About eighteen years ago something big changed in my life. I had been a confessional, 1689 LBCF Reformed Baptist. This was before the arrival of 1689 Federalism, so I would have been categorized as a 20th-Century Reformed Baptist since my mid 20’s. (Before that I was a Dispensationalist.) I was experiencing a crisis in my theology. I could not reconcile some of conclusions Baptists had drawn using the Covenant Theology of Westminster with that of the Bible. I was encouraged by a dear friend (whom I found out later was NCT) to put the confessions aside and rediscover the truth that is found when the Scriptures are allowed to speak for themselves. Ah, the beauty and glory of that simple truth. I soon found that I was no longer able to call myself “Reformed.” So what was I? After finding a photocopied version of “Abraham’s Four Seeds” by John G. Reisinger that someone had given me over a decade earlier, and now reading it, I discovered that I was in line now with New Covenant Theology. A few years later I learned that there was actually a publisher of NCT books called New Covenant Media (NCM), run by Reisinger and Jacob Moseley, so I began to order and read some of the books they offered. Oh, what a rich season that was for me.

 

And then in 2014 word went out through the NCT community that NCM had been merged with Cross to Crown Media. It was 4 years after that merger that I learned the details of that transition time. To summarize it, John Reisinger and Jacob Mosley, resizing they were eventually going to have to retire from public ministry, were introduced to Pastor Doug Goodin via Blake White (a young protege of Reisinger). Doug had a passion for the glory of Christ that convinced Reisinger and Moseley that he was the right man to take over the helm of New Covenant Media. While NCM officials closed its personal “doors” to business and moved over to Cross to Crown Ministries, Reisinger stayed on in an advisory role for a short time before beginning retirement. Since then, Cross to Crown Ministries (CtC) has continued to publish those older words and produce a host of newer material. After the merger I found myself going to the CtC website and spending hours upon hours taking advantage of the myriad of videos, audios, and digitized back issues of the Sound of Grace journal (a periodical produced by NCM for many decades). While enjoying the resources produced by these earlier NCT giants I began to find the powerful preaching and lectures produce by Doug Goodin.

 

About two years ago, while co-hosting an NCT podcast called “Conversations From The Porch,” it was suggested to us by Blake White (whom we were interviewing at the time) to reach out to Doug Goodin and have him on the show. Doug was gracious enough to accept our invitation and let us grill him on everything from theological and biblical topics to his latest writing projects. We were excited to hear of his plans and vision for CtC. Shortly after that episode we decided to put on a NCT conference in Phoenix, Arizona call “PorchCon” and I invited Doug to be a speaker. And, man, was I grateful I did! On his first address, of the first day, he had the audience captivated as he opened the word of God for us in Romans 6 and left us all in anticipation of his next address on Romans 7 that was to take place the following day. But as the conference director, I enjoyed a special perk. I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with Doug as I picked him up from the airport, bunked at the same host-house he did, and ate many meals together. We seem to hit it off very well.

 

After the conference Doug and I kept in contact and later there was discussion about me joining Cross to Crown Ministries. We shared similar visions of what Cross to Crown Ministries could become. I remember telling Doug, “I want to see Cross to Crown become to the NCT community what Ligonier Ministries was to the Reformed.” Eventually  I did come on board (there were a few speed bumps that popped up in life at that time). While we had laid out many plans for future projects, we decided that the first one that he and I would start together would be a new podcast devoted to the intentional exaltation of Christ in all things, and that meant it would advocate NCT distinctives. The Cross to Crown Podcast is now in its 20th episode having produced a series on “An Introduction to NCT,” and covered topics like New Covenant baptism, evangelism, Christians and government, and more.

 

Carrying on the heritage of New Covenant Media, Cross to Crown’s future plans include more publishing (currently we remain the only publisher dedicated to producing NCT materials) conferences, a men’s development-focused ministry, formal on-line education in New Covenant Studies through the New Covenant School of Theology, and much more! While NCT has seen steady growth within its ranks, and many seminaries now employ professors who share in our NCT understandings of the Scriptures, we have remained a scattered lot. It is our desire to unify the NCT community and be a source of all things NCT to the glory of Christ.

 

For me it has been a wonderful joy to join with the ministry that was given the mantel from John G. Reisinger and New Covenant media, which have such a blessing to me in my walk with the Lord and understanding of His word. I look forward to seeing where the Lord will take Cross to Crown Ministries in this new year and the many years to come.