Bart Hodgson

Previous Ministry

I began serving in ministry during college as a youth intern in Northwest Arkansas. I have had the pleasure of serving in a variety of pastoral roles, as youth pastor for 7 years in Austin, TX, a worship pastor for 11 years near Salem, OR. My most recent ministry assignment has been the Lead Pastor at Seed Church in Lynnwood WA. We have been in the Seattle area for 2 years working hard to re-plant Seed Church and have successfully led the body to merge with Crossway Fellowship. We are overjoyed that a church will remain on Cypress Way for years to come and we leave this body in a place of stability and strength. The work here was hard but the fruit is honoring to God and furthers His kingdom mission. We have successfully planted Covenant Baptist Church in Springdale Arkansas and are in the early core group phase of planting Grace Covenant Reformed Baptist Church.

Family

I have been married for 30 years to my wonderful wife, Kristen. We have three children, Hannah (27), Carmen (25) and Isaac (22). We also have one son-in-law, Nathan, and have two grandsons, Emmett (2) & Beau (6).

Ministry Style

You will find my ministry experience makes me a well suited as a leader and a utility player - meaning I can be supportive in several areas of church leadership. In person, I am a persuasive, enthusiastic, project-oriented person with a broad range of skills and abilities. I love working with people and ideas in a team environment. I am a creative problem solver, an auditory learner, and a verbal processor.  Therefore, you will find me to be conversationally dynamic, inviting strong ideas to challenge and hone my thoughts and opinions.  Naturally people oriented, I am driven to be productive with tasks, especially those that directly minister to people. I consistently operate with a strong sense of values. Some of these values include authentic excellence, submission to biblical authority, prayer in all things, thoughtful decisiveness, the essential nature of the gospel, relational intentionality, with an deep conviction that the primary role of a pastor is the role of shepherd.

Theology

I am a reformed Baptist minister. I am quickly realizing that there is a wide spectrum in the reformed evangelical world. Therefore, I’ll candidly state the driving and foundational elements of my theology.

I value expositional preaching holding to a conservative interpretation of scripture. Accordingly, I adhere to the: 1689 London Baptist Confession, as well as other historic confessions. I hold to a Covenantal theological perspective. I also have a watchful eye when it comes to a regulative principle of worship. I also believe in patriarchal view of gender roles within the family and the church. When it comes to spiritual gifts, I am a very cautious continuationist who leans toward a cessastionism. I agree with the Doctrines of Grace and the Five Solas of the Reformation, as well as the Dallas Statement on Social Justice. My eschatalogical perspective is post-mil. I use the ESV and LSB translations predominantly in my preaching while appreciating all other translations at times when their translations better express the original text in Hebrew or Greek.

As a Baptist, I believe in baptism by profession of faith. I believe in the autonomy of the local church. However, autonomy needs the internal accountability of the congregation and the external accountability of church partnerships or networks. My ecclesiology includes the biblical roles of Elder and Deacon within the church. Currently our church governance is Elder led, with Deacons empowered to serve and congregationally ruled.