I was born and raised in East Tennessee in an area known as the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol). This has a great deal to do with who I am because I was raised to believe that men should treat women with respect and that God is the most important thing one can have in their lives. I was raised as an only child and my parents had me in church every Sunday. The initial church we went to was the church that my mom had grown up in. When I was in 4th grade, my parents made the decision to leave this church because of the lack of a strong youth program there. We visited a few churches until my parents found the church that I would now consider to be my home church.
The next year, I made the decision to be baptized, and after talking it over with my parents and my Sr. Minister, my dad baptized me. This is the best decision that I have ever made in my life and I wouldn't change that for anything. When I entered 7th grade, I was finally in the youth group of this church. I absolutely loved being in the youth group. It was fun but it also focused on God in a way that teens could understand it. I continually found myself getting more and more involved. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was completely sold out in my life for God. If something was going on at church with the youth group, I was there. Very few things were allowed to interfere with this.
My life took one of its biggest and hardest turns the summer after my freshman year. The day that school let out for the summer, my family and I left for a vacation to Pennsylvania. While on that trip, my dad had a major heart attack and three days later he passed away in a hospital in Lancaster, PA. I still remember that morning of my mom waking me up in our hotel and telling me that something was wrong with my dad. I remember the paramedics rushing in while I was standing out in the hall. If it hadn't been for my friends, family and especially my youth group, youth minister and Sr. minister, I don't know how I would have come through that situation. But with their help, I saw the only option was turning to God and through one of the hardest times in my life actually found myself deepening my faith and relationship with Him.
The rest of my high school years were pretty average. I was still heavily involved with my youth group and church. I was a decent student (could have been much better if I had just tried a little harder) and was working through the dual path at my high school. This meant that I was taking college prep classes but also technical classes as well. So not only was I working toward going to college, but I was taking office technology classes because what I ultimately wanted to do was go into some kind of business. This led to the decision my senior year to attend Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN in the fall. Tusculum had a great business program and my first year was actually paid for in full except for books.
Then, the summer after I graduated high school, God sent me the next major turn. While at a week of church camp, I felt Him calling me into youth ministry. This scared me very much, as I was a very shy person and didn't feel like I would be able to get up in front of a group of people. The next week was a tough but exciting week while trying to figure out if this was actually from God. Once I decided that it was God, then I made a commitment in front of the entire camp that I was going to follow God's call for my life and go into youth ministry.
I initially decided to still attend Tusculum. During my sophomore year there, I started looking at seminaries that I could go to after getting my bachelor's degree so I could get a Masters in some kind of ministry and go into youth ministry that way. It was during this search that I felt God's next call in my life. He was calling me to transfer to what was then known as Cincinnati Bible College and major in youth ministry.
This is what I did. It proved to be one of the best decisions that I have ever made as well. My time at CCU (changed its name to Cincinnati Christian University during my first semester) gave me a deeper understanding of God's word and also prepared me so well for the world of ministry. I was able to be on the ground floor of a new youth ministry society called Nu Delta Sigma and actually became the first president. It was also during this time that I got my first two tastes of what real ministry was like. I worked part time during the school year with a church in Indiana. I also had the opportunity one summer to do a full-time internship at Georgetown Church of Christ in Georgetown, OH.
While I learned so much at CCU, I learned more in that one summer interning with another full-time youth minister than I did my entire four years at CCU. This internship also gave me something else that I never expected to get out of it. I found my future wife at this church while interning there. She was a senior in the youth group. We had a lot of great discussions and really got to know each other well. After my internship ended, we quickly started dating. We dated for almost a year before we got engaged last July. We are planning on getting married in July of this year (if I can find some kind of a job before then).
I have spent time as the youth minister of a small church in Indiana from January of last year through August of last year until my fiancee and I decided that it was better for me to go ahead and leave that church as it wasn't the right place for us. I am currently searching for where God wants my fiancee and I to serve Him in a full-time ministry role.
Now, what I am planning on using this blog for. I read a lot of blogs and articles and this gives me a lot of ideas for things to write about. I also feel led to write sometimes after reading and spending time with God. So, this blog is going to be my humble attempt to share my thoughts on possibly many different things. It might have something to do specifically with Christianity or ministry, but that is not the only things that I will probably write about.
Rest assured, however, that anything that is written here, will be written from the perspective of a sold out follower of Jesus Christ. This is my worldview and as such, everything that I write will come from that perspective. If you come across this and do not believe what I and so many others believe, that is fine. I ask that you allow me the same freedom to believe what I believe that you would cry out for if someone started arguing with you. I pray that my words could plant the seed in someone's heart and eventually lead them to Christ, but I respect other people's opinions as well. Thanks for reading and God bless.
