The Right Direction: Caleb Adcox

My name is Caleb Adcox. I am a junior at Louisiana Tech studying Human Relations Management. After I graduate, I plan to attend seminary, and then pursue a vocation in ministry. While the process of discernment has been long and slow, and is nowhere near complete, I honestly believe that I would be nowhere near as far along in that process if not for the ways The Wesley has had an impact on my life.

I grew up going to church. Specifically, a relatively large, Southern Baptist church. I have considered myself a Christian since I was 6 or 7 years old, but my faith started to falter around high school. I still went to church, but that was mostly because my family more or less made me go. There were a lot of things that happened around this time that I could point at and say were reasons I strayed away, but at the end of the day it just came down to not trusting that God had a plan and a purpose for me. I let the circumstances of my life distract me from the love of God that I had witnessed in the past. And, although I had a solid upbringing in the Church, I hadn’t developed the personal foundation of my faith to realize that. This was the case for pretty much all of high school. In fact, it wasn’t until the spring of my senior year that I really started actively pursuing a relationship with God again. I got very involved in a Bible study through my church’s youth group, I saw God answer prayers and questions that had been weighing on me for several years, and I was finally close enough to graduating to get legitimately excited for college.

Although things improved near the end of the school year, I still struggled with my faith. I wasn’t as distant from God as I was before, but every new struggle and loss pushed me back in the direction I had just come from. I knew that it would be very easy for me to fall back into apathy, or even fully abandon my faith if I gave myself the opportunity, so when I got to Tech that fall, I made it a priority to get involved in a church and maintain and grow in my faith. 

Having grown up Baptist, I did not expect to get involved at The Wesley. In fact, I didn’t even know what The Wesley was until I met some of the interns at Freshman Orientation. In spite of having almost no familiarity with the Methodist denomination, I started to become more involved in this community. I joined a small group, started coming to events with more regularity, and signed up for our 2022 Appalachia Mission Trip.

It was after this trip I really started to recognize the call to ministry. The experience of living in a tight group of people all pursuing the same goals of growing in their relationships with God and serving His people made me realize that was where I found the most joy and fulfillment. Over the next year, I began seriously considering and working towards this calling. As a part of the student Discipleship Team, I have been blessed with many opportunities, not only to serve and lead other students, but also to be led and challenged in the ways I need to prepare me for ministry. 

Since realizing the call to ministry, now nearly a year and a half ago, I have grown and changed in ways I never would have thought were possible before. I still have a long way to go, and if I have learned anything about God since I got to college, it’s that I have no idea where His plan will lead me. But ever since The Wesley took me in as a lost, confused kid who barely had a relationship with God and showed me that He does, in fact, have a plan for my life, I know I’m at least moving in the right direction. 

Caleb (right) is a joy to be around. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he is always ready with a dad joke, a smile, or a word of consolation. He’s a junior at LA Tech this year studying Business, as well as a second year member of our Wesley Discipleship Team. We are so blessed to have him!