Austin “Mack” Dennis is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.
- Where did you grow up?
Henderson, North Carolina (north of Raleigh/Durham), where I was a member of First Baptist Church and was ordained to ministry there in 2003.
- What is your favorite verse, book or story in the Bible? Why?
Revelation 1:12-18 has always captivated me.
Falling down as though dead after a face-to-face encounter with “one like the Son of Man” seems to me to be an appropriate response to a living God.
- What is your favorite movie? Why?
“Cool Hand Luke.”
My own eventual plan – after retirement, of course – is to frustrate the municipal authorities, get thrown in jail, inspire my fellow inmates, eat 50 eggs and attempt an ambitious, daring escape.
- Who are three people you admire?
I’m going to stick with the dead on this one because there are too many living people to name: Baptist provocateur Will D. Campbell (1924-2013), English preacher F.W. Robertson (1816-1853) and French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil (1909-1943).
- What is one little-known fact about yourself?
I was on the UNC-Chapel Hill varsity fencing team for one season – foil division.
