In this episode of 12-Minute Convos with Jesus Believers, Engel Jones connects with Reverend Kevin T. Taylor, joining the program from Connecticut. Kevin shares a beautiful, lifelong story of faith that began in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was born and raised in the city's oldest and largest Black church the very church where his parents were married and where he and his siblings were baptized. Even from his infancy, when a church mother held him and prophesied his calling, Kevin seemed destined for the pulpit, with his childhood pastor famously greeting him in the receiving line as "hey preacher". 

However, as Kevin entered adulthood, he navigated a detour through Los Angeles and New York City, working on Broadway and believing his ministry path would lie in the back-office, administrative role of an executive pastor. But God used a highly unusual and powerful pop-culture moment to pull him back to his true calling. While watching the Broadway production of The Lion King, the iconic scene where Mufasa tells Simba, "Simba, you are more than what you have become," struck Kevin like fire shut up in his bones. That dramatic epiphany led him straight back to the pulpit in 2012. 

Today, Kevin leads a profoundly historic, 202-year-old upstate New York church that once served as a literal stop on the Underground Railroad, preparing this legendary sanctuary for its next century of ministry. If you are currently running from your true calling, trying to find your place in ministry, or wondering if God can still use you to sow seeds for the next generation, Kevin’s rich, legacy-minded testimony will deeply inspire and anchor your soul!

Engel Jones
Podcast Host

                         Guest's Bio