meet bryan mcwhite << previous page
mcwhite family

Family: I've been married to my best friend, Leslie, for the seven best years of my life. We have a one year-old son named Owen and a knucklehead of a yellow lab named Caribou.

Education: B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College (2000); M.Div., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2005); Ph.D. in Theological Studies/New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (currently).

Equipped for Service: The single greatest gift God has given me for this pastorate is a passion for his renown, to magnify the name of Jesus Christ for the joy of the people to whom I minister. God has blessed me with a deep love for his church, and with a passionate desire to build his people up in Christ by teaching his Word and inviting them into the story of what he's doing in the world.

Prepared for Service: My seminary experience at Trinity was a crucial part of my pastoral formation that gave me great tools needed to handle, teach and preach Scripture effectively and faithfully. But the most formative aspect of my ongoing preparation for ministry has been the time and wisdom that have been invested in me by the three faithful and exceedingly gifted senior pastors I have been under over the past 11 years.

Appreciation for NHC: I love the leadership of this church and their desire to reach this community with the gospel of the Kingdom. Too often churches are unwilling to evolve in order to become all things to all people in order that they might win some (1 Corinthians 9:22). I admire the elders for their vision and courage to lead this evolution for the sake of the progress of the Gospel. Leslie and I love this church and hope to be here until I preach my own funeral, climb in the box and shut the door behind me.
bryan mcwhite hiking

Free Time: I love spending all the time I can with my amazing wife, my hilarious boy, and my tireless dog. With what's left over, I love reading and studying, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, snowshoeing and just about anything else outdoors. If there's any time left after that, I also enjoy writing my blog, "The Weight of Glory" and listening to good music and watching good films.

Scripture: I'm not really into the whole "life verse" thing because I deeply desire to be formed by the entire counsel of God and it seems that God presses and shapes me with different texts all the time - depending on what facet of me he's working on at the moment. Lately he's been using Matthew 13 to teach me a lot about the Kingdom of God and how it is at work and spreading in the world.

Recommended Resources: Some of the authors who have had the greatest impact on me have been John Owen (especially "Communion with God" and "On the Mortification of Sin"), C.S. Lewis (especially "The Weight of Glory"), John Piper (especially "Desiring God," "The Pleasures of God," and "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ") and Jerry Bridges (especially "The Pursuit of Holiness" and "The Discipline of Grace"). I also love anything by Jonathan Edwards, Henry Scougal, D.A. Carson, C.J. Mahaney, and Mark Driscoll. Monergism.com and Between Two Worlds are daily stops on the web for me, and I listen to almost every Leadership Interview Series audio 9 Marks produces.