My Story
Mine started with
an invitation.
My story with Jesus began because someone noticed me.
I didn't grow up imagining that one day I would be a pastor. I wasn't mapping out a career in ministry or thinking about sermons, church leadership, student retreats, or any of the things that would eventually become such a big part of my life.
I was simply a kid with a friend from class who invited me to a Church of the Nazarene.
Somewhere in that invitation, God began writing a story I couldn't see yet. I encountered Jesus there, and what began as someone simply inviting me into a church became a relationship with Christ that would eventually change the direction of my entire life.
Someone did that for me. God used it to change my life.
Senior year, God called me into youth ministry.
During my senior year, I went on a mission trip. I had already said yes to Jesus. On that trip, I began to understand that He was asking me to say yes to something else.
Ministry.
More specifically, I sensed God calling me to youth ministry. I didn't know exactly what that would look like. I certainly didn't know where it would take me.
But I knew enough to say yes.
That yes eventually led me to Trevecca Nazarene University, where I studied religion, theology, and youth while continuing to learn ministry in the place I have always believed it is learned best: the local church.
Ministry turned out to be much bigger than standing on a stage.
I began serving at Brentwood Church of the Nazarene, now Gateway Community Church, and quickly discovered that ministry was about far more than preaching.
It was showing up. Listening. Teaching. Loading equipment. Supporting a pastor. Helping a student understand Scripture. Creating something when nothing existed yet. Solving whatever problem needed solving.
And doing a lot of things nobody would ever see.
Over the years, I served at Brentwood, Franklin Community of Faith, Gateway, and eventually Concord Community Church.
What started with one invitation was becoming a life in the local church.
Along the way, I became a husband, a dad, an entrepreneur, and a builder.
I married Kari, and together we became parents to two incredible kids.
Along the way, I also discovered that I love building things.
Sometimes that meant ministries. Sometimes it meant events, graphics, videos, websites, stage environments, systems, or something completely new.
Sometimes it literally meant businesses.
I became an entrepreneur and built ventures outside the church, including Lucky Scruff, a men's grooming company that grew from an early garage operation into e-commerce, wholesale distribution, and a physical retail location at The Factory at Franklin.
Building businesses taught me about leadership from a different angle: hiring, payroll, purchasing, leases, marketing, customer experience, negotiation, inventory, operations, and the thousand little decisions required to turn an idea into something real.
For a while, ministry and entrepreneurship felt like separate worlds. I don't see them that way anymore.
In 2018, I became Student Pastor at Concord Community Church.
When I arrived, the student ministry was small, with roughly ten students involved.
What happened over the years that followed is difficult for me to reduce to numbers because ministry has never primarily been about numbers to me.
It's students sitting across from you telling you what they're struggling with. It's adults giving their time week after week because teenagers matter. It's parents trusting you with people they love more than anything in the world.
It's watching a sixth grader become a graduating senior.
It's baptisms. Hospital rooms. Retreats. Funerals. Weddings. Conversations about calling. Wednesday nights when everything works and Wednesday nights when absolutely nothing does.
Today, around 120 students are connected to the ministry, supported by a strong team of adult leaders.
I am grateful for the growth.
But I am far more grateful for the people behind those numbers.
Somewhere along the way, I realized I wasn't only called to youth ministry.
My years at Concord have given me opportunities to preach to the entire church, provide pastoral care, develop leaders, help shape strategy, create systems, build digital ministry, lead major events, manage complex trips, and help our church figure out how to do things we had never done before.
Somewhere in those years, something became clearer.
I am still deeply passionate about the next generation.
But youth ministry isn't the entirety of my calling.
I'm a pastor.
In 2025, I was ordained as an Elder in the Church of the Nazarene.
It was an important milestone, but it didn't feel like the end of a journey.
It felt like another yes.
I still believe the local church can change someone's story.
I still love preaching God's Word.
I still love sitting across the table from someone and hearing their story.
I still love teenagers, families, leaders, and watching someone discover that God can use them.
I still love dreaming about what the church could become.
And I still love taking something that doesn't exist and building it.
My own story changed because one person cared enough to invite me in.
That has never stopped shaping the pastor I want to be.
Your story matters, too.
A classroom friendship. An invitation to church. A mission trip. A call to ministry. Trevecca. Churches. A marriage. Two kids. Businesses. Successes. Mistakes. Wednesday nights. Sermons. Retreats. People.
Thousands of ordinary moments that God has used to shape a life and a calling.
After more than 18 years in ministry, my calling is becoming clearer: I want to help people know Christ, discover who God has created them to be, and find their place in His story.
And I want to help build churches where people can belong, grow, lead, serve, and discover that God can use their story to help write someone else's.