This is an intro to my life. Not too detailed, just to give you an idea of who I am and where I come from to give some credibility to this series.
Who I Am
My name is Leo Loughmiller. I am currently one of the Student Worship Pastors at First Baptist Dallas, Texas, a singer-songwriter for the Christian Rock band Bright City Lights, and a Starbucks Barista. I currently live in Dallas, Texas. I am a man who is not perfect by any standard. I have gone from someone who was totally lost in life to being found by Jesus Christ and given a life with purpose and hope.
Backstory
I was born in Jacksonville, Texas on December 7, 1987 to a recently married couple who decided to move to East Texas from the big city of Houston. My Dad a mechanic and my Mom stayed at home. I was pretty much raised my whole life in the small town of New Summerfield, Texas. Seriously, it was small town with a population of 998 people. It was there I graduated from High School in 2006. I have two younger brothers, Michael and Robert, one of which (Robert) passed away in 2007 in a plane crash. I also have an older sister, Paula, who lives in Arkansas.
From being an alley hand at a livestock auction in the country, to working in downtown Dallas amongst the skyscrapers, I have worked in many cultures. My life has taken me from the hot southern states to the beaches of Miami and to mountain skylines of the northwest. I have seen a lot. Contrary to the belief I have found with many people, I did not grow up as a Christian. I am a man who has been changed by the power of the Gospel in my life. I was 14 years old when I met the Lord for the first time at a church camp in Gary, Texas. A girl named Rebecca came up to me during an invitation service and told me “God loves you.” Even though from then on I knew that God loved me, I didn’t fully surrender to Him until after graduating High School at the age of 18 when I finally was baptized. From 14 to 18 I led a very sinful, contradictory, even hypocritical life compared to the one I knew I needed to live. I am not perfect. I’ll write about those experiences later.
The Call
At the age of 19 during my first semester at Jacksonville College, recently returning from my first ever mission trip, I surrendered to the ministry. Now, I felt the call prior to that, but my idea was always I don’t want to be that guy wearing a suit every Sunday morning preparing everyone for their afternoon nap. But God spoke to me and I heard Him say that my music will be a ministry and that ministry was more than beating on a pulpit, but going out to the people. From then I started playing guitar for a youth worship service at First Baptist in Jacksonville, Texas. That turned into me being the youth worship leader then becoming a student ministry intern. That eventually turned into me being trained in church planting and my eventual move to Washington state to church plant. From there, I moved to Dallas, Texas, released my first album, and began leading worship and working with youth at First Baptist Dallas where I currently am.
Why I Am Writing
I am writing a series of blogs that I will post to try and help you see why you and I can believe in a God, a creator of all we see and namely the God of the Bible. I used to be the biggest skeptic of the Bible and was on the brink of totally abandoning my faith all together a few times. But in this questioning I decided to truly search for the answers and in that I discovered you can actually believe in God and not throw your brain in the trash. The reason I want to share what I have found with you is so that you can live a life full of hope and joy, not in anxiety, knowing exactly who you are and why you exist. I don’t have all of the answers, but then again no one does. But there is substantial evidence to believe in the God of the Bible and His plan for our lives.
In the series of blogs to come, I will expand on my questions and doubts more, as well as my life experiences and explain what I have come up with to try and help you have a more solid belief in God and Jesus Christ.
The next Blog will be “Why I Believe: Pt. 2- Who We Are” and I hope you will read it! Here is a preview topic…. “Did you know that the #1 Google Search ever is Why Am I Here? It seems that you and I aren’t the only ones with this question.”
God Bless!
-Leo
the table 