My wife, Lauren, and I were introduced to CFC in the Summer of 2010 when we (and our 4-year-old son) were invited to a Power Up Club. We visited CFC the following Sunday and immediately knew this could be a place that we could call home and grow in our faith.
From as early an age as I can remember, I attended church every week with my family. At the age of 12 I placed my faith in Jesus at a Christian concert where I fully understood my need for a Savior and responded to the invitation to believe in Jesus. I have always been drawn to music, and I look back on that night as the first time I realized the power of communicating gospel truth through music in a way that stirs the soul. When I was 13, I learned how to play a few chords on the guitar at a Christian camp and was hooked! From that point on, performing music was a major part of my life. In high school my friend and I formed a band and we played music together for over 12 years, writing, recording, and touring together.
I graduated from the University of Florida in 2001, and throughout this time, I slowly found myself not walking with the Lord on a consistent basis. It was there that I met Lauren and we eventually got married and started a family. We moved to Jacksonville in 2005 and I continued to perform music for a living. We were very happy with our life together. However, we can both look back now and see that what we were missing in our marriage and our parenting was a biblical foundation centered around Jesus Christ.
This is why we are so grateful for that invitation to CFC in 2010 – we found a family of believers who cared for us, poured into us, taught us what it means to be ‘in Christ’ and walked alongside us as we both grew in our faith. What began for each of us with our salvation as teenagers (she believed in Jesus at a Christian concert too!) finally started to grow roots – learning to trust the Lord and seeing more spiritual fruit in our marriage, our work and our parenting.
As I volunteered on the worship team, the Lord started decreasing my satisfaction in pursuing secular music and increased my joy for serving Him through music. What a relief to stop making me the point and start pointing others to the one who truly IS the point!
I was asked to join the CFC staff as Worship Pastor in 2015 and love serving in this role with like-minded, servant-hearted, gifted musicians and tech volunteers. I’m also thankful that our Elders encourage us to write original songs for and from our congregation. It’s our goal as a worship ministry every week to Remember, Retell and Respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lauren serves in the Kids Ministry each week and serves as our Operation Christmas Child Coordinator. Our son, Cooper is currently college age and in Bible School, while our daughter Abby is thriving in our high school ministry. We are grateful each day for our CFC family!
Staff Chat
Get to know Matt through his interview on our staff podcast, Staff Chat!