More About
A.J.

     I was born and raised in a church planter’s home in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Because of my parents(Kent and Julie York) influence on my life from the very beginning, there hasn’t been a period in my entire life that I have not been involved in a church setting. I had heard the Gospel many times very early in life and I remember asking my mom one morning when I was 5 years old what it meant to be saved. She promptly opened the Bible and began to show me from Romans and John what I must do to be saved, but it wasn’t until that evening while attending the Wednesday prayer meeting that the Spirit of God convicted me of a need to be saved. It was in October of 1986 that my father knelt with me and showed me the Romans Road again. I carefully read the verses and knew what my life truly deserved but also understood that God had given me a precious gift of life eternal through Jesus Christ. I called upon the Lord to save me and He did, cause He’s not a liar! He has forever changed my eternity. I followed in believer’s baptism a couple weeks later on a Sunday morning.

    Growing up my father instilled in us to always be serving in some capacity in a local church. We don’t just sit around in a church, we are the church, and we are ambassadors of the Gospel and we are to be doing the work of the ministry. I have tried to fulfill this everywhere that I have lived.

    11 years later at Lake Texoma Baptist Youth camp, I surrendered to full-time ministry. We had a missionary in one of the morning sessions that was preaching on surrendering to the Lord’s call of ministry. I remember kneeling at the old camp altar and asking God that if He would have me, I would be a willing vessel for Him to use.

    My father was my pastor for much of my life until the summer of 1999 when he went into full-time evangelism. I served as a lay person at Temple Baptist Church in Springdale, Arkansas under Don Elmore and at Bible Baptist Church in Chickasha, Oklahoma under Kim Hayes.

    I met my wife, Brooke, as a counselor at Lake Texoma Baptist Youth Camp in 2001. We began dating later that year and we were married on June 28, 2003. She has had the same mindset when it comes to being a servant of God. She is always willing to serve in whatever capacity she is needed. We have developed the slogan in our house and in the ministries we have been involved in of “faithful and flexible”. Faithful to the Lord in all things and flexible to adjust when He changes our plans.

    While attending Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri I served and interned at Graceway Baptist Church, pastored by Bob Stephenson. Brooke and I served together in the worship ministry and I taught the children’s church on Sundays. Then in 2008, Brooke and I moved to Yukon, Oklahoma for my first full-time ministry position at Bethel Baptist Church, whose pastor at the time was Bob Thompson. I served as the Youth pastor initially, but then would eventually expand to Worship and Children’s ministries. The Lord moved us in 2014 to Lighthouse Baptist Church with Dr. Keith Gillming where I served as the Worship Pastor. 1 year later we moved back to Springfield, MO to serve as the Campus Pastor of Baptist Bible College under President Mark Milioni. We attended Graceway Baptist once again while on staff at the College. We served on the worship team and I taught a Life Group class during our time there.

    

       In the beginning stages of adopting our first son, Solomon, Dr. Rick Carter approached me about coming to Gulfport, Mississippi to serve on the staff at Bible Baptist Church. When we finalized our adoption process in October of 2016, we moved to Gulfport. Since that time I have served in the capacity of Worship, Family Life and Discipleship Pastor. In early 2019 we adopted our second son and biological half-brother to Solomon, Thomas. I also was able to be there through the Lead Pastor transition from Dr. Carter to Pastor Mike Spann. We served there until August of 2024 when we moved to Taylor, Michigan to begin the process of planting a new church in the Ann Arbor area.