As a child, Justin attended Word of Life Church with his family and was exposed to the Gospel through Wednesday night and Sunday morning teachings at the church. It was during these teachings that Justin first remembers being captivated by bible stories told by a teacher named Steve. As a fourth-grader, Justin felt called to tackle the requirements needed to earn the God and Family metal while participating in the Webelos Scouting Program. While earning the metal, he professed his faith during a revival service. In the year that followed, Justin’s youthful faith blossomed as he attended various church activities. However, two weeks into the fifth grade, Justin’s family moved away from the church, first literally and then figuratively. They stopped going to church after moving across town, and Justin slowly started to drift away from organized religion. He still called himself a Christian but started to lose the conviction underlining his relationship with Christ. God remained close by and planted men of faith around Justin who would help keep him from drifting too far away from the Father. Some of these men included the Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, whom Justin had the opportunity to serve whenever a need arose for young men willing to do manual labor.

In college, Justin started to adopt the idea of a universal god who would accept him if he was “good” and performed the correct deeds. Adopting a universal god allowed Justin to balance his fear of confrontation with a spirituality that was vague enough to accommodate most others. He took a World Religions class that studied the philosophical tenants of major religions across the world. Justin was exposed to a greater pool of examples to pick the characteristics that he liked most and he started to form his own personal spiritual outlook. According to this outlook, Heaven was the same as Nirvana, and aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity could mix together and guide anyone to a place that was similar to some form of heaven. Justin still felt like he was falling short, both in actions and spirit. He kept fantasizing of a better version of himself that would be immune to the cycles of mistakes and sin that kept recurring. He kept wishing he could perform in a way that would get him into heaven.

Justin carried this belief through college, graduate school, and the first five years of his marriage with Jamie. His fantasies grew to include being a good husband and man. In addition to self-help books, he sought affirmation from other men that he was doing everything correctly. Two men who were important figures to him during this time were his wife’s father, Bob, and grandfather, Mark. Both men walked by Justin’s and gave him additional examples of what a man could be. By March 2013 both men had passed away within 4 months of each other. Justin looked at his wife and realized that as her husband, he had a much more impactful role to play as the main man in her life. The pressure to be the right kind of man was kicked into overdrive and the search for answers on being a better version of himself was intensified.

During the passing of Mark, God revealed Himself in a huge way to Jamie and she started attending church on a regular basis. Justin followed suit out of fear that Jamie and he would start to slowly grow apart if he remained passive in this new endeavor. For months he waited for God to show up the same way he did for Jamie. Justin yearned for a single big moment that he could point to and tell people about. That moment did not come the way Justin expected. Instead of revealing himself in a single moment, God has and continues to reveal himself to Justin a little at a time in a constant and consistent pulling.

On September 8, 2013, Justin confessed Jesus as his savior and underwent believer’s baptism at Shady Oaks Baptist Church. God continued to grow his faith slowly and steadily at Shady Oaks Baptist Church for the next five years. In particular, God exposed the presence of passivity in Justin’s heart and pressed upon him the need to fight against it and fight for His kingdom. Through this process, Justin’s heart was drawn to helping other men further their walk with Christ in the men’s ministries.

In the last three years, God stirred Jamie’s and Justin’s heart and called both of them closer to him. This calling crystallized most clearly during their 10-year anniversary trip. Before this trip, both Jamie and Justin had started to yearn for something more, and during the trip, they felt God calling them to a deeper journey with him. That journey led them to the Village Church where they continue their sanctification process together.

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INSPIRING SERMONS I GO TO WHEN IN NEED OF A SPIRITUAL RECHARGE:

Defining Masculinity
Men as Husbands
Men as Fathers
A Beautiful Design, 6 Hopes From a Beautiful Design
Truth In Trial
Enjoying the Triune God