God’s callings can sometimes lead us to fascinating and unexpected places. Case-in-point: the story of Vic Carpenter, an FBI agent, and pastor who has perhaps one of the most intriguing dual careers imaginable.
Carpenter, who recently shared his story with Baptist Press, grew up in a Christian home and assumed he would “take the straightforward path” into ministry.
But God, instead, sent him on a journey to unexpected places — and the results have been incredible.
At first, everything seemed to be heading in the typical direction one goes when he seeks to become a lead pastor. Carpenter, a married father of four boys, worked in youth ministry and embarked on a journey to get his Ph.D.
Like many young pastors, he hit some speedbumps along the way. Among them: Carpenter tried to lead a dying church to revitalization but struggled to turn it around — and that’s when life took an interesting turn.
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The young pastor was struggling and couldn’t seem to find a win. And his family needed money.
“I started applying all over the U.S. to find a different church to pastor,” Carpenter told Baptist Press. “I applied to different places for almost a year and heard no callbacks. Everything seemed to be dying underneath me.”
He decided on a whim to secretly apply to the FBI — something he assumed would amount to nothing.
But Carpenter got a callback and, to his surprise, was in the academy within six months. Suddenly, his decade-long work in ministry was upended by a law enforcement career he never saw coming.
“It was a radical change of events,” Carpenter told Baptist Press. “It provided for my family, and it was exciting in a certain way. But it was also the death of a vision. It felt like I wasted the last 10 years of my life.”
Still, he jumped in, and God led him through the entire process. When Carpenter joined the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, he learned a good number of his 12-person team were Christians.
Then, he realized the tight-knit nature of the FBI community offered a unique opportunity to minister to people he would have had no access to otherwise.
“In God’s providence, three other guys in my class and I started a workplace Bible study,” he said. “It was the first time I’d ever done a Bible study in that type of environment.”
Watch a recent sermon from Carpenter:
And that Bible study led the group — who kept bringing people to Christ — to start a church in 2019 and then another affiliated church after that.
Carpenter is now the teaching pastor of Redeemer Bible Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where many of his coworkers visit to hear him. And many find Christ.
“So many of our coworkers and their families have come to Christ. I’ve lost count at this point,” Carpenter told Baptist Press. “Others in the community have come to faith in Christ as well.”
The preacher is now sharing his story and even sharing tips on how others can lead effective workplace Bible studies — the impetus for creating his church.
“Just under a decade ago, myself and a few others started doing workplace Bible studies here at the FBI,” Carpenter said in a recent video. “And it is that foundation of discipleship that became the foundation of our church.”
Read more about this phenomenal story on Baptist Press.
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