MDiv student Landon Flax follows call to leave nominal Christianity, enter ministry

Raised by a believing family that attended church faithfully, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Master of Divinity (MDiv) student Landon Flax professed faith in Jesus and was baptized at a young age. But as an adult, he experienced a true call to repentance and later a call to ministry.

Flax was born in Hayes, Kan., but his family moved to Fort Collins, Col., when he was an infant. At 11 years old, he professed faith in Christ and was baptized, but admitted he did not truly understand repentance and its role in salvation until years later.

He attended college at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, where he met his wife. After

their studies, they moved to Forney, Texas, her hometown. Flax took a position at his father-in-law’s electrical contracting company, as they started their family which today includes three children.

Flax said he “went on with life,” but 15 years after his initial profession of faith, despite still going to church regularly, he recognized his Christian walk was “very surface level, superficial, nominal-type Christianity, which is, unfortunately, common in this day and age.”

Near the end of 2020, Flax started having conversations with a friend who had become a pastor. Those conversations led him to listen to further online sermons and to do his own research. He recalled listening to a sermon from Revelation and how Christ could spit out a lukewarm church, and he realized that status of nominal Christianity applied to his own life.

At first, he thought he was at a moment of recommitment to Christ, but Flax said he continued “reading the Scriptures, growing in the knowledge of God and what it means to be born again. And I was like, ‘Yeah, that never happened until this time.’”

“Finally, I came under conviction of my sin and repented and trusted in Christ at that point,” Flax said.

Shortly after that, in early 2021, his pastor at the First Baptist Church of Forney passed away unexpectedly. Flax continued to be discipled under the interim pastor, Tony Wolfe (‘16), and the new pastor Nathan Lino and was rebaptized.

In late 2022, while Lino was preaching through the book of 1 Timothy, Flax said he was impacted by the qualifications of an elder that the apostle Paul named in chapter 3, saying that “lit a spark in me.”

“I kept kind of putting it off,” Flax said of that new urging to consider pursuing a more formal role of ministry. “Praying about it, asking God to give me direction. And in January of 2023, within about a 10-day span, I had three different people just mention, just randomly, like, ‘Hey, you know, you should be pastor. Have you ever thought about this?’”

Those seemingly off-hand comments came during a time when he had just started to consider seriously that calling and before he mentioned it to anyone else. Not long afterwards, the pastor finished preaching through 1 Timothy and issued a charge to the congregants who might feel called to ministry.

“At that moment, I was like, I can’t even think straight, can’t move,” Flax described his thoughts in that moment. “This has to be where God is leading.”

Flax said he was worried about sharing this prompting with his wife Sarah since their family had already established roots in her hometown of Forney. But he discovered she had been in conversations herself where she had told friends that she could see such a change coming.

“That was a very peaceful, calming thing, kind of just an answer from the Lord as well,” Flax said, adding many of their friends and family members were also supportive and encouraging. And for those who questioned the possibility of their leaving the comfort of his place of employment, church family, and the city of Forney, Flax said he responded with, “I don’t really have an option. If this is where the Lord’s leading us, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

That fall of 2023, Flax began his studies at Southwestern Seminary as a Master of Divinity student focusing on pastoral ministries, taking most of his courses online as he continued to work and live in Forney. From his very first classes of biblical hermeneutics and systematic theology, Flax said his studies have helped him to gain an even better understanding of how to study the Bible in its entirety, in proper context, and to apply it practically.

“‘How do I put together a sermon?’ Well, you got to know how to read the Bible first, approach it the right way. And so that was really foundational,” Flax said, adding systematic theology courses helped him realize everything he learns at seminary should lead him to greater worship and adoration of Christ.

Flax leads a life group at First Baptist Church Forney and said he has already been able to bring what he has learned in the classroom to help those he’s discipling go deeper in their faith.

In the fall of 2025, he was given his first opportunity to preach as the student preacher during chapel at Southwestern Seminary. Flax admitted he was nervous but grateful for the opportunity and for the guidance he received from Chris Osborne, his preaching professor, and his own pastor, who Flax said told him, “Don’t put pressure on yourself. Just seek to preach the Word faithfully and to bless people, as opposed to trying to oppress them.”

He said he was also “reminded of what we ultimately are here to do: it’s a form of worship to God and to glorify Christ. And if we can do that, then the Spirit will use it how He wants to.”

Flax said he has also received similar encouragement and guidance from his professors throughout his education so far.

“The professors here, it’s like they just want everybody to learn and to grow and to know, because they recognize that the purpose is greater than themselves,” Flax said. “It’s to build up the body of Christ,” adding they invest in students to send them out, “to serve the church and serve Christ however He pleases.”

Flax said he plans to complete his MDiv in 2027, and see where the Lord leads his family, whether that is participating in church plants his current church is planning or somewhere else.