Alumni Post: Nick Wagner

My name is Nick Wagner and I am an alumnus of the Louisiana Tech Wesley Foundation.  I first encountered the Wesley Foundation as a freshman at Louisiana Tech University.  I was raised in the church, participated in all different types of church events, and was there every Sunday with my family.  I had great parents and was raised right. However, between getting soured by church politics and having my own sinful habits on the side, I became jaded with the church outwardly and distant from Jesus personally.  This continued for several years. I would attend church every Sunday and occasionally be involved with small groups during the week, but it all ended in my second year at college when I wound up at rock bottom and spilled my guts to Scott Wright, the then-director of the Wesley Foundation.  I was at a fork in the road and had to choose “life or death, blessings or curses.” I ended up choosing life. It was something that blessed not only my life but the life with my then-girlfriend and now wife, Alana. God showered us with blessings and opportunities to serve in ways that were beyond my wildest dreams.  I led small groups, helped with local missions, and heard great, biblical teaching on a weekly basis. On top of this, I was able to form relationships with other people who were doing the same thing at the same time.

Through fundraising, hard work, and prayer, we were able to participate in local missions such as building ramps for families in need, praying for late night food service workers, and ministering to children in project housing.  We also participated in foreign missions, and I was able to go five times to the country of Haiti and assist with missions in the town of Sus a Phillippe. We saw people spiritually saved, physically saved, and an old water filtration system come back to life.  Dead bones began to live again. It rocked my world and I now have friends and family across the ocean. It was something that was only possible by the grace of God and the generous support of faithful believers.

As I graduated with a degree in Architecture, I also felt God slowly but definitively calling me to preach.  I never wanted to do this. I was content with serving behind the scenes, sitting with a new person in church, doing mission work with my hands, or leading an intimate Bible Study.  However, the idea of preaching and pastoring was something that I resented. I had seen bad church politics when I was younger and had seen good men get chewed up and spit out by the people they were trying to serve.  I figured if God ever called me to this, I would tell Him to call someone else. I spoke to many people about this, including family friends, my father-in-law, and people my age. However, the calling would not go away and I knew that if I did not answer now, I would just be prolonging the inevitable.  I was going to have to answer sooner or later and I figured it might as well be sooner. At an outreach service at Ollah UMC, I preached for the first time. I was scared to death before, during and after, but I knew I was doing what God had called me to do. Since then, I have been blessed with the chance to serve in ministry, both at a church in south Louisiana and now at my current position as Director of Youth and Young Adults at Grace UMC in Ruston, Louisiana.  God has also allowed me to marry my wonderful wife and we are enjoying our second year of life together. I love the church I minister at, the ways in which God allows me to serve, and the blessing it is to see people know Jesus better. The Wesley Foundation at Louisiana Tech has a long history of shining light in dark places. I pray this will continue as you share Jesus with people and allow Him to give “good news to the poor, liberty to the captive, and the recovery of sight to the blind.”  God has moved mightily through this ministry and I have been humbled to have been a part of it.