My Testimony and Call to Ministry

by Seth

Like many other people that I know in church, I was born into a home with church going parents. That may be a strange way of saying it, but let me explain further. Both of my parents and my grandparents attended the Bethel Free Will Baptist church in Sparta, TN. I was taken to church as a child every time the doors were open. We were not Sunday morning only attendees. In fact, my mom was in a southern/ bluegrass group, so this meant that many times we were at revivals and other special services in addition to “regular” church services. This made a permanent imprint in my mind and shaped my thinking even today.

We had a pastor that loved God and the church, Brother Danny Bandy. I would go to Sunday school class where the teachers would use the flannelgraphs to teach their lessons and without realizing it they were laying a foundation in my life for my love of God’s word. 

When I was nine years old, my parents decided to get a divorce. This began a cycle of me getting pulled from one place to another.  Over the next year, my dad would intermittently go to Taylor’s Providence Free Will Baptist. This is where my mom’s singing group had originated from; so we knew most of the people. One Sunday night, my dad took me to church with him and the pastor Brother David Lee England preached a gospel message. I realized that night that I was lost and in need of a Savior. I took my dad by the hand and he walked to the altar with me. Brother David came down and talked to me and I prayed a simple prayer asking Jesus to save me. Because I was being pulled around between my parents, I was not baptized until a couple of years later.

One of my deepest regrets is that I did not receive any sort of guidance or discipleship on what it is to be a Christian. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest detriments to any new believer. It was not until a few years later when I was asked to compete in Church Training Service (CTS) at Bethel Free Will Baptist, that I really started to learn more about the Bible. It was at that point in my life that God began to lay the foundation for my call to ministry. 

As I got into my teens, I stayed faithful to church and I formed a strong bond with my youth group.  It was in these years that I started paying better attention in Sunday school and really listening to what the preacher had to say. I did not realize it at the time, but in hindsight I can clearly see that God was preparing me to be a pastor and church leader. Every fifth Sunday our pastor would have a “youth” day. He would allow the teens to fill in at some positions in the church such as Sunday school teacher, superintendent, song leader, and even to give a message from the pulpit. I was asked to do many of the jobs and it allowed me to get more involved on the “adults” side of the church. I have many wonderful memories of youth group and being a part of a close knit country church.

One of the major turning points in my life came around the age of 17-18. Our pastor of 17 years, Bro. Danny Bandy, had resigned from Bethel due to major health issues and a new pastor came in. He was in his mid twenties and he was able to connect with the younger people at church. For whatever reason, he seemed like my family and so he and his wife would often spend Sunday between services at our house. It was during his pastorate that I began to feel God calling me to the ministry. I had many questions and I also felt so unworthy and unqualified so I would go to him for advice. He gave me some good advice and some advice that was not so good. Things were going well and I thought that I would soon announce my calling publicly to the church. That all changed one Wednesday night. We received the news that our pastor had been arrested for solicitation of a minor. Obviously, he was immediately dismissed as pastor and the church was in utter shock. I was devastated. I trusted and looked up to him; and suddenly he was no longer in my life. The thought that I remember most vividly was ‘if he can fail then there is no way that I can ever be in ministry’.

Even though I did come to realize that mindset was a mistake, I still let it lead me into some things that I should have done. Going to church was not the same to me and I got out of the will of God. Over the next seven years, I struggled with what I knew was God’s call on my life. I continued to attend church, but I was not living like I should.

 In 2011, God got my attention. When he did, I rededicated my life to him and began to live for him like I was supposed to. After a few months, God began to deal with me again about the calling that he had put on my life. Even though I was living right, I was still not in God’s perfect will. In order to try and fill that void, I started a gospel group with 3 other young men. That went well and we stayed booked in local churches almost every Sunday. It was during this time that I was able to form relationships with many pastors and churches in my area.

That year we put together a church co-ed softball team. One night after practice, Lacey asked me if I would stay after and help her work on throwing. As we stood there, I worked up the courage to tell her that I felt that God was calling me into the ministry. We were just friends at the time and what I didn’t know was that she felt like she would marry a preacher. A few months later, we eventually began dating. On Thursday night, March 22, 2012, during our regularly scheduled spring revival it all came to a head. Our former pastor Bro. Danny Bandy had been asked to preach that week and he preached that week like I had never seen before. That night he stepped beyond the pulpit and said that he was going to preach a message titled “It’s Time”. I will never forget the next words out of his mouth. With only the kind of confidence that God can give he said: ”someone in the church tonight is called to preach”. After he made that statement, I have no idea what he said. When the altar call was given, I stepped out and went to the altar. 

