About

My name is Luke T. Geraty and I’m the husband of an amazing wife, Dawn, and father of five incredible kids, Allana, Mikenna, Sadie, Cyril, and Søren. For over 10 years I served as the lead pastor of a Vineyard church in Northern Wisconsin. In June of 2016, I transitioned to become the Co-Lead Pastor of the Red Bluff Vineyard alongside Dawn. I absolutely adore my family and love spending time with them, especially when we are doing activities like camping, playing sports, or watching our favorite shows on Netflix.

I love reading, enjoy underground hip hop (especially from the 90’s), can’t get enough fly fishing (especially for trout), and enjoy drinking beverages while talking about theology.

This blog is my attempt at exploring the relationship between the Holy Spirit (pneumatology), the Church (ecclesiology), and the Missio Dei (God’s mission). All theology should be lived out and should be applied in the life of the local church; thus, I’m intentionally writing with an eye toward my friends who are not trained theologians, love Jesus, and need to know why theology matters. In other words, if you are looking for an ivory tower blog, this isn’t for you. But if you love Jesus, love the kingdom, love the Church, and want to join God in what he’s doing in our beautiful world, welcome! I have also contributed to ThinkTheology.org, MultiplyVineyard.org, ChurchLeaders.com, and a few other publications.

Toward being a pastor-theologian

As I am attempting to live in the tension of being a pastor-theologian, I guess I should say that sometimes I like to “nerd out.” Perhaps you’ve never heard of a “pastor-theologian” (read this and this). It simply mean’s that I enjoy robust theological engagement while always thinking about how theology must be applied in the context of the local church. Thus far in my educational journey I have a Th.B., an M.Div., and an M.A. (earned w/ distinction at the University of Birmingham, UK). My dissertation, “Toward a Vineyard Sacramental Theology: The Pneumatic Relationship between the “Not Yet” and the “Now”,” made a case for a sacramental approach to Vineyard theology. Yes, I basically nerded out on sacramental theology in relation to the Vineyard movement. I’ll probably blog on this a fair amount…

I’m currently pursuing a Ph.D. in constructive theology on the subject of a Vineyard sacramental ecclesiology. At least that’s the plan… we’ll see how long that takes!

Church planting & coaching

In addition to pastoring, I also have been a part of the church planting efforts of Multiply Vineyard. I served for approximately five years on the leadership team of the Small Town USA partnership and love church multiplication, be it in the traditional church plant or many of the other fresh expressions (e.g., missional communities, etc.).

A couple years ago I was also fortunate enough to get trained as a certified missional coach, so I also enjoy coaching church planters and pastors in order to help encourage them in their work.

All in all… I’m thankful you’ve taken the time to visit this site and I hope you’ll find something helpful!