Our story begins in the toddler room at church, where we first met. We were not serving in the nursery together; we ourselves were the toddlers! We met when we were two years old, raised in the same unique PCUSA church in Western Pennsylvania, the part of the country both of us have called home for all but seven years of our lives.

Before we tell you our tale, you should know this is not a love story; it is a conversion story. In that sense, then, it is a love story of a different kind. It is a story of God’s incredible grace poured out upon two individuals whose histories are inextricably woven together from our earliest of memories. If we had time, we could tell how this singular story stretches across preceding generations through God calling our parents out of the same Catholic church they attended together in grade school into the true gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Our PCUSA church was a peculiar congregation because of the two pastors our families sat under week by week. The senior pastor was trained at Princeton Theological Seminary and denied the miraculous events recorded in Scripture, the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word, and the bodily resurrection of Christ Himself! On the other hand, the associate pastor was trained at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and was a five-point Calvinist. Needless to say, this congregation was extraordinary—and obviously headed for a split.

Families aligned under one pastor or the other and not in an “I follow Paul” and “I follow Apollos” 1 Corinthians 3 sort of way, but of a kind found in 2 Corinthians 6: that of light and darkness. Both of our families believed the true gospel and were faithfully following Christ. In such a home life and church life each of us was raised. Despite confusing and befuddled preaching 50 percent of the time, our little ears were regularly hearing of our sin against a holy God and our need of a Savior.

From the earliest of moments, my (Keith’s) tiny heart, in an age-appropriate way, clung to Christ as my only hope for salvation. I was taught that the footsteps of a true disciple are ones of repentance and faith, repentance and faith, repentance and faith—a lifestyle of turning from sin and walking in obedience to the gospel. Granted, I was asked to pray the sinner’s prayer a good half-dozen or so times from the age of three to fifteen, just to make sure things “stuck”; but such came with the territory of evangelicalism in the ’80s and ’90s.

My (Melissa’s) own story of embracing Jesus did not unfold in the same chronology as Keith’s—but that fact does not make Christ’s converting of covenant children any less ordinary. While I too was raised in a covenant home where I was taught to embrace the gospel at a young age, it was not until middle school when I perceived a tugging upon my heart to fully rest in the Lord Jesus.

As this pivotal time was unfolding in my life, both Keith and I found ourselves involved in a disciple-making, solidly evangelical youth group originating in the same PCUSA church where we met as toddlers. As we grew older, the understandable tensions in the church continued to mount until there was a church split where many families, including both of our own, felt the need to leave and seek after a church that consistently preached the true gospel. As odd as it sounds, the small 20-member youth group that we were now deeply rooted in also split from the PCUSA church.

Unmoored for a short while, we were a vagrant gathering of evangelical youth continuing to meet for Bible studies, fellowship, and praise under the leadership of a strong Christian family. Aberrant though it may have been, it was here that I (Melissa) found myself deeply intrigued by the truths of Scripture, pondering how God calls believers to live, and wondering if my life was matching up. The weekly in-depth, inductive Bible studies awakened within me a curiosity about the nuances of theology, as well as a greater love for the Jesus revealed therein.

It was at this time I finally saw Keith. Of course I saw him week after week all along, but my eyes were now opened to see Christ in Keith in a brand new way. Keith knew his theology; he lived out his theology; and he bore the mark of the gospel of grace like no one I knew. Unbeknownst to him, he was a walking testimony of Matthew 5:16 and shone like a light into my life. I knew after observing Christ’s character through him that I personally needed Christ’s transforming work in much the same way. Therefore that is the very thing I pursued.

While our respective families temporarily went separate congregational ways, the youth group we were part of bopped from house church to a failed church plant and eventually settled in a Christian & Missionary Alliance church. Surely it is a strange occurrence for the youth group itself to go church shopping! As my life continued to be transformed through the teaching in the group, my admiration of Christ’s character in Keith shifted simply to admiration of Keith.

I suppose it is this point in the tale that our conversion story branches into a genuine love story. I decided to give the situation and my emotions over to prayer. I earnestly prayed for roughly a year and a half before working up the courage to talk to Keith about pursuing more than a simple friendship. Keith happily agreed, and the rest of the love story, as they say, is history.

After the dust settled from the church split, the church-shopping youth group, and our families heading off to different congregations, the Lord began to reform our theology. We eventually found a more Reformed church in the Evangelical Presbyterian denomination.

It was in this context I (Keith) began pursuing the pastorate. Our EPC pastor indicated that if I were to go to any seminary in the country, there is really only one to attend “as far as commitment to infallibility is concerned.” He went on to say, “you will have to endure some idiosyncrasies like exclusive psalm singing, but otherwise the seminary is as solid as they come.” We finished college (Melissa went to Geneva College and Keith went to Grove City College), were wed shortly after, and moved in next to the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Through the influence of the professors at RPTS, we came to love those idiosyncrasies our pastor spoke of, understanding them to be yet one more outworking of the denomination’s commitment to the infallible Scriptures.

We have been in the RPCNA since and have not looked back, thankful to have found a more thoroughly Reformed church home. Additionally, we believe we have wrapped up the trajectory we had been on in ecclesiastical reformation. We now raise four little girls in hopes of seeing God raise up godly offspring in much the same way we ourselves have been. And who knows, perhaps they too may find lifelong friendship through the church of Jesus Christ, all while seeking Him as their Lord.

From toddler play dates to high school sweethearts, from attending separate colleges to marriage, from beginning seminary to being ushered into the RPCNA with open arms, we have joyfully witnessed a story of God’s reformation: the reformation of two people committed to Christ…together.

Keith and Melissa Evans recently relocated back home to Pittsburgh, Pa., as Keith became the professor of biblical counseling at RPTS after serving for seven years in Lafayette, Ind., as pastor. They were both born and raised five minutes from where they now reside. The Evanses have been married thirteen years and have four daughters.