Welcome to Further Steps Press!
We live in a time where there is a saturation of the market when it comes to books. Many have endeavored to create and sell Christian books for the edification of the church.
So why more books?
The answer to this question starts with a story. In 2023, I (Pastor Andrew Bryant) and Pastor Tim Rehmer started the process of opening a school in New Jersey--one that would serve as a beacon of light in a dark area of the state. We knew we would need a robust, Reformed Baptist Bible curriculum to help teach the students the basics of the faith leading to lifelong discipleship.
I reviewed eight curriculums, all of which were lacking. I found some that were too shallow, some that were too generic, and still others that were too Presbyterian. Instead of continuing the hunt, we decided to just write our own. This is how Further Steps Press started. It was a simple idea to produce high quality, classically modeled, and doctrinally sound curriculum for Christian schools, Sunday schools, and homeschools alike.
The need for this sort of work should be evident to those of us with eyes. The world around us seems to be constantly descending to new depths of depravity around us. We don't even know what a man or a woman is anymore!
Why "Further Steps"?
The name of the company is a play on words. First of all, I wanted to reference the 1689 London Baptist Confession's unique contribution to covenant theology. Here is a quote from chapter 7, paragraph 3 of that confession:
"This covenant is revealed in the gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, (Gen. 3:15) and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament (Heb. 1:1); and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect (2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2); and it is alone by the grace of this covenant that all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved did obtain life and blessed immortality, man being now utterly incapable of acceptance with God upon those terms on which Adam stood in his state of innocency (Heb. 11;6,13; Rom. 4:1–2; Acts 4:12; John 8:56)." --2LBC, 7.3 (emphasis mine)
This paragraph contains plenty of material to study; we will attempt to cover its content in a later blog post. For now, just narrow in on those two bolded words. "Farther steps" is God's method of revealing His own plan to humanity. This gave me the framework for a new attempt at Bible education. I wanted a curriculum that would be essentially the "curriculum spiral" method of instruction. The concept is that the curriculum returns to the same material repeatedly, adding new and additional concepts each time. Further Steps Catechism is designed in just this way. The forthcoming Further Steps Bible Curriculum will likewise train students of various ages using this method.
What is Further Steps Press?
We are a publisher committed to the gospel, to Reformed Baptist doctrine, to the education of children, and to changing the world. Keep watching as we seek to advance the Kingdom of Heaven against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
In Christ,
Pastor AndrewWorship and Discipleship Pastor, FBC SedaliaFounder and Editor, Further Steps Press