Joel McCutcheon grew up with the unmeasurable blessing of having a father as a pastor. Because he did not see it as a blessing, he chose to rebel early in his high school years along with his older brother and younger sister. His father became convinced that he needed to step away from pastoring his church because of the biblical principles of Titus 1:5-6 and 1 Timothy 3:4-5 (especially verse 5, “For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church”). This move was a turning point for Joel.
Their family moved to a small church in their community, and it was there that the Lord called Joel to Himself through the power and beauty of church discipline. This brought Joel to repentance as he saw the need for the gospel and desired to know the Lord. The church brought Joel’s lifestyle before him and the Lord brought conviction on Joel for his sins. He repented and confessed before the elders of his church, his Dad, and most importantly, before Jesus Christ. From there, the Lord captured Joel’s heart for His Word, the Bible, and led him to want to study the Scripture for full-time ministry at Word of Life Bible Institute, then complete his undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies.
On the other hand, Krista’s testimony looks very different. She was saved as a very young child and stayed faithful to the Lord through her childhood years. She states that as she has grown in the Lord, she has seen the gospel at work in so many ways, including her understanding more and more of God’s love for her as His child.
In college, Krista studied Communications and video production with a minor in Biblical Studies. She became convinced that she could use her time and degree as well as her abilities and gifts for ministry. She wanted to use the energy and resources the Lord had given her for more Kingdom-focused projects. She began using these resources on mission’s trips, where the Lord brought Joel and Krista together.
Joel and Krista met on two different mission trips while in Europe. As their lives grew together, they chose to marry in San Diego at the end of one mission trip. Both of them knew they wanted to pursue missionary work full-time, however, their individual expectations of what that would look like were very different. Working through these different expectations was very difficult for their early years of marriage. They sought many outlets for help to work through the strife and conflicts, however, their problems only seemed to worsen.
Joel and Krista began to get very weary and hopeless that change was even possible. At this same time, Joel and Krista were still working on making film documentaries and promotional videos about missionaries around the world: “We had a front row seat to God’s work with missionaries around the world through our documentary projects. We listened to so many missionary stories and heard their heartaches and struggles. We knew God’s Word had the answers but didn’t know how to help them,” stated Krista, “Because we felt like we didn’t have the answers in our own marriage.”
Through this, God led Joel and Krista to Biblical counseling, and their hearts rejoiced as Scripture-driven soul care revolutionized their marriage. God used their struggles as a way to show them His sovereignty and their need for dependence, causing them to trust in Him more and love each other the way God intended.
From there, God led Joel and Krista back to school and began equipping both of them with the tools for counseling ministry, which they could employ around the world. They traveled back and forth together to the United States during the summer months for intensive classes at The Masters University, each receiving a Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling and later ACBC certification.
This time brought a lot of joy and growth to both of them as individuals, as well as for them as a couple. They were so greatly impacted by the clear work of truth in their own lives that they worked even harder to not let a presumptuous worldview counteract the truth about their marriage and how they were being shaped by the Word of God. Joel and Krista carried this excitement and burden for the missionaries on the field that they had been working with. They quickly realized that they did not just need to be recording people’s stories, they needed to be helping them. What missionaries need is not a video, it is to see how the Word of God can come alive in real life, their own lives, marriages, and churches.
Joel originally heard about Overseas Instruction in Counseling (OIC) at a Shepherd’s Conference. He met with Central America Coordinator, Rod Huber, and was immediately captivated with OIC. The McCutcheons’ journey as members of the OIC team began when Joel went on a trip to Belize to teach; they quickly chose to become a part of the ministry. They fell in love with OIC’s direct focus to build up the local church and equip them with the Scriptures to care for their people, “The local church is God’s gift to His people to raise them up and train them well.”
Joel reflects on the message of Proverbs 14:4 as an example of what it takes to train and build the local church, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” Joel stated that God’s people are messy, but God knows that they were messy. It is out of the mess that God grows His abundant harvest! Joel shared this analogy of God’s church as a barn and God’s ministers to the church need to be willing to get their hands messy, to do the hard work, to be a steward of God’s grace to their local churches. In the mess of the church, God brings about His redemptive work, and, as Joel states, this redemption shows an all-powerful grace of God bestowed on his people. The McCutcheons immediately noticed how OIC embodied this gift of grace, including providing an organized way to be effective with assisting churches around the world.
Krista’s position with OIC has been particularly fruitful as she has been able to deeply invest in women both in the local church and those who are looking to go into the ministry. Over 50% of the church is made of women, and God has given Krista a very special role to speak to those women in a particular way as a wife, mother, missionary, sister-in-Christ and counselor. She strives to see women equipped with the Word, ready and able to lead other women to worship the Lord. One verse in particular that has encouraged Krista as a counselor is 2 Peter 3:9—“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some would count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” The Lord is not slow but often “slowness” seems like reality to bring about change in someone’s heart. Krista states, “Maybe the slowness we feel is the Lord’s kindness in granting us more time for repentance.” This truth has continually encouraged Krista’s heart when she has worked alongside women, and she has often used it to encourage others. She has embodied the mission of OIC, in that she is training up counselors of God’s Word to be demonstrations of God’s grace through gospel-centered change in the lives of others, affecting the church in powerful ways.
If there is one thing that both Joel and Krista are proud of in OIC, it is the continual focus on the local church as the means of reaching people for Christ. As they noted, counselors should be the most gracious people in the local church, but this grace is given by the Holy Spirit as well as being taught and disciplined, because it is counter to our fleshly nature.
OIC seeks to grow and develop leaders across every nation who visibly live the grace of God like the McCutcheons. Joel and Krista seek to grow and develop their ministry (visit their personal ministry website here) to train and counsel more missionaries around the world, to help them find gospel refreshment while they are on the field, in order to keep preaching the gospel more effectively for longer amounts of time.
And you can participate in this gospel-centered ministry by partnering with OIC to encourage and support its team members, including Joel and Krista McCutcheon. It is often through people like you using the gifts and resources God has given you that He builds His Kingdom across the world, so please consider joining OIC as a prayer partner and/or financial partner today.
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