Having been raised in a rural, middle-class Christian home with pastors scattered throughout my family tree, I was involved in church life from an early age. I asked Jesus to “come into my heart” at the ripe age of three, attended Sunday school every week until I was twelve, and took on leadership responsibilities in youth group throughout junior high and high school. Though everyone even remotely close to me would have known that I considered myself a Christian, there was very little that separated me from anyone else—other than an hour at church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.

After talking-the-talk for seventeen years, it was the summer before my senior year of high school that I finally began to understand what it meant to walk-the-walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Attending a conference in Chicago focused on “incarnational evangelism,” I began to sense that God had a more significant call on my life, one that required a relationship with him rather than religious rituals intended to appease him. Reminiscent of St. Francis’ infamous quote, it was here where I saw my service towards others preach the gospel much more effectively than my empty words ever could. As impactful as this experience was, I returned home to a spiritual plateau rather than a new hill to climb.

Following a year of relative stagnancy, I prepared to head off to college to play football and to pursue a degree in print journalism. A week before leaving for campus, however, my youth pastor took me out for lunch and told me that he felt God might be calling me towards vocational ministry. Though I ensured him I would pray about whether this was indeed God’s desire for my life, I merely laughed off the idea of ministry—I already knew exactly where I was going in life. Fortunately, God didn’t give up on me as quickly as I did him, approaching me in the quiet moments of my first year in college and persuading me to hand my dreams over to him. Giving up football, print journalism, and even my current school, I moved on to pursue a degree in youth ministry in order to further prepare myself to serve others through pastoral ministry.

Although I loved student ministry and all of my experiences in it, I felt as if God was challenging me after graduation: “You insult me … think bigger!” So I thought bigger. I’d heard about this thing called “church planting”—something like starting new churches intent on transforming entire communities. It sounded great so I was immediately sold on the idea, certain that an opportunity to take part in church planting might present itself in ten years or so. But then God challenged me again: “What if you and a new generation of church leaders were turned loose to do my work NOW?!”

That’s why I’m here. Thanks to the generous support of Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC), I now have the unique opportunity to take part in the day-to-operations of an established church plant, learning from example what is required to birth a new church. I hope one day to follow God’s leading and plant a church as well. But for the time being, I’m thrilled to be joining Brookwood in helping people become extraordinary followers of Jesus.