A New Call

22 years ago, on September 19, 2000, I pulled into the parking lot of Truro Church in Fairfax, VA, riding shotgun in the moving truck that my dad was driving, to move my family and me up from Florida. My dad had accepted a position as an associate rector (i.e. associate pastor) at Truro, and so I found myself uprooted from all that was familiar, and thrown into the deep end of life in Northern Virginia.

I stayed at Truro while I finished high school and began college, and got involved in ministry there as much as I could (worship, kids, youth, etc.). I also met and began dating Catherine – the daughter of the other associate rector at the time – and eventually would marry her!

In my junior year of college I left Truro and joined the staff of The Falls Church Anglican, where I served in ministry for ten years. While there, I began to discern that God was calling me to be ordained, and so I began taking seminary classes on the side, while balancing a full-time ministry position and a growing family.

Eventually, in 2014, to my surprise and delight, God called me back to Truro as Director of Worship and Arts. A lot had changed there since Catherine and I had met as preacher’s kids, and yet we still really loved the place and the people. And over the next eight years, while Truro went through several difficult seasons (plus a pandemic), and while I finished seminary and was ordained into the Anglican Church of North America, we always knew in our hearts that God was telling us to stay.

Now we know why he was telling us to stay…

I’m overjoyed to have accepted the call to serve as Truro’s new rector (i.e. senior pastor). And in God’s providence, my first “official” day was September 19, 2022. A lot has happened in those 22 years since I arrived in the moving truck, and as I look back on God’s faithfulness through it all, I’m full of gratefulness that he would give my family and me the opportunity to serve him and his people at this church that we love.

I would be grateful for your prayers as I begin this new role, especially this week and next as I’m taking time to pray and prepare.

Below is the text of the letter I wrote to Truro last month, after this news was announced to the congregation