Jeff McIntosh

Life Story:

From a very young age I had a deep sense that no matter how hard I tried, something was wrong with me. Shame and performance to earn the approval of others marked me growing up, though I had loving, believing parents who pointed my siblings and I to Jesus through their lives and raising us in the church. At the age of 18 I took off for Nashville to pursue music full-time at college, quickly to realize that I was surrounded by folks much more talented and farther along than me. My gifts in music had become my idol - my source of affirmation, identity, joy and hope - and it all came crashing down that fall. By God’s grace, I was home at a church service over Christmas break and left the service feeling deep in my soul the desire to buy a Bible - I know now that was God’s Spirit drawing me to Himself! That January of 2012, I opened the Bible and began reading for the first time in my life and a couple weeks in, God used Ephesians 2:1-10 to open my eyes to Himself, grace, and gave me an understanding of the Gospel for the first time! I believed and I was shocked!! I thought, “How didn’t I see this before? Why is no one talking about this?” I thought I was Christian for 19 years because of a vague moral framework I had, but God had saved me by His grace through the saving power of His word, all alone in my freshman dorm room. Since then, He’s continued to show me his faithfulness and kindness throughout the last decade and I am forever grateful and humbled to be able to serve him through worship in song today. 

Hopes for our church: 

My hope for Restoration Church is that we would be a people who love God and love one another, motivated and propelled by His great grace and love for us, where the weary, weak and brokenhearted find a place of rest and comfort in Christ, and that we would then be led by his Spirit within us to love all those in our communities and beyond.