Tim O’Brien and his wife, Samantha, have two girls. Tim works as a mechanical engineer in Columbus and was first ordained as an elder at WBC in 1999.
I grew up in a loving Christian family in Columbus, and as a young boy attended a local independent Baptist church. When I was eight years old I prayed and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save me from my sins. For several years I believed that I indeed was saved because of praying that prayer. At age eighteen I began teaching the fourth grade boys’ Sunday school class. During this time I began to have doubts about whether I was truly saved from my sins. The more I studied for my Sunday school lessons, the more I found myself questioning whether I had really understood my sinfulness when I prayed to the Lord at age eight, and especially whether I truly had a repentant heart at that time. For nearly a year, through personal study and through preachers’ sermons, the Lord was bringing to my attention verses in the Bible which convinced me that a true Christian has a changed heart and life that bears evidence of being saved from sin, yet my life seemed to lack that change, and my heart was greatly troubled and without assurance that I truly belonged to God. In 1986, at age twenty, I willingly prayed to God and asked Him to save me from my sins through His Son Jesus Christ, repenting of them, and believing that He would according to His Word (Rom 10:9–10). Since then, the Lord has been changing my life, and I have assurance from His Word that I belong to Him (Heb 7:25).
Shortly after the Lord saved me, He began to place a desire in my heart to devote more of my life to studying and teaching His Word. In 1990, I enrolled at the Bible Institute of Ohio to study for the ministry, and met the young lady who would eventually become my wife. In 1996 Samantha and I were married and began to search for a home church in the Columbus area where we could serve the Lord and get settled into our new life together. The Lord convinced us both that Westerville Bible Church was just such a place. The preaching was biblical, the music was honoring to God, and the standards and practices of the church were consistent with the biblical preaching. In addition to these blessings, we found the people to be friendly and hospitable. Both my wife and I have been able to serve the Lord and others in various ways here at Westerville Bible Church, and we are thankful to be a part of this local assembly of God’s people.
I thank the Lord for the privilege to serve as an elder, knowing the tremendous responsibility that comes with that privilege (Heb 13:17; Jas 3:1). Truly it is only by God’s grace that I might properly carry out His many admonitions to elders concerning the care of His flock. It is a joy to pray for and visit with the folks at Westerville Bible Church, and especially to have a part in sharing God’s Word with them. It is my prayer that in all aspects of ministry we may together grow more and more in the love, grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Pet 3:18).
