My name is Joe Cotroneo, and I am the Adult and Collegiate Ministries’ Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio. I attended Trinity Baptist College from 2002 through 2006, where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Theology. During my freshman year of college, I met my wife, Rebekah. Without exaggeration, at the first sight of Bekah, my heart was captivated. I am sure you can tell that I am not a very poetic person. Nevertheless, we began dating, and three years later, in the summer before my senior year, we were married. We have three wonderful children: a daughter, Addison, age 4; a son, Landon, age 2; and a “soon to be born” daughter, for whom we are still debating on a name.

To be honest, God has worked in outright “stunning” ways in my life. Dating back to my childhood, I can clearly see God’s sovereignty at work. I was born in Orlando, Florida, and though I was raised in a loving family, my parents went through a troublesome divorce. Shortly after experiencing this colossal shift of familiarity, I became a prime target for trouble. I began making decisions that led me to become involved with a very influential gang in my neighborhood, known as “South Side 211 Crip.” Before long, I caused a lot of difficulty for my family and countless others. Eventually, my behavior caused a “domino effect” beginning with my expulsion from high school and coming to a dead end of trouble with law enforcement. Thankfully, however, at 15 years of age, I had the opportunity to hear the Gospel for the first time. After hearing about the life changing power of Jesus, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Soon after my salvation, I knew that God wanted me to offer my entire life to His mission; I considered this to be the only reasonable thing to do in light of Jesus offering His life for me. In just a short time, I was confident that God was calling me into full-time ministry. Thus, I began my journey of fulfilling God’s mission for my life.

After graduating from Trinity Baptist College, I served on staff at Fellowship Baptist Church as the Student Ministries Pastor for approximately 7 ˝ years. My wife and I poured our lives into students, both in our community and around the nation. For the past few years, I have served on the leadership team of Teen Revolution, which is a summer conference in Gatlinburg, TN, that is uniquely designed with students in mind (www.teenrevolution.org). Recently, we broadened our scope to reach out to college age students by adding college student sessions called “Elevate.” From this conference, I have been blessed to see lives changed by the power of the Gospel.

About a year ago, I transitioned out of the teen ministry and began focusing on adult/collegian ministries at our church. My wife and I thoroughly enjoy investing our lives into people, and we look forward to seeing what God will do. I am honestly overwhelmed by God’s mercy for allowing us to serve Him in these various ministries. To be transparent, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to my alma mater (Trinity Baptist College). Upon graduating this summer from Trinity with a Masters of Arts, I will begin the pursuit of a Doctorate Degree in Biblical Studies from Piedmont International University. God is not finished using the graduates of Trinity Baptist College. Therefore, I have one simple challenge to all graduates: Let’s continue to dream galactic dreams, because we serve a galactic God. (Ephesians 3:20)