I’m Joe B. Martin, and I’ve been the Pastor/Head of Staff at Sardis since 2018. My main responsibilities are preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and strategic planning — working alongside our wonderful staff and officers as we try to discern the vision God has for us and design a path to get there together.

When I’m not at work, I love playing, coaching, and watching basketball, so I’m pretty excited to be at a church with plenty of opportunity to do that without ever leaving work!

My wife, Jodi, is also an ordained Presbyterian Minister, which makes for a rich and sometimes amusing life in ministry. There’s something genuinely wonderful about coming home after a long day and not feeling like you’ve walked into another staff meeting. We have two sons, Joseph and Ben, who keep us proud and keep us laughing. Joseph has carved out a fascinating career path involving robotics — something about making machines move better, which is about as much as I can explain with any confidence. Ben’s passion is athletic training, which I am counting on heavily as my knees continue to remind me that I am not as young as I feel on the basketball court.

I grew up in Charlotte, moved here just before first grade, and after high school found myself exiled to various southeastern cities before finally finding my way back home. Those cities have fine Presbyterian churches, but there is nothing quite like being home in Charlotte and finding a church home at Sardis. What drew me here — and what continues to inspire me — is a congregation that honors the memory of its history while keeping an eye on the future, with feet that want to walk there and hands ready to help someone else along the way.

One thing that particularly attracted me to Sardis was our partnership in Haiti. The Rev. Jean-Jonel Fleurisma in Bayonnais has become a dear friend and a faithful part of our worshiping community, even across the miles. More recently, we have been blessed with a new partner community in Kenya — Macedonia Presbyterian Church, Baraka Parish — and the growing friendship with Rev. David Njuguna Muthui has already been a wonderful gift to our congregation.

I am glad to be among Christ’s disciples at Sardis as we wait and hope together.