We launched Narrow Road Ministries in the summer of 2021 with the idea that not everyone is comfortable attending a traditional church. We’ve heard from many over the years, that they used to attend church but had a painful experience. Others have very little or no experience attending a church and don’t know where to start. My wife Jillian and I have been in Christian ministry for 16 years and have ourselves experienced the highs and lows that come with church attendance.
Both of us graduated from Ethnos 360 Bible Institute in 2005. Ethnos is a missionary training school teaching through the entire bible with a focus on how to get the gospel to unreached people groups all over the world. Since then, we have served at 4 different bible churches from New York to Wisconsin, I (Titus) in several capacities from lead pastor, associate pastor and youth pastor.
Some of these church ministries have been a wonderful experience, cultivating long-lasting, loving Christian relationships while others caused deep heartache for our family. Jesus warned us of rejection when entering into ministry in Matthew 10. Even though these rejections were very difficult to experience we realize as humans we often think we know what’s best, naturally desiring to do things our own way (religion). God calls us to serve him and love others despite their rejection of us and of the truth of His word. We take great encouragement in knowing that we serve a God who was also rejected by the world and by his own people while here on earth, yet he (Jesus) remained obedient to the Father by enduring the cross.
Jillian and I desire to encourage others in their daily walk and relationship with Jesus Christ despite any poor past experience with religion as well as reaching those in our community who have yet to hear of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We know that all we endure here on this earth will be worth it when we see him face to face in glory (1 Peter 1:3-9).
Hope to see you soon at Narrow Road!
Pastor Titus Linebaugh
Launching Narrow Road Ministries
We began to pray specifically for Narrow Road two years before it’s launch, but really God had been preparing us for this ministry for 16 years. As the Lord directed our hearts towards launching, it became increasingly obvious that every heartache we’ve endured in our 16 years of church work was for a purpose; to relate to and encourage others who have gone through the same.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.“
During the two years of seeking God’s will through earnest prayer for Narrow Road, we asked him for 5 things. All of them were impossible for us to accomplish on our own but absolutely necessary before we could begin. We were still very new to the community of Montello and we simply lacked the necessary recourses and relationships to accomplish these requests on our own. BUT GOD…aren’t those the most beautiful words? He intervened and answered EVERY SINGLE PRAYER request! We certainly had our own ideas as to how God might bring these things about. Several times we took steps forward to try and “get things done” ourselves, yet every time we did God shut it down. There were many days, weeks and months where it seemed like nothing was happening. It felt like maybe it was just an idea we had but not God’s will, and in those moments the Lord graciously and faithfully sent us an encouragement to keep us going. It became so obvious that he was in control of putting all of the pieces together, our only role was to be ready and obedient when he did.
To God be the glory forever and ever.