A Brief Personal History

It seems ironic to me that God would call me to full time ministry, not to mention the Family and Children's Pastor of FBC. But in the mind of God their is no such thing as "irony" but rather sovereign control over who He chooses to use for His purposes. I was born in a non-Christian home and was not exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ until I was 17 years old. I was married at the age of 21, and had no clue what it meant to be a Christian husband and father. I knew that I was suppose to be the spiritual leader of our home, but had no idea what that looked like. Needless to say the first six years of my marriage was rather rocky. After 6 years of marriage, a man named John Smith (really his name is John Smith, I'm not trying to protect his anonymity - see www.cohbc.org) took the risk of taking me under his wings and began discipling a man who was more or less set in his ways , particularly in the area of being a husband. His purpose for meeting with me, along with several other men, was simple: "Develop godly leaders." And the rest, he believed, God would take care of. My world was rocked when he patiently showed me in the Scriptures what it meant to be a spiritual leader. I realized then that during the first 6 years of our marriage I had it all wrong. It was during that time I asked for my wife's forgiveness in failing to spiritually lead her and told her that I wanted to lead our home the way God intended. She was shocked at this idea, and it took some time before she realized that I had every intention to lead our family biblically. But by God's grace I won her trust. In the seventh year of our marriage, God blessed us with our first child. Little did I know that leading a wife is one thing, but leading a family, whoa!!! now that's a whole new ball game. I have three children now, and have been married for seventeen years. I've made many mistakes along the way. I've failed in many ways as a husband and a father as well, but God is gracious to show me my failures, repent from them, make the needed changes, and cast myself again and again at the foot of the cross.