Mack Dennis

Senior Pastor

In both his pastoral and scholarly work, Mack commends the ways God’s reconciling love is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the church and world. He has a deep sense of call to pastoral ministry, bearing witness to the gospel’s transformational power, and honing the art and craft of Christian preaching and teaching. Mack joined the FBCA staff in 2016.

A native of Henderson, NC, Mack was ordained to the ministry of preaching in 2003. After five years as pastor of First Baptist Church, Mt. Gilead, NC, he studied homiletics and reconciliation at Duke Divinity School (Th.D., ’14), and taught there as adjunct professor until 2016. He came to First Baptist Church of Asheville after serving as interim preacher at Warrenton Baptist Church in Warrenton, NC. Mack’s interests lie at the intersections of preaching, biblical interpretation, theology, and reconciliation. Both his preaching and scholarly work are concerned with faithful responses to division, conflict, and violence. His dissertation explores the theology of faith leaders involved in The Greensboro Massacre and The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He is the editor of The Luminous Word: Biblical Sermons and Homiletical Essays, an anthology of sermons and essays by Old Testament scholar, Ellen F. Davis (2016). He lives in Asheville with his partner, Erin, and their two children.