Meet Our Pastor: Matthew Lumpkin
Pastor Matthew was called to be the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in October of 2022.
He graduated from Pensacola Christian College in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Pastoral Ministries.
Pastor Matthew and his wife, Jennah, met at Pensacola Christian College. They have been married since 2020. In 2022, God blessed them with the birth of their first child, a daughter named Lydia. In 2024, God again blessed them with another daughter named Anna.
Salvation Testimony
Growing up in a Christian home, I was taught the difference between right and wrong. I had assumed that growing up in a Christian home, made me a good person. I made a profession of faith that I knew about Jesus dying on the cross for my sins, when I was five years old. However, for years to follow, I would struggle with believing that I was truly saved. I remember having the question in my mind so many times, but always referred back to that night when I was five years old. I attended a revival service on March 29, 2008, in a small church called Calvary Baptist Church, where Dr. Tony Hudson was preaching. Toward the end of the sermon, I felt the conviction of God on me. I thought I had been saved for years, and even during that service, I still chose to believe that I was saved. On the way home I continued to feel the strong conviction, but I still refused it. When I got home that night, I was still uneasy, to the point where I could not take it anymore. I remember running into my parent’s bedroom, grabbing my dad, telling him that I wasn’t sure that I was saved, and asked him to show me how to be saved. My dad opened the Word of God, took me to some verses, and asked me if I believed I was a sinner, to which I acknowledged that I was. I prayed that the Lord would forgive me of my sins, and asked Him to be my Savior. That day, March 29, 2008, at the age of fourteen, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.
Call to Ministry
In my Junior year of high school, I began to consider what the Lord wanted me to do after I graduate, and what I would do in life. I prayed for some time, and did not receive an answer. On Sunday, September 23, 2012, my then youth pastor, preached on the Will of God. I remember the thought of becoming a youth pastor, rushed through my mind. My first thought was, “Lord…I’m too shy! I could never stand up in front of people and preach!” However, God kept burdening my heart for the ministry. I walked down the aisle, knelt at the altar and prayed that whatever the Lord wanted me to do, that I would do it. I met my youth pastor at the front. I told him, I believe the Lord is calling me into the ministry. He prayed with me, and asked me if I was sure. I told him that I was. On that day, I felt God’s call for me to be in the ministry.
A couple years later, during my Sophomore year at Pensacola Christian College, I began to have the desire to change my major from Youth Ministries to Pastoral Ministries. I prayed that if the Lord wanted me to be a Pastor, that He would strengthen my desire. God changed my desire from having a heart for only young people, to having a heart for the entire congregation of the church. God opened the door for me to change my major to Pastoral Ministries.
