Moore Teacher Write-Ups is a series on local educators highlighting the women and men raising our next generation and to whom we entrust our children daily.
John Kinyon is an incidental teacher, academically trained preacher, was once a real estate attorney, and is also a farmer—of sorts. He plants churches.
“I was inspired to teach,” Kinyon said about his various teaching tenures.
He was called by Sandhills Classical Christian School (SCCS) to teach English at the upper school and has taught college-level and graduate-level courses. His tenure at SCCS ended May 24.
“In Hawaii, after seminary, to plant a multi-ethnic church, I grew my hair long to accommodate the culture. Most attendees were military, but we wanted to attract the locals. I realized the best way to evangelize was to start new churches,” he said about being called naturally by God to teach, preach, and plant.
“I knew it wasn’t going to happen by bringing in a bunch of crusty white people. So, I prayed about college and seminary and about getting an opportunity to teach there,” Kinyon said about the phone call he received a month later from someone he had never met.
“They wanted me to teach reformed theology to grad students,” he said.
Kinyon thrived and became the dean of students and the pastor at the college.
Since then, he has taught in China and Cuba and is still a preacher.
He moved to North Carolina to plant Redeemer Church, and it was held at the O’Neal School until the pandemic, and it is now in Carthage.
“In 2019, there were 3,000 new protestant churches planted in the United States, but 4,500 protestant churches closed by the end of the year,” Kinyon said, along with an article in Christianity Today by Aaron Earls on May 25, 2021.
“When you’re planting a church, you’re one week away from closing because of volatility,” he said about disagreements within administration, human nature’s tendency to spread rumors and the lack of evangelistic spirit in today’s society.
“I’m PCA [Presbyterian Church in America], and Lord willing, I’ll get a new call to assist others to plant churches. I’m sixty, and a lot of my peers my age take on roles to influence the next generation. I also do assessments for couples for the likelihood of a successful church planting,” Kinyon said.
Kinyon’s affinity for teaching and spreading love radiates with his family’s descriptions. His wife, Claire, has a master’s in English and is an art teacher at SCCS. She was taught classical art by Dr. Jeffrey Mims in Southern Pines.
They have five sons, each with teaching, preaching, and artistic talents. Jack lives in Los Angeles and is an illustration artist. James is a singer and is with Classical Conversations in Southern Pines. Eric teaches fifth grade at SCCS. Paul is a registered nurse in Philadelphia. William is an SCCS graduate and a graphic design student at Liberty University, where he works.
~Article and photo by Sandhills Sentinel Journalist Stephanie M. Sellers; BS Mass Communications and Journalism, MFA Creative Writing. Contact her at [email protected]
