Cary Gephart
I was born and raised in a Christian family in Indiana, but not a Reformed Christian family. My church experience was in the Restoration Movement, a tradition whose doctrinal distinctives are baptismal regeneration and anti-creedalism/confessionalism. Sensing a call into the ministry I attended a Restoration Movement Bible College named Johnson University where I studied for myundergrad. It was during these years that I was introduced to my future wife. I graduated in May 2012 from Johnson University with a Bachelor’s in Bible/Media.
Following our marriage in August of 2012, I adopted my wife's’s sons, and through the mentorship of their local pastor, I sought full-time pastorate and was called and ordained in December 2013 as the pastor of Iroquois Valley Christian Church in Rensselaer, Indiana. But as a pastor I began to feel the heaviness of responsibility upon me in the office of undershepherd that God had placed me in. I started to think often about how James said not many should be teachers because they would receive a stricter judgment and how Paul instructed Timothy to study to show himself approved a man who rightly divides the Word of God. During this time of searching the scriptures for greater convictions of truth, our family welcomed a daughter in March 2015.
Through continued study of the Word, my convictions changed leading our family to the historic Reformed tradition of Christianity. I started to see the sovereignty of God all over the pages of scripture and the Holy Spirit began to confirm the truth of God’s Word in my heart. I immediately had a desire to return to seminary and plant my feet more firmly in these deep truths. I remember sitting in my office at the church I was pastoring really struggling to figure out how I could go back to school and as a long shot googling “reformed seminaries in Indiana” thinking nothing would pop-up. To discover that there was a well respected seminary only and hour from where I was pastoring was a shock. In that moment I had a deep sense of God’s blessed providence in my life.
Unfortunately following my acceptance into Mid-America I was dismissed as the pastor of Iroquois Valley due to my changed convictions thus affirming my desire to return to seminary and seek a pastoral call in the Reformed faith. By God’s providence and through God’s grace I was offered a position as the Seminary Intern of Cottage Grove Christian Reformed Church which we gladly accepted.
Today I am the commissioned pastor at Cottage Grove Christian Reformed Church in South Holland, Illinois, pursuing a Master of Divinity at Mid-America Reformed Seminary, enrolled in the EPMC program at Calvin, and hope to be a candidate in the CRCNA at Synod of 2020.