Albany Baptist Church
Albany Baptist Church
The most important thing to know about Justin is that he was saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as a young child. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, and was guided towards his early knowledge of Jesus by his parents and godly leaders in a children’s program at a local church. As he grew in spiritual maturity, Justin sensed a call to ministry in his young teen years. Through a caring and supportive local church, Justin began to take a leadership role in ministry in the mid 90’s. This led to considerable experience in children’s, youth, and college ministries in his early years.
As a college student, Justin led a campus ministry at a local college of four thousand students. His first associate pastoral call after completing Bible college was in 2005 in a small town in NW Pennsylvania, where he also completed his graduate studies and got married to his wife Julie in 2006. Justin filled the pulpit nearly every week at a church that had three preaching services per Sunday.
As his gifts grew, so did his calling - and as a young married couple, Justin (and Julie as a wonderful supporter in ministry) followed God’s leading to serve in churches for the next 20 years in the metro areas of Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Akron, and Tulsa - where they have lived from 2015 - 2026. Justin has been on the senior staff team at churches from 150 to 1200. With the larger size of these congregations, Justin was blessed to lead church staff teams of 15-25 staff, while seasonal staff often increased those team numbers to over 70 people at times.
The Lord has provided the opportunity to work in the marketplace alongside ministry, which was a part of his early ministry calling to serve wherever the Lord would call, including opportunities for “tentmaking”. This experience opened doors to gain experience in local government operations, corporate management, real estate, and executive consulting. These opportunities built bridges for Gospel relationships that yield fruit to this day. For the last nine years, he and Julie have operated their own real estate team in Tulsa, providing them with an opportunity to connect with hundreds of families and build evangelistic relationships that have led to people following Jesus in new and deeper ways.
Having been blessed with some amazing mentors over the years, Justin has sat in the shadow of godly men who have active radio preaching ministries, published Biblical commentaries, and written numerous Christian books. He was also personally mentored by an associate of Billy Graham, giving him a passion to reach the lost. Justin’s work has also included serving on the board of a discipleship network of 120 churches, speaking at conferences and Christian camps, and coaching and consulting other pastors and ministry leaders.
Justin & Julie have been married for 20 years. Julie is a Pastor’s Kid (PK) and a Missionary Kid (MK) who spent her entire childhood in a ministry environment, including 10 years on the mission field in France. She most recently has worked full-time running the family's real estate team and has a passion for Women’s Ministries and Hospitality. Justin & Julie have two teenage boys, and they lost track of how many pets years ago.
