Taylor Cannon: A Divine Pivot from Chemical Engineering to Vocational Ministry
In this episode of Mission Control Podcast, we’re honored to have Taylor Cannon, Minister of Outreach at First Baptist Melbourne, share his profound transformation from a budding chemical engineer to working in ministry. With a candid openness, Taylor recounts the steps, his inner conflicts, and the divine guidance that led him through an astonishing career pivot. His journey illustrates the power of faith and community in steering life’s direction, and how embracing one’s true calling can lead to the most fulfilling of missions. Join host Amanda Levy as she helps unpack Taylor’s story, seeking to inspire and enlighten anyone who may be contemplating a significant leap of faith in their own lives.
Episode Highlights:
– Taylor Cannon’s shift from chemical engineering to vocational ministry
– The influence of Christian freedom on career choices
– Roadblocks faced by Taylor, including financial challenges
– How God worked through Taylor’s relationship and discernment of marriage
– Taylor’s experience with Intervarsity, subsequent marriage, and family life discussions
– Insights into Taylor’s mentors and their impact on his faith journey
– Advice on disciple-making, studying, and teaching the word of God
– Taylor’s engagement with community outreach and growth goals for First Baptist Melbourne
– The importance and impact of parental support in career transitions
Resources Mentioned:
– “Is God Calling Me?” by Jeff Iorg (https://www.christianbook.com/calling-answering-question-every-leader-asks/jeff-iorg/9780805447224/pd/447224)
– “Bible Talk” Podcast by James Hamilton (https://www.9marks.org/tag/bible-talk/)
Connect with Us:
– Visit our website at launchme.church
– Follow us on Facebook & Instagram at @FBCMel.
– Send us your thoughts and questions at info@fbcmel.org.
Support the Show:
– Share this episode with your friends and family who might be interested in vocational ministry journeys and faith-based transformations.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Mission Control. Join us next week as we explore more inspiring stories and dive deeper into the lives of individuals who are living out the mission God has for them.
Episode Transcript
Amanda Levy [00:00:01]:
God has given all of us a mission to make disciples here and everywhere for the glory of God minus ten and nine. We want our church to be a launch pad for sending people out on the mission God has for them. Regardless of who you are, we all have a role to play. We are all involved in God’s story. We pray that the story shared through mission control will encourage you to see how God is calling you to be used by him. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Mission Control podcast. My name is Amanda Levy, and I’m the communications director here at First Baptist Melbourne.
Amanda Levy [00:00:43]:
And today we have Taylor Cannon joining us. And then my brain just blanked. What is your title here now, Taylor?
Taylor Cannon [00:00:49]:
Minister of outreach.
Amanda Levy [00:00:51]:
Minister of outreach. So Taylor is one of the newest staff members here at First Baptist Melbourne and is the minister of outreach. You heard it here. He. So you were here in college?
Taylor Cannon [00:01:03]:
Yes.
Amanda Levy [00:01:04]:
So went to fit, came to First Baptist Melbourne, left to go to seminary, and is now back in Melbourne, Florida. And so I’m really glad to have you here. Thanks for joining us.
Taylor Cannon [00:01:14]:
My pleasure. I’m glad to be here.
Amanda Levy [00:01:16]:
Before we get into the thick of our conversation, I just have a fun little space icebreaker for us.
Taylor Cannon [00:01:21]:
Okay, I’m ready.
Amanda Levy [00:01:23]:
So this is a piggyback off of what I asked your wife in the last episode, but space travel is becoming more common. So, first of all, if you had the opportunity to go to space, would you take it?
Taylor Cannon [00:01:36]:
Probably.
Amanda Levy [00:01:37]:
Okay. So if you’re going on the trip to space, what’s one thing that you would be sure to pack for? A space journey.
Taylor Cannon [00:01:45]:
How long is the journey?
Amanda Levy [00:01:47]:
However long you want it to be. How long do you want your space journey to be?
Taylor Cannon [00:01:51]:
I don’t know.
Amanda Levy [00:01:52]:
Well, where would you like to go? Because that would dictate how long it is, too.
Taylor Cannon [00:01:55]:
That’s true. It would be cool to, like, just space in general would be a lot of fun. Yeah, I think going to a planet seems like it would take way too long. I wouldn’t want to be in space that long. Yeah, probably. It’s going to sound real lame. I probably would just want to make sure I brought up some books so I don’t get bored.
Amanda Levy [00:02:19]:
I don’t think that’s lame. I don’t think that’s lame at all. Yeah, it’s crazy just seeing how many opportunities there are to go to space now for private individuals. It’s wild. There’s no great segue.
Taylor Cannon [00:02:34]:
Is that a real. Yeah, I’m like, maybe it’s because I’ve been in Louisville, Kentucky for so long. Like, nobody talks about.
