Spellman serves students with spiritual devotion and scholarship learned at Southwestern

Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in the spring 2026 issue of Southwestern News.

Ched Spellman (’08, ’13) retains traces of his Texas roots despite having lived in southwestern Ohio for more than a decade. He reminisces fondly about Cracker Barrel and mourns the dearth of the Lone Star State’s iconic ice cream in the area.

“I’ve heard rumors that Blue Bell’s embargo on Ohio might be lifted soon, so more truth and light may yet break forth in the Midwest,” he says with a laugh.

Spellman, professor of biblical and theological studies and lead developer of online programs at Cedarville University, began working at the private Christian liberal arts institution in 2013. Born and raised in the Houston area,  Spellman says that when he told his mother he had gotten a job near Dayton, “she was happy we were going to be so close until I broke the news that it was Dayton, Ohio, not Dayton, Texas. She still reminds me of this ‘cruel joke’ sometimes,”  he says with a grin.

He made the move to Ohio shortly after earning his Doctor of Philosophy degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He previously had earned his Master of Divinity (MDiv) at Southwestern after following his high school mentor to the seminary.

Spellman grew up in a family of faith, regularly attending church with his parents and sisters. His dad worked as a machinist while his mother homeschooled her children and taught Sunday school. He accepted Christ around the age of 9 after an evangelistic film and service at his church.

“After hearing the Gospel that night and hearing the testimonies of the men who had given their lives to Christ, I remember a very strong sense that I was lost and needed Jesus,” he says. “So later that night I was emotional, and my mom prayed with me and explained what salvation was and encouraged me to believe the Gospel and put my trust in Christ.” He was baptized a year later at First Baptist Church in Humble, Texas.

The family later moved to Dayton, Texas. During his junior year of high school, Spellman began taking classes at Lee College in Baytown and working at Cracker Barrel.

“I had all four stars on my apron by the time I was done,” he says with a smile, proud of the signification of his achievements.

Though he majored in computers at Lee College, “all of my coursework there consisted of the [general education] liberal arts classes, which I grew to love,” he says. Spellman transferred to Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) in Nacogdoches and majored in literature and history. He also led worship services and participated in the Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) at the university.

“At SFA, I started to really have a love for learning and the life of the mind,” he says. “I didn’t know yet exactly what I was hoping to do, but I knew that I wanted to find a vocation where I could keep learning, reading, and writing.” Working as a writing tutor in the campus writing center and serving as a Bible study leader at the BSM led him to consider a career in education.

“When I was finishing my degree at SFA, I was considering going to graduate school in literature,” he recalls. “I also became the interim worship pastor at my home church in Dayton and kept moonlighting at the Cracker Barrel.”

As he neared the end of his undergraduate studies, Spellman’s high school mentor, Chris Trousdale (’03), was finishing up his classes at Southwestern Seminary and invited him to attend a weeklong intensive course. Trousdale, now pastor of Covenant Baptist Church near Humble, was on staff at First Baptist Dayton when Spellman was in high school and college and led the church’s D-Now (Disciple Now) group. The class he invited Spellman to attend covered Old Testament theology and was taught by Jim Hamilton, then assistant professor of biblical studies at Southwestern’s Houston campus and now teaches at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“This class was my first encounter with formal theological education, and I was hooked,” Spellman recalls. “Hamilton’s overflowing insights, passion for the Scriptures, and enthusiasm for students in this class was a formative experience. He would sit on the table in the front of the class with his Bible and walk through biblical books like Isaiah and show page after page how the Old Testament is a messianic document written to foster a messianic hope.

“Being part of this class and talking to Chris about what we were learning made me want to continue my education at seminary,” he adds.

Spellman began the MDiv program at Southwestern in fall 2005.

“The tagline of the seminary at that time was ‘Scholarship on Fire,’ and that captures what drew me to theological education,” he says. “I had been involved in ministry in high school and beyond, but in college, I started to have a strong pull to education and the life of the mind.” At the time, he thought ministry in the church and intellectual pursuits were incompatible.

“At SWBTS, I began to see that this was a false dichotomy,” he says. “Here were professors of deep learning and scholarship who would also pray for us and worship alongside us. This was a wonderful discovery!”

His first class at Southwestern was hermeneutics, taught by Jason Lee, then associate professor of church history.

“It sounds strange, but I tell my students now that biblical hermeneutics changed my life,” Spellman says. “Lee challenged us to think carefully about Scripture, what biblical texts mean, and what the biblical authors are doing. He also connected studying the Scriptures to the life of the local churches. The reading and discussions from that class set me on the path that I’m still on even today.”

Lee also was Spellman’s supervisor in the PhD program, where he focused on biblical hermeneutics and canon formation.

“I’m grateful I was able to do this program residentially,” Spellman says. “The seminars with fellow doctoral students and the friendships and conversations that developed during this time have been invaluable to me.”

Many of those friendships continue today, especially with Madison Grace, now provost and vice president for academic administration at Southwestern Seminary; Jonathan Watson, now chair and professor of Christian studies at Charleston Southern University in Charleston, S.C.; and Matt Millsap, dean of library services and associate professor of Christian studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

“The group of friends that I went through the MDiv and PhD program with became brothers in Christ that have sharpened me, encouraged me, and become a continuing lifeline to me in the midst of good times and hard times,” Spellman says. “We challenged each other. We encouraged each other. We learned from each other. Some of my closest friends from seminary, I am remarkably blessed to either work with or still have a close relationship with. That’s something that I don’t take for granted.”

