Brantley McDonald: Difference between revisions

'''Brantley Rider McDonald''' (born July 19, 1996) is an American [[Reformed Baptist]] who subscribes to the [[Second London Baptist Confession (1689)|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 [https://reformedwiki.org/wiki/ReformedWiki.org:About Administrator Board]. Brantley is a member of [[Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church]] in Stanley, North Carolina where he serves as a [[Deacons|Deacon]], and currently holds the positions of Church Librarian, Clerk, and also Treasurer. According to his profile on [https://linkedin.com/in/brantleymcdonald LinkedIn], Brantley's main occupation is working as an Internal Auditor in the Banking and Financial Services industry.

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.  

In 2014, Brantley graduated from [https://www.gaston.k12.nc.us/spoint South Point High School] and began attending [https://appstate.edu 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]].

In 2019, Brantley connected online with [[Walter Ortiz]], an [[United States of America|American]] [[Reformed Baptist]] residing in the [https://wikipedia.org/wiki/California Southern California] region who operated the [https://1689.com 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 groups|Facebook group]] for [[Reformed Baptist|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 (Facebook group)|Reformed Baptists]], which over the following months had quickly amassed over 45,000+ participants by the end of 2024.

* [https://1689federalism.org 1689Federalism.org]

* [https://associationalism.org Associationalism.org]

* [https://baptistconfession.org BaptistConfession.org] (an effort to provide a site similar to [https://baptistcatechism.org BaptistCatechism.org] operated by Pastor [[Conley Owens]] of [[Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church]])

* [https://presuppositionalism.org Presuppositionalism.org]

 

Brantley is the founder of an informal online network ([https://reformedleague.org 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 Christianity|Reformed Christian]] field.

 

 

Brantley travels the [[wikipedia:United States of America|United States]] 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 (Angier, North Carolina)|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]].

As the domain registrant of the ''[https://Paedobaptism.org Paedobaptism.org]'' and ''[https://Provisionism.com Provisionism.com/org'' domains, Brantley followed a suggestion from a moderator in the [[1689 Reformed Baptist|1689.com's]] [[Reformed Baptist]] [https://discord.1689.com community] on [https://discord.com Discord], to have the domains redirect visitors to the music artist [https://rickastley.co.uk 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|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 ''[https://Paedocommunion Paedocommunion.org]'' and set up the domain to redirect to be a Rick Roll as well.