 13:30 — Leviticus 16 and the linen robe 17:00 — Hospital waiting rooms and Job's counselors 22:00 — Preaching is pastoral care 27:30 — Over-correcting and damned with faint praise 33:00 — Where do you go when you realize you need to grow? 37:00 — Owen, self-knowledge, and the wounded healer 41:30 — The expectation that Christians do not sin 46:00 — Sexual sin, abuse, and the "clean machine" church 51:00 — The hazmat suit: justification before sanctification 56:00 — A pastor should smell like his sheep 1:00:00 — Hospitality, marriage, and the witness of small mercies

Meet Stephen Baker

In our second episode, Aaron Prelock turns the tables on Stephen Baker, Dean of New Geneva Academy and associate pastor at Trinity Reformed Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Stephen shares how he went from a small-town Indiana home to a dramatic high school conversion, from a teepee in the woods to a pastors college in Bloomington. Along the way: marriage, ministry under Ted Tripp, a failed church plant in Milwaukee, a closed door to the mission field, and what led him to Trinity Reformed Church. This conversation covers how he got here, what shaped him, and what he wishes someone had told him before he ever stepped into pastoring. 0:00 — Introduction 1:24 — Growing up in Indiana 4:24 — Conversion in high school 11:26 — Becoming Reformed 14:53 — Bible college 16:55 — Meeting Sebra 18:49 — Pennsylvania and Ted Tripp 24:36 — Marriage and early family life 28:15 — Seminary 30:47 — The Milwaukee church plant 36:54 — A closed door to the mission field 39:13 — The move to Bloomington 43:48 — New Geneva Academy is born 46:33 — Reconciliation 54:35 — On being Dean 1:01:27 — What I wish they'd told me

Meet Aaron Prelock

In our first episode, Stephen Baker sits down with Aaron Prelock, pastor of Bloomington Bible Church and the new president of New Geneva Academy.  Aaron shares how he went from a big dispensational Baptist church to studying John Owen under a Norwegian Lutheran, from a Subaru factory floor to ten years of pastoral ministry in central London, and back to Bloomington, Indiana.   This conversation covers how he got here, what shaped him, and what he wishes someone had told him before he ever stepped into a pastorate — especially about what it means for a pastor to be a shepherd and not just a counselor. https://www.newgenevaacademy.com/ 0:00 — Introduction 2:30 — Growing up in Lafayette, early faith 5:45 — The biblical counseling world: Adams, Powlison, Tripp 10:00 — Bible college and the church in Cedar Rapids 14:30 — Seminary and the shift toward Reformed theology 18:00 — The factory year 22:00 — Discovering John Owen 25:00 — Westminster London, PhD in Norway 30:00 — Ten years pastoring in London 35:00 — Coming back to Indiana, his father's death 38:00 — Becoming senior pastor at Bloomington Bible Church 42:00 — What brings joy in pastoral ministry 48:00 — What I wish they'd told me: shepherding vs. crisis counseling 55:00 — Getting involved with New Geneva Academy