Brantley McDonald
| Birth Name | Brantley Rider McDonald |
|---|---|
| Birth Date | July 19, 1996 |
| Birth Place | Gastonia, North Carolina |
| Theology | Reformed Baptist |
| Occupation | Internal Auditor |
| Residency | Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Affiliations | Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church, 1689 Reformed Baptist |
| Spouse | Amanda Burghen (2017-2022) |
| Children | Caroline Blair McDonald |
| Website | BrantleyMcDonald.com |
Brantley Rider McDonald (born July 19, 1996) is an American Reformed Baptist who subscribes to the 2nd London Baptist Confession (1689) and resides in the Charlotte, North Carolina metropolitan area. Brantley is the founder and currently the operator of ReformedWiki.org, and serves as the Lead Administrator on the wiki's Administrator Board. Brantley is a member of Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church in Stanley, North Carolina where he serves as a Deacon, and currently holds the positions of Church Librarian, Clerk, and also Treasurer. According to his profile on LinkedIn, Brantley's main occupation is working as an Internal Auditor in the Banking and Financial Services industry.
Biography
Childhood
In 1996, Brantley was born to David and Rebecca McDonald in Gastonia, NC. Brantley is the oldest of his two siblings and all of his first cousins. For the first few years of his life, his family attended at Parkwood Baptist Church. Eventually, Brantley and his family began attending First Baptist Church of Cramerton, since it was closer to their residence. Brantley was baptized at First Baptist Church of Cramerton in 2006 at the age of 10 years old; this was following his first realization of the finiteness of human life (and thus, the desperate need for a Savior) when he had lost his grandmother to cancer two years prior.
During his K-12 education, Brantley pursued instrumental music as a trumpet player in Middle and High School bands. His senior year, he served as Drum Major of the High School's marching band. Brantley would audition and get placed as a Trumpet player in the All County Band throughout the Middle and High School academic years.
Early Adulthood
In 2014, Brantley graduated from South Point High School and began attending Appalachian State University. In 2017, Brantley graduated with a Bachelors of Business Administration (majoring in Computer Information Systems and minoring in Supply Chain Management). While attending university, Brantley regularly attended First Baptist Church of Boone.
In 2017, following his college graduation, Brantley moved back home to begin working in his professional career. Upon returning home, he began attending back at his home church (First Baptist Church of Cramerton), and was approved by the church to serve as the volunteer IT Director of the church. In August of that year, Brantley married his first spouse in Fort Mill, South Carolina at Anne Springs Close Greenway. In October of that year, Brantley attended a worship service at Parkwood Baptist Church on the Sunday of the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation; which was the first Sunday the pastor/preacher was back (after returning from Sabbatical), and started a sermon series in the book of Galatians. Following that Sunday, Brantley began a theological shift towards Reformed theology and began attending both Parkwood Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Cramerton.
In 2018, Brantley began leading the Student Ministry at First Baptist Church of Cramerton for Middle and High School grade levels. Brantley and other student pastors/ministers area began meeting monthly to fellowship with each other, and to also work together to ensure that there were Bible Clubs in each of the Middle and High Schools in the area.
In 2019, Brantley's theological shift towards Reformed theology resulted in the biblical concern for his local church, and began working towards drafting a formal letter to be submitted to the Church's leadership board regarding serious issues within the church. The final draft of the letter contained three primary issues that were identified, pertaining to: 1) lack of biblical, God-centered, Gospel-centered preaching/teaching, 2) the Pastor's sharing of study content from false teachers, and 3) the lack of a plurality of biblical Elders/Pastors (and a critique of the Deacons functioning as such, because such body included women).
In early 2020, Brantley resigned from being the volunteer IT Director (and ceased being a contracted Student Ministry worker) at First Baptist Church of Cramerton; and from that point onward began attending only at Parkwood Baptist Church (eventually moving membership to there also). Later that same year, Brantley's first child and daughter was born in November. In 2021, Brantley and his first spouse entered into a Separation Agreement and legally divorced the following year.