What happened after that seemed like a whirlwind. My pastor at the time, Clayton Lee Jr., scheduled me to preach at Bethel on Sunday night a week later. I had no idea how to prepare a sermon or how to stand and deliver one. So on April 1, 2012, I preached my first sermon titled ‘I’m Not Who I Once Was’. When the news got out that I had started preaching, I quickly began to receive calls to fill the pulpit in various churches. I did not have much of an idea what I was doing, but I tried to do my best. 

In 2013, I was asked to be the pastor of the Taylor’s Providence Free Will Baptist church. I realize that it probably was not a good idea to begin pastoring that early, but I did. It was the church that I had gotten saved in and I knew almost all of the congregation so I had some “training wheels”. It is a small country church that had around 30 people in attendance. I was able to learn some valuable lessons about preaching and pastoring. The people would patiently listen as I preached what I knew to be some not so great messages. I tried my best to preach the Bible and be faithful to God and he blessed the church. People were being saved and those who had gotten out of church started to come back. Around late spring of 2016, I felt that God was telling me to leave Taylor’s Providence. I did not have any plans on where to go or what to do, just that it was time to go. 

Between the time that I resigned and left, I was praying and asking God to show me where I should go. It was around that time that I started to see a bigger picture. Up until that time, the churches I had attended and the association that I was a part of were firmly anti-state and national association. Thankfully, by this time I had formed a close relationship through the Stone Association with Dr. Rudy Oakes. He was the director of the Stone Bible Institute and I had taken many of his courses, which had helped me tremendously in my growth as a student of the Bible. Right around the time that I had resigned from pastoring, Rudy had been called as the pastor to Sparta First Free Will Baptist. As Lacey and I prayed and discussed what we should do, we both agreed that we should attend Sparta FFWB until God moved us somewhere else. During that time of transition, I decided that I would join Sparta FFWB and move my credentials to the Liberty Association. In doing so, God started opening many doors for me to be part of something bigger than I had ever been a part of. In November of 2017, Rudy invited me to go to the Tennessee state association meeting in Pigeon Forge. In all honesty, I felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t hardly know anyone and I really didn’t know anything about the inner workings of our denomination, but I enjoyed going. Over the next couple of years while we attended Sparta FFWB, I felt that God would eventually call me back to the pastorate but I had no idea what was in store. 

On a Wednesday night in February of 2019, one of the deacons at Sparta walked up to me after church to tell me that the pastor of Cookeville Free Will Baptist had resigned. What happened in that moment has only happened a few other times in my life. As soon as he told me the news God spoke to me and let me know that I would be the next pastor there. That was so strange for me because I knew that I was not qualified to pastor there. I had only pastored one church and it was way out in the country. Even though I felt like I didn’t have a chance, God had other plans. I was called to be the pastor and started September 1, 2019. When I arrived I had no idea how to be a vocational pastor. So I did what I knew to do, and that was stay in God’s word, pray and seek all of the counsel that I could. I talked to many other full time pastors as well as read many books from reputable sources.

Six months in and things were running pretty smoothly. There were problems and situations that came up like any normal church would have, but things were pretty good. Then on March 3, 2020 an EF-4 tornado came through Putnam county and set off what would be a chaotic next several months. The church pulled together and became a supply distribution center as well as a base of operations for several Free Will Baptist Disaster Response Teams (DRTs). Strangely among all of the chaos and business, it felt like the church was doing some real and impactful ministry for our community. It was during that time that we started hearing about the Covid-19 pandemic. Little did we know what impact it would have on our church and many others across the world. During the time of the pandemic, we made some modifications to how we had church and how we would minister. As a whole, our church was very fortunate throughout Covid. Then, the strangest thing happened as things started to return to some semblance of normalcy. Younger people from around the area started to show up. Many of them had come as a result of Covid. Some because their church had suffered greatly and was dwindling, while others came because they had lost the connection to their previous church. As a result of the pandemic, Cookeville Free Will Baptist actually came out stronger.

