The Launch Team

The most amazing group of down-to-earth, Jesus-loving, people-loving, Kingdom-minded, servant-hearted people I know.   To God be the glory! We are stepping out from comfort, convenience, and loving churches to faithfully walk out into the deep, following Jesus and locking arms together. We want lives that matter for eternity, and we want to see people have the same New Life we have been given. We want all people to know God's love and grace given to us through Jesus and to be connected to Jesus' church family.

Saved by Grace through Faith at 20 yrs old

Baptized and Called weeks later

Served as a student pastor at Bay Leaf Baptist, Raleigh, NC, and at Englewood Baptist, Rocky Mt, NC

MDIV, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary 2000

Lead Pastor/Church planter, West End Baptist

NAMB Missionary

IMB Missionary to Central Asia

Missions, Leadership Development, & Small Groups Pastor, Parkway Moseley

Church Planting Lead Pastor, New Life Church Powhatan 

 Let His Kingdom come, and His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven! God is moving and we are following his lead to plant a new church in Powhatan Virginia. This is a new work to us, but it is the old story of our Sovereign God advancing His Kingdom through the church. 

The Story for a Near Culture Church Plant 

When I was 20 years old and life was spinning out of control, God saved my soul and put me on a path of loving and serving Him. It became clear that my exit from the Marine Corps was the pathway to serving in the plans the Lord had for me. As Ephesians 2:8-10 teaches us, I was saved by grace through faith to walk in the plans that He had prepared beforehand for me to walk in. I was baptized about 2 weeks after salvation, and God showed me my life was His to be used in whatever way He leads. I was blessed to be discipled and was quickly given opportunities to share my faith, lead, teach, preach, and shepherd others. I didn’t fully understand, but it was evident that God had given me a new life to be a Pastor / Preacher / Shepherd / Teacher with a missionary heart. 

In 2001, after several years serving in North Carolina at Bay Leaf Baptist and Englewood Baptist in student ministries, God called Megan and I to plant West End Baptist Church in Henrico, VA. God gave us the simple vision for church: loving God, loving people, and making disciples. The West End was a “close culture” to us because we spoke the same language, but we were still in many ways cross cultural from how we had grown up. After 11 years with our West End Church Family, God moved us again to serve and engage, but this time in a “far culture.” We moved to Kazakhstan in 2012 to work with and lead an IMB church planting team. Our call was to engage those who had never been told of Him. (Rom 15:14-21) While serving there we came alongside one of the Father’s small, fledgling, churches where I was again called to pastor, teach, lead, and shepherd. 

In 2020, God brought us into fellowship with Parkway Baptist, Moseley, VA, where I have been serving for the past 4 1/2 years. 

Parkway has been a great place for us to serve while we have renewed & refreshed with the body of Christ. Praise God for the body of Christ! We love Parkway & see God’s kindness and sovereign plans in uniting us with a loving and missional church. It no accident that God brough us to serve with a church that loves sending out laborers into the harvest fields through church planting. (Lk 10:02) 

In this season of serving with the Parkway Family, God has given us His vision & call to partner & push forward again, to be sent out from Parkway with a launch team, and to plant New Life Church Powhatan in a “near culture” people. Powhatan is the next county over from where Parkway resides and is in the growth corridor of Hwy 60. The county is projected to grow by 20-25% over the next 5 years with a 10-year projection of over 50% growth. There are simply not enough God-loving, Bible-teaching, evangelical, missions minded churches in Powhatan for the current and future population. 

These are the plans the Lord has for us along with a launch team of nearly 45 adults gathered from Parkway and Powhatan. God has made me a lead Shepherd, Preacher, Leader, Teacher with a heart to raise up and send out. We have served in “close cultures,” “far cultures,” and now we believe God is leading us to plant a new church in a “near culture,” Powhatan, VA. God has affirmed this in so many ways with the Holy Spirit’s leading, multiple Scriptures including the book of Ezekiel, with a united Parkway pastoral team, with SBCV leadership affirmation, and with a now 45+ gathered called out ones forming the New Life Church launch team.