Hello

Hello, my name is Benjamin Spera and it is an honor to be the  pastor of Baxter Congregational Church. I grew up in a small Gold Rush town in Northern California called Columbia. My family was Jewish, but my grandparents came to faith in Jesus and were involved in the Messianic Jewish movement (especially Jews for Jesus). When I was a young teen, I would just say I was Jewish because I believed in God but I wasn’t really sure about the whole Jesus thing. When I was 16 I had an obscure medical condition and took some time recuperating. During this time I began to read the Bible and I found that this Jesus revealed in Scripture actually seemed to embody these Jewish practices I loved and I slowly began to see that He lived in a way that I thought was beautiful. I came to believe that Jesus lived a perfect life, died upon a cross, and rose again according to the scriptures and I gave my life to Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. At this point my life changed forever, I turned unto Christ and the things which I had long hoped and dreamed to accomplish began to shift. This new reality gave my life incredible meaning. The Jewish traditions that I had grown to love came alive as I saw Jesus in them. The Holy Scriptures began to light up as I saw Christ. I found myself growing in my love for the things of God, I longed to study the Scriptures, to gather with His people, and to live in light of the great mercies bestowed upon me in Christ Jesus.  After jumping around to a few different colleges, while continually growing in my faith, I graduated from Belhaven University with a BA in Biblical Studies and Theatre Ministry. While at Belhaven I met my beloved wife Julia, who grew up in Ankeny.  I then went on to study at Reformed Theological Seminary where I am currently working on my Master of Divinity. I will continue to finish my studies online while serving Baxter Congregational Church in the coming years. 

 

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As a Christian Minister, I hope to serve the bride of Christ by displaying the love of Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture. I am committed to the historic teachings of the Christian Church, and I am a strong supporter of groups that help us accomplish this. (In Example:9Marks ,TGC, T4G, and ACE.) I am committed to the doctrines of grace (TULIP ) and the doctrine of inerrancy (as defined in the Chicago statement) as core principles of Scripture, and these basic theological principles guide my teaching in a variety of ways. And I am committed to Expositional Preaching as the primary means to present God’s holy inspired, infallible, inerrant Word to the Church. I continue to grow in my own understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that He is Lord (King) and Savior. And I hope to see His Kingdom Come, His Will Be Done, On Earth, As It Is In Heaven.