Brief Biography
I have been asked on numerous occasions to provide, at least, a short bio of myself. I’m not sure what you can do with the information, but here it is. – JT
My name is Joel Taylor. I am a Baptist. I have been preaching since 1980.
As a Baptist, I hold no creed nor confession of man above the authority of the Bible. However, if you were to snap my ear with a rubber band in order to coerce an association with a particular confession, I would say the Abstract Confession of Faith and Doctrine of 1859, the earliest confessional statement of the SBC. But I am not SBC. I’m a real Baptist; a Calvinist, and an unashamed Southron (yes, that’s a word).
I am married to Jennifer, and our family lives in Southwest Virginia, near Blacksburg, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies.
Born in Little Rock Arkansas in 1961 to a Baptist pastor and a nurse, raised in the Mississippi delta region of the same state – most notably Marvell, Ark., home of Levon Helm (of ‘The Band’), Camille Collins, and my first greased-pig contest.
Growing up, we moved around a bit, as my father accepted new pastorates. After a few years in Carmel, Indiana, in 1976, we moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, where my father completed his pastoral ministry at the same church until 2010. He preached for 65 years, beginning at the age of 16.
In Blacksburg, I was licensed, ordained to preach in 1985, and served alongside my father in ministry to our Church and the Virginia Tech community for many years until his retirement due to health.
I delivered my first message at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1980 and have been preaching since.
I am an itinerant preacher, conference speaker, writer, yet serving in whatever way God allows me to at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Copper Hill, Virginia. I am agrarian by philosophy, love vegetable gardening, the Atlanta Braves and the Confederacy –and I hate snakes and mayonnaise.
5 Pt. Salt 
Good stuff! Though, I am left wondering – is it safe to assume you don’t snack on fried rattlesnake dipped in mayo?
And thanks for sharing. Can we expect we will get to read the expanded, book-length version published by Banner of Truth in a few years??
Would “real” Calvinist Baptist include some agreement with Gordon H. Clark’s Scripturalism?
Where in Carmel Indiana did your Father serve? I was an Ast. Pastor in Carmel years ago.
North Suburban Baptist.