Brian Ross grew up as a skinny kid in Columbus, Ohio, trying to be somebody. From a very young age, he would sit around and think about the meaning of life, what it meant to truly be happy, and what the “good life” was. With his parents divorced and his mother working a lot to make ends meet, Brian had plenty of time in suburban Columbus to be by himself and think.

By the time he began high school, things seemed to just get “darker” all the time.  Nothing seemed to make sense or give hope and he was overwhelmed with a sense of “purposelessness” and ugliness of the soul. He slowly began to loathe life altogether.

Eventually, Brian’s mom prodded him into trying a youth group at a local church. Though not excited about the idea, he eventually gave in. That was the specific vehicle, time and place God used to draw Brian to Himself. There he met peers and adults who seemed to truly care for him in ways he had not experienced before. When the leaders read out of the Bible about the life and teaching of Jesus, Brian was drawn in. In this man’s teachings there seemed to be the stuff that is the truth of life. Slowly, Brian’s outlook on life, people, and God began to change and in a very realistic, day-in-and-day-out way, he felt he was on the right path.

It wasn’t long until Brian felt that God wanted him to be a pastor for people who weren’t really “into church,” but who needed God. He really knew very little about the teachings of the Bible or even about God, for that matter. His desire was not to be a stuffy, professional clergy member, but to be a bridge to help normal, everyday people—people who weren’t religious—to discover the life and teaching of Jesus.