Amanda Levy [00:02:42]:
So this is a rabbit trail. I’m not sure that it’s more common for Florida, although we do have some private citizens going to space from Florida now, but I believe it’s in. I. This is a rabbit trail. I have a friend of a friend who has been to space. Really? Yes.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:01]:
Just like, just a friend. Just a dude. It’s like, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go to space.
Amanda Levy [00:03:06]:
They might be a little more than, like, the celebrity status, okay. But they had the opportunity to just go to space. So the flight was literally, like, they got into the ship and they just went up into orbit and then came back. But still, that’s more than I can say for myself.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:20]:
True.
Amanda Levy [00:03:21]:
I’m not sure I would take the opportunity, but I applaud people who are down for it.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:25]:
I was going to say I wouldn’t pay for that, but if someone was like, hey, would you like to go to space?
Amanda Levy [00:03:30]:
You wouldn’t say no.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:31]:
I’d be like, yeah, sure. Whatever day that is, I’m probably free.
Amanda Levy [00:03:34]:
I think someone gave me the opportunity.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:35]:
To be like, I don’t know, but.
Amanda Levy [00:03:39]:
I think that says a lot about your willingness to dive into different things. So I’m going to treat this as a segue. So, with that, where does God currently have you on mission? In life?
Taylor Cannon [00:03:49]:
Yeah, I’ll start with, like, proximity.
Amanda Levy [00:03:53]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:03:53]:
So I’m married to Rebecca. Okay. We’ve been married for six years. I would say that, I guess when I think about on mission, insofar as mission is being a disciple, making disciples, so leading the lost and saved closer to Jesus, I would see my wife as being kind of the first place that I’m on mission. I love my wife. She’s wonderful. And I’ve loved in the last six years to see her grow more and more into Christ likeness. And it’s been a blessing to be a part of that.
Taylor Cannon [00:04:27]:
I have two kids. Hudson, who’s about to turn three, and he loves rocket ships. He tells me every single day.
Amanda Levy [00:04:34]:
I’m sure he would take the opportunity.
Taylor Cannon [00:04:35]:
To go to space.
Amanda Levy [00:04:37]:
No hesitation.
Taylor Cannon [00:04:38]:
Yeah. Especially if there was chocolate cake on the rocket ship. He also says that every day. And then we have a little girl. She’s 15 ish months. Her name is Evangeline. They’re my first mission. First place I’m on mission.
Taylor Cannon [00:04:55]:
Sure. It’s been really neat to have conversations with them. He’s fairly articulate for a three year old and continues to surprise me with the things he hears and processes the questions he asks. And so that’s been really neat. I guess immediate outside of that would be just my neighbors. We live in a neighborhood about apartment complex, like ten minutes from here. So we want our neighbors to know and to love Christ, obviously here wanting to be a blessing to the members of First Baptist in my role in particular, I get to work through the rec ministries here with people who are members, people who aren’t members, people aren’t christians, and to encourage believers as evangelists, as followers of Christ. Then I get to work with the young adults, young professionals.
Taylor Cannon [00:05:47]:
So we’ll do stuff at Florida Tech. We’ll do stuff with young married couples at the moment, the spheres of mission for me.
Amanda Levy [00:05:59]:
Sure. How did you get there? So I know you’re an fit student. You studied engineering of some sort. Tell us about that whole journey. Like from engineering to now I’m working part time as minister of outreach. At first of was, what’s that journey been like?
Taylor Cannon [00:06:19]:
Yeah, well, you definitely don’t start a chemical engineering degree. With that end goal in mind. I came to Florida Tech. We had adopted my brothers two years prior, so I wanted to be close to home. Florida Tech had a football program that is no longer there, sadly.
Amanda Levy [00:06:44]:
Were you in the football program?
Taylor Cannon [00:06:45]:
I was, yes. I don’t think I realized that I played football. I wanted to play football. I wanted to be close to my family, and I wanted to be an engineer. I checked the box and there’s only one school. And so I came to Florida Tech with the intent of getting a degree, going to work for my dad. And that had been the plan, really, until a year. The summer before I graduated, had an internship that I really didn’t want stumbled into it.
Taylor Cannon [00:07:14]:
And it was two internships, one with my dad doing engineering and one with. At a church, at a local church down in Palm beach. And at the end of those, it felt like the Lord kind of presented these two paths for me to go. Like, both of these are good things. And I just really wanted to do ministry. I felt really encouraged by the pastor that I was under at the church, and so prayed about that, and six months later told my dad, like, hey, thanks for funding my school, and encouraged me all this time. I’m going to do something totally different.
Amanda Levy [00:07:56]:
What did your dad say?
