Meet Payton Ruddock

Welcome to my little corner of the interwebs…

My Story In a Nutshell

Welcome to my little corner of the internet! I love Jesus! I love my Family! And I love the outdoors and experiencing them through the pursuit of fish and game. I see God in the beauty of Creation, and my pursuit brings me in awe of Him every time.

– Blessings Beyond Belief –

Husband & Father

I cannot overlook the blessings that I’ve grown up with – a wonderful childhood and parents who raised me in the church and supported my passions along the way, but my greatest blessings are my wife and my two boys who bless my life each and every day.

The only words that I desire to define me besides the word “Disciple” are “Husband” and “Father.” I was blessed to meet my wife in college, and she had supported me through all of the craziness of our 20’s and 30’s, and I am blessed to believe she’ll put up with me for many more decades to come!

In 2016 we found out we were going to be parents to our oldest son Cullen, and becoming a parent is one of the only things that has given definition to my life as much as being a Christian and a Husband. He has been my best friend from the day he was born and I know the Lord has mighty things planned for his life.

In 2019, we found out we were going to be parents for the 2nd time, and in 2020 we face parenting again under the new reality of COVID19. What seemed like a curse upon the world was a blessing for our family (and a blessing for me!) as I was able to concentrate on ministry and being a parent to our newborn son.

These boys and their mom remind me daily of the wonder of God’s majesty, and they challenge me to be the husband, father, pastor, and disciple that He has called me to be. They are my world!

– God Calls –

Pastor

I grew up in a semi-rural town in central Iowa, raised by a bunch of Methodists that were so Methodist that I – to the very blessing of my soul – never had a chance but to end up loving the Wesleyan flavor of coming to faith.

I felt a calling to ministry the summer between my Junior and Senior year of high school, but I ran from it for a long time before I embraced it. In that journeying, I studied to be a biomedical engineer at Texas A&M University (Whoop!) and met the love of my life. Upon graduating I cut my teeth in the world of sales while pursuing a passion for photography that I found in college through my love of snakes (completely different story…) and the inspiration of my wife.

I got to cut my teeth in ministry alongside her as we endeavored to (in our off time as a couple of married engineers) build a wedding photography business together. Every engaged couple that we met with was not only interviewing us, but we were taking the opportunity to share how God had been brought into the center of our marriage and how strong it is because of His presence. Over time, our photography business/ministry became so prolific that I decided to quit my job to pursue full-time photography. That’s when our pastor stepped in and asked me if I would be interested in being the Youth Pastor at our church.

God’s timing and way of steering us through the journey of our life is incredible…

Over the course of next 5 years I slowly transitioned into full-time ministry. The day before I stepped foot into the classroom for my first day of Seminary at Truett Seminary, I stepped up to the pulpit (well… two pulpits…) of my first appointment as a full-time pastor. That was three years ago now, but it feels like God has been preparing me for a lifetime to be where He needs me now.

– The tug is the drug –

Fisherman

I don’t think it was a coincidence that Jesus called a bunch of uneducated fishermen to be his disciples. Fishermen have to be patient, observant, quiet, concentrated, and inherently optimistic. That next cast is what keeps us going, and every cast has a chance (even if its a small one) to bring in the fish of a lifetime!

When I was only about 4 years old, I remember fishing for running Redfish off of the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. When I was 10 years old my grandfather took me to a magical place called Hatchet Lack Lodge in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. For 4 days we chased and caught hundreds of Northern Pike, Lake Trout, Walleye, and a wild look fish called an Arctic Greyling. Those moments are etched into my memory along with hundreds of other wonderful memories that have been given to me through the practice of fishing over the years.

There is something humbling to being outsmarted by a fish time and time again and I believe that humility is good for the soul. Similar to being blown out by an angry White-tailed doe that has winded you, getting outsmarted by a fish is something that is humbling, exhilarating, humiliating, and fascinating all at the same time and any fisherman who has watched a fish following his topwater over and over again without committing knows exactly what I’m talking about.

It wasn’t until 2020 that I truly fell in love with fishing though. There was something peaceful and challenging about figuring out the unknown, underwater adversaries that appealed to my sould, and with my youngest in a backpack on my back I set out to fall in love with everything fishing all over again, but fly fishing has made its way into a special place in my heart.

There is something majestic about the act of fly-fishing. Wading into the water and feeling the pulse of the river against your legs, watching silently for the bugs that were flying, listening for where the trout were feeding, and endeavoring to enter into their world unseen and communicate with them through this thing we call angling has taken my passion for chasing fish to the next level and if it can be caught with a fly rod, I’m down for the challenge!

– A Flutter of Feathers, Shotgun to Shoulder –

Outdoorsman

Sometimes when I’m sitting in a deer stand or watching my dogs work a field, I think of what it must have been like for David to be all alone in the pasture, watching over his sheep, seeing the Lord in everything that he did, and knowing that he was called to be a steward. Modern hunters are no different, and I believe we can see God every time we take to the field.

Growing up in the cornfields of Iowa, the mecca of White-tailed deer hunting in the United States, you would think that my passion is for chasing the antlered ghosts of the Fall and Winter woods, but my heart has always been captured by steadiness of a dog on point and flush of feathers on a chilly Fall morning. While the quiet of the deer woods and the stillness of the duck marsh have special places in my heart, there is just something different about watching a good dog work a field full of upland birds, and that something has captured my heart since I was a boy.

Now, even living in the bird-less wasteland of Southeast Texas, my heart longs for those crisp mornings chasing upland birds, and my longing is shared by my sons and my two German Shorthaired Pointers, Rocky and Buster.

There is not much that is more enjoyable than getting out into the field with good friends and fellowship, watching the sun rise over the Eastern sky on a crisp winter morning, and watching my dogs go from full send to full stop in a matter of moments, doing exactly what God designed them to do; following their instincts in way that they could not ignore even if they wanted to. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m blessed each morning I find myself in the fields sipping coffee and watching my dogs work.

“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!”

My favorite words of wisdom

I sincerely believe in the lessons of history and learning from those that come before us. That’s why I’m also a big believer in reading and listening to the wisdom of others, and here are a few of my favorite quotes from some of my favorite authors.