If you had known Ernie Sheldon as a young man, you likely would not have predicted a future in the pulpit.

He didn’t grow up steeped in Sunday services or church committees. Church attendance in his childhood home was sporadic at best—sometimes prompted by an unexpected proclamation from a stepfather who, after a night of drinking, would suddenly announce that the family was going to church. Faith was not the center of Ernie’s early life.

Jan’s story was different. Jan Sheldon was raised in the church. Faith was woven into her upbringing, steady and consistent. After she and Ernie married, it was Jan’s quiet foundation that began to influence the direction of their shared life.

Before marriage, Ernie was more interested in enjoying the moment than contemplating eternity. “I was into partying and having a good time,” he admits. But somewhere along the way, a restlessness crept in. There had to be more to life than this.

At the invitation of friends, the young couple began attending church while Ernie was serving in the Army. They found themselves at a Presbyterian church in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Every Sunday, Ernie struggled to stay awake through the sermon. Finally, embarrassed and perplexed, he went to the pastor and confessed: “I sleep through your sermons.”

The pastor didn’t scold him. He simply said, “Keep coming. You’ll start picking things up.”

So Ernie kept coming.

When their children were born, faith became more than personal curiosity—it became a parental priority. They wanted their children in Sunday School. Jan began teaching. Ernie joined a Bible study class filled with 80-year-olds while he was in his early 30s. One condition of membership: each person had to teach once a year.

He agreed.

Though they appreciated their church, they felt something was missing for their children. Again at the urging of friends, they began visiting other congregations. They wrote the names of churches on slips of paper, put them in a hat, and let their daughter draw one out: a Lutheran church.

They visited once—and never left.

There was a vibrant youth group, a growing congregation, and a sense of purpose. During this season, Ernie sensed a clear call: God has something more for you to do.

He began teaching middle school students, grounding his lessons in the 25th chapter of Matthew—“whatever you did for one of the least of these…” The students didn’t just study Scripture; they lived it. They fed the hungry, clothed the poor, and visited those in need. The ministry grew.

All the while, Ernie was on active duty as a Green Beret, working in the World Counter Drug Coordination Division for Army Special Operations. His work involved partnering with border patrol agencies and conducting missions in Central and South America to combat drugs entering the United States. It was high-stakes, demanding service.

Then one weekend, after returning home from an extended time away, Ernie told Jan they needed to get away for a few days. They found themselves sitting in an Applebee’s in Augusta, Georgia.

“I think we need to go to Columbia,” he told her.

“Why?” Jan asked.

“I want to see the seminary.”

He had nearly 19 years of Army service. Though early retirement was being offered, he was not eligible. And yet the call would not quiet. He wanted to attend seminary after retirement.

Jan’s response was steady and practical: “You’ll have to convince me this is right.”

Over the next year, three remarkable things happened. The Army increased its tuition plan for veterans. A house they had struggled to sell for years finally sold. And when a downstairs bathroom overflowed, the insurance money allowed them to refinish their basement—making their current home far easier to sell.

Jan was convinced.

They told the children. Their son was less than thrilled. But their daughter’s response was simple and profound: “If that’s what God wants us to do, then that’s what we will do.”

They moved to Columbia, South Carolina, and Ernie enrolled at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. They describe those years as the hardest—and best—of their marriage. Roles reversed. Jan became the primary breadwinner. Ernie became a full-time parent and student. For the first time in their marriage, there were no deployments. They were together every day.

After graduation, Ernie received his first call to pastor a church. Then a second. Neither ended well.

He made a startling decision: he left pastoral ministry and became a truck driver.

For nine years, he drove long-haul routes. The cab of a truck became a classroom of self-reflection. What had gone wrong? Slowly, he realized the common denominator in both churches was him. He devoured leadership books, especially those by John C. Maxwell, and came to a hard conclusion: he needed to change.

He had brought too much of the military into the church. Commanding didn’t build congregations. It built compliance. What churches needed was collaboration—team building, listening, persuading, equipping.

“I had to demilitarize my leadership,” he says.

Even while trucking, he continued to teach and serve at church. And he prayed a simple prayer: “Lord, if you want me back, you’ll have to make it happen.”

God did.

He began serving again as a supply pastor, filling pulpits on Sundays when other pastors were away. What started as occasional preaching gradually reopened the door he had once closed. Then a congregation in Statesville, North Carolina, invited him to serve as a full-time interim pastor.

After a year in that interim role, the church made their intentions clear—they called him as their full-time pastor. Ernie and Jan would serve that congregation for the next ten years, years marked by steady leadership, collaboration, and a shepherd’s heart shaped by humility and hard-earned wisdom.

On December 24, 2023, they answered yet another call, beginning their ministry at Salem Lutheran Church in Salisbury, where they continue to serve today—still led, as always, by the Spirit

Today, Ernie and Jan are settled in Bermuda Run West, grateful for the community they call home. Their life, they say, has been quite a journey.

“The Holy Spirit worked it all out,” they reflect. “We are blessed. We just stepped up and served, and it worked out. When we needed something, the Lord provided. In God’s timing, it all works.”

Ernie offers simple advice: “Let go of the world and trust in the Lord.”

No one in his family would have predicted that the once hard-charging Green Beret would become a Lutheran pastor. But perhaps that is the point.

Jan says one of the greatest blessings of pastoral life is walking alongside people in their most meaningful moments—baptisms, weddings, hospital rooms, funerals, celebrations. “You share in the moments of people’s lives that mean so much,” she says.

Led by the Spirit, the Sheldons stepped forward again and again—sometimes uncertain, sometimes afraid, but willing.

And in the stepping, they found their calling.