Taylor Cannon [00:08:00]:
I was reflecting on this the other day. He was encouraging, but I didn’t know until later. He met with a friend from church, and the guy told me years later, he said, I sat down at breakfast with your dad after you told him, and he told me with tears in his eyes how proud he was of you, which is, I mean, like, yeah, I mean, he had, I mean, basically trained me my whole life to. To take his spot at this job and, and to tell him, like, I’m not going to do that. And for him to still say, I’m so proud of you has meant the world to me.
Amanda Levy [00:08:45]:
Was it difficult to go to your dad and have that conversation?
Taylor Cannon [00:08:48]:
Yeah, absolutely difficult conversation. You just don’t know, like, what he’s going to say.
Amanda Levy [00:08:57]:
Were you raised in a christian home?
Taylor Cannon [00:08:59]:
Yes.
Amanda Levy [00:09:00]:
That makes a difference.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:01]:
Yes.
Amanda Levy [00:09:03]:
But still an incredibly difficult conversation.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:05]:
Yeah. Well, years prior, I had a cousin who did a very similar thing.
Amanda Levy [00:09:10]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:10]:
I remember my dad getting off the phone with my uncle and telling me, your cousin’s a fool for doing so.
Amanda Levy [00:09:18]:
To have that in the back of your mind.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:20]:
But praise God, the Lord has been growing. My dad, he’s been a huge blessing to me. And so, yes, I worked for navarsity, worked for Intervarsity till the end of 2020.
Amanda Levy [00:09:38]:
Through the COVID year.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:39]:
Through the COVID year. Yeah, that was wild, doing college ministry with not being able to be around college students.
Amanda Levy [00:09:45]:
Yeah.
Taylor Cannon [00:09:46]:
And at the end of that time, was encouraged by the elders here to move to Louisville. We had just bought a house and we had a baby on the way. We had Hudson on the. And Pastor Scott, Pastor Darren and Pastor Aaron still sat down with me and said, hey, I thought I was going for a job interview. And they did not talk about any jobs at all. The whole meeting was like, hey, look, you could do a lot of jobs, a lot of part time things, but we really think you should just, like, up and move.
Amanda Levy [00:10:22]:
What were the.
Taylor Cannon [00:10:26]:
Talked? I talked to Pastor Scott afterwards. I really sat down, was like, I don’t think I should do this. I don’t think I’m cut out for ministry like pastoral ministry. This conversation really carried me through seminary where we sat down and he again, with tears in his eyes, said, taylor, I believe in you and the gifts that God has given you, and you need to be concerned. He’s like, humility is good. Humility is a good thing to have, but there comes a time where you need to be concerned about burying your talents in the sand. Yeah. I say I revisited that conversation.
Taylor Cannon [00:11:15]:
I’m in the middle of seminary, like, learning. I had to learn to write papers. You don’t write papers in engineering, right?
Amanda Levy [00:11:19]:
Yeah.
Taylor Cannon [00:11:20]:
How to read a book. It had been years since I’d read anything. And so feeling like really a fish out of water in many ways and reminding myself. Like, I’m not here because I think I’m great. I’m here because people have encouraged me to do so. That’s how I got to Louisville. I had no intention of coming back, but I did while I was there, develop. I think the Lord grew in me a desire to be a pastor.
Taylor Cannon [00:12:00]:
I realize it doesn’t always happen like this, but I think it’s best just because so much. It’s best when pastors are referred simply because so much of being a pastor is about character, and you can’t get a lot of that in an interview. And so my first priority is, like, I’ll submit job applications if I need to, because I need a job. But if First Baptist or the church we were at, Emmanuel Baptist Church, would recommend we go somewhere, we would do that before we did anything else. And so First Baptist reached out for us to do the pipeline, and I wanted to do more schooling. And so the conversation evolved until we’re here.
Amanda Levy [00:12:50]:
Nice. Yeah, nice. So are you doing more schooling right now?
Taylor Cannon [00:12:56]:
That’s the hope. I’ve applied to do more schooling. I’m waiting. I should know the end of February.
Amanda Levy [00:13:07]:
What degree program did you go through for a seminary?
Taylor Cannon [00:13:11]:
I’m about to finish my master’s of divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Amanda Levy [00:13:16]:
Got you. Cool.
Taylor Cannon [00:13:18]:
Yeah, it’s been good.
Amanda Levy [00:13:20]:
At what point did the conversations begin again with First Baptist Melbourne to bring you here? What were your thoughts for that?
Taylor Cannon [00:13:26]:
Yeah, that was not this last summer, but the summer beforehand. So that was when they first reached out and said, hey, we’ll talk again in December. Just want to put this in front of you. Something to pray about.
Amanda Levy [00:13:39]:
Got you.
Taylor Cannon [00:13:40]:
Yeah, we prayed about. Just praying. What to do? Praying about church planning, church revitalization, just being a pastor somewhere.
