About Us
Pastor Ragan’s Testimony
Salvation:
Growing up in Livonia, MI I had the privilege of attending Galilean Baptist Church from birth until I was 11 years old. There at Galilean, during a King James Bible Conference in October of 1982, I heard Dr. Peter Ruckman giving one of his chalk talks. The picture that was drawn that evening showed souls being cast into the Lake of Fire and brought great fear into my five year old heart. I can vividly remember going home that evening and not being able to sleep because of a great fear of dying and going to a Devil’s hell. That night before going to sleep my father, Mike Ragan Sr., led me to Christ.
Surrender to ministry:
At 21 years of age, after much internal struggle, I surrendered my life to God, specifically, His call on my life to preach. It was after surrendering that I headed off to Bible college in January 2000 where I eventually met my wife Grace.
Ministerial education:
After a couple years in Bible College I was very discouraged with the lack of deep and detailed Bible teaching and became very hungry to learn my Bible. The Greek classes failed to give ‘nuggets’ as was promised. The longer I sat in Greek class the more I began to realize that the King James Bible was a masterpiece of the work of God! Learning Greek had failed to expose any errors or omissions in the King James Bible. Furthermore, it didn’t even manage to better explain or bring light to the KJV! The King James Bible stood the test in my heart and mind and I wanted to learn it more than ever! After much prayer and open minded searching for the truth, my faith in the King James Bible had grown tremendously.
Through the leadership of the Lord I decided to leave the large bible college in December of 2001 and go to a small church in North Carolina to sit under a local church pastor, Dr. James Lince. It was in that church and under the influence of Pastor Lince that I truly began to learn some Bible and it started to burn in my heart! I enrolled in Brother Lince’s bible institute, Blue Ridge Bible Institute, and found what I was looking for, excellent, detailed Bible teaching! The instructors all believed, loved and knew the word of God and what they had in their hearts was contagious! I received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Dr. Lince and the Blue Ridge Bible Institute in 2005, and my Master of Theology degree from The Bible Doctrine Institute, Jacksonville, FL in 2023.
Preparation for pastorate:
My real ministry education came through a series of failures, mistakes and missteps all motivated by my zeal and frustrated ambition to do a work for God. I had accepted a call to the pastorate that I was advised by the older preacher not to take. He was right! It was after this that I decided to settle into a Bible believing church and just be faithful and wait on the Lord to put me in the ministry. Grace and I spent three very valuable years at Hope Baptist Church under Pastor Rick Sowell in Toledo Ohio and we thank God for every moment of it. Pastor Sowell’s advice was greatly used of God in determining the direction I took in ministry resulting in the planting of BBC in January 2008.
Through His Blood,
Pastor Mike Ragan