How Serving God's House Changed My Life

Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 92:13

It was never my intent or desire to be a pastor. At the time I thought, Who in their right mind would want to be a pastor and deal with people’s problems all the time? 

In fact, I resisted God’s call to full-time ministry for a long time. I was a very successful football coach, first at the high school level and then at the college level. During that time, Donna and I served the Lord and led people at our local church for over 15 years. 

But it wasn’t until I was 38 years old that God changed my whole perspective. At that time, I was ready to step into another dimension of my football career. Instead, Donna and I had this wonderful encounter with the Lord on our last day in Israel in 1983—that’s when I had the desire and felt there was something more God had for us in the Kingdom. 

And then suddenly, the lure and attractiveness of staying in my coaching faded, and wanting to honor God became more of a burning desire in our hearts. That’s when we were open to ministry.

When we got back, we gathered several godly people around us to fast and pray for months. Then we made a decision to step out in faith and launched Christ Fellowship in April 1984 in our living room with 40 people. 

How God Directed My Steps

To give you some context of how God took me from serving in the church to starting one, let’s rewind a bit to how I got here. 

I come from a line of ministers in my family. My grandfather was my pastor, so I was very involved at my church. I even preached my first sermon at 16—which was the year I met Donna. She told me, “I sensed God when you were preaching that first sermon! I knew there was something special in you, even though we went down this athletic path for a long time, I just kinda knew you were going to head this way.” 

Now, Donna and I have always served the local church—that was something we had in common before we were married. In fact, I fell madly in love with Donna after seeing how she served her church. But I didn’t know God was using all of this to prepare us. 

Because we were committed to the local church, we served the church wherever we were. While coaching football at Palm Beach Gardens High School from 1970-1973, we served at Church in the Gardens. (One year, we did a special outreach for students by hosting a Gospel Rock Festival.) 

Then, when I took a coaching job at Georgetown from 1973-1978, we continued to serve the local church. During those five years, we were serving, and doing interim pastor work for churches. I had no idea that was all of our preparation for Christ Fellowship. I had no clue what God was doing! 

How God Called Me

At age 38, when I was the athletic director at Palm Beach State College, I had a sense that there was something more God had for us. While in Israel, He opened our eyes to see the depth of His sacrifice for us like we had never known before. Though I’d given my heart to Jesus as a child and grown up trying to serve the Lord, this was something that took me to a new depth of understanding. It broke my heart—He had done so much for us, what were we willing to do for Him? 

That encounter in Israel changed us. Donna and I embraced each other in the hotel room and prayed together: “Lord, you have us. Whatever you want, 100% you’ve got us.” That was the turning point, and months later, Christ Fellowship was birthed.

I soon gave my one-year notice to the college president, and we lived off our savings for the first several years at Christ Fellowship. We didn’t know how to start a church, but we had a simple goal: We want to love God with all of our hearts and love people at their point of need. 

A few months later, we outgrew our living room of 40 people and leased a cafetorium at Grove Park Elementary School, where we stayed for seven years with about 70-80 people. In my eyes, we were a complete failure, so I asked God what was going on and why couldn’t we break out of that number. I felt like we weren’t accomplishing all God wanted to do. He had previously given me instant victory and success as a football coach, but things were completely different when I became a full-time pastor.

It was my wilderness experience, where God was doing a lot to refine me. It was like God was saying, “Can I trust you with what you have? Are you going to be trustworthy?” 

During prayer one day, I came to a point where I said, “Lord, if we’re here to touch one life that will go out and touch the world for you, then I want to be found faithful with my assignment. I want to be faithful.” After that, it seems like things started to break loose. We started to grow and got our first property on Northlake. We grew to 4,000 people within a couple of years. 

How God Can Use You 

Having grown up in the church, serving others has always been relevant to my life. It’s about honoring God and honoring other people. My grandfather pastored me well—he taught me how to love God and to love the Church. It’s why I preached my first sermon at age 16, led worship at 17, and why I’d been serving my local church all those years leading up to founding Christ Fellowship in 1984. 

You may be wondering how God can use you too. If you faithfully and obediently serve others, He will use you to build His Kingdom. It’s about opening your hands before the Lord and keeping them open. As Christians, our goal should be to serve God by serving others. Then, one day, He may tell you, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” 

To hear more of Coach Tom’s story, check out this Young & Adulting Podcast episode, What I Wish I Knew…About Failure and Success.

More Heart for the House Series Resources