He has fond memories of playing Blitz Chess, which he describes as “speed racing [through] a chess match,” with Watson during those days.

“So in the middle of big research projects or a dissertation, being able to take a break, use a different part of my brain, play a few games and then get back to research was helpful,” Spellman explains. “Playing with someone like Jonathan was also a particular joy because he enjoyed playing; he’s better than me; and I learned a lot from him. We were also able to have long conversations about our research, about what we were going through in life, our families, and our prayer concerns.”

Spellman and his wife Leigh Anne, whom he’d met at SFA, were members of Redeemer Church in Fort Worth where he served as a care group leader and helped with the music ministry. “I’m thankful for our time worshipping with this body of believers,” he says. “Redeemer Church helped put into practice many of the things I was learning in my classes. Local church membership and service is so important for students training for ministry.”

Two of the couple’s four children were born during this time, while the younger two were born in Ohio, making them “Buckeyes by birth,” he says.

As he was finishing up his PhD, Spellman started applying for jobs. “I knew I wanted to do some sort of ministry of the Word, but I didn’t know whether that would be in a church or an academic context,” he says.

Lee had accepted a position at Cedarville University and invited him to apply. Spellman did, and began working at the university soon after.

“One of the things I love about Cedarville is that it is a place where I can pursue academic research, where I’m able to teach students from a variety of backgrounds, and where we also have students training for ministry in our MDiv program.”

The university has a Bible minor that all students are required to take. The minor includes classes on Bible and the Gospel, Old and New Testament survey, and two culminating theology courses. “This means that I need to be both a specialist in research but also a generalist in my teaching,” Spellman says. “This has been a challenge, but also one of the most rewarding aspects of this position.”

He notes that many of the students in the Bible minor are in different disciplines and will enter the workforce as engineers, nurses, teachers, and more.

“So, in this undergraduate context, it’s rewarding to be able to give them a sense of the way that theology and Scripture impacts all of life,” Spellman says, adding that he also teaches a course on biblical theology in the graduate program. “This pulls together many of the things that I’ve worked on for years and research going all the way back to some of those first classes at SWBTS, pulling together different elements of our core curriculum and also preparing to take what they learned in biblical theological studies and communicate that to churches in ministries,” he says.

His biggest challenge at Cedarville is “probably the frigid winter wind and the loss of Tex-Mex restaurants every five feet,” he says with a laugh. “I think of the hope of resurrection life every time the green begins to return and the sun begins to shine again.”

Spellman turns serious when he talks about canon studies, an area in which he is an expert. Compelled by the breadth of the topic, he says, “It combines historical, literary, and theological study. In many ways, to engage canon studies is to spend a lifetime grappling with the question, ‘What is the Bible? What are we reading?’

“There’s also many implications for the way that we understand biblical texts, the way that the Bible fits together, the unity and diversity of Scripture, and the comprehensive vision of redemptive history that you can only see when you consider the Genesis-to-Revelation scope of the Christian canon,” he adds.

Spellman covers the canon and other topics in a number of books and articles, and in podcasts. Across all mediums, Spellman has one goal.

“I try to see writing and publishing as a way of serving others,” he says. “I hope to honor those who have supported me and taught me so much of what I know. If God has allowed me to think deeply and communicate clearly, I think I should try to steward these gifts with boldness and humility.”

He adds that much of his writing relates directly to what he’s doing as a teacher.

“In my area, there are family, students, and church members that ask certain questions or return to specific themes,” Spellman says. “Answering and interacting with those questions often sparks an idea or helps me mold a particular area of study into a form that can be useful.

“One of my motivations for publishing books is so that I can give them away,” he adds. “I love being able to answer a student’s question but also hand them a book that I’ve written on the subject. I see academic scholarship and research like working a field and preparing it for harvest. The work is often slow and sometimes boring, but with perseverance, it can sometimes produce fruit that I can share with others.”

He takes a more relaxed approach to “No Great Matter,” his newsletter on Substack.

“I use this for more informal and creative writing,” he says. “Sometimes it’s an update on my research. Sometimes it’s devotional reflections on biblical texts. Other times it’s a curation of dumb memes or cringe-worthy puns.”

The newsletter’s title, which he also uses on his social media accounts, alludes to a line from T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” where the main character says, “I am no prophet – and here’s no great matter.”

“Social media is designed to trick us into thinking we’re the main character of whatever we’re up to,” Spellman says. “Quoting Eliot’s line on my social media profiles is a bit of a parody of that energy, but also a reminder to myself that what I do matters, but it’s not the most important thing.”

That humility is reflected in his personal and professional goal. In explaining that goal, he points to Matthew 13:52 as one of his favorite “word pictures” in the New Testament.

Jesus “speaks of a ‘scribe who has become a disciple,’ someone trained in the interpretation of texts but [who] also is a believer in Christ,” Spellman says. “That’s my goal as a person and also what I hope to train students toward: Someone who can pick up a text and follow the lead of the Author, but who can also pick up their cross and follow the Master. This person can do great things for the Kingdom.”