Reflections on 10 Years at Canyon
This last Sunday (5/19/2025), my home church of 10 years celebrated our 10th anniversary, while also celebrating our first service in our own building. For the last 10 years, we’ve met in an elementary gym and a high school theatre. Now, we get the opportunity to meet in our very own building.
It was an exciting service where God’s word and the gospel were clearly preached, and believers who had been sent by our church returned in what I could only describe as a family reunion. The house was packed and the energy was palpable.
This occasion got me thinking about my time at the church and how God has used it to grow me.
Immature and Spiritually Dead
My dad is one of the founding elders of the church. When it got started I didn’t have much of a choice but to attend. To be clear, I was excited about attending a new church. The one we were at before had an established “in-group” that I didn’t feel I was able to be a part of.
I also wasn’t a believer.
For the first year or so of attending, I coasted along. I was playing in the worship band, but I didn’t feel much happening to me spiritually. I was dead on the inside, but because my dad was a leader I was able to hide in plain sight.
Getting Involved
It wasn’t until I met Jason Drumm that things started to stir in my heart. He immediately took me in and really tried to get to know me. He was in charge of getting a college ministry up and running and I was one of a few college students attending the church.
He asked me questions about the people my age in Prescott and how we could reach them. I wasn’t in a place of leadership, but Jason put me in one. Not because he thought I was cool or knew what I was doing, but because that’s just what he expected of me.
I’m a young guy in the church, I should be helping at the church.
It wasn’t until months of being discipled by him for months that I realized I had become a believer months ago. I didn’t have a moment of realization or a strike of lighting, the Holy Spirit penetrated into my heart and turned the lights on - like a dimmer switch.
Canyon Bible Church is also where I met Robert Short. I got connected with him because he's an alumnus of Master’s University—the school I wanted to attend. We got coffee to talk about college but that quickly turned into regular meetings to talk about scripture and read through Thoughts for Young Men.
I’m so grateful for these two men. Without them, I would be lost. They set the groundwork for what is the conviction of my beliefs. They taught me to turn to Christ for forgiveness and trust in him. They also taught me that there is no substitute for doing.
Bright Eyed and Alive
Apart from my conversion, a lot has happened at this church that I’m so thankful for:
I met my wife here
I’ve received so much wisdom from men who are seeking my good
The diaper poker parties the guys put on when one of us is having a baby
Car mechanic help
Financial advice
Friends
Canyon Bible Church is a place I feel welcomed and connected. The people here are broken and there are times I get annoyed with someone, but our unity extends beyond politics, preferences, tertiary beliefs, and fashion decisions. Our unity is in Christ, and because of that, Canyon Bible Church is a special place.
Congratulations on 10 years, it’s been such a blessing to grow here, and I know the best is yet to come!