People often ask me, “Are you the son of a pastor?”

The short answer is no.

But the long answer? Well, that’s a bit more of a story.

I wasn’t raised in a pastor’s home, but in many ways, I grew up in ministry. My parents were active members of our local Seventh-day Adventist church, leading young adult vespers, community outreach programs, and eventually directing our church’s Pathfinder Club. Ministry wasn’t something we did solely on Sabbath, it was the rhythm of our lives. And that rhythm shaped me.

At the age of ten, I preached my first sermon.

It wasn’t something I planned or even imagined. Speaking in front of a church filled with nearly two hundred people had never crossed my mind. But one day, as our club prepared for Pathfinder Sabbath, the director asked for volunteers to lead various parts of the service. And then he asked the question: “Who’s willing to preach?”

Silence filled the room.

And then, somehow, my hand was in the air. To this day, I’m not sure what moved first: my heart or my arm. But that simple moment would set the stage for everything to come.

By 15, I was planning my first evangelistic series.

It was my freshman year at Skagit Adventist Academy, and our school was preparing for a mission trip to Belize. We were going to build a school and host medical clinics. But I felt God asking for something more. As I lingered after class one day, I asked our youth pastor, who also taught my Bible class, “What would you think about organizing an evangelistic series while we’re there?”

He wasn’t even going on the trip but he mentored me through the whole process: planning, praying, preparing. Preaching in Belize wasn’t just an outreach project. It was the moment my faith stopped being something inherited and became something I lived.

The next chapter took me to Fountainview Academy, a place that changed everything. For three years, I found myself in an environment where faith wasn’t just discussed, it was practiced. I received mentorship from incredible leaders like Pastor Mike Lemon, Pastor Nathan James, and my head dean David Pasos. I led dorm worships, preached sermons, co-led a Sabbath School class, organized service projects, and eventually served as senior class pastor.

During the fall semester of my junior year at Fountainview Academy, we traveled to Kelowna to perform a concert. Before the event, we went out into the community to hand out glow tracts and invite people to attend. While doing outreach, I met a couple who were smoking, and I struck up a conversation with them. What began as a casual chat quickly turned into a deeply spiritual exchange. In that moment, standing on the street, I realized how much I loved ministering to people and I knew then that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Near the end of my senior year, during a hike I still vividly remember, Pastor Nathan James turned to me and said, “If I were a conference president, I’d hire you.” He may not have realized it at the time, but that one sentence left a lasting impression on me and played a significant role in strengthening my decision to pursue full-time ministry.

After graduating, I enrolled at Weimar University to pursue a Bachelor’s in Religion with an emphasis in Theology. It was there that I was assigned to Dr. Hill’s TCI team, a new initiative called Total Community Involvement. Dr. Hill, a seasoned pastor, looked at me and said, “You’re leading the team. I’ll mentor you.”

Once again, ministry found me before I went looking for it.

By the end of my freshman year, I was asked to run for Student Association President (something nearly unheard of for a freshman). I prayed. Wrestled. Then asked my friend Mark Quion, who would later become the best man at my wedding, to run as my vice president.

That year, I learned to chair meetings, plan events, and most memorably, I witnessed five students get baptized as a result of our collective efforts. God was moving, and I was learning to move with Him.

Somewhere along the way, I got engaged to my ex-girlfriend, now my wife, and together we began praying about our future in ministry. Multiple calls came in, including a call from the Oklahoma Conference. After weeks of silence, we had almost crossed it off our list.

Then came a phone call.

It was Elder James Shires, asking if we’d come visit the Ardmore Seventh-day Adventist Church. We did. I preached. We interviewed. And then the vote came in; it was unanimous. Following the vote, we took four days to pray before accepting the call to serve. And that’s how we ended up in the Oklahoma Conference, pastoring the churches in Ardmore and Pauls Valley.

So no, I’m not the son of a pastor.

But I am the son of two people who lived out their faith, who showed me what it means to serve, to lead, to love, and to answer the call when it comes.

Because sometimes the call to ministry doesn’t come through a dream or an audible voice.

Sometimes it comes in the silence of a Pathfinder meeting… and the quiet rise of a 10-year-old’s hand.