The Central Seminary Podcast

In this episode, we sit down again with Dr. Jon Pratt and Greg Deckert, who spent most of their adult years in different churches: Jon on staff at Eden Baptist in Burnsville for seventeen years, and Greg at Fourth Baptist, building friendships from scratch in each church.Jon and Greg discuss how friendships are actually built within a local church. We cover the difference between joining a small group and making a friend, why pastors need friends in their own congregations, and what to do if you are new somewhere and feel like you do not know anyone.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jon Pratt and Greg Deckert, friends for over 50 years, as they take us back to Owatonna, Minnesota, where two faculty families arrived at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, and their sons met at Vacation Bible School.Jon and Greg share the fruit of a friendship that ran through the same schools from grade school through Pillsbury, and into an apartment they shared during Jon's first year of seminary and Greg's first year of law school. We talk about accountability that was never scheduled and how the friendship held together through a move to Dallas in the years before email.Books mentioned in this episode:A Light on the Hill by Caleb Morell (Crossway, 2025)The Meaning of Your Life by Arthur C. Brooks (Penguin, 2026)The Desecration of Man by Carl R. Trueman (Sentinel, 2026)Not Old, Not Young, Not Done by Christopher Ash (The Good Book Company, 2025)

In this episode, we sit down with Pastor Nathan Robbins, a church-planting pastor and Doctor of Ministry student at Central Seminary, as he takes us to the Five Points neighborhood on Buffalo's West Side.Nathan shares his journey from rural pastoral ministry in west-central Illinois to answering God's call to plant a church in one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in all of New York. We talk about what it means to see your neighborhood with "church planting eyes" and how the DMin program at Central has pushed Nathan to stay sharp as a lifelong learner.

In this episode, we are joined by Mulenga Chileshe, a member of the Class of 2026 at Central Seminary. Speaking with us from Kitwe, Zambia, Mulenga shares his excitement for crossing the finish line as he completes his Master of Divinity. We talk about the rigors of study and how the gospel breaks through prosperity theology and traditional beliefs. Mulenga also shares his excitement for the African church and how spiritual leaders are being equipped in Zambia.Congratulations, Class of 2026!