Tyler and Taylor French

Hi! I’m Tyler French, and this is my wife, Taylor. We’ve been members here since 2017. We’ll be married 8 years tomorrow, and we have two kids - Piper and Knox. Our story begins 18 years ago in California as a freshman and sophomore in high school. We met in a summer school algebra class, where Taylor was taking it to get ahead,d and I was hoping to pass it on the third try. Luckily, this meant we would be in the same math class for the next three years, and that was where my love for Taylor started. Unfortunately, one of the guys on my soccer team beat me to the punch and asked her out before I could, and they dated for 3 years. By God’s grace, we stayed friends and eventually started dating in college. Soon after,r though, I accepted a firefighting job in Texas. After a year and a half of long distance, we got married, and Taylor moved to Texas.

I grew up in church, and youth group was a huge part of my life. I often wonder how different my life would look if I didn’t have those leaders guiding me through my formative years. After I graduated high school my dad advised me that I needed a place to serve and that maybe it was my turn to invest in the next generation like my leaders had done for me. I quickly found a love for students as I served as a youth group leader at the church I grew up in and Taylor jumped in after I moved to Texas. One Sunday here at CityBridge, we met a couple at a meet and greet, and they invited us over for a BBQ the next weekend. There, we met the Student’s pastor, who was in need of some leaders. He jokingly asked, “You guys wanna serve in students?” and we both answered, “Yes!” We were looking for somewhere to serve together, and we knew this was the perfect fit.

We jumped into leading 6th-grade groups serving Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. We were able to attend events together like fall retreats at Sky Ranch, staying up late at D Towns and City Limits, and serving Collin County with Plano Experience, explaining to kids why showers were necessary and trying to squeeze in gospel conversations between games. of Farkle. One year I was especially happy to have Tyler around at DTown after I backed into my host home’s mailbox and exploded bricks all over their street. I drove my group to church and beelined it to where he was and cried out of embarrassment. Even through all the chaos, we joke that working with students kept us young and inflated our egos when we beat them in Spikeball or a footrace. We’re only a year out since graduation, and we’re already lost on all the lingo.

Serving together as students have blessed our marriage throughout the years in so many ways. When we first moved out here, my biggest fear was not making friends like we had back in California. Since Tyler had been here longe,r I thought all my friends would just have to be his friends. We didn't have any family here, and it was easy to feel lonely. But God gave us such a great community through serving together. We were blessed with great co-leaders who became friends and even a community for a while. Staff and residents became fast friends that we looked forward to seeing every week. The best part about serving together was we were able to meet people together and they became OUR friends, not just mine or his, so it gave us more opportunities to hang out together and have social lives that overlapped. Even logistically, it was great having the same schedule for meetings, retreats, and weekly serving routines. After having kids, the drives to small groups felt like mini date nights.

There are a lot of challenges that come with serving with junior high and high school students, but the hard times were so worth it for how God helped us grow, and because we were in it together it strengthened our marriage at the same time. We watched baptisms, had conversations about dating, walked with kids through divorce, and talked through depression, anxiety, and self-harm. Every time, the Holy Spirit provided the words and helped us trust in God’s strength and not in our own. Our time serving together opened up lots of conversations for us to encourage each other, challenge each other, and wrestle through theology.

When we first started, we were newlyweds stumbling through our first year of marriage, and our students were tiny little 6th graders, now we’ve got two kids, and they’re in college! They watched us grow up as we watched them, and they quickly became a part of our lives. They felt like an extension of our little family and their parents welcomed us into theirs. We experienced the joys of our first baby, the heartbreak of miscarriages, and all the in-between moments of life surrounded by staff, families, and co-leaders who loved us well. We were also really lucky to be around amazing families that we looked up to while they handled parenting teenagers.

I feel particularly lucky to have the group of boys that I had. Since the beginning, I thought they were the best group of guys. They were so strong in their faith and continued to invite friends to small group even through senior year. We would have up to 18 boys on a Wednesday night - which is almost unheard of for a senior group. Usually, numbers dwindle as they get older, but ours only strengthened. My boys became my friends. I went to their sports games, we went hunting, and I still make time to see them when they visit on breaks. Taylor still talks to her girls even though they’re spread out over multiple states, and some even babysit for us!

As we look back on the journey of serving students together for the past 7 years - watching them go off to college and remember how much they’ve grown and how much we’ve grown I can't help but be incredibly thankful for the opportunity God gave us in the midst of my fear of the unknown. Telling kids about how much Jesus loves them every week and getting to have deep relationships with our students has been the joy of our lives. We would highly recommend married couples to seek a spot to serve where you can do it together (with a shameless plug for student ministries). See how God can use both of you, working shoulder to shoulder-for His kingdom. Thanks for letting us share!