Amanda Levy [00:13:51]:
Where is your heart in all of that?
Taylor Cannon [00:13:54]:
I think we’re open to a lot of things. Our hope is to stay here for a while and understanding that the Lord could kind of lead us. We’re holding where we’re at with a very open hand.
Amanda Levy [00:14:05]:
I think that’s a good place. Yeah. So you’re open to things. Are you doing anything with the pipeline right now?
Taylor Cannon [00:14:13]:
Not presently, no.
Amanda Levy [00:14:14]:
Okay, cool. So it’s community outreach. What does that mean?
Taylor Cannon [00:14:19]:
Yeah. So my hope, I guess presently it’s to maintain and maximize the things that are in place.
Amanda Levy [00:14:28]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:14:29]:
My hope is to use the ministries that are there to help the members at First Baptist in particular, grow as evangelists. So just in their personal life, thinking about kind of being oriented towards sharing the gospel with the people around them making relationships, building friendships with the expressed intent, I’m going to love you. And a part of that is I want to share the gospel with you.
Amanda Levy [00:14:56]:
That’s cool. What excites you about your role and about what’s happening at First Baptist Melbourne.
Taylor Cannon [00:15:04]:
Probably more than anything, is the potential. There’s a lot of members here. And when you think about, like, I think there’s 1800 members at First Baptist, somewhere around there is a big, a really big number.
Amanda Levy [00:15:22]:
It becomes this whole members versus active.
Taylor Cannon [00:15:25]:
Yeah, you just turn people and you turn people towards others to share the gospel and just your life and really awesome things start to happen. My hope is to help people. And kind of the beauty of it is, particularly with being a baptist church, believing in regenerate church membership. I think oftentimes you just get to point people to the Bible and be like, hey, this is what following Jesus looks like. And they’re like, you know, yeah, like, I’d like to do, like, hey, let’s do that. Let’s do that. Think. I think that’s exciting.
Amanda Levy [00:16:08]:
Cool. And as you look back, where are some obvious areas with hindsight that you see that God was leading and directing.
Taylor Cannon [00:16:15]:
You towards this, to, like, towards this role where we’re at now or just.
Amanda Levy [00:16:20]:
Even just the season of ministry? Either now or just in general, the pivot from engineering to ministry? Yeah.
Taylor Cannon [00:16:31]:
Well, there’s two big things that happened multiple times. One would be just like, really impactful conversations I had with people, and they ended up being like, sometimes very brief conversations. Moving from engineering to ministry was, I had an internship, I guess, at a church in North Palm.
Amanda Levy [00:17:01]:
Is that where your family.
Taylor Cannon [00:17:02]:
Is that where I’m from? Palm beach? Okay, so just South Florida. But I had an internship with this guy who, again, just kind of offered it to me on the spot. And at the end of it he said, I felt like the Lord when you came in was like, hey, you should give this guy this internship to run the college program. I had no ministry experience outside of working, just being a student leader at intervarsity. He’s like, hey, I felt like the Lord was leading me to give this to you and then to watch.
Amanda Levy [00:17:38]:
To.
Taylor Cannon [00:17:38]:
See what happens and tell you what I see. And he said, I’ve come to the end of this and I want you to know that I think God has wired you for this. I think you’re going to be really discontent doing anything else. And I had begun to feel that in myself, having these two experiences, these two experiences side by side. But in many ways, I think it was the first time anyone had affirmed that in me, and it was a new desire in me. And so that was one where just kind of like a radical change there. The other ones, again, like the conversation to move from intervarsity to Louisville. That conversation with Pastor Scott in particular, moved the needle for me from one direction to the other.
Taylor Cannon [00:18:24]:
And then, yeah, I mean, moving back, I would have been like, I guess, like more a series of conversations. But I think it ended up being more. The second piece in all of this was money. It was just like, a very practical. Whenever I went into Intervarsity, this isn’t necessarily direction, but it did help in a lot of ways, is that my parents weren’t really on board, actually. They weren’t really convinced that this is what I was going to do until I was support raising. So I was in ministry with Intervarsity and needed to make a living. So while I was support raising, initially, I started to work with Dan Carter and Jason Shaq, and I just pulled a lot of weeds.
Amanda Levy [00:19:10]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:19:10]:
Which, growing up, was my punishment.
Amanda Levy [00:19:14]:
Okay, but you were willing to do it for this?
Taylor Cannon [00:19:17]:
I was willing to do it, yeah. Because I thought this was what the Lord had for me, and this is what obedience to God looked like. And I remember having a conversation with my mom where I was asking for her to partner to fund us and partner with me financially. And that, for her, was like the, okay, I’m on board. And so they’ve become. Her and my dad have become, really some of my biggest supporters just in my ministry as a whole, have completely gotten behind the things that God has been doing in me and in my family. Moving to Louisville, they were the ones. We couldn’t have done that unless years prior, they had said, hey, we feel like the Lord obedience to God looks like funding you through seminary.
