By God’s grace, I grew up in a Bible church hearing the gospel clearly preached. However, it was not until high school that I believe God saved me. It was during this time that I began to grow spiritually as leaders in the church poured into me and gave me opportunities to serve at the church. I remember, early on, reading sermons of John MacArthur from Grace to You and being greatly helped by him. At the end of high school, I had a desire for ministry but didn’t know in what context God wanted me to serve.
I attended Liberty University and was a biblical study major. It was during this time in college that I was given a copy of the book Pastoral Ministry by the faculty of TMS. This book corrected some wrong views I had about ministry, and left me saying, “That is exactly what I want to pursue.” God then directed me to TMS where I completed my M.Div. and Th.M. before coming to our current place of ministry, Faith Bible Church, with my wife, Ashley, and our four children: Maggie (7), Charlie (5), Lucy (3) and Henry (4 months).
For the last 6 years, I have been serving at Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia as the youth pastor as well as an elder. The church has around 400 in regular attendance, and our youth ministry has about 70 students. Our youth meet regularly on Sunday mornings during our Sunday school hour, as well as Wednesday nights for fellowship, singing, and preaching. Over the last six years, I have had the privilege of preaching through many books and topics to our youth.
TMS equipped me so well for a lifetime of ministry. I certainly did not learn everything there is to learn, but rather was given the tools to discern the God-intended meaning of any text and how to apply it to the lives of those God has given me to shepherd. I often say that I paid for one education, but I got two. During my time at TMS, I not only received the best seminary education but also received a practical education by serving at Grace Community Church during my time there.
One of the classes that stood out to me in seminary was an elective taught by Jack Hughes called Effective Sermon Delivery. This class helped me so much to grow as a preacher. I have gone back to the principles in this class time and again as I think about preaching. One of the highlights about TMS is the unity among the professors on doctrine and philosophy of ministry. I never felt like I was hearing one theology in one class and a different theology from a different class. Each professor was unique in their personality and presentation, but they were all unified in representing the same theology. In addition, the sign on the second floor of the seminary building with 2 Timothy 4:2 on it always had a profound impact upon me.
My wife and I had been married for all of one month when I started seminary. My wife worked at Grace to You while I worked in the TMS admissions department. When we had our first child and my wife stopped working, I received another job. The financial support we received made it possible for us to make it through seminary while living in Los Angeles, and we see God’s hand of provision at work in our lives.