Evan’s Story

Growing up in Michigan, Evan’s family was a “once-a-month” church family. He had some knowledge of Christianity but no real example of what a gospel-centered life looked like. As Evan grew older, his father’s interest in church waned and Evan was content to follow. After Evan left home, he tried to find fulfillment and satisfaction in whatever the world had to offer. He landed a high paying job and started making more money than he needed. But he found it did not satisfy as promised. In fact, nothing the world offered could provide the meaning and fulfillment he sought.

It was after high school that Evan started attending a small church where the gospel message finally came alive to him. He trusted in Christ and received Him as Lord and Savior. An older man in church began to mentor Evan and intentionally spend time discipling him.

Evan was growing in his faith as he was determining what career path he was going to pursue. When his friends asked him what he wanted to do with his life, Evan said “I just want to tell people about Jesus.” They asked if he had ever thought about going into ministry. For the first time, he began to seriously consider full-time ministry.

This led him to attend Boyce College, the undergraduate school associated with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). While studying at SBTS, Evan met Elizabeth. After they got married, Elizabeth worked as a project manager while Evan finished his degree, a Bachelor of Biblical and Theological Studies with an emphasis on Missions. He is currently pursuing his MDiv online through SBTS.

Family Ministry Goals

“As a family, our goal from early on was to be on the mission field overseas. But every time we pursued an overseas opportunity, doors were closed. Although we would still love to serve on the mission field, we can see God’s hand leading us where we needed to be all along the way.” Eventually they decided they should start looking for a full-time ministry position. After sending over 100 resumes Evan received a call to be the Associate Pastor and Director of Youth at Immanuel Baptist Church in Bethany, Missouri. Evan served in that role for 5 years and saw a lot of fruit and a thriving youth ministry.

For the last few years, Evan felt the desire to provide more leadership as a pastor for a church so he started the process of looking for a new ministry position. Evan interviewed with Cornerstone Baptist Church in Ankeny in late January. Then on Sunday, March 1st, Evan travelled to Ankeny to preach in view of a call. In the weeks that followed, the coronavirus pandemic hit Iowa. Initially there was concern that it may hinder the transition but everything has been relatively smooth given the unusual circumstances. “The church family at Cornerstone Baptist has been very warm and welcoming in helping us get settled into Ankeny.”

Vision for Ministry

“Our vision is simply for the church to be a gospel beacon in the Ankeny community. The first thing we want to do is to get to know the people of our church family and get to know the Ankeny community.” Evan said his desire as pastor is to faithfully proclaim the Word of God and raise up disciples who will do the same. “The ultimate goal of any believer is to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ wherever they happen to be. That’s how it was modeled to me as a young man as I was discipled by an older believer. And that’s what I want to do in my ministry here at Cornerstone Baptist.”