Taylor Cannon [00:20:09]:
And I was like, I don’t want to do that. I really love working for Intervarsity, and it honestly really confused them. Okay, well, maybe we heard wrong or so. But two years later, my time with the nervousity has come to an end. I don’t have a next step, and I meet with Pastor Scott for what I thought was the next step.
Amanda Levy [00:20:32]:
And then he gave you this.
Taylor Cannon [00:20:33]:
He gave me the thing. And so we prayed about it, and I ended up calling my dad and was like, hey, remember that conversation?
Amanda Levy [00:20:41]:
But your dad planted the seed for seminary first, then before Pastor Scott. Is that what had.
Taylor Cannon [00:20:46]:
Yeah, like the moving?
Amanda Levy [00:20:48]:
Yep.
Taylor Cannon [00:20:48]:
Because I had started and I was doing it a class at a time, had no intention of moving there. It was simply to just learn more.
Amanda Levy [00:20:55]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:20:55]:
My dad was the first was like, you should move there. And I was like, I’m not going to do that. And the pastor Scott was like, you should move there. And I was like, hey, dad, what do you think about me moving to?
Amanda Levy [00:21:06]:
Crazy idea. You’ve probably never heard of it.
Taylor Cannon [00:21:08]:
Yeah, exactly. Remember that conversation we had years ago and I told you that I’m never going to do that?
Amanda Levy [00:21:13]:
Yeah. Here we are. Well, that’s kind of a cool. I wouldn’t call it 180 because your dad was supportive when you first talked to him. But I think it’s also cool how your parents supported and were encouraging in this as well. Not just like, okay, that’s cool. But like, hey, we’re going to get our boots on the ground and help you with this too. That’s awesome.
Amanda Levy [00:21:33]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. What advice would you have for someone who is maybe in that position? You were back when you were in college and you did the internship, and they’re thinking to themselves, either I don’t feel like I have a next step in front of me or maybe the pathway I’m going down. I feel discontent in and God’s calling me to something more ministry related. What would you say to them?
Taylor Cannon [00:22:01]:
Yeah, I think it. I think that God has given us three things to make decisions. I think christians have so much freedom to make choices. There’s a paraphrase of an augustine quote.
Amanda Levy [00:22:25]:
That.
Taylor Cannon [00:22:28]:
I just really appreciate. It says, I have it written down here.
Amanda Levy [00:22:32]:
Very good. That font, by the way, is so small. I don’t know how you read that.
Taylor Cannon [00:22:38]:
You can make it bigger. Okay, this is just twelve point font, just some standard times new roman. I did put it on here and I was like, maybe I should have edited this.
Amanda Levy [00:22:46]:
You should see this. It is like this big.
Taylor Cannon [00:22:51]:
Yeah. The things Lacik will do for you.
Amanda Levy [00:22:53]:
Oh, very good. So anyway, Augustine, it says.
Taylor Cannon [00:22:55]:
So Augustine, he has this quote where he effectively says, love God and do whatever you please. For the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the one who is beloved. And I think there’s a lot of truth in that. I think that christians are free as they’re constrained by God’s love for God, love from God to really do what they want. And I think that the parameters that God gives in those decision makings are his word. Love for God will constrain us to obedience to God’s word, his people. Love for God unites us with his people, it puts us in submission to his people, it makes us to serve his people and then his holy spirit, who fills us who leads us. There’s this awesome verse in Jeremiah where it talks about how this in the new covenant, the spirit will be as one who comes up from behind and says to go this way or that.
Taylor Cannon [00:23:50]:
This is the way. Walk in it. And so I would say, first, pray God wants to lead you. In proverbs, it talks about how the heart of a king is like streams of water in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he will. And then in psalm 37, it talks about how if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he’ll give us the desires of our heart. And so I think those things kind of work together to say, like, look, we attune our hearts to God. We seek after God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and God’s the one who moves our hearts and our desires. We can want good things and then just pursue them, but we need to pursue them, not as individuals, because we’re not just individuals.
Taylor Cannon [00:24:32]:
We’re part of a family. To be a Christian is to be one part of a body, a local church. And so to make those kinds of decisions as you seek the Lord, like, your heart begins to move. And then you ask other people in your church, people that know you, people that are discipling you, whether it’s your pastors or the people around you, the people in your small group. Hey, what do you think about this? I’m thinking these things. Would you pray with me? Think through these things with me.
Amanda Levy [00:24:57]:
Yeah.
Taylor Cannon [00:24:58]:
And so God’s word, God’s people, God’s spirit, lead us to really kind of do what we want.
