Episode 54: Man Up Monday Podcast Episode #54- Pastor Kelly Williams- Vanguard Church

Man Up God's Way- Jody Burkeen

Background: I was born in 1971 with a birth defect. I had four surgeries in the first three and a half years of my life. I am not supposed to be here. I thank God for the prayers of a godly mother.
I spent my childhood on a dairy farm in south-central Kentucky about one and a half hours north of Nashville, Tennessee. My father was a bi-vocational SBC pastor and farmer, and from an early age, I desired to be a pastor. In 1989, I graduated from Barren County High School and began attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. In the spring of my freshman year of college, I began dating Tosha. During our dating years, in March 1992, a drunk driver killed my godly mom. This greatly shaped my view of what it means to live in a real relationship with God and others.
I won the 1993 Liberty University preaching award and got to personally meet with Dr. Jerry Falwell. Additionally, I got to speak to 5k plus people in the weekly convocation service.
In 1993, I married Tosha, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pastoral studies, and began studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. While pursuing my seminary education, I worked as a youth pastor at South Park Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. I became the interim senior pastor of that church during my final year in Dallas. I graduated cum laude from DTS with a master’s of theology (Th.M.) degree in pastoral studies in 1996.
After completing seminary, Tosha and I became qualified as church planter apprentices with the Southern Baptist Convention. We moved to Colorado Springs to start Vanguard Church of Colorado Springs. Vanguard quickly raised local media attention as well as national attention in media outlets such as Time, The 700 Club, Christianity Today, The New York Times, and ABC World News Tonight.

I have now served as the Senior Pastor of Vanguard for 24 years and have transitioned from being a church planting/founding pastor to being a senior pastor.