Dr. Charles Fox (D.Ed.Min.)
Dr. Fox graduated with a major in Biblical Studies from Ft. Wayne Bible College in 1979. In 1989, he earned a JD degree from the Indiana University School of Law. He eventually went on to earn an MA degree in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2016, graduating Magna Cum Laude. His thesis explored the nature of leadership in the early church, focusing on a multiplicity of elders as being the early church's pattern. Most recently, he completed a DEdMin from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2024 with his area of concentration being Applied Theology. His doctoral ministry project was on how to train church staff in Bible study methods with a focus on equipping them to teach others better.
Dr. Fox’s denominational background has been varied within the evangelical tradition. He started out in a small Baptist church and attended a Bible college in the Mennonite tradition while serving as a youth pastor in a Presbyterian church. He next spent a little over a year as a small rural Christian Union church pastor. After some years, he became a part of a church that is part of the Vineyard Movement and was attracted to its emphasis on the central teachings of the Bible that are plainly taught instead of on a detailed statement of faith enumerating debatable issues, as well as other Vineyard distinctives. Like many others have experienced, he did not become Vineyard; he discovered that he was Vineyard.
Significant influences on this thinking have been C.S. Lewis, George Eldon Ladd, and Francis Schaeffer. He is very comfortable with differing beliefs on secondary matters. His focus is much more on how our beliefs influence how we “do church” than on academic debates over arcane matters.