A native of Pennsylvania, Dave Trout encountered Christ as a teenager thanks to the influence of his older sister and the ministry of Greg ('84) Pelc at Hempfield Church of Christ.

Although Dave graduated with a focus on Preaching, his ministry journey has been anything but traditional. While Dave has experience as an associate minister and senior minister, he never settled into a long-term ministry. Instead, Dave discovered his calling as a songwriter and a teacher. While exercising these gifts in his local church, Dave has worked for the last 10 years with PNC Bank.

It was Dave's most recent musical release that inspired us to reach out to him for an interview. You can catch a snipped of this song, Rejoice, toward the end of our interview. If you would like to know more about David's music...including the opportunity to download the sheet music for your own worship setting, please visit his website at https://www.davetroutmusic.com/.

1994 graduate Matthew Sullivan can easily be described as a committed man. The son of an evangelist, Matt gave his life to Christ in his early teens and witnessed his father's ministry efforts in various congregations and ministries in the eastern half of the United States. He credits a Larry ('68) Green prayer as the tipping point to selecting Johnson for ministry preparation.

Matt is married to Tina (Willhite, '95) and they have four sons. Most of the family's life and ministry has been spent in Shoals, Indiana, where Matthew has served as the preaching minister of Sholes Christian Church since 2002.

Joe graduated from Johnson University Tennessee with a B.A. in Preaching and Church Leadership in 2007, after which he completed an M.Div. at Lincoln Christian Seminary and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Marquette University. Joe is the author of “Divine Scripture in Human Understanding: A Systematic Theology of the Christian Bible” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019).

Joe joined the faculty of Johnson University Florida in 2015 and currently teaches a variety of theology and biblical studies courses on the Tennessee campus.

In this episode, Joe shares about the courses he teaches and offers us a few lessons to guide our own spiritual journeys.

A return visitor to the Sojournal Podcast, Dr. Jody (MA '95) Owens joins us for a special episode. Today, we leave the spiritual journey behind (sorta) and focus on Jody's journey to teaching and we learn some lessons from the classes Jody teaches. We also talk about Jody's special passion for Spiritual Formation and learn about ways for people to get involved in one of Jody's spiritual retreats.

Listen in to today's lessons from Dr. Jody Owens. Learn more about the spiritual retreats and other resources Jody has to offer by visiting https://www.jodylowens.com/.

Originally a resident of northeastern Ohio, Deborah works as an English teacher in an international location. She counts herself blessed to be a part of the "great class of 1976" (even though we kept saying '72 in the podcast). Haha! She actually continued her education by gaining a master's degree from Lincoln, another in TESOL from Azusa Pacific.

She is the daughter of a fruit farmer (father) and nurse (mother). She welcomed the opportunity to get away from the farm to go to college. She chose Johnson because she heard Dr. David Eubanks preach during an evangelistic meeting in northeast, Ohio. His preaching compelled her and she came to Johnson sight unseen.

Listen in to today's episode to follow Deborah on her journey from Ohio to Tennessee and around the world.

Alex Weiss grew up in a variety of locations throughout the eastern half of the United States. He is married and they recently welcomed their first child, a daughter. His father was employed by Christian Homes and this contributed to his family's movement. His childhood was spent in the Midwest and deep south.

Currently a resident of the larger Louisville, Kentucky, metropolitan area, Alex works as a litigation specialist but spends considerable time on the side pursuing the use of the media communication skills he gained as a part of his undergraduate degree at Johnson. Listen in to find out about Alex's journey to his current vocation and the doors that are opening for Alex to use his media communication degree for the kingdom.

My conversation with Troy and Kathy Thornburg went so long that we decided to make their interview into two parts. Part 1, published two weeks ago, focused on Troy and Kathy's childhood journeys and their experience at Johnson. Today's episode shifts to the vocational journey and life lessons learned by the Thornburg family since leaving the University.

Of particular interest is Troy's experience with depression and their family's journey toward adoption. Together, Troy and Kathy have learned some powerful lessons about life, ministry, and God's sovereignty over it all.

Learn more about Troy and Kathy on their personal website.

About Troy and Kathy: https://www.kathythornburg.com/about-us

About the Adoption Journey: https://www.kathythornburg.com/adoption

Interviewing couples for the Sojournal podcast is a lot of fun. However, sometimes it results in so much content that making cuts are difficult. Instead of cutting this episode short, we decided to make this a 2-part episode. Part 1 focuses on Troy and Kathy's lives from childhood through their Johnson University experience. Part 2 will focus on their journey in life and ministry and will spend some time considering the family's current efforts to adopt a child.

Learn more about the family and their adoption journey:

Dr. Alligood is Professor Emeritus, College of Nursing, East Carolina University. She holds a diploma in nursing from Good Samaritan School of Nursing, bachelor of sacred literature (BSL) from Johnson University, BSN from University of Virginia, MS with a major in nursing from The Ohio State University, and PhD in nursing science from New York University.

Martha played a key role in the formation of Johnson's current pre-nursing/nursing program and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Johnson University.

Jody England is a 1999 graduate of Johnson's Tennessee campus where he studied Youth Ministry and Christian Education. He and his wife, Beth ('98) live in Cicero, Indiana, with their two high schoolers. They also have two older married children.

Jody's journey to faith and ministry was heavily influenced by Beth as well as a local Methodist church and a local Christian camp. Jody works for International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES) as the GAP (God Always Provides) Director in which he coordinates the packing and distribution of nutritional meals for impoverished communities throughout the world.

Listen in to Jody's journey from Arsenal Technical High School (Indianapolis) to IDES, and all the stops in between.