In order to give my call to church planting testimony, I have to back up to when I was attending Sparta First Free Will Baptist. While I was there Rudy had invited two church planting teams to the church for fundraising. The first team was Clayton and Josh Hampton. This was actually the first time I was exposed to any sort of mission work in the United States. The few missionaries that we had hosted at Bethel were always international missionaries. I had never been to the western United States, so when they said they were going to Montana it might was well have been to another country to me. That night, I introduced myself to them and filled out a faith promise card for support. The next team was Chad Kivette and JD Newland, church planters to Pigeon Forge, TN. I remember thinking how strange it was that there was not a Free Will Baptist Church in the area they were going to. Fast forward back to Cookeville in late 2020. JD had sent out a request in his newsletter asking for a church to buy a sound system for their new building (24/7 Church). As soon as I read that, I knew that Cookeville FWB needed to do that. Over the years, I had worked up a side business installing sound systems for churches, so this was a perfect opportunity. The deacon board approved the purchase, and some men from the church went with me to install it. During that time, I got to know Chad and we stayed connected in various ways through the next couple of years. I would go to various FWB state sponsored events at 24/7 Church as well as cookouts and events where I would go sing and play music. 

Meanwhile, in November 2022, Lacey and I were able to take a short trip to Colorado for a few days. I was originally scheduled to go on an elk hunt with my friend Ethan, but due to the tragic loss of his daughter, our trip had to be rescheduled. When we arrived we were awestruck. We had never seen anything so beautiful and we were amazed at every turn. We also noticed that there were not many churches, but I didn’t think too much about it. We thought the west was neat, but we were happy at CFWBC. 

One day towards the end of 2022, I received a text from Chad Kivette about coming to a pastor’s retreat that he was having. On the last morning after breakfast, I went out on the balcony and was telling his associate pastor, Marcus Stephens, how much I had enjoyed Colorado. He asked me if I was interested in being an assistant pastor in Colorado and I told him that I wasn’t looking to go anywhere. However, I did ask him some questions about how church planting and fundraising worked. On the way home, Lacey and I discussed how neat it would be to start a church in Colorado. Over the next couple of months, I researched some cities in Colorado as well as the churches that already existed there. I even called Chad and asked him about church planting. Church planting was something that Lacey and I felt drawn to, but we talked about how we would like to be a part of that some day in the future (after our kids were grown).

Since then I have taken two RV trips out west. One in the summer of 2023 and one in the summer of 2024. The more that I go the more I feel drawn to the western United States. As we researched the route for our 2024 trip, it occurred to Lacey and me that we would be passing through Missoula, Montana (where The Hamptons planted a church). I decided to reach out to Josh and see if he would be able to meet us for breakfast on the day that we came through. He obliged, and we met and had a good breakfast. I told him how much I enjoyed the west and he said that he felt that I would be “out here” eventually. We parted ways and I didn’t think too much about what he said until I got home.

From June on, the words that Josh Hampton said to me kept echoing in my mind. Church planting went from a far off idea to what seemed to be a reality. On September 7th, I was at the Refresh Conference at 24/7 Church and David Crowe (the director of North American Ministries) was sitting across the aisle from me. I had some church matters I wanted to discuss with him, so I asked him if we could meet the following week. He told me to come to his office the following Monday. We discussed the church matters and then I decided to tell him about my recent thoughts and feelings about the call to church planting.

It was at that exact time he and Brad Ransom (Church Planting director) had received an email from the Hamptons about the desire to build a network of churches in Montana. A network of churches would help planters encourage and sustain each other long-term. This was an amazing example of how God was working in my life as well as through the current church planters in Montana.

Montana is a state of one million people with only one nationally associated Free Will Baptist Church in the entire state. Lacey and I have felt drawn to this region since hearing from and supporting the Hamptons in 2019. We had no idea at the time that God would be calling us to plant a church in the same region 5 years later. Summit Church is located in Missoula, MT which is three hours away from our target area of Bozeman. Although we are sad to leave our current ministries, we feel assured that God has called us to serve Him in a different capacity and are excited to follow His lead.