First Baptist Church

Steve Cowan began at FBC-Ewing as interim pastor in the Spring of 2021, and was called as our pastor in the Fall of 2022. He was born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he was saved by the grace of God at the age of 12 at Calvary Baptist Church. After spending six years on active duty with the U.S. Army (1980-1986), he earned his B.A. in Sociology (University of Southern Mississippi, 1987), the M.Div. (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1991), and the M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy (University of Arkansas, 1993, 1996).

Steve previously served as the bi-vocational pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas (1992-2000), as well as the Associate Director of the Apologetics Resource Center in Birmingham, Alabama (2000-2011). He joined the faculty of Southeastern Bible College as Associate Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics in 2006, and then was appointed Associate Professor of Christian Philosophy at Louisiana College (2011-2014). Steve now serves as Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he has taught since the Fall of 2014.

Pastor Cowan is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles in the areas of philosophy, theology, and apologetics, and has authored or edited several books, including Five Views on Apologetics (Zondervan, 2000), Who Runs the Church? (Zondervan, 2004), The Love of Wisdom: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy (B&H, 2009), and In Defense of the Bible (B&H, 2013).

Steve met his wife, Ronda, at the Baptist Student Union at Southern Miss. They have been married since December, 1986. They live with their college-student son, Oliver, in Rose Hill, Virginia.