St. Andrews Presbyterian Church
Staff & Leaders

T.J. Campo

Ministry from a wheelchair. I suffered a spinal-cord injury in a construction accident when I was 19 years old. I was living in Stuart, Florida at that time (where I was raised). Before falling from the roof I was living a “me-centered” party life with no direction except the satisfaction of self. My parents were Christians – they’re the real deal – but they really couldn’t help me. They kept loving me and kept open and kept praying. Then I fell. In the hospital I asked my dad to tell me the Christian message. I had heard it many times, but now I was ready to really hear. I’ve seen that pattern repeated in a lot of lives. I was dating a girl at that time. We were punk-rockers and when I became a believer in Jesus Christ she thought I had snapped. But, she stuck by me, which was really admirable because like many newly spiritual people, I was a real jerk in many ways – self-righteous and “know-it-all.” Eventually we split up and she moved to San Diego. We kept in touch and she began to write me and tell me that she had met some people who were “into the Christian thing.” Turns out they were actually normal Christians who gave her the space she needed to really consider the simple Good News. And she believed. We started to talk more and we were married about a year later. We went to Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina (www.ciu.edu) and then came to St. Andrews in 1989. I knew two of the pastors at St. Andrews and they were foolish enough to think that a guy in a wheelchair could be a pastor. The Church called me to ministry and in time both those pastors moved on to other work. By that time the whole congregation was foolish enough to think God could use a guy in a wheelchair. They called me as Senior Pastor in 1994.