Dr. Barry Raper

Barry Raper is the Senior Pastor of Bethel Free Will Baptist Church in Chapmansboro, Tennessee. He holds degrees from Welch College (B.S.) and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., D.Min.), where his studies focused on spiritual formation. Raper formerly served as a youth pastor and senior pastor in Mississippi and Alabama. He has also contributed chapters to The Promise of Arminian Theology: Essays in Honor F. Leroy Forlines (Randall House Academic, 2016), Teacher, Scholar, Shepherd: Essays in Honor of Robert E. Picirilli (Randall House, 2024), and Jonathan Edwards: A Reformed Arminian Engagement (B&H Academic, 2024), and he is a columnist for ONE Magazine. He and his wife, Amanda, have five children.

Education

• D.Min. in Spiritual Formation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2012)
  Doctoral Project: “Teaching Biblical Meditation as a Means to Prayer to Students of Welch College”
• M.Div., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (2002)
• B.S. in Christian Education, Welch College (1999)

Areas of Interest

• Spiritual Disciplines
• Spiritual Formation
• Pastoral Ministry

Select Publications

• A Life Pleasing to God: Reflections on Christian Living from 1 Thessalonians (Welch College Press)
• “Saints in the Hands of an Authentic Guide: Learning Piety from Jonathan Edwards” in Jonathan Edwards: A Reformed Arminian Engagement, edited by J. Matthew Pinson (B&H Academic)