Healing Through Serving

Serving in ministries put us around leaders who discipled us and brought healing to our marriage, changing the trajectory of our family forever.

Brian: I was raised by a loving single mom in Richardson who cared well for my sister and me after my dad had died when I was just seven months old. Being raised in a home without a dad led to the struggles you’d imagine: trying to find my identity in achievement and status, as well as pursuing pleasure and acceptance. By the time I was 16, I was a couple of years into partying with one group of friends, yet, there was another group of faithful friends from a local church who were pursuing me and sharing Christ with me. By God’s grace in my sophomore year at Pearce High School, he opened my heart to understand the truth of the gospel—that even though I was lost in my sin and brokenness, I came to know and believe that a perfect and present Father loves me and had made atonement for my sin through Jesus’ death. He had even made me an adopted son. I placed my full trust in Christ just over 25 years ago, and my life began to change as I repented from sin.

Life transformation is typically not quick, however, especially in the absence of steady biblical discipleship and community. So, although I began to read and love God’s Word and be involved in ministry over the next 10 years, many of my early sin patterns continued as I struggled to believe that God had something better for me than what the world offers. As God often does, He used the refinement of marriage—and the patience and grace of Morgan—to begin to chip away at the selfishness and isolation that marked my leadership in our early marriage.

When we became members at Watermark in 2008, the power of Christ began to transform me through His means of discipleship and community. I learned for the first time that full devotion to Christ is normative for every believer, and I saw that lived out in men who prioritized time with their family over achievement in business, and other leaders and elders who chose to invest their spare time in the church to shepherd people rather than in more leisure. I had never seen this before. Serving in ministries put us around leaders who discipled us, and Christ grew our marriage, changing the trajectory of our family forever.

I now see my primary job is to walk deeply with Christ, and this enables me to lead my wife, disciple my kids, and serve in ministry. I can’t do this alone. None of us are supposed to. I have a faithful community around me to spur me on, admonish me, and help me when I’m weak. I have found joy in giving my life away for the sake of the gospel in ministry.

“Jesus said in Luke 9:23, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”

Morgan: I grew up in Plano, and my family regularly attended a church where I learned the importance of reading my Bible, of prayer, and of having a personal relationship with God. I rode the coattails of my family’s faith until I was around 12 years old, when deep social insecurity plagued me, and I began to despair. I remember thinking, this is when I’m supposed to call on God. I did, and in a moment I’ll never forget, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was there and He was near.

As I grew into my teen years, I started to wonder about truth—what makes Christianity right? After all, I thought, if I had been born into a Muslim or Mormon home, I’d be devoting myself to those theologies. So I began to read books like C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and Josh McDowell’s A Ready Defense, and after wrestling with the ideas in these books, I knew that if Jesus really did exist, die on a cross, and rise from the dead, and He really is who He says He is, the implications for my life were enormous.

I didn’t have much discipleship while I was in high school, and I did not struggle well with sin. But the Spirit was still at work. When I was 18, I hit a point where I knew I couldn’t be lukewarm or waffly anymore—Jesus doesn’t give us that option. I stepped out in faith, renounced the sin I’d been engaged in, trusted the Lord was worth following, and went all-in. It was the biggest leap of faith I’d ever taken, and my heart was filled with joy in the Lord.

Soon after I met the most mature, kind 20-year-old boy whose relationship with God was the most important part of his life, and we were married two years later.

“Brian’s grace and love have been a source of healing and strength in my life, and even though we have struggled in some areas at times, my marriage has truly been the safest and easiest relationship in my life.”

Spiritual conversations and relationships were things I deeply craved, and when we started attending Watermark in 2004, it felt like we were finally around an army of like-minded believers who also desired full devotion. The authenticity I saw from leadership down to our community blew me away—I’d heard plenty of good sermons in my life but never ones so real and right to the heart and then lived out amongst the body. I was spurred on to continually confess the sin in my heart and make room for the Lord to reign over every aspect of my life. We have gone through hard things in community, but knowing others and being known not only in community but through other ministries has made this my home. Running the race side-by-side with believers I’ve known for years now has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.