Amanda Levy [00:25:04]:
Yeah, I think that’s awesome. What are some people or resources that have been really encouraging for you and helpful for you on this road?
Taylor Cannon [00:25:15]:
Yeah, that’s a really.
Amanda Levy [00:25:17]:
Not to say it has to be the best one, but just some of.
Taylor Cannon [00:25:20]:
Well, there are so many people. There’s so many people. And I think when you asked the previous question, really the first thing that came to mind is acknowledging in my own story, praise God for this, how it was so not just me at every step. It was people around me really holding my hand through these things. And I’m just so thankful to God for that. Even, like, right after I became a Christian, I became a Christian when I was. I was 18.
Amanda Levy [00:25:52]:
Oh, I didn’t realize that. Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:25:54]:
Yeah. So grew up in a christian home, would have professed to be a Christian. And yet in reflecting, everything was plain. I loved the world, I loved sin, and there was not love for God in my heart. And so, praise God. He saved me before I came to college really changed how this things I was anticipating college being. But one of those things is I felt the need for christian friendships and by God’s grace he brought Intervarsity into my life. They really took hold of my hand and taught me how to study the Bible, how to share my faith, how to do all those things in community, what it meant to come alongside people and walk with them.
Taylor Cannon [00:26:37]:
We do this stuff together. So yeah, in there, Tim Gonier, incredibly helpful, just a sweet gift from God to me. Abraham Zamora and his wife Laura who are members here, just men who wanted to come alongside younger believers and teach them how to follow Jesus. And yeah, I mean eternally grateful for those two men in particular, first Baptist. The elders here obviously, as I’ve shared different times in my story, how helpful they’ve been in helping me. Certainly just sitting under faithful preaching I think is essential has shaped me more than I’ll ever know. Yeah, my parents, just seeing them grow in love for God, seeing my dad be a christian businessman who is over people and loves them and leads well. Yeah, I feel like all the people I’ve talked about my wife in ways you just don’t know when you get married how much help you need.
Taylor Cannon [00:27:52]:
And she’s been a sweet gift to me resource wise. One of the things seminary does is it kind of fits you with resources. I would say there’s two professors in particular and then one guy I just really appreciated the way he’s taught the Bible and thinks through the Bible is James Hamilton, who has a great podcast called Bible Talk. I recommend it to everybody and they just walk through section by section the Bible.
Amanda Levy [00:28:25]:
That’s cool.
Taylor Cannon [00:28:25]:
They’re in second Samuel. They started in Genesis called Bible Talk.
Amanda Levy [00:28:29]:
What was his name?
Taylor Cannon [00:28:30]:
James Hamilton.
Amanda Levy [00:28:31]:
James Hamilton, okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:28:32]:
Yeah, highly recommend just to listen as you read along the Bible.
Amanda Levy [00:28:37]:
Yeah, we’ll put a link to that in the show notes.
Taylor Cannon [00:28:39]:
Phenomenal. The other guy would be Stephen Wellem who’s a professor. Yeah. Really loves the Lord, loves the church. I think just a brilliant theologian who’s thought about how the Bible fits together, progresses, culminates, climaxes in Jesus Christ. What that means for us, hugely influential for me, another guy would be Jonathan Lehman who’s thought a lot about the church and how that relates to the christian life. Yeah, those guys really, anything they write I would recommend whatever their podcasts are, I would recommend them. I think they’re phenomenal.
Amanda Levy [00:29:19]:
Cool. Going back maybe a little bit, what kind of roadblocks have you faced and how has God worked through them?
Taylor Cannon [00:29:30]:
Yeah, that’s a good question. Roadblocks. I think, like I said, money ends up being one of them, and God’s kindness to work through really ordinary circumstances. I just need money and God is kind to lead in those places. And there’s certainly points. Maybe there’s different roadblocks that end up being like being in ministry. They end up being more theological in nature. Like, I disagree with this or this thing or I just have even.
Taylor Cannon [00:30:06]:
Not necessarily in ministry, but thinking about my wife has been a huge part of this for me. And even learning what it means to discern God’s will in my pursuit of her. I just had, like, a really backwards view of what it meant to know God’s will for my life, what it meant to follow God, and what I just expressed is where I’ve landed. But our relationship was like, I would not recommend anybody date the way that we did, at least in the sense of the back and forth and not breaking up and getting back together.
Amanda Levy [00:30:51]:
I was not aware of this part of your relationship.
Taylor Cannon [00:30:55]:
As pertains to godliness. I think I praise God. We did well, as it pertains to maybe wisdom. If you break up, you should just not try to be friends. You should just end it.
Amanda Levy [00:31:11]:
This is turning into a relationship podcast with Taylor Cannon.
