Let Me Introduce Myself (Newspaper)

I’ve recently been given the opportunity to contribute articles on a weekly basis to our local paper, the Carlsbad Current-Argus.  It’s a faith/religion column that is run on Saturdays.  After the article runs in the paper each week, I plan on posting it here as well.  Here is the first…

Let Me Introduce Myself

My name is Kraig Birchfield, and I’m the minister at Central Christian Church located at 305 N. Oak St.   Since this is my first article that I’m submitting to the newspaper, I wanted to take some time to briefly introduce myself.  I’m 32-years old, and originally from East Tennessee.  My wife, Kelley, and I moved here about a year and a half ago to start our ministry at Central CC.  We absolutely love the community of Carlsbad, and look forward to being here for years to come. 

I’m excited about getting to contribute to the faith section in the paper, and would love to meet as many of you as I can.  We have a newsletter that we print monthly at the church, and I write on my personal blog as well.  In the blog and the newsletter articles, I refer to myself as a “Crosseyed Jesus Freak”.  That may be confusing at first look, so I thought I would take a moment here to explain where that name comes from.  Let’s look at “Crosseyed” first.  Simply put, this comes from my life verse of Hebrews 12:1-3.  I won’t quote it all for the sake of space, but it goes on to say in verse 2 to, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus”.  That phrase is where “Crosseyed” comes from.  That’s how I try to live my life, with my eyes fixed on Jesus, and what He did for me, and for us all, when He went to the cross for our sins.  In other words, I try to live my life, “Crosseyed”, constantly reminding myself who Jesus is and what He has done for me.

The “Jesus Freak” part really speaks to my age.  I was born in the early 1980’s, so I was a teen during the prime of one of the greatest pioneer Christian music groups of all time…dc Talk.  I was fortunate enough to see them as my first ever concert, and the tour that they were on at the time was called the Jesus Freak Tour.  “Jesus Freak” is one of the most popular Christian Rock songs of all time, and it’s where I draw the inspiration to call myself a “Jesus Freak”.  In the song, dc Talk sings, “What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak, what will people do when they find that it’s true.  I don’t really care if they label me a Jesus Freak.  There ain’t no disguising the truth.”

Jesus is the best thing that has ever happened in my life, and I’m proud to call myself a “Crosseyed Jesus Freak”.  Like the song says, ‘there ain’t no disguising the truth”.  Jesus is my life, and He is why I love being in full-time ministry.  I can’t imagine doing anything else.  If you don’t know Jesus yet, I would love to talk with you sometime.  Ultimately, I want to see as many people become truly “Crosseyed Jesus Freaks” and living as true Christ followers as I can.  That’s my passion, and I look forward to sharing with you weekly about different aspects of my passion. 

Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak,

Kraig Birchfield