I’ve been involved in ministry for 20 years. God has graciously allowed me to serve some wonderful churches varying in size from 150 to 10,000 people. I was the first guest blog writer for Doug Fields on his former site dougfields.com. I was honored in 2013 to host and interview Dr. Jim Burns of Homeword. God has allowed me to train leaders for student ministry in Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I love missions and have taken people on over 20 domestic and international mission trips. For several years, I was blessed to help with logistics and staffing at Hearts on Fire Ministries.
I’ve been involved in Family Ministry for a few years. I’ve lead family and community ministry events in Richmond, VA., Atlanta, GA., Cincinnati, OH., and Southaven, MS. In 2014, I created and directed my first 5k with over 600 people involved. I am a community advocate and seek to know and better understand what is happening around me in our city to better tell others about Jesus. I love seeing people involved in community missions and creating awesome guest experiences at churches.
My favorite thing in the world is to spend time with my wife and kids. I love being a dad more than anything else in life. My wife, Jennifer, and I have 3 kids all under the age of 7 – Mercedes, Sincerity, and Cash. We do lots of fun activities in and around the Mid-South.
I’m a bobblehead collector, local tourist, Power Seller on eBay, Vols fanatic, 5k walker, caffeine connoisseur, and social media guy. My favorite teams are the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Tennessee Vols. I’ve enjoyed volunteering at Orange, Catalyst, Leadercast, Atlanta Track Club, and the Clermont County Opiate Task Force.
This blog is about my life and observations in ministry. I’ve benefited from blogs and articles over the years. My desire is for this to help those serving in the trenches of ministry. For consultation or speaking engagements contact me at joeyrolen@yahoo.com. You can find samples of my teaching here and here. Currently, I am the Kids and Family Pastor at Colonial Hills Church in Southaven and Hernando, MS. I work with birth-18 years of age at both of our campuses.
studentpastorlife.wordpress.com 
Like your site, and your blogs. I would like to guest write for you sometime, I am sure you will have many guys who want to do that. I can write from being out there and seeing thousands of youth programs, good and poor. Like to come back to your church and minister with you sometime. Ihave new curriculum coming out August 1st, would like to share a sample of it on your site.
Blessings
David Edwards