Taylor Cannon [00:31:16]:
Yeah. God’s kindness. He taught me about his love for me and how to know what his will. Yeah. Which is things.
Amanda Levy [00:31:29]:
At what point in this journey did you start dating Rebecca and then get married?
Taylor Cannon [00:31:35]:
Yeah. So I started dating.
Amanda Levy [00:31:43]:
Putting you on the spot. We don’t need years, just like general. Yeah.
Taylor Cannon [00:31:47]:
So I started dating Rebecca. I went on my first date with Rebecca.
Amanda Levy [00:31:51]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:31:52]:
Basically, as soon as I left that internship at the church in. Okay, I started dating Rebecca five months later.
Amanda Levy [00:32:02]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:32:03]:
And that was five months. Then we broke up. I started to work for Intervarsity.
Amanda Levy [00:32:10]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:32:11]:
Six months after that.
Amanda Levy [00:32:12]:
So you had the conversation with your father before you were married then?
Taylor Cannon [00:32:16]:
Yes. Okay. I actually told on that same conversation. I told my dad I was going to marry Rebecca.
Amanda Levy [00:32:23]:
This is a big conversation.
Taylor Cannon [00:32:24]:
It’s a big conversation.
Amanda Levy [00:32:27]:
Were you dating her at this point?
Taylor Cannon [00:32:31]:
It’s okay.
Amanda Levy [00:32:32]:
You don’t want to answer that.
Taylor Cannon [00:32:33]:
I was not dating her at this point. I was pretty confident we were going to be dating soon. Okay. Learning how to discern God’s will is a very important thing in the christian life. And so, yeah, six months after we broke up, I took her on a walk and said, I realize we’re not dating, but I’d like to marry you. And she was like, well, I’d still like to be broken up. And I said, well, you should talk to somebody about that. And so she did, and she came back, and so we started dating.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:15]:
We were working for Dan together. Now we’re both making money because she started work for FCA.
Amanda Levy [00:33:18]:
Wait, okay, so you weren’t working for FCA, though. You were working for the. For intervarsity.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:24]:
Dan is connected to intervarsity, Dan is connected to.
Amanda Levy [00:33:26]:
Dan’s connected to everything.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:28]:
Dan is connected to everyone. Every missionary in Brevard county.
Amanda Levy [00:33:32]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:34]:
They all, as a rite of passage, have to do his landscaping. They all pull weeds at the fountain.
Amanda Levy [00:33:40]:
Got it. They all earn their keep.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:42]:
They all earn their keep. It’s necessary. If you don’t put a french drain in somewhere with Dan Carter, you can’t be a missionary.
Amanda Levy [00:33:50]:
Dan Carter.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:51]:
The key is Dan Carter.
Amanda Levy [00:33:52]:
So if you’re looking to discern your will, Dan Carter is. Dan Carter’s the one to Brevard County.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:57]:
Dan Carter and David Hasker.
Amanda Levy [00:33:58]:
Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:33:59]:
I sat down with David Hasker, and I said, oh, I don’t know if I should marry Rebecca. And he said, taylor, just do it. It’s better. Anyways, I was like, all right. So I went home and bought a ring.
Amanda Levy [00:34:09]:
Okay, wait, so did you buy the ring? Wait, no. This is after your conversation with David.
Taylor Cannon [00:34:15]:
After my conversation with David, we started dating. Like I said, the timeline is, like, a lot of on again, off again. It’s stuff that you’re like, what are you doing? Stop talking to them. You broke up? Six months. Yeah, but here we are. Praise God.
Amanda Levy [00:34:28]:
So you went through that part of your journey as a single guy?
Taylor Cannon [00:34:31]:
As a single guy.
Amanda Levy [00:34:32]:
Then you were working for inner varsity, got married while you were working for intervarsity, and then you’re continuing. How long had you all been married? Where you’re continuing to work for inner varsity?
Taylor Cannon [00:34:43]:
We worked for inner varsity for two.
Amanda Levy [00:34:49]:
And a half years. How long did you work for inner varsity?
Taylor Cannon [00:34:51]:
I worked for Intervarsity from May 2017 to December 2020.
Amanda Levy [00:34:55]:
Oh, that was a lot longer. Okay.
Taylor Cannon [00:34:56]:
Yeah.
Amanda Levy [00:34:58]:
Wow.
Taylor Cannon [00:34:58]:
It’s a good time.
Amanda Levy [00:34:59]:
There’s, like, a whole lot that God brings you through.
Taylor Cannon [00:35:02]:
It’s true.
Amanda Levy [00:35:03]:
Through all of that.
Taylor Cannon [00:35:03]:
It’s true.
Amanda Levy [00:35:04]:
It sounds, on paper, like, this linear thing, until you start to add all the relationships you have with people and you realize, like you said, it’s not just an individual thing. And so it makes it so interesting and messy and beautiful and wonderful.
