Word First Media Kit

Dr. Michael J. Kruger serves as the Samuel C. Patterson Chancellor’s Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is one of the leading scholars today in the study of the origins of the New Testament, particularly the development of the New Testament canon.

Dr. Michael J. Kruger is the Samuel C. Patterson Chancellor’s Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, where he has served on the faculty since 2002. A leading scholar on the origins of the New Testament and the development of the canon, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh under Larry W. Hurtado and is the author of fourteen books, including Bully Pulpit and Surviving Religion 101. He has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society and regularly writes and speaks for academic and popular audiences. He is married to Melissa Kruger, and they have three children.

Dr. Michael J. Kruger serves as the Samuel C. Patterson Chancellor’s Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Dr. Kruger has served on the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary since 2002. He is one of the leading scholars today in the study of the origins of the New Testament, particularly the development of the New Testament canon.

He earned his Ph.D. under one of the world’s leading text-critical scholars, Larry W. Hurtado, at the University of Edinburgh, where he researched a parchment fragment of an apocryphal gospel, P.Oxy. 840. He graduated summa cum laude with a M.Div. from Westminster Seminary California, and received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He is the author of fourteen books, most recently Miniature Codices in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2025). His book Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church (Zondervan, 2022) won the 2022 “Book of the Year” award from both Christianity Today and The Gospel Coalition for the category of ministry. His book Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021), was awarded 2021 “Book of the Year” by the Southwestern Baptist Journal of Theology for the category of Worldview/Apologetics, and Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church (SPCK, 2017; IVP Academic, 2018) was awarded 2018 “Book of the Year” by The Gospel Coalition in the category of history and biography.

Other publications include The Gospel of the Savior (Brill, 2005), The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Crossway, 2010, with Andreas Köstenberger), Canon Revisited (Crossway, 2012), and The Question of Canon (IVP Academic, 2013). He is also the editor of and contributor to A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (Crossway, 2016) and co-editor of The Early Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 2012) and Gospel Fragments (Oxford, 2009).

Beyond his work at Reformed Theological Seminary, Dr. Kruger has served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2019), the largest society of evangelical scholars in the world, where he was also the co-founder of the New Testament Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature study section. In addition, he has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Bulletin for Biblical Research.

He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society for New Testament Studies (Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas). During his 2009-2010 research sabbatical, he was a visiting scholar at St. Edmund’s College and Tyndale House at Cambridge University, England. Recently, he was selected to be one of the inaugural fellows for the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.

Dr. Kruger regularly speaks, lectures, and teaches throughout the United States and the world. In addition to his academic publications, his popular-level articles have appeared in places like Modern Reformation, Tabletalk Magazine, The Gospel Coalition, and the Wall Street Journal. He also blogs regularly on his own website, Canon Fodder.

He is married to Melissa Kruger, Vice President of Women's Initiatives for The Gospel Coalition and author of numerous books, including most recently, Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age (Harvest House, 2024). They have three children, Emma, John, and Kate.

Melissa Kruger serves as the vice president of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. She’s the author of multiple books, including Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age.

Melissa Kruger serves as the vice president of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. She is the author of multiple books, including The Envy of Eve, Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood, Growing Together, Wherever You Go, I Want You to Know, and Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age. Her husband, Mike, is the Samuel C. Patterson chancellor’s professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, and they have three children.

Melissa Kruger serves as the vice president of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition (TGC). She’s the author of multiple books, including The Envy of Eve: Finding Contentment in a Covetous World, Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood, Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests, Wherever You Go, I Want You to Know, and Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age. Her husband, Mike, is the Samuel C. Patterson chancellor’s professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, and they have three children.

Mike and Melissa Kruger serve the church through teaching, writing, and speaking. Together they lead Word First and have three children.

Mike and Melissa Kruger serve the church through teaching, writing, and speaking. Mike is the Samuel C. Patterson Chancellor’s Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, and Melissa is vice president of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. Together they lead Word First and have three children.

Dr. Michael J. Kruger is the Samuel C. Patterson Chancellor’s Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary and a leading scholar on the origins of the New Testament canon. Melissa Kruger serves as the vice president of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition and is the author of multiple books, including Parenting with Hope: Raising Teens for Christ in a Secular Age. Mike and Melissa Kruger lead Word First, a ministry dedicated to defending the truth of God’s word, declaring the good news it contains, and discipling others to follow it. They have three children, Emma, John, and Kate.