Today we’d like to introduce you to Cole Huffman
Hi Cole, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a pastor, so I think in biblical metaphors. When the Egyptian Pharaoh asked Jacob how long he’d lived, Jacob said, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty.” Take away the hundred and you have the years of my pilgrimage in pastoral ministry. Every church I’ve served is in Tennessee: Franklin, Murfreesboro, Memphis, and as of 2022, back to Nashville and The Gospel Church in West End/Sylvan Park. My home is in Bellevue.
Raised in north Alabama by Nashvillians, Nashville is the city of my fathers going back generations. One of my earliest memories is sitting in my grandfather’s lap behind the wheel of his blue Mercury, “helping” him steer down Briley Parkway. It was a different time. With all my Nashville heritage, I developed a love for Vanderbilt football and am a loyal season-ticket holder.
I met my wife in college and together we’ve raised five children and now enjoy six grandchildren. I’m a reader and sometimes writer. I try to keep my middle-age self fit and get outdoors to hunt and fish when I can.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My oldest son’s alcohol and drug abuse problems, and all that has come with that, is going on 10 years now. Sometimes when we suffer, we want to blame God and pull back from him because we assume he should give us a carefree life. But nothing has driven my wife and me to prayer and wanting more of God than our son’s wasteland years. Addicts in recovery talk about “the gift of desperation,” but I think that’s been given to me.
I understand a faith test to be anytime I have cause to wonder if what I believe about God is true or real. Is God good? Is he trustworthy? In the personal trial of our son’s addiction, as well as a daughter’s unwed pregnancy, it didn’t feel like God was rewarding our raising them to know and love him. My wife and I are still learning about what one author calls “provisional grace,” which is grace in and for the moment. Grace for this day. Grace for this hour. God has provided at times those who have hoped and prayed for us when our hopes were low and our prayers flat. But through these trials with our children, our family has expanded. We didn’t choose the means, but to the ends of welcoming grandchildren and in-law children we love so much, that’s what the prophet Isaiah calls “beauty for ashes.” We have learned to navigate obstacles and challenges with gratitude for what God will do for us in the hard things, because he’s always doing more than we know, even in things that at the time grieve us.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
You might not think of pastoral ministry as creative work, but I’ve lived under a creative deadline for many years now. Sunday is always coming. I think of delivering sermons like farmers laying out their produce in the farmer’s market. In the week leading up to giving the sermon, here is the message I’ve cultivated through a process of looking at a biblical text and thinking myself empty, reading myself full, writing myself clear, praying myself hot, then being myself behind the pulpit, but not preaching myself.
I think of sermon work as more art than science. More sculpture than engineering. The medium is provided for me in the Scriptures. I am not improvising or issuing novel takes. I’m trying to present God’s Word faithfully, at face value, to God’s people, and have found through the years most of them appreciative. My style is not bombastic or otherwise emotionally manipulative. I’m more intellectually geared, gospel-centered, Christ-focused. I use the head to preach to the heart.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I say this humbly: the church is the one industry that, thank God, doesn’t depend on its shareholders to sustain its existence. Our longevity is testament to God’s goodness and faithfulness, because Christians botch a lot. Most churches saw attendance downturn during and immediately after the pandemic, but people have been returning to church the last couple of years. If there are shifts or changes underway, I believe it is a greater focus on discipleship through smaller communities rather than megachurching.
Pricing:
- The gospel is free and all of grace. As Jesus put it, “Come and see.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thegospelchurch.com
- Instagram: @thegospelchurch
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelchurch2446/streams
