Tommy Speirs

How Jesus Changed My Life

“Did you play college basketball?”  I’m asked that question on occasion.  I guess it’s a reasonable question considering my height.  The story behind my answer though always reminds me how Christ saved me from living for myself that I might live for Him.

I grew up in a small, rural town in northeast Louisiana.  Besides school and church, hunting, fishing, and seasonal sports, especially basketball, made up the normal rhythm of my life.  I fought with my brother and sister like most kids do and begrudgingly obeyed my parents.  Although I appeared to be respectful and obedient, I was not so in my heart.

I don't ever remember a time in my childhood when I questioned if God was real or if Jesus was His Son who died for my sins. I remember always knowing God was in control but often questioning why He didn't answer my prayers the way I wanted.  

At the age of nine, I attended a Vacation Bible School which led to a lot of questions about salvation.  I spoke with my parents in our living room, asking them what I needed to do to be saved.  They led me in a prayer asking Jesus to forgive me and save me.  Soon after, I was baptized as a member of First Baptist Church in Delhi, LA.  Despite the fact I knew Jesus gave up His life to forgive me of my sins, I still lived my life for myself in many ways.

During my sophomore year of high school, I passed out on the practice court.  After multiple doctor visits, weeks of testing, and multiple misdiagnoses, I was finally diagnosed with a life-threatening heart disease.  Because my heart condition could lead to sudden death, there was no chance of playing competitive sports again.  I was angry.  I couldn't understand why a God who is in control of all things would allow such a crushing and seemingly cruel thing to happen to me.  He had taken away the one thing I loved the most. What I also didn’t understand was that God was leading me to Himself, a far more satisfying pursuit.

The summer after graduation, our church hired John Davis as a summer intern to work with the youth. I didn't recognize it then, but God was giving me a personal example of what it means to follow Christ.  That summer God challenged my claim to Christianity while my life failed to prove it.  I was thoroughly convinced God was giving me a choice to either continue in my hypocrisy and love of self and suffer the consequences or begin to truly follow Christ for the rest of my life.  At that moment, Christ captivated my heart, convicted me of my hypocrisy, and called me to repent and follow Him in truth.

At this point my desires, my thinking, my actions, and my response to sin changed drastically.  I wanted to read God's word, to please Him, and to see my lost friends come to know Christ. From that season on, God gave me a passion to know Him more.  I continued to struggle with sins that plagued me in my youth, but I was also seeing God free me from their enslaving power.  I struggled in many ways, but the longer I followed Christ, the more clearly I saw not only the depths of my wickedness but also His mercy is always deeper still.  

In college I met my future wife, Kelly Aguillard.  We served together as members of the Temple Baptist Church College Praise Band in Ruston, LA.  It was our mutual pursuit of Christ that drew us together, plus a lot of help from friends and family!  Immediately after Kelly and I married and I graduated in 2004, I served as an interim Youth Minister at Calvary Baptist Church until December of 2005.  

After a season of prayer, job searching, and counsel from our pastor and trusted friends, we moved to Louisville, KY, to continue training for pastoral ministry at Southern Seminary.  While in the Louisville area, our family began to grow through birth, foster care, and adoption.  We also served as members of Baxter Avenue Church where I began serving as a pastor in October of 2009.  

Due to our growing family and my poor health as well as financial and ministry responsibilities, I set my studies aside for several years.  In 2015, after much prayer and encouragement from our former pastor, friends, and family, God helped us raise enough financial support for me to quit my full-time job and focus on serving as a pastor part-time while continuing my seminary education as a full-time student without going into further debt.

In 2017, only 12 years from start to finish, I completed my Masters in Worship Leadership.  The years leading up to and following my graduation were again a season of seeking the next place Christ would call us to follow Him.  In answer to many prayers, in August of 2018, we moved to Valdosta, GA, firmly convinced Christ was calling us to serve Him here at Covenant Baptist Church.

The longer I follow Him the more I rejoice in Christ who lived the life I could not live, died the death I deserved, and rose from the dead ensuring that I will not face eternal judgment, but will one day rise with him. I have this joy precisely because He graciously took something dear to me and gave me someone even more dear. My heart was once bent on living for myself, but God gave me a heart that now lives for Christ.  So, did I play college ball?  No.  And it’s the best thing that ever happened to me because I trust that whatever loss I endure in this life will be rewarded with treasures far greater now and for eternity.

My Prayer for Covenant

My prayer for Covenant is that we all see Christ as our great Treasure, and being captivated by Him, we will no longer live for ourselves but live for Christ alone. 

“For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.  And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.”
—2 Corinthians 5:14-15 CSB