As many of you know, we moved from Durham, North Carolina, to Longville, Louisiana, back in December 2019. During our time in Longville, I served as the Associate Pastor of First Baptist Church Longville. We also welcomed sweet Eliza Jane into our family, met some incredible brothers and sisters in Christ, and served the Lord in various capacities. However, due to my aspirations of becoming a senior pastor, we knew our time at FBC Longville would be short-lived.

In January 2023, I began the process of slowly and prayerfully applying for senior pastorate positions. Because I was not in a huge hurry, I only submitted my resume to three different churches, all of which seemed like desirable places to hunker down and do ministry.

One of the places I applied for was First Baptist Church Jackson. FBC Jackson is a rural Southern Baptist Church in the quaint town of Jackson, Alabama. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Alabama, Jackson is about an hour north of Mobile—where I spent the first twenty-three years of my life. If I’m being honest, and Kahlie would concur, I did not really expect to hear anything back from this church. Not many churches desire to hire a thirty-two year old with zero years of experience as a senior pastor! (Here are some pictures of FBC Jackson.)

Surprisingly, the chairman of FBC Jackson’s search committee contacted me in July 2023 to inform me that I was one of their top three candidates—they also let me know that I was the youngest candidate. I was just grateful they were willing to give me an opportunity to interview for the position. After a series of mutually edifying video and face-to-face interviews, the search committee moved forward with presenting me and my family to the congregation—Kahlie is my greatest selling point, so I kept her by my side at everything!

Then, on November 12, 2023, I preached in view of a call from 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Afterwards, a large majority of the congregation voted to call me as their next senior pastor. I thanked God for giving me favor in the eyes of the congregation, and I joyfully accepted the call to shepherd the people of God who make up FBC Jackson. (Here are some pictures of our last night at FBC Longville. . . they spoiled us!)

At this point, Kahlie was about seven months pregnant, so we needed to quickly move to Jackson, Alabama, in order to establish care with an OBGYN. With that said, we packed up our belongings, loaded up a couple of trailers, and moved to Jackson on December 7, 2023. By December 24, I was preaching and teaching regularly.

In God’s grace, we welcomed Owen James McDuffie into the world on January 15. And he’s been along for the ride ever since!

We want to give a heartfelt thanks to all who have prayed for us during this time of transition. And for those who were not aware of the changes happening in our lives, consider this your official invitation to pray for us regularly as we seek to serve the Lord in Jackson. Our desire is to magnify Christ in all that we do. We truly believe the prayers of God’s people will be essential to our fruitfulness.