Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. These features on members of our NAB family also provide great opportunities to pray for them as we get to know more of their story. This week, we hear from Jason Coplen, associate pastor at Crosspointe Christian Church in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan.
What’s your story?
I grew up in a Christian home. My mother was a schoolteacher in Detroit, Michigan, working primarily with hearing-impaired children. My father was an air traffic controller at Detroit Metro Airport. I had a wonderful childhood growing up in a suburb of Detroit with my parents and my younger brother. Our church was an important part of our life growing up. My mom ran a program for senior citizens in need, and my dad ran the Wednesday night program for boys in the community. In many ways, I grew up in the “ideal” Christian home. But as I got older, certain events and circumstances caused me to question the faith I had grown up with.
The summer I turned 15, my older cousin Matt was killed in a car accident while traveling home from an amusement park about two hours from where we lived. It remains the worst moment of my life. Matt and I had grown up together. We took swimming lessons together and played basketball in our backyards together. For several summers, we spent weeks in Kentucky with our grandparents. His loss was tragic and entirely unexpected. But it also represented a point that was foundational to how I understood my faith in Jesus Christ.
I remember thinking I had two options. I could run away from the faith I was raised in, angry at God over this loss and other things going on in my life, or I could run toward my faith, finding the help I needed to get through what was a very difficult time. I made the decision to trust in the faith I had been raised with. It was then that I took ownership of the faith I had heard about my entire life. I began a journey of discovering the joys of following Jesus and the hope of Christ.
What’s ministry like for you?
I serve at Crosspointe Christian Church in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, as one of the associate pastors. I have been here for nineteen years. I began in student ministry, which I absolutely loved. I enjoyed connecting with students and their families, seeing them grow in their belief and faith in Jesus Christ. About twelve years ago, I transitioned out of student ministry and into my current role as an associate pastor, where I preach about half of the time, handle the administrative side of things for our church, and tackle special projects at Crosspointe.
Outside of ministry at Crosspointe, my wife Becky and I enjoy traveling when we can and spending time with our four children. I have come to especially love watching my kids play sports and participate in other activities in the community. A normal week for us might involve a soccer match, a basketball game, gymnastics practice, and play practice.
What are you learning?
By nature, I am what I like to call a “worse-case scenario thinker.” My mind tends to wander toward the negative in most situations. The Detroit Lions lose two games in a row? We are doomed. My car needs a repair? It’s probably a lemon. Recently, I have been thinking of this more as a kind of “low-level anxiety.” I worry. And then I think about how I am worried. Through the counsel of some godly people and through some wonderful books and resources, I have come to understand two things about my anxiousness.
First, it isn’t going away. It is probably something I will carry with me until I close my eyes to this world. I often joke that I might be on my deathbed one day wondering if I am doing a good job dying. If this is something I will carry with me, then what will I do with it? That leads to the second thing. Rather than allowing my anxiousness to turn me into my worries and thoughts about my worries, I am working to instead see my “worst-case thoughts” as reminders to look to God, to what I know about God, and to what I believe about what he has promised. These realizations have helped me to develop a level of dependency on and hope in Christ I might not have experienced were it not for the worries I deal with most days. So rather than asking God to remove them, I am learning to ask God to guide me through them so I might trust in him more and live in his good pleasure.
What a blessing it is to be part of the great North American Baptist Conference community. Would you please take a moment to pray for Jason Coplen, as well as Crosspointe Christian Church?