Taylor Cannon [00:35:17]:
It’s true. It’s one of those things where you could probably do a podcast episode for each. In my mind, just the things that God was teaching me in those different seasons. And so you look back and it’s like, in the midst of it, you’re like, this is awful. This is so hard. But looking back, you’re like, oh, man, praise God that I went through that, because now I know what I know. I know God more. I know about God and what the christian life looks like.
Taylor Cannon [00:35:45]:
And so, yeah, I’m incredibly thankful for the ups and downs in that journey.
Amanda Levy [00:35:52]:
Nice. Well, I’ve been enjoying your conversation, but we got to wrap it up. So, finally, what is some advice or encouragement you would have for someone who’s looking to make the I butchered this. We’re going to cut that. What advice or encouragement would you have for someone feeling the call to make disciples here and everywhere for the glory of God?
Taylor Cannon [00:36:14]:
I love that question. My mind immediately goes to Ezra. Okay, Ezra, 710. So it says, ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. And I think that is like a roadmap for personal discipleship, is you set your heart to study God’s word not for pragmatic reasons, but simply for its own sake. I think it’s important for us as christians to reject pragmatism. Pragmatism being to do things because they work, because they accomplish things. For instance, you don’t talk to your spouse or spend time with your kids because you’re seeking some other thing.
Amanda Levy [00:37:02]:
Right?
Taylor Cannon [00:37:03]:
They’re goods in themselves. And studying God’s word is like that. It’s a good for its own sake. And so to take time and think about what God’s word says about him and about other people, learn to study it well. Get good resources that help you surround yourself with people. Talk to people who will help you think through these things and disagree with you and push back, and it’s good for its own sake. You think of psalm one, and the blessed man meditates on the law of the Lord. Psalm 111, verse two.
Taylor Cannon [00:37:36]:
Great are the works of the Lord studied by all who delight in the psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it’s all about how awesome you would think it was heretical, the way he’s talking about praising God’s word. And it’s because God and his word are so deeply united, and so God’s speaking is his doing. And so study God’s word. Set your heart to study God’s word amid God’s people by the power of God’s holy spirit, and then you obey it. God’s word isn’t just for hearing. It’s to shape the way we see the world, the way we act in the world. And so that’s why Jesus everywhere says, if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. Yeah, I love that John says that multiple times in the gospel of John, in first John, over and over again, if you want to love God, you do what he says.
Taylor Cannon [00:38:31]:
And it’s amazing. In first John, he says, if you want to love people, you do what God says you want to love. It looks like obedience, obedience to God. And then finally, I think it’s really important to teach God’s word. I think teaching is fundamental to being a Christian. It’s fundamental to following God. Whether you were in the Old Testament, you have deuteronomy six. Here, o Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.
Taylor Cannon [00:38:59]:
And the very next command is to teach this to your children. And not just teach it to your children, is to be talking about it all the time. When you lie down, when you rise, when you’re just sitting around, when you leave your house, when you’re coming back, the Bible should be all over and you should be talking about it, teaching your children this. And then you get to the New Testament, and what is Jesus’commission? He says, go and teach. Make disciples of all the nations, evangelizing them and then bringing them in and then teaching them, teaching them everything. Teaching them about God, teaching them about people, teaching them about what it means to know God and love people and obey God’s word. Teaching is fundamental for every Christian. And so, yeah, you want to submit yourself to good teaching so that you’re doing it right.
Taylor Cannon [00:39:50]:
I think that’s why preaching is so important, because it flows into everything else. But it doesn’t mean just because I go to Sunday preaching that I’m therefore exempt from teaching that’s supposed to fuel and fill out the teaching I do the rest of the week. And so, yeah, know God’s word. Study it, do it, teach it. And then in case it gets lost in there, share the gospel. Just find someone. Trust God’s word. Trust that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
Taylor Cannon [00:40:21]:
Trust that God wants to use you. And then just tell someone, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, and see what God does. Do it in. I think whatever you talk about how to do it well and listening and asking questions, but at the end of the day, it’s the gospel that saves people, and we want people to know God.
Amanda Levy [00:40:42]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, thanks for that. I enjoyed our conversation. I’m glad. I’m sorry. I made him wait, like, an extra 45 minutes from when we were supposed to record. So thank you for my being patient and for coming with us.
Taylor Cannon [00:40:54]:
I’ve enjoyed this.
Amanda Levy [00:40:55]:
I’m honored. Thanks for listening to this episode of Mission Control. If you’re interested in learning more about launch ten x and the different ways to get involved in what God is doing here at first Baptist Melbourne, a great place to start would be visiting our website, launchme church.
Taylor Cannon [00:41:14]:
You my.