Meet Russell Moore of Nashville, TN

Today we’d like to introduce you to Russell Moore

Hi Russell, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am a native of Biloxi, Mississippi. My father was a salesman for and then manager of a car dealership and my mother went back to school after my brothers and I were older and became a teacher at the elementary school I attended as a child. I grew up in a Southern Baptist congregation, Woolmarket Baptist Church, where my grandfather once served as pastor before I was born. I served on the staff of a United States congressman, Gene Taylor, who had a massive influence on my life (or youngest son is named for him). Shortly after, I was ordained as a Baptist minister and served several churches there.

Maria, my wife of thirty years, and I have five sons, ranging from 23 to twelve years-old.

After completing my Master of Divinity at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, we moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where I completed my Ph.D. at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2001, I joined the faculty at Southern Seminary, teaching theology and ethics. In 2004, I became the seminary’s provost and dean of the School of Theology.

In 2013, I was elected president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. I served there for eight years. In 2021, I joined the team at Christianity Today where I serve as Editor in Chief. I write weekly essays as well as a column for each issue, host a weekly podcast, The Russell Moore Show, and co-host The Bulletin, which is CT’s weekly news analysis show.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Since Jesus said that “smooth is the road to destruction,” I might worry if the road were too smooth. As for most people, the past decade has included lots of unexpected turns. The nature of my job meant that I had to speak to the most controversial issues, and my viewpoints on some things (the Trump candidacy/presidency, sexual abuse, etc.) turned out to be different from those of many in my home denomination. After a while, I decided that I couldn’t change some of those things and so I left that network of churches but did not leave my Baptist heritage nor, certainly, my faith in Jesus Christ or my belief in the Bible. We now attend a non-denominational church here in Nashville, where I teach through the Bible every week.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My life’s work is about two things. First, it’s about helping Christians shape their moral imaginations to better see the kingdom of God and how it applies to our lives right now, culturally and personally. Second, it’s about helping our non-Christian neighbors to see a vision of Christianity that’s more consistent with the gospel and with Jesus himself. My work—whether in academia or writing or the pulpit or talking on television—is built on the conviction that we do not live in a random, purposeless universe but within the story of a personal God who loves us. I believe the tomb of Jesus is empty, and that means we can trust him to tell us the truth—even when it’s about something as amazing as the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting.
I’m not sure what, if anything, sets me apart from others, as the question puts it. I am deeply influenced by the Bible, of course, and by the rhythms of the King James Version in which I learned it as a child, and also by the writings of Walker Percy, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Wendell Berry, Czeslaw Milosz, and Marilynne Robinson.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’m not sure how surprising any of this is but we love living in the Nashville area. Our sons grew up here in a world of woods and creeks and hills and music—and I am grateful for that. I love music. Many of my friends are singers or songwriters and I am usually the untalented one in the room, with no gifts for music, only love of it. My playlists are eclectic, ranging from Mozart to Kris Kristofferson to Jimmy Buffett to hymns to Louis Armstrong to the 1980s and 1990s CCM I grew up with. We have had two dachshund dogs—one named Waylon, the other named Willie. As the songwriter Don Williams put it, “Those Williams boys, they still mean a lot to me—Hank and Tennessee.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.russellmoore.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/russellmoore/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/russellmoore
• Twitter: https://x.com/drmoore