About

Hi, I’m Will McRaney. A primary focus of my life has centered on the equipping of church and marketplace leaders. As the founder and President of the Bullock Institute, I am engaged with preparing frontline leaders for our radically changing ministry context. I am the author of The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a Changing Culture. Through my pastoral, research, writing, and strategy development experience, I help leaders realize their God-given mission and be more effective in their unique ministry context. I also serve as the Senior Pastor of Island Church in Tierra Verde, FL.

In the face of a rapidly changing world and mission environment, I began The Church Strengthening Network out of the Ministry Enhancement Group to develop Kingdom people for Kingdom advance by encouraging, equipping and coaching leaders, along with existing and new churches. The Bullock Institute conducts research, writes and produces aids, while providing fully accredited competency based seminary degree through one of our partnerships. The degree/equipping program allows for the equipping of marketplace and ministry leaders in the field with mentors toward their degree completion.

Ministry

I’m called to develop Kingdom leaders and serve God’s church. I’m passionate about analyzing the complexities facing leaders and churches today, explore forward leaning ideas, and develop strategic models. I help leaders think insightfully, creatively and strategically about their ministry challenges and opportunities.

After completing college, I started ministry discipling youth and college students while serving on a local church staff. Later, while earning my Masters and PhD degrees at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary I gained experience pastoring a church.

After graduating from seminary, I church planted in Denver prior to joining the New Orleans Seminary faculty. For 11 years at NOBTS I sought to creatively train students in the practical ministry areas of church models, evangelism, church planting, and church revitalization. While at NOBTS, I designed new courses as well as redesigned existing courses in the masters and doctoral level programs I led.

I served as a researcher and writer for the SBC and NAMB on multiple evangelism and church planting positions and projects. Later I served the Florida Baptist Convention in Evangelism Strategy and Church planting. While serving in Florida, I developed the church evangelism model “Love Your Neighbor Share Christ” to help local leaders develop their approaches to the Great Commission. In addition I redesigned the support systems and rewrote the training materials for church planters.

Most recently I provided leadership as the Executive Director to the Mid-Atlantic Baptist Network, formerly the MD/DE Baptist Convention, where the Network made significant and innovative advances among the 550+ churches and church plants.

Writing and Teaching

I’ve researched, written and taught extensively on various aspects of the Great Commission and Great Commandment to help leaders faithfully live and advance God’s Kingdom.

My book, Art of Personal Evangelism, has been widely read and taught and is now available in Spanish and Korean.

Whether in the classroom, online, or in person, I strive to use an approachable, comfortable style to help leaders discover, think and act in addressing the opportunities and challenges before them.

Family

My wife Sandy and I have shared 39 wonderful years of fun, parenting and ministry together. I’m delighted to be the father to three young adult daughters and their husbands (Blakeney/Jeff Miller, Hadley/Travis Thompson & Macy/Jerry Langan). We so enjoy our three wonderful son-in-laws and six adorable grandchildren, Campbell, Elsie, Turner, Hazel, Hammond and Payton.

Hobbies

I’m an avid SEC sports fan after competing across the SEC on both the Mississippi State University football and baseball teams. I enjoy following sporting activities and board games with my family, water activities, and playing with those grandchildren.

Contact Information

You can contact me via e-mail or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

Resume

If you’d like to know more about my ministry, research and teaching experience please download Ministry Resume or Academic Vitae.

Speaker’s Bio Sketch

Will McRaney serves as the Lead Pastor of Island Church and also serves the President of the Bullock Institute. He uses his experience as a pastor, church planter, seminary professor and service as a state convention missionary and Executive Director to enhance pastors’ and church effectiveness. He is recognized for his research and writings, as a strategic and forward leading thinker and for designing workable ministry and missions strategies that fit into cultural complexities. He can be followed at willmcraney.com and @willmcraney.