Joe Stolz
Youth Pastor
People occasionally ask my wife and me “How many kids do you have?” My normal answer is simply “70.” While this might not be literally true, at times it does feel like we have that many teenage children and we wouldn't want it any other way. God has given me and my wife, Jen, the desire to work with teenagers. We love to see what God can do in and through them as He reveals to them His plans for their lives. We love to see students go from indifference towards God to a whole-hearted love for Him and His Word. But that wasn’t always my story.
I’m from Hudsonville, MI, a suburb of Grand Rapids. My early teen years were pretty troubled…I was that kid the parents told their kids to stay away from. But then everything in my life changed. God used a youth pastor to lead me to Christ and I have never been the same since. When I was seventeen, I felt God’s call to full time youth ministry, something that I thought was crazy since I was a youth. During college, I volunteered and interned in youth ministry and following my graduation from Appalachian Bible College with a degree in Bible and Theology, I was able to follow God’s call full time at a church in Indianapolis. That was also where I met Jen and in 2006 we were married.
God called us to Water's Edge Bible Church in 2008. We love this church. We are excited because of what God has already done here and are excited as we anticipate what God will do in the future here.
