Pastor was an atheist partially due to his grandfather being a pastor for Disciples of Christ. He was very hurt by seeing the things that happened to his grandfather within the church. Pastor loved reading, especially about science and was convinced that the natural world was what exists and didn't believe in the Holy Spirit movement. He was very rebellious in his youth. Later on when Pastor Samuel was a teenager, his grandfather had a stroke and he and his family stopped attending church. At 17 Samuel got very sick, thought he was going to die, and also started struggling with depression. Still pursuing atheism, he saw life as you come into the world, live, and die. A girl urged him to seek God after noticing he was struggling with depression. He then started reading books from different religions, the Quran, the Bible, Buddhism etc. He read everything but decided to go with Christianity because he realized it was the only religion that talked about God sending His Son to sacrifice Himself for us. He found a church and started getting involved. His father didn't like that he started going to church, so Samuel stopped going out of fear he would be kicked out of their home. He continued to read the Bible, and eventually returned to church and felt a call to pastoring, where that call was also confirmed by the pastor of the church. He went into college studying social science. He met his wife in college, and went on to seminary after finishing his undergrad. He has been married since 2000 and has 2 children. He has been in ministry for 11 years and has been at this church since 2015. His dream is to complete his doctorate and be a missionary in Japan one day.