I personally feel like my story is a simple one. Nothing special or mind blowing about it. I guess, if you had to sum it up in one word, my story is pretty…ordinary.

In the summer of 1998 I was getting ready to enter into 5th grade. My best friend grew up across the street from me. I loved baseball, swimming in our pool, and fishing with my dad. Up to this point, the idea of going to Church was something that was for special occasions, like Easter and Christmas. But, in the summer of 1998 change came to the McPherson household. My mom retired from the company she had been working for, and with that decision came the other decision for our family to start going to Church every Sunday. While it took a little bit to get used the idea of Sundays no longer being a day for sleeping in, the fun and joy I found going to Church made the lack of sleep Worth it.

It wasn’t long after we started attending a Church on the Eastside of Albuquerque that my parents find out that the Church was planning on launching a location on the Westside, where we lived. Our family began attending interest meetings, and the next thing I knew, in January 1999, I was getting up with my dad early in the morning to help pull carts off of trailers to set up a Church in an elementary school cafeteria. It was at this little Church plant, serving alongside some amazing people of God, that I came to really know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. By early 2000, I gave my life to Jesus, and was baptized that following Summer.

Now, here’s the thing you need to know about being on a journey with Jesus, and it’s just that, it’s a journey, not a destination. And, just like in every great journey, there are some mountain top experiences and some dark valley lows. To say I journeyed perfectly with Jesus from that time on in early 2000 would be a bit of an overstatement. While I would never say I got crazy and out of control with my life, I definitely had some moments that was not very “Christian” of me. But, there is something really important I learned about Jesus during that rebellious time, and it was this. No matter how many steps I felt I’d taken away from Jesus, even when I felt like I had ran a million miles away from Him, Jesus was always one step back the other direction away from me. Even through the crazy decisions I had made, Jesus stuck by me through it all. I learned that the Bible is true what it says about Jesus, He will never leave you or forsake you.

Because of this, my love and relationship with Jesus was reignited and God began to reveal to me the great plan He had in mind for my life. I began volunteering in the youth ministry that I grew up in, serving along side long-time friends, and great spiritual mentors. That eventually turned into an internship with the Church, and support from them to go back to school to get my degree in Biblical and Theological Studies. Along the way, I met my wife, and we have been serving the Lord together for over 10 years.

In 2014 I got my first position working as a youth pastor in Conifer, CO. The fact that the Senior pastor saw something in me, an ordinary kid, barely out of College, just trying to get his foot in the door, is something I will always be thankful for. Since then, God has grown our family, and my wife and I have been around the country serving in Churches in many different capacities, ranging from youth ministry all the way up to blazing the trail for the Church in Virtual reality and other Metaverse spaces. If you really want to know what my story is all about, it’s pretty simple, it’s about being open to whatever God wants to do with me and through me, and it’s all for the sake of knowing Jesus and making Jesus known. It’s fun to see what an extraordinary God can do with ordinary people.