About

Hey. I'm Tobe — short for Toby.

My Daddy told me when I was very young: "Tobe, your life is time. And if something wastes your time, it wastes your life. Walking is a waste of time." I've been running ever since—and loving it.

I preach for a great bunch of folks at a small-town church in West Virginia. I grew up in Thackerville, Oklahoma — as redneck as I can be. God called me to ministry in the same way that being "swallowed by a great fish" is a calling to ministry, and sent me to Abilene Christian University to get trained. I've been a believer as long as I can remember, and I've been at this ministry thing for over 30 years.

I ain't fancy, but I ain't an idiot, either. I have a particular perspective on Jesus Christ that my background and my hardwiring shaped. That perspective is that I believe Jesus really wants us set free, and freedom includes being free from the BS of religious manipulation and control, as well as the freedom he brings from slavery to sin and brokenness.

Here's my "so what," my why I bother:

If church burned you — if it bored you to death, or beat you up, or never once connected to your actual Monday — and you finally walked out, I'm not here to talk you back into the thing you left. And if you're still sitting in a pew, white-knuckling it, not even sure why anymore — I'm talking to you too. The version of church that ran you off or wore you out has never been what God is all about. I'm here to tell you a secret (that's not really a secret—just some folks want it to be): the real thing is better, cooler, realer, than anything you were told, and I can prove it.

I'm serious about the Bible and done with the BS. Words like "extreme" and "radical" annoy me when applied to Christianity, because they're usually employed by people who preach the same old lies that have always undermined the faith: "do my religious thing and you'll finally be enough." The truth is, the most extreme or radical thing you can do is just receive the Gospel and live your life in the peace of knowing you're loved. The problem is that it often takes a lot of Biblical heavy-lifting to shovel a person out from under decades of manure that's been dumped on top of 'em.

My passion is to provide that Biblical heavy-lifting.

I believe Jesus is exactly who He said He is, that grace is stronger than your worst day, that you're allowed to actually know you're His, and that the smelly pile of religion was never from God in the first place.

I read Greek, my Hebrew and Latin ain't bad, I do my homework, and I'll never make you feel stupid for not having a seminary degree. Much to the disappointment of a lot of folks, I'm not a church-y guy. I like my whiskey, my karaoke, my wife Missy, and my passel of kids and grandkids—and I still occasionally like to do crazy redneck stuff. As Kid Rock said, "I'm straight out the trailer," and I've never really wanted to be anything else except to have Jesus in the trailer with me.

If any of that sounds like something you've been hungry for, get on the email list. It's the one place an algorithm can't get between you and me.

Glad you're here.

— tobe