My Story

When my sister and I grew up and moved out, my parents moved back to Knoxville. Here’s a picture of the river in their beautiful back yard as seen from their porch.

I was born in Knoxville, TN. My parents, Steve and Kathy Stout, met as engineers at TVA and my dad’s family has a long history in East Tennessee. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church and was baptized when I was very young.

In the summer before second grade, my dad got a job at the Savannah River Site and my family moved to Augusta, GA. Augusta is where I did most of my growing up, and it’s where I consider to be my hometown. I went to high school at Augusta Christian Schools and grew in knowledge of faith, but my personal relationship with God was pretty stagnant.

I started my college career at Georgia Tech, and during that time got very involved with campus ministry. This is where my relationship with God really began to blossom. I started taking my faith seriously, and connected with God on a heart level in worship. I spent time on mission trips and leadership in my campus ministry. It was a wonderful time of intimacy and fellowship with God.

Unfortunately, it was NOT a time of intense studying, and as a result I flunked out of GT after three semesters. I moved back home to Augusta and worked to get my grades back up in community college. God met me there, though. I had to make sure that my faith was real without the ‘scaffolding’ of a vibrant campus ministry to hold it up. My faith felt less exciting, but also became deeper and stronger because I could see the ways which God was showing his faithfulness to me.

Eventually, I got my grades up enough to transfer out. By that time, I had sensed a call to ministry on a mission trip to Ukraine and knew that going back to Tech was not a good fit for me. I went to Valdosta State to study communication with the intention to go to seminary. There, I got involved in the Wesley Foundation and begin to connect theologically with Methodism and Wesleyanism. I also met a beautiful Wesley intern named Sara Beth, who I would go on to marry. Sara Beth and I served together as Wesley interns during our first year of marriage.

After my year on interning at Wesley, I went to seminary at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. I made some incredible lifelong friends and grew in my faith during my education. If I had it to do over again, I would go to a different seminary, if I’m honest. I’m not terribly happy with some of the things Asbury has been up to lately. Regardless, God met me in my time there and I’m grateful for how he used that place in my life. My first daughter Ruth was born while we were in Kentucky.

Upon graduation I moved to South Georgia to serve as the youth minister at College Place UMC. Until then, while I knew I was called to ministry, I remained unsure if ordination was a part of that calling. At College Place, under the mentorship of Rob Grotheer, I began to sense and to confirm a call to ordained ministry and began that process among those excellent people. We also grew our family while we were there, having both Olivia and Roger at College place. I was blessed to be appointed to College Place as an associate when Roger was born, and was able to baptize him myself.

Alpha UMC in Bloomingdale was my first appointment as a senior pastor. While I was there my wife Sara Beth had a serious health crisis where we discovered that she has congestive heart failure.

I am currently appointed at Garden City UMC right outside of Savannah. This has been a beautiful season of ministry with some of the finest people I’ve ever had the privilege to know.

As I look back on my life, I can see how God has guided me each step of the way. I can see that God has been with me during the close, intimate times, as well as the distant, desert times. I can see how his provision for me does not depend on my success or failure, but rather depends on His great love and faithfulness, which never changes.