In 2021, Brantley began attending at Exodus Church (Acts 29 Network), which was an outgrowth from Parkwood Baptist Church.
In 2023, Brantley became part of the team working to plant Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church.
Involvements
1689 Reformed Baptist
In 2019, Brantley connected online with Walter Ortiz, an American Reformed Baptist residing in the Southern California region who operated the 1689.com website since 1998. Brantley began helping Walter build a newer version of the website, and expand to include email account offerings, and also a social media presence (which would collectively become to be known as 1689 Reformed Baptist).
In 2023, following Brantley becoming an administrator for the Facebook group Reformed Baptist Alliance (or "RBA"), Brantley brought the group under the affiliation of a new page by the same name. Shortly after creating the RBA's new public-facing page, the RBA was then brought under the 1689 Reformed Baptist's umbrella of projects by Brantley in July of 2023. Brantley also launched a Facebook group for Reformed Baptists that have or are planted new churches under the 1689 Reformed Baptist ministry called "Reformed Baptist Church Planters".
In April 2024, Brantley launched a new publicly-viewable Facebook group Reformed Baptists, which over the following months had quickly amassed over 45,000+ participants by the end of 2024.
Theological/Doctrinal Websites
Brantley initiated an endeavor to claim the domain registrations for theological/doctrinal terms on the .org domain space in order to create websites and content ministries to promote such theological and doctrinal terms. Currently these include (but are not limited to):
- 1689Federalism.org
- Associationalism.org
- BaptistConfession.org (an effort to provide a site similar to BaptistCatechism.org operated by Pastor Conley Owens of Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church)
- Cessationism.org (and the opposing view: Continuationism.org)
- Christocentrism.org
- Complementarianism.org
- Covenantalism.org (including the redirects FederalHeadship.org / FederalVision.org / FederalVisionism.org)
- Credobaptism.org (including the redirect BelieversBaptism.org and the opposing views: Paedobaptism.org / InfantBaptism.org)
- Presuppositionalism.org
- Sabbatarianism.org
Brantley McDonald Ministries
In 2023, Brantley launched a ministry called Brantley McDonald Ministries, primarily to provide information and updates on the theological/doctrinal websites (in addition to involvements with other projects and organizations). Brantley's stated intentions is to eventually transition ownership of any domain registrations and other assets (such as intellectual property (copyrights/trademarks) and social media) to nonprofit organization(s), in the hopes that these would be preserved and well-utilized for future generations.
The Reformed League
Brantley is the founder of an informal online network (ReformedLeague.org) of profiles and pages that is called "The Reformed League". This networking group exists to connect the notable persons, content creators, influencers, administrators of websites and social medias, etc. that are in the Reformed Christian field.
Miscellaneous
Brantley travels the United States of America to attend events such as Conferences and the General Assembly meetings of organizations. Brantley attended the 1st General Assembly of the Confessional Baptist Association (held at Oak Grove Baptist Church) as a visiting guest in April 2023. Brantley has also travelled to events held by the Southern California Association of Reformed Baptist Churches and Texas Area Association of Reformed Baptist Churches.
Controversies
Rick Roll Controversies
As the domain registrant of the Paedobaptism.org and InfantBaptism.org domains, Brantley followed a suggestion from a moderator in the 1689.com's Reformed Baptist community on Discord, to have the domains redirect visitors to the music artist Rick Astley's well-known music video Never Gonna Give You Up (which is commonly referred to as a "Rick Roll" or "Rick Rolling").
In the Summer of 2023, this prank first began to be popularized when Brantley shared and commented on an infant baptism meme that was shared by the well-known online content creator and podcast The Chorus In The Chaos. Brantley has commented on public forums indicating his intent to allow development on the domain, or the sale of the domain, to a reputable ministry organization that would use it to promote the doctrine of infant baptism. Brantley later acquired the domain Paedocommunion.org and set up the domain to redirect to be a Rick Roll as well.