SAM STEPHENS
Sam serves Liberty Baptist Church as a Lay Pastor
Sam was raised in a Christian home where the Bible was always taught, and the church of his youth was one in which the biblical gospel was preached. At the age of nine, Sam made a genuine profession of Christ with his dad as his witness and guide. Sam was baptized soon afterward. Even though he was young at the time of salvation, Sam was distinctly aware that his sin was enough to earn God’s wrath and judgment. Since the time of his salvation, he has continued to grow in a desire for holiness. For a season there was spiritual stagnation, but that began to change when he first started college and was actively discipled and shepherded for the first time since his conversion.
After Sam completed a year as an intern with a Baptist campus ministry in Tennessee, he decided to attend seminary and explore his desire to serve the church. While he did not understand what pastoral ministry fully entailed at that time, his love for the church only grew during his time in seminary and his desire to serve her was reaffirmed time and again during that season.
Sam and his wife, Hannah, joined LBC in 2019. Sam became a pastor in 2022. He serves the church through building relationships and fostering current relationships at LBC. Sam and Hannah make themselves available to provide counsel to those who seek godly direction for their problems. They open their home to members of the church and seek to pray for them and encourage their souls with God’s comforting and convicting Word. His most significant hope is two-fold. First he hopes that God would make him realize all the more in his service as pastor that he is completely dependent upon him. Only through a deepening walk with his Savior and Lord will he be able to be “poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service” of his church’s faith and holiness (Phil 2:17). Second he hopes for the members of LBC that they would realize that their one true ambition in life is to be pleasing to God (2 Cor 5:9).
Outside of his ministry in the church, Sam enjoys reading, spending time with his wife and three children, and walking and listening to podcasts dealing with discipleship and spiritual growth. Sam currently works for the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors as the Director of Training Center Certification and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling. Sam earned his Ph.D. in Biblical Counseling from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2018. If you want to get to know Sam better, connect with him using the link below.