Learn more about our Family
Our Story
(Written from Benjamin’s perspective 😊)
God graciously allowed both Meredith and me to grow up in Christian homes where Scripture was placed in front of us continually, and our parents were careful to repeat the gospel to us again and again, and we each came to Christ at a young age.
One day in a children’s program at her church, Meredith was taught about the crucifixion, and she realized that Jesus died not just for sin, but for her sin, and that she needed his forgiveness. That day she repented and turned to him in faith, and she was baptized soon thereafter.
I have early memories of arguing with my parents that there was no God. When I learned to read at a young age, my parents made sure that I was regularly reading Scripture, and through this the Lord began to break down my pride. After the death of a relative, I was contemplating what happens after we die, and I realized the reality of Heaven and Hell. I confessed my sin to Christ and asked him to save me, and was baptized soon after.
As a third grader, Meredith attended a Christian School. In chapel one day, a missionary came and spoke, and it’s the first time Meredith remembers realizing that someone could have a job of going and telling people about Jesus, and she immediately wanted to do that. I grew up in a pastor’s home, and so was familiar with the idea of vocational ministry, but I never had much interest in it. What little interest I did have was always directed toward the United States. While I was burdened for the cause of missions broadly, I had no desire to cross cultural lines for the gospel.
Meredith and I were married in 2014, while we were undergraduate students at the University of Arizona, and Meredith thought that marrying me was a choice not to go serve overseas as a gospel worker.
After graduating, I ended up taking a part-time role in the church office, which eventually grew into a full-time role. As I started serving church members, sometimes teaching, and taking a leadership role in some aspects, I grew to really love it and began to sense that God had been preparing me for vocational ministry. Looking for training, we moved from Arizona to Michigan for me to attend the M.Div program at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, from which I graduated in May 2025.
It was through the ministries of Inter-City Baptist Church and specifically DBTS that God began to nurture in my heart a desire to cross a culture to plant and strengthen churches, a desire which Meredith eagerly shares. After about two years of praying, exploring, careful consideration, seeking counsel, and speaking with potential partners, the Lord set our hearts on Finland. In August 2025, Inter-City Baptist voted to send us, so we are now Finland-bound!
Our Beliefs
We subscribe to the doctrinal statement of our sending church.
Our Family’s Mission
We are a multigenerational disciple-making team on mission to plant and strengthen local churches in Finland and to equip families to construct their households on God’s wisdom.
Further explanation of our mission
multigenerational team
We believe that God intends for our entire household to work together toward this mission—parents and kids alike have a role.
disciple-making
The foundational mission of all believers in the church age is to make & mature disciples. We aim to have disciple-making be the core activity of our household, around which all of our other endeavors flow.
plant & strengthen local churches
We believe that the local church is at the center of God’s work in the world, and that completing the work of disciple-making involves baptizing those disciples and enfolding them into the life of a local church.
equip families
We believe that healthy local churches are composed of healthy families who aim to honor God in their homes and build up their households as outposts for the mission.
Our Core Values
As we pursue the mission, we have selected these seven areas as distinct things for our family to focus on. Each of these values has associated observable behaviors that Meredith and I strive to do, and that we train our kids into. The phrasing here is aspirational; clearly we will not live these out perfectly in this life, but we aim to live more and more in line with them until the Lord returns.
Scripture
We make Scripture the primary source of input into our minds and have it continually in our mouths.
The Church
We build our family’s rhythms around our local church and expend effort in service to Christ’s body in line with the ways he has gifted us.
Creation
We submit to the way that God has made the world to work, recognizing that he has firmly established it. We exercise good stewardship over the physical resources he has assigned to us.
Vitality
We live full lives, making full use of our minds and bodies, pursuing life with energy and effort.
Human Work
We make and build things, from ingredients & raw materials. We place a higher value on things that involve more human work and ingenuity.
Story & Song
We shape our moral imaginations carefully by telling stories and singing songs that reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful.
Generosity
We look for opportunities to be generous and invite others to join us in enjoyment of God’s goodness.
