Biographies and resumes are the beautiful places where glory and triumphs are shared. I could tell you how I’m a man of faith, husband, father, college graduate, ordained minister, and a vice president for a faith-based university. There are awards, career accolades, and highlights of my special talents and hobbies. Then there is this new season in my life. This is the season when my wife and I accepted our divine assignment and relocated to the St. Louis area. While these things help you to get to know me, they are not my whole story.
I grew up as the son of a pastor, which established a great spiritual foundation. At the age of 12, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior (John 3:16-18; Romans 10:8-10) and received the precious gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:36-39; John 14:16-17). Despite support and guidance from wonderful, authentic, and astute Christian parents, I have still struggled through life in conflict with my purpose, gifts, and the standard of life God was calling me to compared to the standard I was comfortable with.
Through all of my sins, failures, and low moments, God never let me go! I know what it is like to live as someone who was chosen, yet also felt alone and rejected. At times I was passionate about becoming who God was calling me to be, and many times I failed and felt like a hypocrite. For many years, I couldn't give myself the permission and grace for a lifelong journey of becoming. I often asked myself, ‘I couldn't meet my own expectations, how could I even come close to living up to God's’?
Through many ups and downs, I finally embraced a complicated truth. I discovered that a perfect God selects the flawed and imperfect (Romans 9:20-23) for a greater purpose, and as He sees fit. For nearly 20 years, I wrestled with God’s call on my life. Although I found other ways to exercise the gifts God has given me, I was often unfulfilled and unable to achieve the totality of my true calling. I’ve never felt worthy or justified for such a great call, and I often sought an easier path, outside of the spotlight and beneath God’s standards.
I’ve come to understand that genuinely accepting and committing to God’s call is about faith in His plan and not my worthiness. It is I who has needed and continues to depend on God’s leading through darkness and uncertainty. This is where God revealed His assignment for my life, to serve, and Pillar of Fire Church was birthed.
Exodus 13 reveals how God lead the Hebrew nation from Egypt during the day with a pillar of cloud and at night with a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:17 & 21). With my focus on God and faith in His plan and leading, Pastor Karen and I now launch Pillar of Fire Church.
Pillar of Fire Church was not birthed to be a ‘different’ church. Pillar of Fire is not a perfect church, social club, nor fraternal group. Pillar of Fire Church is a spiritual family bonded in service to God, committed to compelling the lost, and dedicated to worshipping and glorifying God through His perfect gifts.
