Some of you know that before we lived in PA, my family and I lived in Ohio for 7 years. During that time in Ohio, Beka and I fell in love with “Small Town America” while living in Galion (population 11,000) and serving at Gospel Baptist Church with Pastor Monty Trammel. Tears and mid-western pride fill me up everytime I hear “Small Town” by John Mellencamp.
I count it as a blessing that I come from a long line of preachers. I am humbled that God has used my family for so long serving the church. I don’t hold that in a spirit of arrogance or entitlement but with great respect. My family is by no means perfect but for some reason or another God continues to call my family into the ministry.
I remember growing up in a pastor’s home. Happy times much like any other – filled with bumps and bruises but also love and sacrifice. I received Christ on November 21, 1991 and was baptized shortly thereafter. My mom and dad would tell you that my coming to faith was for real. Jesus dramatically changed me! A few years later I knelt down again at the alter at West Chester Baptist Church (Cincinnati Ohio) and surrendered my life to full time ministry in November of 1993.
Two years later I was home for winter break from college. My dad and I went to a little church in Southern Indiana for a Bible conference. I had been questioning whether or not I was really called into the ministry and was debating coming home from Bible college. It was there that I knelt again at an alter in that little Baptist church where God not only confirmed my calling into the ministry but also confirmed in me a call me to preach (December 1995). I’m sorry if this language is new to some of you but a “call to preach” is different in the fact the God calls someone specifically to pastor a local church. I’ve not forgotten about this and have prayed over and over about when God would have me to pastor a church. I’ll admit that I have been pushing it off because I’ve seen all that pastor’s go through. It is no small task and not for the faint of heart. Most pastor’s are under massive amounts of stress and on the “full stretch” at all times.
A few months ago Beka and I started to talk about pastoring a church and when we felt that time would come. I had no desire to do so right away and living in Pittsburgh has been great! We have awesome friends, a really great church, and some of the best teens we have ever had the privilege of working with! Like always I started to question being a Senior pastor of a church and really debated whether or not there was a need for another church in the United States – already being saturated with “steeples rising high above the malls”.
I had been reading the Bible faithfully, seeking clarity, but clarity would allude me again driving me further into a spiritual fog. It wasn’t until one day I was driving to the Y, spending some time in prayer and really asking God to show me that He was leading me to pastor. Immediately following my “Amen” I noticed a lighted church sign asking these words in bright red rotating letters.. “Do you love me?” Not wasting a second, I answered it back aloud saying, “Yes Lord, You know that I love you.” The next flashing sentence jumped off the screen and answered back, “Feed my sheep.”
I knew at that moment that Jesus was directing me to pastor. An opportunity has opened up for me to pastor New Hope Community Church in Ashland Ohio. I had the opportunity to work with this group before but I didn’t feel led of the Lord until recently. New Hope has a story of their own. I will not get into specifics but after much transition and debating whether or not to continue meeting, New Hope has discovered that there is still HOPE for their church! Doors that have been shut can and will be reopened if God so chooses.
New Hope has a tremendous opportunity and a vibrant team of people capable of redeeming that which has been broken and undervalued in their community. They have the desire and the ability to reach the city of Ashland Ohio by lifting up Jesus.
