Paul's Charge to the Church

Dee Whitten began serving as the Executive Director of the NorthStar Church Network in November 2013. This is an association of over 170 Baptist churches in northern Virginia. The primary purpose of NorthStar is to energize churches to carry out their God-given mission.

Prior to beginning his ministry with NorthStar, Dee launched a new church in Fredericksburg called River Club Church. Dee also served for five years as the Team Leader for the Empowering Leaders Team of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, and he served for sixteen years as the pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford, Virginia.

Dee’s wife is Jane and they have two married daughters with five grandsons and one granddaughter.

Seeking Him: The Inward Purpose of the Heart

Dr. Ken Pruitt serves as President of The John Leland Center for Theological Studies.

Prior to Leland, Dr. Pruitt served in full time pastoral ministry for over 30 years, with fruitful ministries in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

Ken earned his Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary in Waco, Texas, specializing in Preaching and Theology. His M.Div. with Biblical Languages was earned at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth Texas. He also studied for one year in the School of Religious Education at Southwestern Seminary with a concentration in Marriage and Family Counseling.

Ken has also ministered extensively in India, where he regularly serves as a keynote speaker in conferences and graduations for the RUSA Theological Seminary and Research Center.


Ken is married to his high school sweetheart Terry, and they have three beautiful daughters, Nichole (25) - married last week; Bethany (22), and Sarah Joy (10). Each daughter is adopted, and each adoption expresses a unique story of God’s grace and love for a broken and hurting world.

Regarding Hope

Today’s message is about the edges of hope. Not the hope we have when all is well, but the hope we cling to with white knuckles when life is not going how we think it should. Paul certainly shows us the way when he describes his own life as a frail, clay jar. He says that he is afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, but in all of this, the imperishable life of Christ shines forth all the more. Christ’s presence and life sustains Paul in his dark hours. Let us cling together to the hope we have in Christ our Lord.

Keeling Over in Church

Integrity involves honesty and truthfulness, but the concept of integrity is much broader than this. "Integrity" comes from a root word that means "whole," or "intact," or "complete." Integrity means that what a person believes, and says, and does all come together in a whole. Ananias and Sapphira weren't people of integrity; and the truth is, it's possible for us to be like Ananias and Sapphira, maybe more than we would like to admit. But God is always full of grace.

Walking at the Pace of Jesus

It is indisputable that we live in a hurried world, and it is easy to be swept up in it. We are frequently rewarded for keeping up with the hurry, though often with more tasks and requests and needs that cause even more hurry. Such a life, however, is at odds with the pace of life Jesus seemed to live at. His pace was of a walking sort. It lacked the anxiety and pressure that seem to mark our age. So if Jesus, God-incarnate, was able to live at a slow pace and trust that what will get done will be enough, what’s our rush?

When You Pray

Prayer is perhaps the most essential of spiritual disciplines. In Scripture, Jesus is said to pray regularly. He goes off to pray alone. Some of his prayers are even captured by the gospel authors (e.g. John 17). In today’s passage he is even asked to teach the disciples how to pray. The result is a rendition of the Lord’s prayer, a reflection on why we pray, and perhaps most importantly, it is a reminder of the goodness of the God to whom we pray. God is the Father who loves to give good gifts.

Jesus Likes You

This week we return to the story from two weeks ago, the story of the man possessed by a legion of demons in Luke 8. The passage is not done with us yet as there is still gold to be mined. In it, a man is enslaved in mind, body, and spirit, and Jesus is there to set him free. The freedom Jesus offers, however, is not exactly the surprising part of the story. What is surprising is the man’s response. Initially, he pushes Jesus away. He tells Jesus, “Do not torment me,” when in reality it is not Jesus who torments, it is our sin, our anxiety, our fears, our doubts. These are the instruments of evil, and Jesus is here to set us free.

Trinity Sunday

Today is Trinity Sunday on the church calendar. The day is less celebrated than other days of the church year, perhaps because it feels too “theological.” You might even be asking, Does the Trinity matter anymore? I believe it does, and here’s why. God’s triune nature tells us a host of things about God, our world, and about our very selves. As Timothy Keller says, “if this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about.” So today we talk about what “life is really all about.”

The Spirit of Pentecost

Today is the day of Pentecost. It is a day where the Holy Spirit shows up in mighty and powerful ways in the lives of the first church members. It is a day of excitement and mystery. It is a day with tongues of fire and the rushing of wind. On this day we celebrate that not only is Jesus our Lord sitting at the right hand of God, but today the Spirit of God dwells in us through the outpouring of the Spirit. The Spirit is calling out to you. What will you say?

O Death, Where is Your Sting?

We have reached the final week of Easter and the end of 1 Corinthians 15. The chapter has been a slow crescendo to the declaration of the death of death, the truest and most important meaning of Jesus’ resurrection and Easter Sunday. Death is indeed swallowed up in victory. Its stinger has been removed. And thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

The Resurrection Body

Today we talk about a passage in which Paul explains the resurrection body. He walks right up to the place where angels dare not tread and puts his foot on the line. Paul, just chapters before, reminds us that he is looking into a dim mirror as he talks about that which is to come. However, here, he speaks about what he is able to glimpse and what we are able to know about the resurrection. As we continue our exploration of 1 Corinthians 15, let us be mindful that there are many things we still do not know, and yet there is much hope to be found in what we do know.

In Adam and In Christ

In our reading today from 1 Corinthians 15, Paul situates the gospel in the larger story of the whole of Scripture—and even more importantly—in the whole span of history. The resurrection is an event that the world has been longing for since the day the Garden of Eden was closed. Christ’s death and resurrection is an answer to the most fundamental problems of the world. The problem of evil, sin, destruction, abuse of power, illness, and so much more, the rotten fruit of which is death. As Paul puts it, this is the last enemy to be destroyed.

Our Future Is Christ's Past

Today we are continuing our Easter resurrection series on 1 Corinthians 15. In verses 12-20, Paul asks the Corinthians why some of them are doubting the general resurrection of the dead if they believe that Christ was resurrected from the dead. It appears that they believe in the gospel basics—Christ’s death and resurrection—but they have not understood the implications of it. Today we explore the implications.

The Gospel of the Resurrection

Today we begin a five-week trip through 1 Corinthians 15, a critical chapter with 58 verses dedicated to the topic of resurrection. This is easily Paul’s lengthiest defense of Christ’s resurrection and our future resurrection in all his epistles. It’s an appropriate chapter to study during the season of Easter as we continue to give glory to God for the death and resurrection of Christ, through whom we are saved and in whom we find our very being.

Imitation Christianity

Dee Whitten began serving as the Executive Director of the NorthStar Church Network in November 2013. This is an association of over 170 Baptist churches in northern Virginia. The primary purpose of NorthStar is to energize churches to carry out their God-given mission.

Prior to beginning his ministry with NorthStar, Dee launched a new church in Fredericksburg called River Club Church. Dee also served for five years as the Team Leader for the Empowering Leaders Team of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, and he served for sixteen years as the pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford, Virginia.

Dee’s wife is Jane and they have two married daughters with five grandsons and one granddaughter.

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