Thank you for checking me out

I am the pastor of the South Strand Community Church.  Starting a new church has been a dream and passion of mine for several years.  God saved me in 1987 at the age of 24.  Soon afterwards, I sensed God calling me into vocational Christian ministry and attended Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University).  I graduated with Bachelor of Arts from there in 1993.  During my time in college, I also served as youth pastor at Three Rivers Baptist Church in Irmo, SC.  It was also during this time that God began planting a seed in my heart of a vision for starting a new church somewhere.  

Soon after graduation God called me here to Surfside Beach as the Minister of Youth and Education at First Baptist Church.  I served there for two years.  It was here, at the beach, where God really gave me a conviction about the need for new churches, anywhere in general, but the South Strand part of the Grand Strand specifically.

Soon afterward, I believed that God was leading me to continue my education, so I moved my family to Wake Forest, NC to attend Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I received my Master of Divinity in May 1999.  During seminary God had continued to build in me the desire to plant a church somewhere.  I wrestled about the place, but it always seemed that he was pointing me back to the beach.  Upon graduation, nearly all of my seminary buddies were seeking pastorates in established churches. God was calling me to the South Strand.

In January 2000, we moved back to Surfside Beach to begin working on this new work.  I started recruiting and developing core group by leading a Bible study in our home.  We met for over a year before God opened a way for us to move into our current location in Lorraine Plaza in Surfside Beach.

The South Strand Community Church will be autonomous and will maintain the right to govern its own affairs under the lordship of Jesus Christ.  However, we do recognize the benefits of cooperating with other churches in world and local missions.  Therefore, the South Strand Community Church voluntarily and joyfully affiliates with the Southern Baptist Convention, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and the Waccamaw Baptist Association.  We support the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention as a means to extend the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world.