A Personal Testimony

by Lacey

Don’t ask me how, but I always knew that I would marry a preacher.  I accepted Christ at the young age of ten years old.  My dad and I made a profession of faith on the same day and were baptized the following week.  I knew that if my dad was going to heaven, that’s where I wanted to go as well.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to have grown up in a Christian home and a Bible believing church.  Having a Christian background helped to shape who I am today.  As a young believer, I was encouraged to take personal devotion time and Bible reading seriously.  I spent time on my own in God’s word even at a young age.  As a teenager, I naturally took on leadership roles in my church as I was one of the older students in the youth group.  We enjoyed traveling to churches to sing together, participating in Bible competitions, and serving our community through outreach activities. This time in my life taught me the importance of personal devotion and leadership. 

I attended college at Tennessee Tech University, where I obtained a degree for Early Childhood Education/Special Education.  I was involved with campus activities and had several leadership opportunities through my classes at Tech, but the most influential experience I had in college was my involvement with the Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM).  It was through the BCM that I experienced the bigger picture of the Christian life and world.  Having grown up in a small unaffiliated FWB church, I had not been privileged to be a part of anything bigger.  During this time in my life, I was able to meet new people who came from Baptist churches in other cities and states.  I was also fortunate enough to participate in several missions projects ranging from hurricane relief on the Gulf to a two month long position leading Bible camps for kids in Chattanooga, to an overseas trip to Saba where I helped a local church on the island.  I also took on leadership roles at the BCM serving as the fellowship coordinator and secretary. My experiences throughout college helped teach me a value for commitment and service. 

After college, I began teaching for White County Schools, where I have been employed since.  I have served in four different schools and six different grade levels over the course of 17 years. Looking back over time, I see how challenges I faced when being assigned different grade levels and different schools helped prepare me to develop skills of flexibility and adaptability.  Spending time at a variety of schools and in various communities has allowed me to build relationships with multiple coworkers and families and has provided me with opportunities to share my faith through being a light to others. 

During this time, I also experienced God’s abundant blessing through my marriage and family.  Seth and I grew up in church together, but I had never really considered dating him throughout my younger years.  When I was 25, I came out of a long term relationship and began praying and seeking the Lord for a spouse.  Psalm 37:4 was a key verse in my life during this time and I truly found that if I delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart.  What I didn’t expect to find is that my desires would change.  As I sought the Lord with all my heart, I began to put my own expectations aside and let him work through me.  At the same time, Seth was also praying with a co-worker for forty days about finding a spouse.  We were already friends and our friendship increased during this time, which turned into us dating and eventually into us being married. It was also during this time that Seth surrendered to his call to preach.  As a friend, he had confided in me a year or so before that he was called to preach, but had never answered. This was such a defining moment in our relationship, in which he had my full support of the ministry.  I felt that God had placed it on my heart years before that I would someday be a pastor’s wife.  This season of my life taught me the joy of trusting God and abiding in Him while He reveals His perfect will. 

Throughout our marriage, Seth has pastored two churches over the course of ten years.  We also have had two wonderful children, Shaylee (age 9) and Barrett (age 6) during this time. Just as you would expect in life, we’ve had our ups and downs.  We’ve faced various challenges from losing our mothers at a young age, to a premature baby, to pastoring a new church during Covid.  Each challenge has taught us the faithfulness of God and helped us to learn perseverance for the next season of life. 

One particular season of our life that helped us grow and learn was when Seth and I attended Sparta First Free Will Baptist under the mentorship of Dr. Rudy Oakes.  At this time we joined the Liberty Association and for the first time in our lives became part of the State and National Association of Free Will Baptists. Once again my eyes were opened to the bigger picture of Christian service and fellowship.  Joining these associations was a refreshing blessing as we were able to see the branches of ministry and how they worked together in order to make up the body of Christ and reach people around the world. I knew at that time that I wanted to be a part of the bigger picture, the global mission of spreading the gospel.  Having my eyes opened to connectivity and missions was a crucial part of my life during this time.

In 2019, we saw God’s hand miraculously guide us to Cookeville Free Will Baptist Church.  We began with a mission statement of God’s GPS, outlining the importance of faith, family, fellowship, and focus. Throughout my time at Cookeville Free Will Baptist I have had the opportunity to be a part of several ministries.  I’ve served on a team that planned and executed church and outreach events, led multiple ladies Bible studies/prayer/discipleship groups, taught children’s classes for various age groups, helped to build a thriving young adult ministry, and served on the media team through website building and graphic design.  Being able to use my gifts and talents for the Lord in various capacities has taught me the importance of responsibility and teamwork. 

Although vocationally, I am a teacher, my heart belongs with my husband in ministry.  If I were to work in the church with him on a daily basis, I would find that there are endless possibilities of things I can do to be a service to his ministry and my church.  I have prayed many times in my life for an opportunity for full time ministry.  I truly desire to serve the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  To me, that means to be willing to leave behind any desires and personal aspirations in order to fully serve Christ.  Passion and focus are two qualities I have developed over time that help shape our ministry. 

I believe that everyone has a calling and a special role to fulfill in God’s kingdom, and I believe that God reveals His will to us when it is time. When Seth accepted his first pastorate, we knew it was time to leave our home church to serve God in a different capacity.  When we sensed God calling us to leave there and spend some time under our mentor, Dr. Rudy Oakes, we knew it was time. We also knew it was time when God called Seth to pastor at Cookeville Free Will Baptist. We have loved serving at Cookeville Free Will Baptist and believe that God has blessed our ministry there. Pastoring during and post-Covid has had its challenges, but through God’s guidance, we rose to those challenges. We love our church family and the work that God is doing at CFWBC. However, Seth and I have been drawn to NAM for quite some time now.  We have always talked about it as if it were something we would pursue in the future after our children are grown or our parents have passed away.  That is until recently. Recently and seemingly unexplainedly we have felt a burden to pursue an opportunity for planting a church out west.  We have looked over the data and found that while there are opportunities here in Tennessee, our western states have very few churches and a great number of unchurched people.  We desire to help fulfill the great commission by going, spreading the gospel, making disciples, and baptizing people in the name of Jesus. Evangelism and discipleship are at the heart of our ministry. 

As the wife of a church planter, my goal would be to support my husband in every aspect possible of the ministry.  His ministry as a church planter would be my ministry as well.  My number one means of support would be through prayer.  Prayer is the most integral part in seeing God work in every situation and it’s through prayer that God changes your heart in order to accomplish His will. Although church planting would require sacrifices on my part such as leaving my family and my career, I understand that those sacrifices are sometimes what it takes to be in the center of God’s will.  I have carefully and prayerfully considered this opportunity and although I originally wanted to put it off for the future, I feel God gently urging me saying the time is now. Now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation.