About

Hi, my name is Matt Barker and I started this blog to share my thoughts and experiences along my life’s journey in seeking Christ’s will for my life; the starting point for this blog being my entrance into Denver Seminary Rockbridge Seminary. To be quite honest, if you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be going into seminary, I probably would have laughed. All I can say now is that when you allow God to direct your path, you will probably be very surprised where you wind up.

My family and I are from Tucson, AZ (Go Wildcats!), but moved to Germany in 2003. I thought that I was going to Germany to work in the IT field (I am a true geek - through and through), but when I finally submitted to Christ’s will, I realized that He had called me there for entirely different reasons. It was there that I remembered His first call on my life – one that I had quite honestly turned my back on when I entered the military shortly after high school. My pastor and friend, Ken Klinner, reminded me one day in a conversation that God’s will does not change for our lives – and even though years had past, now was the time to get back to what I had been called to do. That was a life changing conversation for me.

A couple of years after that, I found myself as the associate pastor of an International church in Germany, called Victory International. It was there that I got my first experience in preaching; before then if you had asked me to get up in front of a bunch of people and talk about anything, I would have refused knowing that I would have stood up there shaking and sweating, unable to speak. But the first time I spoke in church, there was such peace and confidence. God equips people to do the work He calls, right? That was an amazing and humbling experience.

I continued to feel that God was calling me to seminary to prepare me for full time ministry. So, I initially enrolled in Denver Seminary to get started on this next phase of my life. The intial plan was to start by taking what online courses they offered, then move to Denver to finish up my coursework. After taking 2 classes during the first semester, I felt that I wasn’t really getting what I needed out of the classes. While I learned a lot from the course materials, the main disappointment for me was the level of interaction in the class between students and between the students and professor. For me, it was like sitting on the outside of a brick-and-mortar class. So, after the first semester  I decided to leave Denver Seminary and look for another option.

It was then that I found Rockbridge Seminary.  After reading as much as I could on their website and finding some more information on various online blogs, it really felt like this was the perfect place for me. What sweetened the deal even more was the fact that they were offering their first class completely free – in other words, a risk-free opportunity to see if this school would really fit my needs and give me the education God was desiring for me. I got enrolled in record time and started my first class and was immediately blown away. The material and the interaction between students and professors was a breath of fresh air. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of this journey as I continue to seek and answer God’s will in my life.

So for now, that’s my story. I invite you to follow my along this journey as I continue to seek His will and His truth. I know that seminary is not going to be a piece of cake, and I know that my family and I will face struggles; but I look forward to this time of growth and preparation.