I was blessed to grow up in a two parent Christian home. My parents made a Christian education a priority for me, so I was enrolled in a Christian school. I believed in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting in His death, burial, and resurrection, by the time I was five years old. I stayed at Grace Christian Academy through my 7th grade year before transferring to Robbinsville Middle School. By my freshman year of high school, I thought I understood what it meant to be a Christian, while also spiraling into a self centered lifestyle. The experience revealed that Christianity was little more than a checklist for me. During this time, God used leaders in my local church of Robbinsville First Baptist to begin relational discipleship with me. I began to learn that Christianity was all about relationship, and just how deep the Father’s love for us is.

Leaders in my local church continued discipling me through high school and into college, where I chose to pursue a teaching degree from Gardner-Webb University. College had a whole new set of challenges, and I made many mistakes in my relationships with friends. Thankfully, God gave more grace.

My time at Gardner-Webb also exposed me to other churches in a way I had not been exposed before. I went to many different churches during my time in college, and was disheartened by what I observed. Many well meaning churches promoted under-equipped or unqualified people as leaders, with catastrophic results. I watched as friends of mine observed these issues, and became disillusioned with the Church as a whole. Some have still not returned, and others that have continued their church attendance have felt the need to seek help from outside the church, finding wordly solutions to problems only Christ can heal.

The glaring need of churches around Gardner-Webb was spiritually mature leaders qualified and equipped to make disciples who love and live like Jesus. Sadly, the churches around Gardner-Webb are not unique in this issue. I believe a lack of Biblically qualified, trained disciples of Jesus is creating a church too weak to shepherd the flock of Christ. My exposure to the state of churches around my college town laid the foundation for my later passion in ministry.

While at Gardner-Webb, I met my wife, Sarah, and graduated looking ahead to my upcoming wedding and a career in secondary teaching. While the wedding went according to plan (and marriage has been a huge, amazing gift from the Father!), my teaching career did not. Thank the Lord! Instead of high school history, the Father led us to the Christian elementary school I went to as a child. The location enabled Sarah and I to be active in my home church of Robbinsville First Baptist Church and to continue discipleship training. During this time of discipleship training, the Father continued to teach us much about His character and people through our relationship with the kids at our school.

The opportunity to introduce Sarah to the discipleship model I had been a part of for years was a tremendous blessing. As we closed in on our first year of marriage, I felt God calling me into full time ministry. I discussed this calling with the elders of Robbinsville First Baptist Church, who committed to praying with us as we determined what this would look like in our lives.

Sarah and I continued for a second year as teachers at the Christian school while also going through a year-long ordination training course with the president of Eternal Truth Ministries, Colin McDougal. This training took us through the Bible and provided me with a firm grasp of Scripture and equipped me to use the Scriptures relationally to better disciple others.

After our second year of teaching, and completing the ordination training under Colin McDougal, the elders at Robbinsville First Baptist invited me to join the Apprenticeship program at RFBC, a one year, full-time training program designed to equip people for full-time ministry. The apprenticeship built upon my previous training by providing me an opportunity to learn how to lead a church. The elders of Robbinsville First Baptist provided a thorough training to equip me to lead and train other leaders in other churches.

As the RFBC Apprenticeship came to an end, and I was ordained into the gospel ministry by RFBC, Sarah and I prayed for the Father to open doors for our future ministry. My passion is to build the body of Christ by investing in church leadership. My experiences with churches while at Gardner-Webb University revealed a glaring need for trained leaders who are equipped and committed to making disciples who love and live like Jesus, and it has become my passion to see local churches become healthy by equipping the saints for the work of ministry.

With this passion in mind, Sarah and I were excited to see the Father open the door for us to join Eternal Truth Ministries. ETM's mission is to renew the spiritual vigor of local churches, and you can find out more about the ministry here.