About the blogger

Hey folks! There may only be a few of you out there interested in this, but I thought some of you might like to know Chelsea and me a little better.

We both grew up in the little town of White Hall, Arkansas. We actually met in Geometry during our sophomore year of high school. We were two extremely different people! Thanks Mrs. McGrew for sitting us in alphabetical order! Little did I know that the jock sitting beside me would someday be my wife. We were both unbelievers when we met. I was extremely religious, and she was exactly the opposite! We both began our relationships with Christ that year of high school and started dating the following summer.

We both led small groups (home groups or connect groups) of our peers while we were in school. I grew up in the home of a pastor and knew from an early age that God had called me to be a pastor. Chelsea also knew while we were still in high school that she was called to pastor.

After completing our Freshman year at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, we began serving as Interns at Family Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. We took on two projects: worship and a young adult ministry. We both finished our programs (History for me and Sound Recording Technology/Mass Broadcast for Chelsea) at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Starting out, I definitely craved position and “authority.” Over the next year, God would begin the process of breaking me over people. We became more about pastoring and less about titles and positions. The leadership at FC took two kids and invested in us. They loved us, taught us what it meant to pastor, taught us how to serve, taught us how to love.

After serving for a couple of years in different capacities at FC, we received a phone call from an old friend in Nashville (Bryan McKnight) and talked with him about a church plant in the Bellevue area. We soon began talking with Pastor Joe about moving to Nashville to help launch Uprising Church. Our hearts were broken to leave the church we had known for so long, but God’s will was evident to everyone as time progressed.

We moved to Nashville in November 2006. We worked from November 2006 through November 2007 to help launch UpRising Church. Today, Chelsea works for a local banking software company as a Project Manager and I continue into my 4th year as an Instructional Designer or Senior Training Specialist. We’re now attending Oasis Worship Center in Nashville, TN while we wait to hear where God’s sending us next.

Our hearts beat for one thing: bringing people into a deeper walk with their Father. We both love to teach. God has made us truly passionate about teaching people to love on the Father, especially through worship. We love to spend time with people and give them the opportunities to serve the local church body using their gifts and talents. There’s nothing more exciting to us than seeing the foot learn to be a foot and the hand learn to be a hand. Someone recently asked us what thing would cause us to just want to die if God told us we couldn’t do anymore – the answer wasn’t worship – it was people. We love music, but God has made it apparent that we can’t box ourselves into music ministry. If you understand what that means, let us know, because we’re not exactly sure just yet.

In the mean time, let the journey continue…