I was born and raised in Smyrna, TN, to a non-practicing Catholic father and a Southern Baptist mother. I’m the third child, with my siblings being 6 and 12 years older than me. We attended Scenic Drive Baptist Church until my parents divorced when I was in the 5th grade. Until that point, God was real but mostly unimportant and inconsequential in my life. For my family, He was only relevant during Sunday services.

After the divorce, I became an atheist in theology, but an angry Christian in practice. By that I mean: a true atheist should be unaffected by an imaginary being. I, on the other hand, raged against God. I believed He was either impotent, imaginary, or indifferent toward me and the sin in me hated Him.

I lived this way through high school, gathering scientific facts to support my personal apologetic against faith. I wanted others to see things as I did. During that time, a friend badgered me relentlessly to attend church with him. Eventually, I agreed, thinking, “I’ll go so I can show him how silly Christianity is.”How ironic, in God’s eyes.

At first, we had Bible studies at his house. Later, we began attending Wednesday night youth group at LifePoint Church in Smyrna. On my second visit, the Lord arrested my heart. I began asking hard questions, and during an after-sermon discussion, the boys pulled over the youth pastor.

He began explaining, “…and when you give your heart to the Lord, He begins to…”

I interrupted him: “Would that be okay to do right now?”

I remember those words just slipping out almost as if they weren’t mine. That night, I prayed with a group of high school boys who had been faithfully praying for my salvation.

For a few weeks, I experienced what I call spiritual vertigoeverything I thought I knew was turned upside down. But soon I asked myself what I was supposed to do with this new life. The Lord impressed on me the calling to preach the Word. At first, that meant sharing with other kids at school, at the parkwherever I could. As I’ve grown, that calling has only deepened. I now understand it as the heart of an under-shepherd to the Good Shepherd, Jesus. My desire is to care for the flock of God in the same way God did through that friend, youth pastor, and many others who I never noticed as God pulled me from death into life.

I met my wife Autumn at Smyrna High School shortly after I got saved. We ran in the same circles, and I knew something was different about her from the moment I met her. I pursued her for about a year before we started dating. I like to say I have been in the relationship longer than she has. We got married just a few weeks before we turned 19, and this September, we will celebrate our 12th anniversary.