About Ryan
I was born and raised in Southern California, living in various cities of the Inland Empire region, which is about an hour east of Los Angeles. I grew up going with my parents to various non-denominational churches.
These churches were not Reformed, but while there, I did learn the gospel from a young age. However, although I knew the gospel, my heart remained hardened and dead in sin.
But God in his rich mercy, used a series of painful events the year after I graduated high school to bring me to the end of myself and ultimately to Himself. I cried out to Him in about August of 2005, and He mercifully answered with the grace of the gospel.
As I began to read my Bible again (which I had read my whole life), now it was alive as the word of God! I started going to church again and got a job as a pizza delivery guy, which allowed me to listen to sermons all evening long in my car! Little by little, the Lord began the work of sanctification in my life.
Along with my conversion came an immediate sense of call to the ministry. As I grew in my faith, I began to serve in what little ways I could at my local church and in the college ministry.
Eventually, I knew that if I were going to rightly divide the word of God, I would need to get some sort of training. God guided my steps and led me to California Baptist University, where I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Applied Theology in 2014.
It was at CBU that I really began to move in a Reformed direction theologically, but it would not be until seminary and my time of study at Westminster Seminary California and the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies that I became fully confessional. I graduated from WSC with my M.Div. in 2018.
In May of 2019, I took the call to pastor Sovereign Joy Community Church, and my wife Anika and I packed up and moved to Texas (Yeehaw!). Although we miss our beloved California, we also, begrudgingly, very much enjoy living in the Lone Star State, and the saints of Sovereign Joy have made it a joy, honor, and privilege to serve them and their families.
In my free time, I enjoy reading, going on outings with my wife and son Carlos, hunting, studying 16th and 17th century theologians, and trying local breweries. Topics of interest for me include the law-gospel distinction, the history and theology of English congregationalism (including Baptist congregationalism), and covenant theology.
